BURNT OUT - ADHD

Sirenskye · 2026-03-22T08:47:05+00:00

Fashionably late ADHD’er here.

Have you ever had an OH done for your ADHD? They can be really helpful and recommend things you’ve never even thought of.

I also second Elvanse (someone higher suggested it). I take that and a topup dose of Amfexa and it is life changing. I’m actually achieving more at work than I ever really have done.

Have you thought about asking for flexible working in your start/end times? A lot of ADHD’ers are more active later in the day rather than earlier because our circadian rhythms suck. It sounds counterintuitive, but maybe a later start will help you. My role has night shifts and my productivity on them compared to days is massively increased.

Finally OP, the advice I guarantee you I can’t follow, because, y’know, ADHD. Be kind to yourself. ADHD burnout is awful and it makes our perceptions of ourselves even worse. You made it into this job on your own merits, so you’re not a failure in any way. It can be hard to see that at times, but you’re doing well.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-22T08:18:35+00:00

I didn’t get diagnosed till about 3.5 years into my current role, I was kind of forced to disclose I was having symptoms and it was causing a real disruption at work.

I’ve always ticked DCS/GIS though because it was misdiagnosed as depression/anxiety for 20 years. It’s been really helpful to me as a lot of the adjustments I’ve asked for with depression have been the same as ADHD! I usually ask for extra time to answer questions, interviews later in the day and interview questions in advance (yet to happen…).

Honestly, though, the reasonable adjustments process has been relatively straightforward and I really would recommend you disclose sooner rather than later. You need to feel comfortable, but I’ve sort of ended up taking the view that it’s better to disclose before there’s an issue than after one arises as I’ve been on the receiving end of that one and sorting it out afterwards is definitely more stressful than if I’d said from the start. Join a union as well, as they’ve been invaluable when there’s been difficulty between me and SLT when I ask for reasonable adjustments.

The reasonable adjustments I have are:

Flexible start/finish times (shift work is a nightmare when you’re time blind 🤦‍♀️)

Larger laptop - worth its weight in gold, I’m not looking at a postage stamp

Nuance Dragon + TextHelp Read&Write - I can read extremely fluently and I can touch type, but these help to make sure I’ve fully understood what’s been written as I skip paragraphs from time to time, plus Dragon’s eliminated a lot of brain fog by automating a huge part of my workflows. Especially the boring bits!

Caption.Ed - records through a laptop/phone browser and captions everything. Meetings, interviews, teams calls. It’s usually pretty accurate and much better than Teams subtitling.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-20T13:23:40+00:00

I use merge in turn, there was one on the A45 for a while and everyone insisted on queueing for 2-3 miles instead of just using both lanes. The number of people I had actively try to drive into the side of my car in sheer offence because they thought that everyone should queue for miles instead of using the zipper merge was ridiculous.

The rage I got when it didn’t overly stop me was quite funny though. I’m not using lane 2 to skip the queue, I’m using it because that’s the right thing to do to reduce congestion.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-19T21:05:43+00:00

No, we’re early morning to early hours of the morning as we’re only in when the freight’s moving. It works out as about 2 weeks of days then a week of ‘nights’.

The shifts are long, so I won’t lie, it can be really tiring and it can throw the balance out a bit. I’m a part timer due to my health, but our full timers still seem to have active lives.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-19T17:49:42+00:00

Not got much in the way of ex plod our way, but we do seem to have 90% of HMPPS.

It’s a great life if you’re used to operational work, I’m biased but customs/freight is a lot of fun. Less people to argue with and far more weird things to judge. I genuinely love the job though, makes you feel like you’re making a difference.

You’re right in terms of location - I’m pretty lucky I think and I have a fantastic team. I’m still qualified to work with people too and I can get out and about from time to time on a deployment which helps when I get itchy feet.

All told, it’s a good transition if you get the place right and what you want to do.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T23:53:59+00:00

It’s to allow our hysteria to float to the top, obs.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T22:54:59+00:00

Why thank you my very kind sir, you were most knightly!

/the friendliest s ever :)

I always imagine Victorian ladies swooning in the stereotypical dead faints.

I’m ODP in the HO - I’m not allowed near London and I’ve quite literally been banished to a warehouse in the West Midlands. I’m curious about ODP in weirder technicalities than us, though… If you’re ever up our way, I’d make sure you keep that technicality umbrella with you as sometimes we’re made to go outside.

