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Hey guys, I have been dealing with an issue and wondered if anyone has had the same problem and any solutions or suggestions. This has been a thing for years but it's happening at some point every day now. I will need to do something boring or unpleasant and I just. Can't. This is everything from making phone calls to getting up to use the bathroom to actually doing the homework that I already have open in front of me and have started on. I don't have much motivation to do even things I like. The only reason I really do things is because of anxiety, but that only works to a point. No one else is seeing my apartment, so it's not getting cleaned right now. I don't currently have access to a doctor and I'm not on meds, plus caffeine gives me a migraine. Any ideas appreciated, thanks.	ADHD
I’m going through a high stress life situation this week but also on my 3rd week of titrating up on Vyvanse and I guess I’m looking to see if the Vyvanse is making me struggle or if it’s the combination of stress+ADHD+stimulants I started on 10mg and was supposed to go up to 20mg after 7 days and 30mg after 7 more or stop at 20mg if I found it effective. Starting the 10mg blew my mind. I spent the whole day feeling like I was seeing the whole world in color for the first time. Everything in my head was quiet and things were so much less of a struggle and it was amazing. When I tried 20mg on day 8, I found it made me really anxious and my heart rate was through the roof. When it didn’t get better, I dropped back down to 10mg on day 10. I went back up to 20mg after 2 weeks without issue. It’s been just over 3 weeks now, and I take it every morning, but over the last 2 days, my executive dysfunction is back in full force, I can’t focus, my memory is shot… it’s like I’m back to being unmedicated, but also faster somehow. However, I quit my job today and start a new one tomorrow, so my anxiety is naturally higher. Has anyone else experienced similar situations? Where a stimulant worked well and then didn’t? Or where your stimulant was no match for your anxiety? I’m trying to figure out how to approach the situation (I also have a routine follow up scheduled for Monday morning!) Thanks so much!	ADHD
I spend most of my day inside of my head. Obviously I’m biased, but I think that I have some good ideas and perspectives. My inner monologue is very academic and technical, and I often format my thoughts into complex arguments. However, I can’t seem to focus long enough to put these ideas on paper. I used to really enjoy writing, and I think I could be good at it if I applied myself, but when I try to write down my ideas my brain seems to stop working. Any advice? (I’m asking in this sub, because my inability to write is mostly to do with how my my autistic brain loves making ideas and doing nothing with them.) (I also posted this in r/Autism, but I didn’t get many answers)	aspergers
I have suspected PTSD for a long time, but hadn’t gotten a diagnosis from my current counselor. Well, today I go to my doctor about pain and we get to chatting about what I’ve been doing for my health the past couple years, and counseling. I mention I think I deal with PTSD and she says “You already have a diagnosis... I thought I saw it in your chart.” I am in shock and ask her to check again, and it’s right there in my chart. PTSD due to sexual abuse and childhood abuse. Diagnosis was made in 2015 by a counselor I was seeing at the time, but she didn’t tell me about it because she was referring me to a psychiatrist for testing. But because of the paperwork and it being in my chart, it’s a diagnosis! I cried with relief. I have been afraid that the symptoms I deal with and my behavior has been due to a personality flaw of some kind or I’m just broken. This is so validating. I can’t wait to tell my counselor! It’s just nice to know it’s not all in my head, and what I went through is real.	ptsd
I just... happened to fall for a video game character, from a game I had been playing for a couple of weeks now. It's never happened before because in almost every other instance, I've simply realized that that person, whoever they are, is on a one-track story. Linear. Predictable. Therefore I could easily separate that character with reality. But in this instance, the relationship I developed was across several days, with actual character development and countless intricacies into her design. Her being a mainstay of that experience became somewhat of a normality for me. The phone calls, texts, even a date set up. All in this sprawling city of a game. And then it just... ended. Content ran dry. There had to be a stop to the writing, the dialogue, and I understand that. It's not that I think she's real, more that I wish her to be. I've always felt alone in my life, I've had friends but no significant other. And this particular character, she made me feel more alive than I've ever been. Suddenly I had a goal, a purpose, something that actually distracted me from my reality. And now that's what's suffering now. Everything I previously took joy in doing, it all became irrelevant. And I'm stuck in this harsh realization that there will likely never be someone who makes me feel like that again. I'm not setting some high precident for people in general, the character I previously referred to had many imperfections. But she was perfectly imperfect. Moral and easygoing and interesting. She brought a certain vibrance to life that I have never felt before. And, just like that, I'm left looking for that equivalent in the world. But always coming up empty. I've never felt so alone, caught up in my tumultuous thoughts, without someone who understands my predicament. It's something I've had to come to terms with in such a short time, and I feel like I'm losing sight of why things matter in life. Not going to go to any extreme degree of depression, more just worried about how long this will weigh on me, and what I can do to try and stop feeling this way.	depression
People have to try to help themselves with this problem! At least try to learn some cognitive behavioral therapy, try other meds, make up your mind to fight for your mental health!! Doctors,theapary,meds,these are only tools ,you the one suffering is the craftsman! That must make sure you stay on top of your problems... If that's not reasurance I don't know what is.... You can do this.They didn't eavan have meds or a name for it...Not reasurance! I believe in all of you fine friends of Reddit..🙁😕😟🥺😋	OCD
Does anyone else find themselves being good at everything they do but they can't get better than good, they can spend hours but never be great at something, I focus everything on one side and I still can't get great at it, every says I'm good but putting so much effort in and I'm never great at it. Does anyone else feel that way, try so hard but always just good at it. Its frustrating at first it sounds good like 'good at everything, so good' but then all the time and you see others around you get better and better at their craft and you don't.	ADHD
For over a year, I had been suffering from bad hyperawareness OCD--I was constantly aware of my breathing, my pulse all over my body, and even the positioning of my chest and limbs. It was intensified much of the time by hypochondria--the fear that noticing a sensation was a sign that something was wrong. I was so hyperaware that it seemed I couldn't even breathe or move around naturally anymore. About a month ago, I realized that the hyperawareness was caused by discomfort. That I should be okay with these feelings and not want to run away from them. Since then, I feel like I've made tremendous progress in the past month. I accept weird physical sensations more and more, and they fade into the background. There's still quite a ways to go. My body is quite tense--I guess from all the tension that my anxiety created--and sometimes I notice it and it triggers another anxiety attack before I can calm it down. If anyone here has been through this before, any advice on how quickly I can expect to get through this? (Note: Looking for helpful and sound advice, not depressing or triggering anecdotes.)	OCD
After 2 reject by girls and 1 break up fake friends(all this in one year, 2021) i am totaly difirent person.The things that makes me happy before now didnt make me happy, i dont want to be at home bcs when i am out alone in nature i fell freedom but when i am at home i fell sadnes and nothing good. What i need to do i am 15 years old but a lot of things happens to me in my life	depression
…when I’m on antidepressants. When I’m not, they hate me. Disgusting, I love the real me, but they can’t stand him.	depression
I am on track to being able to do this, as animals have been my longest special interest since I was a very young toddler (I'm now 19), and have been accepted onto the first level of a technical college course in animal care. It now means from September on, I will be learning to care for not just cats and dogs, but everything from tarantulas and snakes all the way to goats and horses etc. After this first year, we get the opportunity to either study the next level of the course or go straight into employment either through the work experience placement we have to do as part of the course or somewhere we have found ourselves independent of the course.	aspergers
I’m going to counseling today for the first time ever. I’m wondering how I should bring up the rOCD topic. Would you suggest telling someone I’ve self-diagnosed myself with rOCD and all the symptoms fit the bill but I want to know what she thinks or do I just explain what I’m thinking and see what she says? My biggest fear is her not understanding rOCD or telling me I don’t have it and my fears being a reality or her telling me to end the relationship. Help!	OCD
For anyone who’s tried this medicine, does it have a sedating effect or make you really drowsy?	OCD
I’m employed full-time, and I work at a law firm, in a cubicle. During COVID lockdown, we were mostly working remotely, which was great because I was more productive and less distracted in my home environment. My employer has recognized that. However, we’ve been mandated to return to the office full-time, and I’m really struggling. Additionally, my firm has relocated to a much smaller, more cramped office building with terrible acoustics, and I’m finding it almost impossible to do my job well. Not only is the quality of my work taking a huge hit, but in turn, so are my mental health and self-esteem. I’ve made my employer aware of my desire to work from home part of the time (we actually had a discussion about it pre-COVID, shortly after I was diagnosed, but that request was deemed “not feasible”. Go figure.) They just keep telling me that everyone wants to work from home, and there can’t be a separate set of rules for me versus for everyone else in the office, and they don’t want everyone working remotely right now, so the answer is no. My employer has record of my diagnosis; I provided them a letter from my psychologist. Based on the year and a half I successfully worked remotely 4.5 out of 5 days a week, I think it is completely reasonable to accommodate me with an in-office/remote hybrid schedule. However, I am hesitant to come right out and remind them of my autism for fear of coming across as too needy, entitled, or attention-seeking (fuck internalized ableism). Am I doing this wrong? I don’t know how many different ways I can explain to them what I need in order to be successful. Do I just need to suck it up and remind them that I have a legitimate disability and once again, hope they get the message? TL;DR Do I need to specifically cite that I’m looking for an ADA “reasonable accommodation”, using those words, in order to get a reasonable accommodation in the workplace? My employer has record of my diagnosis, and the request, in my opinion, is perfectly reasonable.	aspergers
I been suffering with ocd since I was 9 years old, my ocd has always been very severe and it’s been almost impossible for me to cope with it since my diagnosis. Starting from 16 I began to develop horrid cognitive decline that persistently worsened and continue to worsen, I no longer can process what people say nor o can process myself, I have no sense of judgment, I have no mental images, and I can’t think at all. Is their a link?	OCD
I was wondering why people with OCD can have issues with contamination such as bacteria, viruses, dust, etc? what's triggering that fear and need to clean? Personally, I hate synthetic chemicals. I can't stand them because I keep thinking they'll damage my brain. I'm new to OCD. I don't completely understand the disorder. Thank you	OCD
Possible TW, descriptions of verbal abuse and anxiety responses Hello, so I was wondering exactly what situations PTSD \could\ apply to/be a result of. I've only really read/heard about PTSD when it's related to physical and/or sexual abuse, horrific events, and military-related events. Can PTSD also be a result of regular verbal abuse? I know you guys can't diagnose anyone and I know most of you aren't doctors, but I'm hoping you might have an answer anyway. Hello, so I was wondering exactly what situations PTSD \could\ apply to/be a result of. I've only really read/heard about PTSD when it's related to physical and/or sexual abuse, horrific events, and military-related events. Can PTSD also be a result of regular verbal abuse? I know you guys can't diagnose anyone and I know most of you aren't doctors, but I'm hoping you might have an answer anyway. Hello, so I was wondering exactly what situations PTSD \could\ apply to/be a result of. I've only really read/heard about PTSD when it's related to physical and/or sexual abuse, horrific events, and military-related events. Can PTSD also be a result of regular verbal abuse? I know you guys can't diagnose anyone and I know most of you aren't doctors, but I'm hoping you might have an answer anyway. Hello, so I was wondering exactly what situations PTSD \could\ apply to/be a result of. I've only really read/heard about PTSD when it's related to physical and/or sexual abuse, horrific events, and military-related events. Can PTSD also be a result of regular verbal abuse? I know you guys can't diagnose anyone and I know most of you aren't doctors, but I'm hoping you might have an answer anyway. Again, I know I can't ask for a diagnosis, all I'm asking for is information/advice about whether a situation could even \qualify\ as \potential\ PTSD or PTSD-\like\ symptoms. So here's the specific question: A person grows up in a household where the father is verbally abusive and controlling, and has anger issues. That person is now a teenager and still lives in the house. At home, every time the dad got mad about something, the child would get nervous because now that the dad was already angry/in a bad mood, he'd be more likely to lash out and yell. And often, the dad did end up lashing out, at either the mother or the child. The child always saw the dad yell at his wife, and the child watched their mother get really upset by that, and the father not really caring. And of course, whenever the father yelled at the kid, they got upset as well. This happened multiple times per week, almost every day, from when the kid was about 7 years old. As the kid got older, they developed anxiety symptoms (that could be due to a mental disorder) and had bouts of depression, self-harm, and suicidal ideation, often because of the dad's abuse. At this point, the now teenager's flight response and anxiety kicks in any time anyone is angry. The moment someone shows signs of anger, such as slamming things down, angry facial expressions, or an angry tone of voice, the teen's heart rate involuntarily speeds up, their breathing gets shallower, they feel anxious, and go into almost a survival state of "don't do anything to get them more angry, just be still, pretend it's not happening, stay still, it's okay, just stay far away from them if you can, and maybe you'll be okay". They've had a few dreams about their father being mean to them, and even thinking about someone being angry around them gets them anxious, almost like they're reliving an experience of being with someone who's angry. And sometimes their mind will wander and they'll get flashbacks to the various incidents of verbal abuse they've experienced. Which triggers that same anxious response So, all I'm wondering is, could this even qualify/ \count\ as potential PTSD? I'm not asking for a diagnosis, it's just that I don't know much about PTSD and I wanted to know if it could be relevant in a situation I described, and not just physical examples of trauma/severely horrific experiences. Thank you in advance, and I'm really sorry if I said something wrong or upsetting or anything like that, it wasn't my intention at all	ptsd
My understanding is that SSRI's are antidepressants, but I can't seem to find a clear answer on what effect they tend to have on folks without depression. So, anecdotally, what are your experiences? If you didn't have depression at the onset, how were SSRI's supposed to help with compulsions, and how did they end up working? Did you encounter notable mood changes? Start thinking and feeling differently with respect to things _other_ than your manifestation of OCD?	OCD
I have, as of late, been having a lot of issues with my having aspergers as a part of my depression. Been feeling angry with myself and depressed with how I’m 23 years old and I still seem to have issues figuring out social situations. Missing jokes. Not getting when someone is being rude to me till later. Making people mad by not getting some social norm. Stuff like that. Does anyone else keep a journal? Does it help? I’m gonna try it out honestly.	aspergers
Starting my new antidepressant medication tomorrow, I’m hopeful it will help.	depression
I work as a waiter and I can’t understand when someone ask me to do something and I look so dumb. And this happens multiple times a day, my boss has found out a have adhd a treats me like 5 year old because I’m so slow to understand my task. And I’m not new at this workplace. And it is simple things I get asked but can’t seem to understand the task when asked the first 2-3 times. I fearing that I won’t be able to get keep a future job because of this. I’m getting very frustrated and just wanted to hear if I’m the only one with this problem. I don’t know if it’s an adhd thing or if my brain just doesn’t function like it should.	ADHD
An example is I had a cross necklace and I don’t know if I convinced myself that’s what was protecting me and making my life better, but when the chain broke I felt this very uncomfortable feeling like I wasn’t protected anymore and started to feel like things were going bad. I know a necklace isn’t going to protect me but like going places without it made me feel unsafe and super uncomfortable but like subconsciously, kinda in the back of my head. I don’t know if anyone has experienced this with ocd. I do this with a lot of stuff, like another example I feel like if my hair is short it’s like bad luck so I never cut it short and when I do I again convince myself it’s bad luck type thing and I swear it’s true even tho when I think about it logically I know it’s not possible for that to happen.	OCD
Hi my name is Igor and im form Poland. Since i am 19 yrs old i had a depression. My last 3 christmas was like this one Will be i have no one i tried kill myself 3 Times this year but i hope something Will change... But i lost job now i cant even work at christmass and at least see some People... Idk what to do no one to talk but still dont want anyone to listen my shit	depression
For around 5-6 months, I have had trouble reading any sentence containing this sign: = Like for example when reading basic mathematic equations like y = 3x + 9, for the overwhelming majority of times I feel an inner compunction to read over and over again that specific equation, particularly stuck at the equal sign. I can sometimes spend even multiple seconds just staring at the equal sign like if I was hypnotized or something. it's like every time I see it, I feel somewhat anxious and I am forced to say it again. it's really hard to explain, but at least this repetitive behavior occurs only when I see the equal sign. I don't even know if it's ADHD or something else but after a bit of research, it's the disorder that most aligns with my current symptoms. maybe my predicament stems from sleep deprivation or a bad diet, or a lack of confidence(the latter was always with me for the greater part of my life) Please Reddit don't make fun of me, I told my parents about this many times, but all they do is laugh at me for my supposed ''childishness'' or even sometimes get annoyed saying that a 17-year-old shouldn't have this kind of problem. my friends have tried to be more understanding but they too do not have any idea what might be causing this. has any of you ever encountered this kind of problem?	ADHD
It's finals week, I work full time, and the holidays are approaching with lots of social events to attend. Last night I had a small mental breakdown in my kitchen and my SO helped to ease my anxieties and fears by encouraging me and helping to frame everything in a way that would help me feel less overwhelmed, but it made me wonder, how do other people with ADHD handle things to avoid getting overwhelmed? I find that I usually am doing okay, sometimes for several months or weeks without any emotional mental breaks. Then a busy time of the year will come up and while I love the holidays, there's just SO much. For example, my neighbor has asked me to help her pick out an outfit for an event she has coming up. I have 3 weeks worth of laundry sitting in my hamper, an English final essay worth 300 points due by Friday, and an art final due the same day. Last week I also made plans to hang with my SO's sisters on Thursday, and my usual sitter for my dog during the week needs the day off Wednesday so I have to bring my dog to work. Saturday there is a 4 hour family celebration and then I also had friends reach out to me and ask to come over for wine when I'm done. While all of these are things that are totally doable, I get so overwhelmed thinking about everything I have to do and everything coming up and that it makes me want to cancel plans/not do any of it. This has effected friendships of mine in the past since I end up flaking just so I can have some peace of mind for myself some days. HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL?? IS THERE A MAGICAL WAY I HAVEN'T TRIED YET THAT COULD HELP ME FROM BEING SO OVERWHELMED THAT WON'T END WITH A MELTDOWN IN MY KITCHEN?!? HELLPPPP	ADHD
Currently I am in college housing and I pretty regularly loose my wallet or college ID, which is needed to get into my dorm, I have tried almost everything to keep track of it. I have a tile in my wallet to track it but sometimes half the cards are missing for one reason or another and usually it’s my student ID. This has caused me an incredible amount of stress and anxiety that continues to build as I have to pay for new ID’s and temporary cards, each costing close to $40. My roommate’s are incredibly wealthy and honestly I don’t think they would care if they had to pay $40 just to enter there room. One of my roommate is quite supportive and gives me actually useful advice, but the other… he does not give useful advice. Whenever I get mad at myself for not being able to keep track of a fcking card, he jumps in and laughs trying to explain to me how easy it is to just not loose things. jUSt PuT iT BacK In yoUR WaLLeT! I’m not fcking stupid I know what I am supposed to do, my brain just goes to dreamland for half the fcking day and forgets to keep track of simple things, I would absolutely love to be able to just nOt LoOSe iT but I fcking can’t… I swear to god if this man tries to explain to me how easy it is to keep track of things one more time I am going to start hiding his wallet so he knows how it feels and give him the same speech he gives me, forcibly laughing as loud as humanly possible. Also I have tried many many times to calmly explain to him how my brain works and why it is hard for me to keep track of things, but he pretty much just responds with “just do it.” And not to sound like an elitist cnt but bro I’m literally a neuroscience major who is actively doing research into exactly how this shit works and your out here planning how to extort the working class most efficiently, how the fck do you think you know more about neurochemistry than I do… PS: despite these instances I dont actually hate this dude, he’s probably one of me closest friends just needed to rant as this has been bugging me a lot recently.	ADHD
TW: talks of un-al!v!ng hello everyone! i haven’t been on here jn so so long but i feel like i need to get this off my chest. a few weeks ago, i intrusively tried to 3nD it all. i had planned to do this in the past but never acted on it as my mind went from deep depression to overly weird happiness which is the norm to me. anyways. terrible experience. my liver almost failed. no one knows about this other than my family because they want to keep it hush hush but i seriously need to tell people. anyways. after about a week of misery, j started being able to keep down my medication. and for some reason, after that big incident, it’s like i don’t feel anything anymore. it’s weird. i still feel like i need to think about intrusive thoughts because if i don’t i’m a bad person or someone will get harmed. but it’s easier to control. i find i don’t feel emotions as much as i did a few weeks ago and it’s freaking me out. my medication wasn’t working before hand but now it is? and i haven’t been having violent outbursts or intrusive acts (ex. skipping school, self h, running away) has anyone else gone through a similar experience? please share your thoughts and stories!! also if there’s anything i could look into for these stupid impulsive acts i do please let me know. very much appreciated as always. luv yas stay safe!	OCD