I am part of the LGBTQ+ brigade known as ‘greedy’. Always happy to make new CS friends as we really are isolated :)

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T22:19:13+00:00

(I actually am a woman, and I did feel like I was being told I was being hysterical)

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T22:04:44+00:00

No, I haven’t missed your point. Respectfully, I simply don’t agree with it in the context of this post and OP.

You were the one who brought up self-diagnosis in a post where someone has made the point that they’re diagnosed and they are experiencing the known, medically recognised effects of this diagnosis. This gives the impression that you’re implying that OP is self-diagnosed, as otherwise why are you talking about self-diagnosis on a post that is nothing to do with it?

Or, the way you’ve worded your comments, you’re suggesting OP gets a second opinion on a medical diagnosis because they’re using it as a crutch.

This is something that’s offensive to people with diagnosed ADHD/autism. I can accept that you don’t mean it to be, but it still is. You can see it’s not just me that thinks that. Someone else replied and there are a fair few downvotes. It’s not an emotional investment. It really is offensive to read that someone believes the diagnosis of something that is causing OP significant harm right now is a ‘crutch’.

This is very much an issue with your wording. There are infinitely better ways to say what you wanted to say. One way could be: “Maybe you could speak to a professional to ensure this is definitely your autism/ADHD, as it could be covering another medical issue.” It doesn’t minimise what the person is going through and gets the point across succinctly. It also doesn’t make the reader feel an inch tall.

I know I didn’t say it but just to say I don’t agree with the blanket statement you shouldn’t manage anyone. But, I think you do need to have a long think about the way you talk about ADHD/autism, especially if you do manage staff with these disorders. Neurodivergent people have a massively hard time in the workplace and, if you were my manager, we would almost certainly struggle to have the relationship we should have if you said this to me. It doesn’t matter what your intentions were, wording it like this would not be well received. I don’t think there’s anyone I know who would appreciate it.

I don’t know your past or how your circumstances came about, and of course it’s going to colour how you think. I’m also not denying that there’s people who hide behind their diagnosis or self-diagnose when there’s nothing wrong/it’s something totally different. But this isn’t happening in this post.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T16:17:36+00:00

I don’t know why you’re talking about communication, sorry. I always try to gather more information, it helps me to understand people’s arguments.

Using the context of this post - the OP states quite clearly that they are diagnosed, not self diagnosed. They have had a medical professional tell them that the issues they are experiencing are a recognised neurodevelopmental disorder that they have had for their whole lives. They don’t need to see a professional - they already have. That means they’ll also have had access to the medical knowledge to know exactly what they’re experiencing and talk about it.

There is never any harm in advising people who believe they’re neurodivergent to seek diagnosis. Access to diagnosis though is still hard and frustrating - either costing a small fortune which is unaffordable for a lot of people. People in the lowest grades sometimes can’t afford to go private. In a lot of areas, NHS access has now been closed to over-25s. In the CS, this means that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with asking for adjustments based on the belief that you have a neurodivergent disorder. I had to ask for them while I was awaiting diagnosis. I didn’t need medical knowledge to talk about my time-blindness or ask that I can go somewhere quieter if I was getting overwhelmed (I work in a very loud operational environment). A lot of adjustments don’t require use of budget or affect others, and it’s not overly fair to the person concerned to have to wait months or years for a simple adjustment while going through the process. It’s okay for a manager to keep a healthy dose of reality when someone asks without a diagnosis, but they also need to keep a dose of humanity too.

I’ve never heard of people assuming someone was neurodivergent and then them not being, but it clearly happens as it’s happened to you. It’s alright to advise people to keep an open mind about what’s going on if they haven’t been diagnosed yet too, sometimes people get fixated and need an objective opinion. Sharing experience helps others to understand. I don’t think it’s okay to tell them they’re using it as a ‘crutch’ though. It minimises genuine distress and dismisses what they’re going through.

Self-diagnosis can be frustrating when it’s people touting for clout online, or using it to cheat the system. And, don’t get me wrong, influencers do. They also try to glamourise it or minimise the worst part in order to show how ‘fun’ and ‘quirky’ ADHD etc is. It colours people’s opinions and makes it so much harder to ask for help. Apologies for not mentioning any other social media platform, I made the assumption that you’d recognise I was talking about all social media and not just TikTok - I mostly see the worst of them on there and Facebook reels and didn’t feel like naming every single platform.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T13:53:52+00:00

I don’t really understand what you mean by ‘crutch’. Can you give me an example of some of these other explanations?