I have just started working with my first trauma therapist. She says I am ready for my first session of EMDR next week, which I did very briefly years ago and don't remember. Thank goodness I had actually told most of my history to other therapists before. Please, how do you decompress after sessions? I feel like I have spent several rounds in a boxing ring. I've stirred up so many ghosts and past issues today, and my brain won't stop worrying away at them, even though I know it's going to get me nowhere. I understand the difficulty only goes up from here. (deep breath) What got you through it/is getting you through it? Any and all suggestions welcome.	ptsd
TLDR at end. I think I might have ADHD. When I was younger, I was always kind of forgetful. I procrastinated often and had my head in the clouds. I would speed through books, sometimes getting so engrossed that I couldn’t hear what people were yelling at me. My parents would get mad at me during meals because I’d always get up and run around. My current symptoms are still similar. I’m forgetful, sometimes I talk too much, I procrastinate (especially on large things), I often go down rabbit holes and get easily obsessed, I’m absentminded, I’m bad with deadlines and appointments, I fidget often, I’m easily bored, and I can’t seem to do things when I want to. My room is filthy. It takes me so long to do chores. I can’t stand doing nothing at all. I’ve always been a “smart” kid that floated along easily, but I’m in high school now. I’m getting a lot more work that matters, and there are so many projects. So many tasks. It’s overwhelming and makes me feel guilty. I feel like I’m wasting my “intelligence.” My younger brother also has hyperactive symptoms. Some of this can be explained by depression, anxiety, screen time, and sleep deprivation, but I think it’s worth asking about ADHD. How should I talk to my parents about this? Right now, they think I’m just being lazy. They give me simple solutions like “just focus and do your work.” They think I’m sooo smart, but it’s a shame I never use those smarts. And should I get good sleep and stop using my phone before I ask? Because I know those two factors affect me. TLDR: I’ve shown ADHD symptoms since I was young, and I want to ask my parents to take me to a doctor. They think I’m lazy, so how do I convince them?	ADHD
Hi I've fallen in and out of pocd in the past but it's currently the worst I've ever been. My groinal responses are worse than ever and I'm beginning to feel responses elsewhere like a really weird tingling in my arms that I'm worried is a sign of real attraction. I'm also worried I have desires for children and it seems that now my body gives more of a reaction to children than people my own age. As a teenager I masturbate frequently however every time I reach climax my head is full off intrusive thoughts about kids which leave me feeling like I've just masturbated to a child. This is the worst I've had pocd and because I'm a teenager and might not be finished with puberty yet I'm worried I've suddenly just become a pedophile but for as long as I remember till last year I've always been attracted to adults and people my own age, never children. Please can someone help me with advice on how I break this obsession because I'm not having a very good time right now	OCD
so after a very long 9 month journey of talking to my pcp and then a psychiatrist i finally got a full evaluation only to be told that it’s unlikely i have adhd bc my performance scores were so high. and i just feel like that sounds exactly like everyone telling me i don’t have adhd bc my grades are high. and i feel like they just ignore all the other things i say that concern me. and they told me that i might have mild anxiety and that my focus problems might just be triggered but i was like everything i told you is constant like they’re not triggered so i don’t understand what’s wrong. so yea now i cant get medication anymore and being on medication was the only time in my life i felt like i had it together and i had clarity and i wasn’t a lazy piece of shit and now idk what to do with my life and im just supposed to go back to not being able to do anything and not being able to get out of bed or start my day or focus on anything for more than 2 seconds? she told me that i should look for other psychiatrists bc some still prescribe medication without diagnosis but im literally so tired of talking to doctors and being told that i’m fine when im literally telling everyone im struggling so idk what to do anymore	ADHD
Recently I started to think that when I turn 19, then all I ever did in my whole life was getting bullied, struggling with everything, getting used by people, living only in my dreams but never living my dreams and just living with a abusing family that adopted me, as I had to find out some time ago. So bassically in these 19 years, everything that ever happened was not worth it. So today, I told everyone that I don't want to celebrate my birthday, that I want to take this day as a normal day. But they don't care. They want to make a big thing out of it, because the "love" me. The last couple of days I've been strugglin with everything more and more, which lead to a knife being my best friend. Last night I didn't sleep because I wasted all the time with crying. Some time ago I also gave me up to this day for things to change, for me to get my shit together. But everything turned out even worse. Now, I kept the promise that I gave to myself. Now I feel like I can leave this place, but I am so scared. I always wanted to have a good life, to make it through all of this, but it just hurts to much. I had so many things that I hoped would happen today, but none of them are happening so far. Why does everything only keeps getting worse? I wish I just wanted to end all of this completly, then I would be able to just kill myself. I am sorry for writing all of this nonesense, but I just had to let it out.	depression
I'm trying to find out if my situation is a "common" one or unusual. I've not had a proper diagnosis but I've sought one out from professionals and I'm expecting definitive very soon. I'm in my early twenties and ADHD is something that was suspected at several points in my childhood, but was always brushed off after assessments, because I was lacking some symptom or another. fast forward about a decade and I'm starting to consider it more seriously. I don't have much experience with what ADHD entails and how you go about treating or coping with it. The reason it's popping up now is that for the past \~5 years I've felt cripplingly 'numb' in the following sense, and it took some time for it to be flagged as depression, but the more I look into it the more it seems like there's an ADHD problem underneath. The first symptoms are usually related to (perceived?) academic performance: I have a degree in maths from Cambridge and I'm doing graduate studies in the most prestigious university of my country, one for which I had to take a competitive admissions exam. Both times throughout the same pattern has emerged: I'd get in among the top candidates and start off with very satisfying grades, but over the course of 2-3 years I'd progressively grow more "apathetic" in the sense of not going to lectures, not handing anything in, oversleeping, and most importantly feeling shit about it. I'm not trying to boast about any academic achievement, but the point is I've been able to perform really well at several times by "getting into it" for a very short burst, but most of my experience over the past few years have been feeling like I'm wasting my time and letting my life slip by, by way of watching excessive amounts of youtube videos at my desk without ever opening up a notebook or anything. I've never felt out of my depth in any subject I've studied since school, in that everytime I focus in a lecture or on an assignment I usually grasp stuff pretty quickly. That makes me feel even worse if anything, and I have the feeling from speaking to the people around me that I'm not really underestimated by others as well. People seem to consider me as extremely talented even among the prestigious institutions I attend, but I'm always 'the guy that probably could if he tried, but for some reason he doesn't' Recently I underwent assessment at a neuropsychiatrist (or whatever the correct term in english is) and took a battery of standardized tests; the feedback I got was "I see you're struggling a lot in the day to day, but the evidence from the tests show you have no issue focusing on such and such task, in fact you're pretty good at it" which was very frustrating because in a controlled environment I seem to be able to focus well for a short period of time, but I'm extremely slow at doing regular tasks in the day to day. More specifically, \- It takes me an unbearable amount of willpower and energy to move from the default, ground state of sitting in front of my monitor browsing senselessly facebook or youtube, to go and start an assignment or a project, BUT \- Once I've started I absolutely cannot stop until I've solved it, e.g. If I'm stuck on a maths problem at 16:00 I cannot envision going out socializing at 20:00 because by then I'll probably be obsessed with it \- I'm hopeless at organizing myself, i.e. keeping to schedule (or even making one), which in corollary means I'm really bad at doing mundane tasks like putting laundry away/washing up dishes etc. \- I will impulsively pick up new 'hobbies' that incorporate some element of seeking optimality or perfection, pursue it if (it entails buying tools not too expensive) or otherwise roam across youtube for information obsessively, until I get bored. For instance this summer I got into whetstone sharpening kitchen knives, sharpened a dozen knives from my accomodation, then went home and sharpened all the knives there etc. The other day I got into photography and satellite imaging, just browsing around for "state of the art"ness and quit only when I was satisfied with knowing what the highest currently possible resolution for taking pictures from satellites was, and whether you could print one such photo and hang it on your wall in my 'idealized' home. Basically I spend a lot of time imagining things and very little time actually doing things, expressing any form of creativity or productivity. I have this very overwhelming feeling of being a spectator, a passive consumer of content, and this leaves me very worried about the day I'll eventually step out of a lecture / assignment framework where I won't be imperatively or loosely guided by being told what to do and by which date. I expect these are extremely common symptoms, but I'm curious about the interplay between ADHD and depression/anxiety. I've been under a high dosage of antidepressants for the past 6-9 months (progressive) and I don't feel it's helped me much. If you've been in a similar situation before, have you felt that medication (or any other specifically target towards ADD) helped you overcome a proverbial hurdle? I very much feel like I'm in the middle of a forest fire and whenever I start trying to put it out in any direction, the flames come tickling me from every other one, so much so that I don't really do much in the way of "taking a first step towards doing better" Advice much appreciated	ADHD
I noticed I feel unwell when I change enviroments. I'm in a clinic due to my mental health, and was home for last night till today evening. I feel uncomfortable in a weird way I can't explain. It has been like that for everytime. Even before, when I was living somewhere else and only came home every 2 weeks. I can get so stressed out that I cry. I know time helps me, but do you guys know anything else that could help me? I often take hours to adjust and sometimes only sleep helps.	aspergers
I’m trying to research ADHD medications and how they can help with the motivation + follow through for homework completion. I’m looking into Vyvanse but I’m just finding links about small studies saying that ADHD meds in general don’t help academically from “drug free” sites or warnings about study drugs. I want to have my homework done but having the motivation to start feels insurmountably hard. I’m interested in Vyvanse for my ADHD. Can anyone here who has struggled with having motivation to do and complete homework due to vouch for/disavow Vyvanse as something that helped you?	ADHD
At first I was super hyped about having a dog, finally a reason to live. Now then I figure out the breed is prone to life threatening illnesses and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for the last week. Shits getting as bad as when I was in a mental hospital. It’s a cavalier King Charles spaniel and every year of there life there’s a 10% greater increase in the likelihood of them getting MVD. Also 50% get syringolemia which can be really fucking painful. Both kill them. Cavaliers get MVD 20x more than normal dogs. I like the dog but every time I look at it I feel fucking horrible. I’ve got pure O OCD but I’ve still done a ton of research. Everything I look up about this dog is so fucking bleak. It makes me not want to like the dog but I can’t not like it. I want to go on and do the things I said Id do this summer but I feel like shit and I can’t. Idk what the fuck to do. I don’t want to ask my parents to return the dog that’d ruin it for everyone and waste a ton of money. I’m honestly getting suicidal again. To be honest I’d probably be stressed with or without a dog, but not this bad. I was excited at first but now my anxiety has ruined this. I worry about the dog but I don’t want to care about it anymore. Maybe other people can give me another perspective, a physiologist and a therapist haven’t.	OCD