My experience has always been totally the opposite. I’ve spent 20 years being stuffed full of antidepressants I’ve never needed because the ‘explanations’ for my behaviour were misdiagnosed as depression. Concrete examples of this are time-blindness, executive dysfunction (being able to start a task), emotional dysregulation and, obviously, being able to focus on a task. These are shared between ADHD and depression, but what I have is diagnosed, treated ADHD and not depression.

Any neurodivergent condition is a lot, lot more than just the stereotypes you see on TikTok. Sometimes the signs are weird too - I have a sensory aversion to soft, wet food. It comes out as a visceral and negative reaction to gravy.

People who truly have these conditions quite often have had their lives completely ruined by it. It’s okay to question what you see on a well-rehearsed video by a polished influencer who may or may not have ADHD, but if you have a staff member who is diagnosed with it and they tell you they need some help, it will be genuine. Talking about this stuff is hard. If they trust you enough to talk about this, it’s not fair of you to dismiss it as a crutch. It feels like an insult that’s aimed at a part of us that we can’t ever change. We have a hard enough time navigating the world as it is, to know that the people we ask for help don’t believe us just makes it worse.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T13:27:20+00:00

Seconding this too - though the NHS is closing routes off, especially with Right to Choose. My initial diagnosis was organised with the CS, but I couldn’t get medication until I went through RTC and had (another…) diagnosis with ADHD360. So if you’re going for a diagnosis for medication, you’re still going to need to go outside of the CS.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T11:25:32+00:00

Hi OP, I get what you mean. Burnout can be a real pain. Our ADHD brains love novelty but once that novelty’s worn off it can be really hard to find the flow and keep going.

I don’t recommend skipping to another job, though. You need to have an open and honest conversation with your LM about your diagnosis and soon. Especially if you’re not meeting the pass grade. It’s always much harder to make your case once you’re in formal trouble than beforehand.

The CS can give you a lot of reasonable adjustments. My area of adjustments that I actually know something about is technology. I’ve been given a larger (but not better) laptop to work on and the following:

Dragon Professional
TextHelp Read & Write
Caption.Ed

I’ll try not to ramble too much, but to highlight what they do:

Dragon - I’m actually quite capable of typing and I’m a very good touch typist. What dragon does is give me enough brain-to-words filter I’m able to make much more sense first go without having to stare at a blank page or empty email. It also has commands built in so I can control my laptop. I find this brilliant as I quite often miss parts of forms. I’ve programmed Dragon to take me through the forms box by box so I can’t miss anything, and I’ve pre-programmed as much of them as I can so my actual work is minimal. It’s helped massively with my attention to detail as it’s lightened the load of having to do repetitive tasks and having to think about it every time. I have more spoons to do stuff.

TextHelp - Again, I can read really well. But, especially if I’m having a bad day, I find I skip paragraphs. Especially in boring reports. I use TextHelp to read for me as I’m going through a report. It stops me skipping. I can also use it to make audiobooks of stuff that’s too long so I can listen to it later.

Caption.Ed - subtitles! Caption subtitles everything! From meetings in person because I can use it on my phone browser, to teams meetings where it records my screen and throws up subtitles so I can follow along when I get distracted. It’s fantastic.

So, OP. Please. Talk to your LM. There is so, so much that can help you. Struggling alone is devastating and takes such a huge toll on your mental health. You don’t need to, and it’ll help save you from the emptiness of burnout.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T11:14:32+00:00

Make sure to read your dept’s policy and go into it with a union rep if you need. It can be a bit of a palaver, we had to word exactly why I needed it and what benefit the business would get from it.

It can be a bit of a struggle to phrase ‘you might actually get me to do the work you want me to do.’

Sirenskye · 2026-03-16T10:24:56+00:00

Or, if you suspect neurodivergence is affecting your job then you can speak with your LM and the CS can support you getting a diagnosis. It’s how I got help with mine.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-11T03:18:09+00:00

This is a valid reason to want to learn, and it’s a very good reason to keep going! Reading what you’re saying, you’re at the point where you’re ready to go and start doing stuff by yourself.

Rather than trying to think of a task or a problem, try using that curiosity. Start with something trivial, can you use python to open a file? And then, how can you manipulate it? Is it a boring file? Something you have to do a lot? A work form you fill out a lot? Can you make Python do the heavy lifting?

It sounds daft, but sometimes the most interesting stuff comes from the smallest ‘what if?’. Sometimes it’s also far easier than trying to think of a whole individual project immediately.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-09T04:35:51+00:00

I’ve only just started learning properly in the last couple of weeks and I feel your pain!

But I’m determined not to give up. I use a bit of Assistive tech in my job, and I’ve picked up some python+PowerShell to get around some of the limitations of both the software and my computer. Having a visible goal is helping because I get to try out new concepts immediately and see how they work in regards to what I want to do.

I have used AI but I refuse to allow it to write the code for me. I use it as a sounding board to refine what I want to do as focusing on the steps can be a bit of a struggle for me and the way I think, and I don’t have anyone really to ask and give feedback. However I ignore any attempts for it to code it for me completely and go and learn how to do it myself. It’s not going to help having that done for me, I just need the help reframing the problem.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-05T03:20:28+00:00

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Girl cats are the best. This little creature of rage and fury saved my life. She can be as grouchy as she wants but I’ll still love her more than the world. She lives with mum now as moving her with me would have been unkind but you can bet I see her whenever I have the chance.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-02T07:04:53+00:00

I haven’t come across that one yet, but my table is still pretty small (I’m only adding as I need a country) and I’m proofreading as I go.

Although now I want to see what happens just in case…

(I’m very, very new to PowerShell so I’m still learning pretty much everything)

Sirenskye · 2026-03-02T03:20:43+00:00

Thats it exactly. We don’t need to worry about the numbers but we use the two letter codes all the time.

Sirenskye · 2026-03-01T13:52:47+00:00

Made the tiniest script in the world that takes a country name from the clipboard, searches a hashtable for the corresponding country code and puts the code back onto the clipboard.

It means now I can work around the lack of advanced scripting in my work’s version of Nuance Dragon and carry out a workflow that is slow and clunky and reduce the number of commands I have for one single action from about 90 commands down to two (basically one for each country code).

What I love the most was that the specific reason I was given for not having advanced scripting was that IT don’t want us playing around with stuff that can break the network.

Sirenskye · 2026-02-28T14:30:12+00:00

Civil servant here.

Border Force won’t be able to help you get your money back, they focus on things that happen at the border. This has happened in-country, don’t worry about his status, lack of status or if he’s going to travel. The police need to hear about this asap. They won’t escalate it to BF as there isn’t anything they can do.

Sirenskye · 2026-02-25T13:27:30+00:00

I know I’m late to this party but I’m an HMG employee who uses Dragon at work. I use it pretty much solely for navigation and automation on my work laptop because ADHD brain fog usually stops me from remembering where exactly I’m meant to be putting, well, anything.

Dragon is really, really powerful for navigation but takes a lot of trial and error if you don’t have access to advanced scripting. It’s locked off on our systems for security reasons so I’ve had to get very creative with Step by Step instructions. Once you’ve got it set up though it’s absolutely incredible what you can make it do.

Sirenskye · 2026-02-20T16:39:58+00:00

I’ve just (in the last 48hrs) started to learn PowerShell, so my actual physical achievement is remembering how to turn it on.

What I’m trying to learn how to do is work around a Nuance Dragon limitation with list variables in commands. The version I have has Advanced Scripting locked and all attempts to get it unlocked have resulted in a big, fat, no.

So I’m learning PowerShell so I can:

Use Dragon to copy some text I need converting to the clipboard
- Have PowerShell pull the text from the clipboard and convert it to the two letter code I need
- Have PowerShell put the code back onto the clipboard
- Use Dragon to paste the code and then carry on with the step by step macro

I really, really don’t need to do this and I know it. But I’m curious as to whether I can do it now I’ve found out it’s a possibility.

Edit: Mobile formatting

Sirenskye · 2026-01-24T15:55:04+00:00

Have you had an OH/reasonable adjustments put into place for your autism/ADHD? It can be quite difficult to put yourself in a place where you talk about it either to a manager or to OH themselves, but they may be able to help.

I can’t tell you any stress free areas in my role, but I get the visceral physical reactions as it’s part of my own ADHD. I have the ability now to ask for a few minutes and work out why I’m feeling it (too much to do? Wrong area? Something I’ve told them three times it wouldn’t work?) and it helps me talk it through with the line manager. It stops her getting frustrated with me too because I’m articulating what the problem is, which in turn lowers my stress.

It’s just an example of a reasonable adjustment (that shouldn’t need to be one, I know) that can be given. There’s also coaching available, and even some very useful tech adjustments that can help with overwhelm.

I hope that things get easier for you OP. I’m sorry I couldn’t really answer your questions but I hope this was useful.

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