I've been wanting to talk a friend I haven't talked to in a few months. I'm not sure how to approach him after going silent for a couple months. Any ideas?	aspergers
I had an emotional outburst and scared my boyfriend. He says he’s better now, but is worried about what happened. Somehow I made him feel guilty and like it was his fault. He doesn’t know I have ADHD specifically and I don’t even know how to explain this to him without sounding like a excuse or scaring him. I just love him so much and feel so bad for making him go through this.	ADHD
I had a very bad issue this morning and screamed and hit my wife. Not very cool and I hadn’t taken my meds. We both got into an argument and it got so stressful I pushed her then she pushed back and I hit her. My little boy was there and he told his school. They called the police obviously. I was arrested and taken to the local holding prison. Then something magic happened. The police went through my medical details. They called me doctor. They got me an advocate and a solicitor and treated me with compassion. They gave me six separate meetings with their in house mental health team. They arranged a psychiatric referral for me. Then they asked my wife to get a hotel with the kids for a few days so I could go home and have a psychiatrist visit me in my home so it wouldn’t be too overwhelming. All charges were dropped and my wife explained in detail to the school and the police why she wasn’t pressing charges. I feel very lucky and very blessed to live in a place where this is possible I know it is not for everyone. Just thought I would share. We have challenges and I usually think nobody understands. I was wrong. Today was crappy but it’s had such a positive outcome I feel blessed. Edit: some people seem to think I am absolving myself of responsibility and don’t feel like this was serious. I very much do. That’s why I feel Blessed to not be in prison and have the opportunity to get the help I clearly need. I have already taken steps to rent an apartment so my children can stay in their home safely while I do that.	aspergers
Hi, something horrible just happened to me, Pure OCD just took away all joy from my hobbies that i just loved 2 weeks ago and i'm devastated. i don't understand what happened, just a 2 weeks ago i enjoyed these hobbies, then suddenly questions started to appear in my mind like 'Do i enjoy this' and after doing my hobbies and feeling good, the doubt just came back and a weird feeling of doubting if this feeling was a fluke or not. And i get spammed with these taughts, until i'm getting sick of the hobbies that i know i love them but i don't understand why i can't feel anything about them. OCD quickly sucked all joy from my hobbies and replaced the beautiful memories with feelings of pain and misery... Not the first time this happened, every time this PURE EVIL attaches to something i care, immediately my mind is invaded by taughts, i can't control. After my OCD 'expires', i'm introspecting on 'How stupid i was to fear that' or this like 'Why the hell did i care so much about this aspect?' I don't wish this to even my worst enemies, to suddenly lose all joy in their life and being replaced with terror and fear. I feel like i'm cursed, simply cursed.. I took a pause from my hobbies, it was extremely painful(A pain that i NEVER experienced in my life until now) but after getting spooked by my OCD telling me 'If you don't perform them, you will forget about them, you will never ever enjoy them' i decided to challenge these taughts.	OCD
I live in and grew up in Illinois. I've come to the conclusion that I will always be alienated by the people of my "home" state, no matter how kind, civil, helpful and personable I try to be. No matter how old I get, I will always feel like and be treated as the "new kid" that everyone shuns and ditches, and no one will tell me why. It's some subtlety, some code I can't seem to crack, and a lifetime of trying to figure out why has done a number on my mental health. Like a long, slow, drawn-out form of ptsd. I want to know where could possibly resettle if I ever got the chance, where I am free to be an oddball yet embraced as part of a community. Ideally, I'd leave this country altogether, but one needs certain resources and has to meet certain requirements to legally do so.	aspergers
I'm aware this question might have already been asked multiple times here but I'm still curious to know how difficult it is for aspies to open up to people in general but more specifically, to someone whom you are attracted to. Do you usually keep your heart shut down as somekind of subconscious self-defense mechanism or sometimes you dare to try to flirt or if you know that person well enough, tell them how you feel ? I have such a hard time to show any affection or emotion towards someone and if I try to flirt or be romantic with a girl, I fail miserably all the time so it tends only to encourage me to go for an emotionnal isolation.	aspergers
So, for the 6th time in a row, my TRAUMA therapist I have seen for over 2 years now...stood me up. Yes, for the SIXTH time. Had she just stopped communicating, I would just figure something bad was up: a car wreck, COVID, rabid Javelina attack; ANYTHING! Normally she would text an apology AFTER she missed the call or she would write me the morning of and say she had a doctor's appointment. Last week (or has it been two), she emailed me and told me there was something strange about her phone and that she needed to get it fixed/get a new one. She requested that I write her via email anything that had been going on the past month so that she could "catch up" for when she called me TODAY. no call. no text. nada So, I fired my therapist today. I have cried, felt like dog poop and just...well....what kind of LOSER am I that my own TRAUMA therapist just BLOWS ME OFF? Then my psychiatrists office denied a refill for the new medicine for my bipolar and SEIZURES. I was told it was an "accident". I had already written my psychiatrist and told him that I was fine taking NO MEDICATIONS...... I just needed to get this off my chest. I just don't know if I can take any more BS!!! My CHILDREN had a baby together...I cannot work, am due for some SSA exams with strangers (so they can deny me disability) in early December and the 200K I got when my father died will be gone in 2 months and I will have to, for the first time since I was 16, ask a family member to take care of me (yes, he's my husband...but it still makes me feel USELESS....... I can't draw anymore since stopping drinking....I can't sleep....the new medication makes my stomach and HEAD hurt....and I had JUST stopped getting migraines when I had a hysterectomy in 2005....UGH!!! So, yeah.....I now, have to find a new therapist.....and I live in a state that ranks 50th in mental health. Took me FOREVER to find this flake who says she was a therapist..... Thanks for reading and I hope I didn't offend anyone...I kept my normal cussing at bay.	ptsd
I am often transfixed for days on the thought that I have either done something illegal (or otherwise will cause trouble with authority) or that my various body aches and pains will lead to my death. Is that how anyone else felt before diagnosis? I feel like both of these fears have some positive result but it can be very aggravating.	OCD
My wife has some trauma from 5 years ago that has been creeping into her/our everyday life for a while. She finally hit a breaking point and decided to take FMLA from work and do the trauma work. I support her in this decision and o realize she wasn’t ready until now. So, she applied for leave and was approved and started a PHP program locally. It proved to be really, really hard for her to do the work outpatient due to her trauma response/dissociation. So after three weeks, the insurance recommended a higher level of care and we agreed that it was necessary. We didn’t do any research on places because they told us they would do a single case agreement with our insurance for their residential facility and it would make it easy for her to step back to PHP after. She left a few days later and it was an awful, borderline traumatic, experience. She got to the facility and they took away the phone use they promised before she arrived (we know inpatient/residential facilities are strict on phone use, but we pre-arranged phone access because out 1-year old had a 105.8 fever and because of the single case agreement, my wife couldn’t wait until she was better before leaving). On top of that, we found out they didn’t do trauma and couldn’t really do med management because the psych was only on site once a week. The facility had just opened and there was really nothing in place, so it was a giant mess. We decided she should come home and we would find another treatment center. This is where we are now - there is nothing available. We’ve spent hours calling therapists, PHPs, inpatient and residential facilities, etc. and everything is a dead end. She doesn’t have a therapist and no one in network is taking new patients. All inpatient/residential want a single case agreement done by a PHP or therapist. The prior PHP won’t allow her to assess, help us, or take her back because she didn’t “successfully complete residential,” and we don’t have $30K to pay for anything out of pocket. I’m getting nervous because she only has 7 weeks of FMLA left and is in no place to return to work. She needs to be somewhere ASAP and one minute she knows that and the next she can do it on her own. I feel like I’m walking on egg shells a home and I’m using all of my mental energy to make phone calls, ask around, and support her, but we just keep getting nowhere. I’m hoping someone has some ideas, resources, places they received treatment, etc. I realize this post leaves out a lot. I’m trying to keep it relatively short but I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. I appreciate any and all feedback.	ptsd
I have an unhealthy obsession with health. I am obsessed I might have a brain tumour or other disease which consumes most of my thoughts and often drives me into a fit of madness and shouting at doctors. Sitting at desk when suddenly I feel slightly ill and this sets me off into a spiral of doom Asking What if I really am ill? I hate doctors and nurses and hospitals and being near them incites a breakdown. How do I stop this never ending nightmare obsession with health which incites panic and the feeling that I am on the edge of doom at every waking moment?	OCD
I have this thing where I really freak out whenever cringeworthy things happen on TV. I guess these types of gags are supposed to be funny to NT people, but when this happens I just have a sort of mental breakdown. Often times, I turn off whatever I’m watching and let myself calm down, which makes it hard to get back into. I would be pleased to know if anyone relates...	aspergers
My family’s pet cat, which we’ve had since I was about 5 (I’m 19 now) has gotten quite unwell recently and we think that it might be time to put her down soon, and I was just wondering if any of any of you that have had to experience this before have any advice on how to deal the with mental/emotional side of it as someone on the spectrum.	aspergers
Hi, I developed a system that helped me a lot during my studies having an attention deficit and low self discipline. Now I turned it into a mobile app and I'm looking for early adopters to try it out. There are a several components: - The ability to commit money to tasks as an incentive to follow through and not give up - Time tracking, to be more conscious about how you spend your time - Daily tasks, weekly goals and a general todo list Please give me feedback 🙏 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grit-time-management/id1575148019	ADHD
Unless a detailed wish list is provided. It’s the most overwhelming thing. “Just buy me a black sweater!” In what material? What pattern? What size? Which store? What’s too cheap? What’s too expensive? I can have a whole breakdown about it. Gifts was always placed on my shoulders when I was young because “oh your little brother has ADHD, and he’s only 16 after all! He can’t remember to buy gifts.” And then I get diagnosed with ADHD at 21 and _somehow_ I still managed to remember all those gifts. He’s 19 now, and the only reason he does it himself is because I just simply stopped telling him “hey it’s mom’s birthday tomorrow, wanna pay half of this perfume?” And he frantically had to run to the store and buy chocolates… for our keto mom. Anyway. I feel like such an asshole this year, because I can’t do it anymore. I provided my whole family with an online, easy wish list, set up with prices, sizes, links and pictures. They all loved it and it was so easy. However, I’ve asked my mom 5 times now what she wants for Christmas. “Just find me something.” When I walk out in a new outfit, my mom winces at it. When she walks out in a new outfit, I do my BEST to say something positive because I hate it. We are nothing alike and buying her gifts gives me crippling anxiety. It’s OBVIOUS on her face when she doesn’t like and my brother always yells “OP SAID YOU WANTED IT.” Sigh. I just told her “send me links or you just won’t get anything.” I know it’s mean. It’s just too overwhelming. She can’t say a “pair of shoes” when all I know are Vans. Going to the store alone is so dreadful, especially without a specific goal in mind. How do other people do it!?	ADHD
I have a question regarding triggers. I apologize if the question is confusing or if this is the wrong place to post but I really need some advice on that. I‘m in therapy and have been doing a lot better recently. My main problem however hasn’t changed and is that I have one specific thing that triggers an episode of depression and I cannot avoid that trigger. At this point I think I build it up in my head and as soon as I know I will be confronted with it, I can feel myself getting worse. I can‘t seem to stop it and all my coping techniques don‘t work even though they seem to work for everything else. I was wondering if anyone else has had the same experience and what your coping techniques are in those situations.	depression
She used to be my "reference" in terms of kindness, sure she's always been simple-minded but she was solid on kindness. I don't know what happened but recently she's thrown everything out the window. Starting from being antivax for no reason (she used to take all her vaccines but this one not for some reason). And today I came to visit and she started bad-mouthing my dad and grand-dad for idiotic reasons. For details, her and my dad have been apart since I was 11 (I'm now 22); not on good terms at first but now they're friends. My dad's been taking care of my grandfather since his heart accident (became easily lost and extremely dependent). For some reason that's not a good enough reason for him to not be able to visit as often. She used to be so understanding and kind, she's definitely changed and I never noticed until today... I don't have the will or energy to correct her. It makes me so sad. I'm this close to hating her and I really really didn't need this to add to my mind... EDIT: I got my dad to my rescue. She's turned into that fake friend that bad-mouths behind your back and appears super duper nice on the outside... I hate this	depression
I don't know what stopped me. But in the middle of class, I thought: everybody will laugh in your funeral Nobody cares You are a failure And it's correct	depression
Things are opening back up again. Work requires coming in once more. People are eagerly planning on spending time together. And while I'm so glad this disease will no longer be hurting families and people as it has for the past year I am shaking and terrified of the thought of leaving my house. I've done a lot of work the past year trying to cope with my OCD. But with things opening up again I find myself frozen with fear of being so exposed and I'm worried I'm going to relapse and relapse hard. I know it's not healthy but at this point I'd be very happy to stay in my apartment for the rest of my life. Does anyone else have similar feelings?	OCD
It is that I don't know myself. Sometimes I don't know what I really want out of life. I lack curiosity and continue to pass my hours doing the same things that I have grown comfortable doing. Some of my niche interests are Farmer's markets, nature, Editing videos, reading old sci-fi, Philosophy, math, astrology, theology, and paleonology. Some of my interests are too technical, narrow and obscure for me to connect with others. Unlike some on the spectrum I don't even have the popular "nerdy" interests such as D&D, Magic the Gathering or modern anime. I don't play any new games or own a switch. I seldom go to the movies. Yep being yourself doesn't work for me. To me finding a new hobby or interest is akin to doing a chore. I have no internal compass guiding me towards new experiences. I feel I would be the guy at a drum party spending the whole night digging through my trunk to find my bongos while everyone plays. Picking anything new is a needle in a haystack. As a kid I would rely on my family or few friends to introduce me to something new, now I'm grown and lack friendships. I feel completely lost as I see others living adventurous lives and developing interesting stories. When it comes to thrilling hobbies like skating, paddle-boarding the lake or biking I'm intimidated and stuck in my sedentary ways. I'm a blank slate, and no one wants to befriend or date me because of it. And yet I feel powerless to change my condition. For all this I fear to grow old as a loner who never loved. edit :thanks for the award, I'm glad that other people can relate and empathize with my situation	aspergers
I feel like many people are comfortable doing this and I’m curious, this may fall under contamination ocd. I’m having trouble becoming comfortable with it again	OCD
I had recently gotten to a point where I could “ignore” the worst obsessions I have had, which is existential shit and trying to understand my own head and every thought and emotion I have. I had moved on from that and was trying to deal with the depression and dissociation and social anxiety i have, but I just started a new med and now those old obsessions just came back. Fucking awful, nothing makes sense again. I keep wanting to reach out to my gf or family but there is always a reason not to or an incredible anxiety that goes with any decision I make. Its like I dont trust my emotions again and all I care about is thoughts.	OCD
I'm 22 years old. I have been dealing HOCD for over a year now and TOCD for a little while. Prior to this starting I didn't question at all that I was a straight guy but after so much overthinking and fear I'm not even sure anymore. I still want to be a straight guy that ends up getting married to a woman and have kids but if these fears are true that can never happen anymore. How do I get back to my old way of thinking?	OCD
Edit: I meant “alert,” sorry for the typo I feel like I’m always on the edge. Everything spooks me so easily, but I’m also always anticipating that something will scare me. I feel like since I was 12, I’ve never genuinely had a chance to relax. I don’t like shutting my eyes or having my back exposed because it always feels like something is going to sneak up on me. Not to mention always checking to make sure the doors and windows in my house are always locked. It’s been like that since I was 12 when the abuse starter. It got better when I was 13, but got even worse when the abuse started up again when I was 14. Ever since I’ve always been on extremely high alert. I know everyone gets scared and anxious, but every minute I feel like someone is going to hurt me. My stress levels are always so high and I get stressed so easily. For those whose PTSD symptoms have lessened, how have you coped with this symptom?	ptsd
I always had a roof over my head, I never had to get kicked out in the middle of winter, never starved a day in my life. I can go to school whenever I want. Im lucky. But I’m still depressed just because I was abused, I feel like I shouldn’t be depressed and like I’m broken inside for no reason. Now I hate myself even more for realizing how privileged i am yet I feel like dying everyday.	depression
I feel like society presses the idea that everyone needs to be surrounded by people 24/7. I used to like to be alone when I was in elementary school but then when high school came around I was too nervous to go out by myself because I didn’t want anyone to see me out by myself. Now I’m 21 and I spend most of my time by myself. I have friends I hang out with sure but there are things I that I feel like I do best when I’m by myself. My point here don’t measure your self worth or measure out your life by how many friends you have. Just be you and the right people will come to you.	aspergers
I am a freshly diagnosed 28F with combined ADHD. I know people say this a lot but, I am shocked nobody picked this up sooner. Anyway, I'm here now. I work in sales as an Account Manager for a large logistics company, I'm currently vying for a promotion to Sales Manager and covering the role in the interim. Doing 2 jobs is hard and I am exhausted. The interview is due to be at the start of December and I'm starting meds next week, beginning trituration with 18mg Concerta XL and going from there. Given everything I have going on and my natural ability to be a total control freak, I was hoping to gain some insight in what to expect? Am I biting off more than I can chew starting these meds whilst going for the next big promotion in my life? My partner has ADHD and he's been on every type of medication going, and each one has stopped working after a short while. He's currently being assessed for a mood disorder and his psych is starting to think he doesn't fit the ADHD criteria really, so his experience isn't like other people on meds; therefore I can't use him for a frame of reference! Any insight would be awesome - thanks!	ADHD
I'm in my first love based relationship in my life for 2 weeks now Bit the relationship is everything but normal we're not that couple that always is like love you etc Shure we do this kind of stuff but on a normal level I'm so happy that this relationship is based on feeling of love honesty and communication since I can't tell if you're being polite or actually mean what you're saying If there should be a problem (and yes there have been problems) we can straight up tell each other the truth with no omg the other might feel bad about this I fucking love it I finally found a person that understands what the fuck is keeping me out of relationships I was trying to have a relationship (based on fake love out of loneliness) and all my honesty was met with a you don't care about my feelings Yes I don't really care about other people's feelings cause I can't care about something that I don't get Thanks to all of you	ADHD
It has been shown that malfunction in areas of the brain responsible for consciousness results in less problems in daily life compared to malfunction in areas responsible for emotions. This shows that emotions can be very effective in directing behavior, and that developing emotional skills is useful for getting what you need. The biological basis for emotions has developed before humans developed complex language and large societies, and evolution hasn't been able to keep up. This is also the cause for many problems related to feelings. For instance, there is a signal for an increased risk of losing the trust and respect of your tribe. It's called shame. When this "shame module" of the brain developed, it was essential for survival, since being abandoned by your people could have made you very likely to die soon. A strong feeling of shame can actually feel like your life is at risk, even though in today's society shame isn't usually connected to actual physical danger. Emotions are reactions to thing happening now, and they are mostly based on your past experiences. The fact that they are based on past experiences is both good and bad. The bad thing is that some events can distort the emotional system in a way that makes it less efficient in fulfilling your needs. For example, a traumatic experience may make you disproportionately afraid of something that is not likely to happen. The good thing is that if you understand how the system works, you can make a conscious effort to modify and calibrate it. You can create experiences that help the emotional system give you accurate results. Your conscious self doesn't have access to the processing and decision making "behind the scenes", but instead you get signals. You don't receive the reasoning, but only the conclusions. These conclusions are emotions. The function of emotions is to improve your chances of fulfilling your needs. Emotions are guesses, opinions on what you should do right now. Different emotions are like different people that all have differing opinions, and each emotion has a different way of expressing those opinions. For example, emotions can cause bodily sensations, imaginary visions or internal monologue, and often they are combinations of these different modes of expression. Sometimes the way an emotion shows itself is logically connected to its message, sometimes it isn't. For example, when you hit your toe, you feel bad and that bad feeling is obviously associated with the area on your body that just took damage. It's easy to understand that the feeling of pain here is intended to direct you away from damaging your toes. On the contrary, emotions like stress can cause pain in the stomach, which isn't logical. At first it may seem that there aren't that many emotions, but once you start to consciously look for them, you start to realize that they are everywhere. Some possible examples (your "emotional language" may differ from these) are: Everyone in the bus seems grumpy = you are grumpy A person looks overwhelmingly beautiful = you feel strong affection Your torso feels hollow = anxiety Internal monologue reasoning for why you should quit something = hopelessness Sweating for apparently no reason = fear A stream of pictures of hamburgers floating in your mind = hunger Everyone in the bus isn't grumpy, that person might not be objectively as beautiful as you see them, your torso isn't hollow in the way you feel it is, you shouldn't quit that thing, and there are no hamburgers floating around. So these are all distortions in how we experience reality, and in the case of sweating, even distortions in how our body reacts! In other words: Often emotions are found in places where what we experience doesn't make logical sense. If you're not aware of the emotion distorting your reality, you might think that the distorted reality is objectively true. If you don't observe your own grumpiness in the bus, you might become convinced that everyone in the bus is in fact grumpy, even though you know that it would be highly unlikely. If you don't realize how your emotions affect how you experience things, you think that something you imagined is true and not imagined. This distorts your reality and makes it harder to interact with it and make sense of it. If you are able to compare how things are to how they actually are, you can see the distortion itself, and that distortion is the signal of the emotion. It's not the message, but the signal. Trying to explain how you get from the signal to the message is very hard, and likely subjective. I will say that it's less about rationalizing and more about conscious observation without conclusions. Rational thinking does play a part in this, but it's important to accept that you often will not understand why you feel a certain way. Even in those circumstances you should observe and make a mental note of what happened. With time, you start to notice connections between things. For me, what I've said this far has been the point from which to start learning the language of emotions, and the process from that on is a long and a mysterious adventure that never ends. When you start understanding the language, it can be scary and overwhelming at first. You might think for a while that being open to your emotions will always be that intense, but it's just the floodgates opening and it will normalize once the biggest suppressed emotions have been observed Sometimes you need courage to progress, but most of the time progress happens near the edge of what's comfortable and not beyond it. Remember that the existence of an emotion is always true, but it's message might not be true. Don't judge or dismiss anyone's emotions, but instead accept the emotions as they are and analyze the reasoning that follows the emotions. The point is not to change the emotions, but to change what you do with them. Don't let other people dismiss your emotions. Remember that whatever anyone thinks, your emotions exist, and you didn't make the choice to experience them. If you want to talk about an emotion, but you don't know what the emotion is, you can describe the bodily sensation associated with it, or you can explain your thoughts in a way that asserts that you understand them to be distorted by a feeling instead of them being true: "I don't know if this is true, but some part of me makes me think that…". This is made even more approachable if you talk about feelings and the thoughts associated with them like they are people that say things. So instead of saying "I have to quit", you can say "A part of me says that I have to quit" or "my despair says I have to quit". When you say something like this, the other person quite often starts helping you to figure it out. Similarly to observing emotions without conclusions, expressing them without expectations of what it will lead to is way more efficient than one might expect. It's a scary process, a series of leaps of faith, and you might not have reason to know that it works. But if you want to learn the language of the emotions, you have to surrender the outcome. There will also be times where expressing emotions leads to bad experiences. As long as you can overcome those experiences, they do help you to recognize which people and situations are good for expressing emotions. You will at times be disappointed with the reaction you get from expressing yourself. Disappointment follows expectations. Expressing emotion with the expectation of a specific reaction is usually not good. If you find yourself desiring a specific reaction, then voice that desire instead of trying to fish for the reaction. Efficient use of emotions is 1. Noticing that an emotion is present 2. Understanding that you are not the emotion, but instead the emotion is just a part of you 3. Choosing to listen to and accept your feelings 4. Identifying and naming your emotions 5. Finding out which things are associated with the emotion 6. Skillfully expressing emotions to yourself and others 7. After observing and possibly expressing the emotion, letting it go I want to write much more on this subject, but I have limited time and this is a long post already. I don't have time to put things in better order or edit, even though I'd like to. I choose to give this to you and see how you react, and possibly some day I'll expand on some stuff if I feel like it. I don't know why I have a desire to do this, but it feels good.	aspergers
I’m crying writing this cause I just had to cancel my plans with my friends because I’m spiraling so bad. I’m 17 and supposed to be having a fun summer but my pure o makes me want to die. I’ve never been suicidal but it’s just so hard to see the future when my mind is so clouded by all of these horrible thoughts. And it’s so ridiculous but I can’t help feeling that I’m being punished in some way because I’m a good person and don’t understand why this is happening to me. I can’t see an ocd specialist because my parents are narcissistic and overall not great and there is no way I’m talking to them about this.	OCD
Hello, I hope you're all doing well and keeping safe. I wanted to share and discuss whether any of you ever find yourself in a conversation where you fail to get your point across, and disassociate to the point of tuning out? I find myself doing that with people who know me well, it used to only be an issue with strangers, but as of late - I find myself getting to the point of frustration and just "giving up" on trying to get my point across. Things that appear like simple logic to me, others fail to comprehend. I've been working on taking a breath, slowing down, trying examples to get my point across - however, it all just eventually leads to more confusion and I think to myself; "Is this even worth it?" and I give up. Recently in a meeting, I presented my opinion on an issue - it took me 3 hours, until I finally typed out my opinion into bullet points to make my point understood. Which helped a great deal, but it certainly feels like a tedious process. Kind Regards.	aspergers
TW: Suicide attempts, knifes So I recently got diagnosed with ptsd which was really surprising to me and I have hard time believing it because it was so long ago. 16 years ago, when I was 4 my mom was unstable. She chased grandma with a knife and then tried to kill herself with it. After going to preschool the same day I chased my peers with my pencil by holding it like a knife and stabbed my desk multiple times as a way to process this. However I forgot everything about the incident. But even though I don't remember anything, even before I knew what really happened, I can feel intense fear holding a knife. Next year my mom tries to kill herself by trying to jump out of the balustrade, and has my grandma pay ransom to not kill herself. I watched as I was crying powerless and I tried to stop her but I couldn't. So I also forgot about it and kept going with my life as a 5 year-old but this time I tried to pay less attention to what was happening around me. The abuse towards grandma when she left the house, turned to abuse towards me, and whenever I felt anxious I would remember the moment I couldn't delete as if it was happening right now. As I got older things only got worse and I had a panic attack with intense flashbacks (I could hear again my grandma's cry for my mom to stop) and feeling extreme fear and palpitations that lasted more than 10 hours. I also had smaller ones, intense chest pain and flashbacks when I saw the color of the light that was lighting the street that night, and some more things I can't remember. Naturally I sought psychiatric help after that, and I got diagnosed with PTSD and this Monday I'm starting EMDR. I know for a fact that what I said is true and I didn't exaggerate my symptoms, however I feel like I don't have ptsd or that I said something wrong that landed me into that diagnosis. I don't feel like I had a direct threat to my life and I just can't justify having it. It also feels like everyone has been through much worse than that and naturally doubting myself and my memory I voiced my concerns to my psychiatrist. He asked me to trust him. I'll try my best. Now it feels like I don't even have anything, which is calming.	ptsd
I just don’t know anymore. I think I’m a bad person man. I keep crying cuz I feel like I’m going to kill my parents and it’s like I have to. I was diagnosed with harm ocd a month ago and I get my reliefs here and there but it just sucks. I keep searching up mass murderers traits and some don’t match mines. I saw that a mass murderer well they think he had ocd and that freaked me out. It’s like i cry every time when I think I’m going to kill my parents. I’ll tel you for sure if it comes down to it I will kill myself because I want my parents to live deep down I know I do my mind rn is telling me otherwise like no you don’t but I don’t care what the mind says. Ik I’m learning to accept and allow and it works it’s just today man was so hard	OCD
Is it just me or does it feel weird that a person in a store in public makes eye contact with you?	aspergers
Gay here who's experienced isolation and severe bullying. I need help overcoming with this.	ptsd
I’ve struggled with depression since I was a kid (24f) My mom would always tell me I was over reacting and I was yelled at for crying. I was bullied pretty harshly by people who were once my best friends. They started tormenting me in middle school because a guy liked me and not one of them. They managed to get basically everyone in our age group across the neighboring counties to hate me. I couldn’t leave my house with out people calling me names, threatening to jump me, etc. I was called a whore, slut, every name in the book. (I was a virgin) This led to me deciding to act out on it. If they were already calling me these names why not just become it was my mentality. I started messing around with any man who showed interest. This dominoed into sex with older men (in their 20s) when I was 13, self harm, drug use by the time I was 14, and partying most nights at 15. When I was 16 I started dating someone who changed me forever. He was only a year older than I, but he was a drug dealer who had severe anger issues. And he took his anger out on me: mentally, emotionally, and physically. I lost any friend I had left by that point because I wasn’t allowed to talk to them. I wasn’t allowed to wear anything but sweatpants and hoodies and if I tried to dress up (literally just wearing jeans) I would be called ugly, accused of cheating, etc. We ended our relationship after 2 years when I made an attempt, but he had me wrapped around his finger for 4 more after (Keeping contact with him went against my release agreement at the ward) I finally ended things officially when he tried forcing me to have sex with 6 of his friends by locking me in a room naked with them. Fast forward to now: I haven’t been in a relationship since. I can’t keep friends in my life. My mom just puts my episodes off as me being tired. I have no emotional support system. I am always alone. I have no one to talk to. No one cares about me. I genuinely believe I am better off gone than alive. I’ve been nothing but a burden my entire life. I don’t know how much longer I can keep going. I have the note written out. I have a plan. I have no more hope. I know it will never get better. I just wish I had one person to reassure me. Make me feel like I matter. I’ve gone so long feeling so alone and no one understands.	depression
Anyone else avoid doing things not because of the ADHD but because you feel if you do it others will start believing the ADHD isn't as bad is it is? Or is this just me. I don't know if I should feel guilty about this or not? Also, does anyone else feel really guilty about using ADHD as an excuse not to get stuff done? I know it's a valid obstacle but sometimes I feel I'm using it too much to justify my slow work pace.	ADHD
I've had PTSD ever since my rapes, it's been a long struggle, my recent break up because I don't know how to cope, and my seizure/panic attack. So I drown myself in drinking, smoking, drugs and stuff etc. My family is up my tail about everything and, it's getting to be to much for me to handle. Please help.	ptsd
My mother 43, has fought from cancer but unfortunately doctors have now moved her to a hospice. They have told us that she has days to live. My sister 20, is taking care of her as I am unable to enter the country. My sister has suffered with depression and has expressed to me that she does not want to continue as she is tired and sometimes thinking that she wants to end it all by jumping of a balcony. I have told her to come and live with me after our mother passes away. She told me that I have a motivation my son 4, and she doesn’t. I am sorry but my mom is my biggest motivation. We still have our father but we spend most of the time fighting. I spend most of my time in my room as I do not wish to see him nor any of his new family. Yesterday, we had another fight bc the lights went off. He blamed me for it. I don’t have anyone to talk to. My sister has told me that she doesn’t want to hear any of my problems. Nor listen to any of our fights. She doesn’t know that I am tired too. She called me yesterday after I fell asleep bc of the crying. I was confused and disoriented, we laughed but she doesn’t know I was actually in a bad situation. I just know that our father is going to kick me out after my mom passes away. We live in a country that pays only 500 dollars a month, and I can’t afford to pay rent. Help.	depression
I am really struggling today, it is after 3pm and I’m still in bed and haven’t eaten. Just laying here in the dark 😩 all I want to do is cry	depression
I have many mental illnesess including depression, i'm on meds that make me feel numb to everything. While using these meds will and am i going to feel true happiness? bc what i feel right now is just like not real it dosent feel real its not happiness its some kind of weird feeling its like seeing something that you rlly want to touch but it has plastic wrap all over it.	depression
I’m not ashamed of having this piece of shit disorder, but I just wish it’s wasn’t so obvious. I mean, the lost in thought look of staring at nothing with while other things are happening in front of me, the constant fidgeting, the stupid little inattentive mistakes that just make you go ‘’you stupid idiot’’ to yourself in your head, the talking too fast and fucking up my words, the wasted potential etc… I feel like if I saw myself through the eyes of a stranger it would be obvious. I feel like a walking stereotype and I hate it. Anyone else?	ADHD
I finally able to force myself to make to an appointment with a psychiatrist after weeks of procastinating and avoiding. But now I am afraid to go to the appointment. I fear that the psychiatrist will judge me, or not take me seriously if I express my struggles studying for the MCAT for med school. I been studying for the MCAT for the past 3 years on and off, but never able to fully completely finish everything. Every once in a while I would get a burst of motivation, and I would study for a month or two, then i would stop. My motivation is low most of the time. It has been 3 years since I graduated from college, and I am still here stuck at home with my parents going nowhere. Some of my friends finished their masters; some got into phD program, some got engaged, and married. While I am here not being able to accomplished anything. I know I must study, I Know I must change to move forward, but I just can't find the will do to it. When I able to force myself to open the book to study, I would not able to do it for long without finding something distracting myself. I Know it's not alright to continue to live a pointless life like this, but I just don't have the motivation for change. I keep procastinating everything in my life. I told my primary dr what I wrote here, and she didn't take me seriously. I am afraid the same thing will happen when I tell my psychiatrist my problems. They probably think I am just another pre-med faking ADD to get some adderall. It's also hard for anyone to believe me because I can't fully articulate my struggles verbally.	ADHD
I was abused for years by teachers at my schools when I was a little kid, and that’s something that’s never left me. It still hurts. I‘m pretty confident that I have cptsd, but I don’t really know if that’s something I should get help for. Should I talk to a therapist about this?? Do I really need help?? I don’t know what to do	ptsd
I honestly don't know what to say Fuck i want to die but I don't want to be a bad person	depression
Hy everyone, Ive very severe ocd, treatment resistant to medication and ERP/CBT. Im wondering if i have the classical ocd, since i have a bipolar diagnosis and GAD along ocd. There are these stories about PANDAS/Pans or Adults ANS. Could anyone well informed about this help me see if im matching these diagnoses ? Thank you a lot for helping friends sufferers	OCD
Long story short, I was in an abusive relationship or about two and a half years. When I left him, I experienced some pretty bad PTSD symptoms,but was never diagnosed. After about 4 months I decided to get back with him,thinking he's changing and ot feels like mostly all my symptoms have gone away. Or are they hiding? When we broke up I felt jumpy,on edge,horrible trouble concentrating. Remembering things was extremely difficult and I felt like he always knew what I was doing for some reason. I felt like a sitting duck at my house. Hopelessly sad. I also had a concussion as well. Now I'm with him again, and his behaviors have changed slightly in that time period. I noticed that when we got back together,a lot of those symptoms went away. I lost hours at work because I was having such trouble concentratimg;now I'm little faster and I definitely work a little better. It's easier to concentrate,and I haven't really felt jumpy since. I can't tell if it's partly my concussion finally going away for some of my symptoms,or if I'm like....fucking delusional be ause I've basically been brainwashed from the abuse haha 🥲. I don't think that's the way your brain works but I just need some input. Has this happened to anyone else? What do you think?	ptsd
I have a huge issue and I'm not sure if it is just me. I find that sometime I will meet someone and will find myself becoming obsessed with them. I would say it is a mix of being star-struck and fascinated. I will find myself thinking about them, daydreaming, and doing what I can to be around them. I don't have to be physically attracted to them to be obsessed, and sooner or later I will move on to some new obsession. It frustrates me because I am in a good, happy relationship and I know my people obsessions will end up hurting me in the long run. I don't know if this pertains to my disorder or if this is literally just me being a crazy person.	ADHD
My cousin is a police officer. In his rookie year, he saw something very disturbing. This was about 8 years ago. He's been on meds, but started to decline so they switched his prescription on him and he's in limbo right now waiting for these things to take real effect. I am absolutely terrified he is going to hurt himself, and I dont know what to do. I dont want to seem like I'm trying to understand his situation, or that I can help him. I dont want to push him away or closer to doing anything permanent. Can anyone help? Is there anything I can do for him? He's like my brother and if I lost him, my life would never be the same.	ptsd
Has anyone out there moved far away from home by themselves with success???	aspergers
Ive been referred to RDASH by my gp for an adult ADHD assessment, and was wanting to know if any UK ADHD-ers had any kind of experiences with them? Are they any good? I know they're powered by CAHMS which is where my main concern lays. Is the sheer lack of professionalism in CAHMS going to be reflected here?	ADHD
Hey all, I have PTSD and I have a very hard time taking a shower. All of my senses get overloaded, I feel vulnerable, I pretty much can't deal. Additionally, I sometimes have flashbacks in the shower and just don't feel safe. But I'm sick of being someone who only showers every week. I can't go on like this. Does anyone have any advice for me on how I can overcome this challenge?	ptsd
ERROR: type should be string, got " \n\nhttps://preview.redd.it/n0o3ewadwwh71.jpg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20585d45db5e8f9ebfebdbe5b4bc71bc9060012e\n\nMentioning that you live with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) usually leads to a mixed bag of responses, despite the condition being ranked as a top 10 most disabling condition by the World Health Organization. Seemingly half the people you share it with will nod their head in silence as if you mentioned that you had brown hair, while the other half will jokingly make a mildly offensive comment such as: “my spouse is super OCD, but it leads to a really clean house, so I love it!” \n\nAlthough the intent isn’t malicious, when people mislabel behavior as OCD or make ignorant comments, it contributes to the overwhelmingly common issue of misdiagnosis and mistreatment of OCD. This mislabeling causes people with OCD to suffer from more severe symptoms — in some cases, even taking their own life.\n\nWhat if instead, every person understood what having OCD truly meant? Take Type 1 diabetes as an example. When people say, “I have Type 1 diabetes,” instead of getting a chuckle from the crowd and hearing, “You know I’m a little Type-1 myself,” people may say, “I can’t imagine how hard that’s been on you.” When a person mentions they suffer from OCD, what if the reaction were universal sympathy and understanding of the years of distress that inevitably come with OCD, just like how they would react for Type 1 diabetes or most other conditions?\n\nCreating such a world for the OCD community is possible, but it will first require society to understand what it means to suffer from OCD. Therefore, I’d like to take you through the following scenarios, in hopes that it sheds light in what it’s like for many people: \n\nScenario 1:\n\nYou hear horrible news that there was a major accident at a place where your child, spouse, or parents were headed. You contact your loved ones repeatedly, but you get no reply. What would you do? \n\nThe “what if” thoughts begin racing in your head and panic is felt throughout your body. You are struggling to deal with the uncertainty that your loved one may or may not be in trouble. This leads you to call a couple of close family members to ask for help, in hopes that they will reassure you that everything is ok. They don’t answer either. \n\nPanic ensues, causing you to analyze every potential detail of how your family may have traveled to the location, in the hopes of finding a way to logically believe that they’re doing fine. Anxiety is raging, and you can’t function because of the thought that your loved ones were the victims of this major accident. Finally the phone rings, and it’s your family. Everyone is fine – so your anxiety can finally dissipate. \n\nWhat if instead that anxiety not only continued, but grew, and you became stuck in a state of nonstop uncertainty? No matter what you did, who consoled you, or how you disproved the thought, the feeling that something bad happened to your family continues just as strongly, even if you logically knew that the feeling was ridiculous. \n\nAll of a sudden, the emotional side of your brain begins to feel disconnected from your logical side, when previously you never had an experience where they were out of sync. It would feel terrifying. \n\nThat’s what people with OCD experience on a daily basis. \n\nScenario 2: \n\nWhile watching the nighttime news, a person is spotlighted for being a sexual deviant. You view his mugshot and keep listening to the news anchor, but as the segment continues, you become increasingly angry. \n\nNot only do you find his perverse actions disgusting, but you’re also infuriated by his cavalier response to his many offenses. The circumstance causes you to quickly change the channel and turn on your favorite comedy to forget about the uncomfortable news you heard. \n\nOr, what if you could never change the channel? Additionally, what if you replayed the segment in your head repeatedly, to purposefully try to find 100 percent certainty that you weren’t like the predator on TV, due to how uncomfortable it made you feel? \n\nTaking it one step further, what if you identified one potential item of uncertainty while replaying the events – a feeling in your stomach that made you question if your reaction was rooted in full disgust or only “nearly-full” disgust? You begin to feel extreme anxiety from being unable to tell if you felt “fully disgusted,” and you begin to decipher the thought further to guarantee that you had the right level of disgust, to completely guarantee that you aren’t like the guy on TV. \n\nHowever, the more you analyze the thought, the more questions emerge over time. The more questions arise, the more anxiety you feel. Now, you’re beginning to question if you really know yourself and whether you can fully trust your brain. The anxiety heightens as the questions broaden in scope. \n\nYour logical brain and your emotional brain feel out of sync, and you become beyond terrified, since you don’t want to be a monster. OCD has misattributed the perceived uncertainty for being a truly alarming situation, even though you logically understand that your thought process is completely irrational. The emotional response mirrored that of a real situation, ultimately causing confusion. \n\nScenario 3: \n\nYou’ve just entered into the best romantic relationship of your life. Although it’s been over four months, every date keeps getting better and better, to the point where you don’t know what life would be like without your significant other in it. \n\nEventually, you begin to move in with this person on weekends, and call in sick on Fridays just to make the weekends a little longer. You cook together, work out together, watch movies together, and begin traveling together. By societal definition, you are in love.\n\nOne night, while browsing your Facebook feed, you stumble upon an article that talks about the short-term nature of love. It states how humans aren’t built for monogamy and that love always fades. About halfway through the article, you begin researching other articles to disprove the writer, given you want to make sure that you completely love your partner and nothing could get in the way. Eventually, you find the exercise futile and you spend time elsewhere, as you realize that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. \n\nOr, imagine if you didn’t let it go. To satisfy the need to find the right answer and disprove your fear, you begin asking your significant other to describe what it is like to be with you to ensure that you are still in love. Now, taking it a step further, what if you spent hours each day over the course of months scouring Google to truly understand how love works so that you could sit with the certainty of knowing that the amazing relationship you had would stay intact and to prevent anxiety from crushing you each day. \n\nOver time, you spend more time deciphering your relationship to reassure yourself that you’re still in love than actually enjoying it, ultimately creating an unhealthy situation that drives your loved one away. You try to stop searching for answers, but the anxiety only increases since it’s difficult to accept the uncertainty surrounding the manifestation of love. It’s a vicious, lose-lose situation that people with OCD know all too well. \n\nThe main parallel observed among the three situations is that people with OCD typically know that their fear is irrational, but part of their brain still responds as though it were completely rational. This makes it hard for people with OCD to discern fact from fiction, ultimately leading to more doubt and anxiety. \n\nThe cause is actually neurological, believed to be due to environmental and genetic factors. With appropriate treatment though, people can rewire their brain’s structure due to its plasticity. That’s why many people with OCD achieve life-changing recovery in just a short amount of time. When doing therapy, brain regions actually change shape, activity levels, and how connected they are with other regions, and people stop feeling as if their emotional and logical gears are out of sync, since they learn how to accept uncertainty. \n\nThat’s why my team and I started NOCD – to make it easier for people with OCD to access evidence-based treatment and rewire their brain. If you or a loved one is interested in getting therapy, be sure to give us a call or check out why we’re different. \n\nYou can do therapy with a licensed therapist that specializes in OCD, and get support from peer communities and [therapy tools when your provider isn’t available](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095NBYPZT). \n\nAt the end of the day, it’s hard to truly get better without support from family and friends, even if you have the right resources and treatment. Therefore, if someone isn’t truly “getting it,” please feel free to share this article. Hopefully, it can be a good conversation starter. "	OCD
I remember feeling discomfortable being alone in a room with a 10 year old because i thought that it is not appropriate to be with a girl i remember accedently seeing a child's butt and feeling extremely guilty about and wondering if any one else feel the same way too. but I never remember having any sexual thoughts about children, but instead it is always being inappropriate,and even used to think sometimes, whether am I the only one feeling this way after some time when i heared about the word pedophile that is when I really started to worry and started to analyse my past , and now my brain is making me believe that i've not felt uncomfortable instead i felt sexual attraction before this, I have never, not even once thinked about children in a sexual way but now i am having a lot of false memories	OCD
So I’ve been on Ritalin for almost a year and up to about 40mg a day. It’s been working great but it only lasts a few hours, so my psychiatrist just prescribed me 18mg of Concerta. I am excited to see the long acting affects, but I am a bit nervous to give up Ritalin since it works so well. Would love to hear anyones stories or experience or even just tips for taking Concerta. And maybe if anyone can speak on the difference they noticed going from Ritalin to Concerta or even 18mg a higher dosage of Concerta.	ADHD
Since it is Autism Awareness Week I thought as a relevant post on the topic on my Facebook wall I would mention my own diagnosis in August last year. It might be a rather biggish moment though I have notified some people closest to me that I am autistic already, with a mixed response truth be told, but those of most concern do know now. It would just be the final part of the process of coming to terms with being autistic by saying publicly "yeah I am too". How should I go about this? Has anyone here done something similar? Edit: I decided not to share it. I cannot be bothered with the hassle. You tell a hundred people what is in a post but that would need a detailed conversation with each one to make them truly understand. Generally speaking I won't make a massive deal out of it either way.	aspergers
Hi guys, it's my first to post something on reddit. Basically I have a terrible fear of developing schizophrenia, first I started "and if I start to hear voices", it never happened, and finally the fear of hearing voices went away, after that it happened to "and if I start to see something that is not really there ? " It literally scared me too much, and lately I am afraid of being delusional or paranoid, I have had a lot of "crazy" and strange thoughts, but days would go away and I had another different thought. The thoughts that I have these days is "and if I start to believe that there are bad gods or something" or "and if I believe that there are ghosts" and I don't know why I think that if I know that it is completely irrational, but it scares me a lot to come to believe myself that. I have a psychologist and she has told me that I do not have schizophrenia a lot of times, but still I still think that I can develop it. I have also seen that schizophrenia develops from genetics and a really bad environment, and yet there are people who do not develop it. No family member of mine on the part of father and mother has it. I also do sports, go out with friends, study ... I interact a lot. I hope someone can give me some tips to get out of this obsession :( ps: sorry if I misspelled, I'm Spanish.	OCD
Okay so I’ve never been on stimulants before and I was prescribed Ritalin today and I’m supposed to take my first dose tomorrow. I’m honestly really scared because I read up on it today and saw that it’s an amphetamine and that you can go through withdrawal after taking it and I was told that heart racing is a common side affect while adjusting to it. My ADHD is really bad and I really do need medication, but…I’m honestly really scared.	ADHD
What are the best meds, combo's, dosages and practices? What has worked out for you?	OCD
I’ve struggled with ADHD all my life but as a 24 who’s been crying out for help and misdiagnosed a few times. I finally saved up to see a psychiatrist and got diagnosed. While doing ECG found that there’s is a right bundle branch block. So I have to now see a cardiologist. I’m scared because if I don’t get the green light from cardiologist on 6th of December, I won’t be able to get treatment until mid Jan next year as my psychiatrist is taking a leave. And so is everyone at that practice. I keeping finding articles that say it’s okay to start medication if there is a right/left bundle branch block. But I’ve been losing sleep over this for almost a week and 6th couldn’t come fast enough.	ADHD
I have recently realised that I have a tendency to get “tunnel vision” when working on a task I’m enjoying. I completely forget everything else exists. I forget about emails, I spend way too long messing around and tidying up small details of things (inevitably still forgetting something) and before I know it, hours have gone by and I’m wondering how I spent so long on the one simple task. Maybe this has to do with my perfectionist mindset, time blindness or difficulty with multiple tasks going on at once. Anyone have tips on dealing with this?	ADHD
My daughter is several months into her first year of college, and was just recently diagnosed with ADHD. She hasn’t made any friends so far this semester, and is becoming so depressed that she’s having trouble functioning — she’s falling behind in her classes, missing assignments, and spending all her spare time holed up in her dorm room. She’s talking about wanting to take a leave of absence next semester, which might be wise -- but I worry that the friend situation would be even worse at home, since her high school friends have moved away. I would think her prospects for making new friends would be much better at college -- but the lack of friends has depleted her to the point where she can’t seem to take advantage of them. Does anybody have any insight into what she’s going through, or thoughts about what I might do to support her? What she's experiencing is clearly at a different level than my own experience, and advice I've tried to offer (e.g., "just focus on personal projects for a while") seems woefully inadequate for what she's going through.	ADHD
I want to kill myself because i think im a pedophile, i had a sex dream about a fucking toddler, a toddler im very close with as well. I looked up pedophilia and i came across an article about POCD (pedophilia OCD) and every single thing listed there was stuff that ive done before but im so afraid im going to hurt that toddler and ive only felt like this once before so i dont know if i have POCD and tbh im afraid this is wishful thinking. Im sitting here on the toilet crying and physically shaking and all i can think about is cutting my balls off or killing myself, i dont know what to do and im freaking the fuck out. For reference im 14 and my sister is suspected to have OCD.	OCD
yo yo yo I am a 20F; I was diagnosed with ADHD at 8. I am working with a psychiatrist rn, and we are trying to figure out a diagnosis for me for a few things. You see, I have struggled with OCD behaviors, Hair pulling( not the fun kind) intrusive thoughts (bad, bad, bad ones). In addition, I've struggled with panic attacks (not so much rn THANK GOD) and general anxiety, also more recently PTSD. Ahh, and last but not least major depressive disorder primarily from age 14-19. I'm kinda ok now. I have a ton of memory loss tbh and Idk if that's from trauma or what, but I've been on all the ADHD medication possible, and none of them did me any good, only lots of anxiety ( and some mania? thanks, Adderall) We think I might have Bipolar disorder ( the kind with primarily depression ), but we aren't really sure. Can any females share their stories about their bipolar and ADHD diagnoses or mood disorders? I think I had a minor manic episode about two years ago. I was impulsive, acted out of character, and had many memory blanks. Also, does anyone have experience with mania in the form of having a long time with frequent panic attacks? IDK I'm a mess kinda and just want to hear other people's stories bc it's pretty isolating dealing with this. Also, I'm fighting the feminine urge to become a doctor out of spite, lol.	ADHD
it’s like something is CONSTANTLY wrong. if i’m not ruminating over my theme, i’m thinking about the future. if i’m not thinking about the future i’m thinking about how im living a lie. if im not thinking about how im living a lie im thinking how im a disappointment. for fucks sake like leave me alone im so exhausted from listening to all of this shit ALL DAY LONG	OCD

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