Leilys

My partner was also the one who suggested I get checked. I hope you'll be able to find the support and help you're seeking soon, because it really makes a difference.

All those flaws you've kicked yourself over for a lifetime suddenly become manageable and doable with medication, in my own experience. It's such a: "Wait, that's it? That's all it takes?" moment.

I forget if Vyvanse is available in my country, or if it's only available in longer effect doses here. I've also heard about Concerta (is that the name?) but so far I've only tried Ritalin and it works pretty alright if I'm not overstimulated when it starts kicking in.

I have gotten overstimulated when I went out shopping once while it was in effect. Not a pleasant experience, but definitely a new one.

That's a pretty interesting fact about Vyvanse though. What's the window of effect for the one you take?

My interests are like that other meme that got shared here recently, lol. I'm a jack of many, many trades, and I can't ever seem to complete projects I start, though I am trying more now.

For people like me, being stuck monetising a single interest strikes this deep sense of unease in me. I've been working a few years now, and I've decided to stick to something I'm not passionate about, but I can do the job to my abilities and put a lid on at the end of the day.

Anything else would probably consume my thoughts and leave me feeling mentally exhausted. It's like task paralysis, but worse.

I agree. Society was not built upon accomodating the neurodivergent, and we've had to struggle a lot as a result. I've also thought about it a lot as well, so there's nothing wrong with that.

I spent a lot of time growing up wondering why I wasn't "normal", like everyone else. I grew up unable to socialise well with my peers and unable to keep up academically with the demands of my academic environment. I was always struggling to stay awake in class, or focus on a subject I desperately needed to learn. I had to drop out of the sciences because I was struggling horribly and my teacher treated me quite badly for my lack of ability to keep up.

I wonder now if I could've done better if my parents were aware of ADHD and had gotten me the help I very desperately needed, because my mother is still in denial to this day that I'm anything but normal, only lazy, selfish and inconsiderate. I was called a lot of horrible things because of things I couldn't control. I developed depression, but frequent therapy and counseling as of late has reduced how intense the mood swings are.

So, given a choice, I likely would've wished to be more normal in my own eyes.

When I went into university and met incredibly accepting and loving people, I really thrived. It's just sad that many like us have to struggle undiagnosed for such a long time, only to realise that with medication, managing our shortcomings would have been made so much more achievable.

I still spend a lot of my time unmedicated because I've come to accept and love myself, including the ADHD diagnosis that I got on my own last year. The diagnosis helped me find mechanisms that actually work for me, and I'm better off for that.

I am no less of a person in my own eyes, but the judgement of a society is a lot of weight to bear.

I can relate to anxiety as a coping mechanism for undiagnosed ADHD. I can have sudden flares of panic if my mind wanders onto random topics and suddenly I'm wondering if I've left x at home or forgotten to lock my car door (I forgot a couple times...). I also do pat downs of my pockets and rummage through my bag to ensure something is where they're meant to be.

It was an April Fools joke, and they didn't actually post X rated content.

However, to the best of my understanding people who subscribe to someone on OnlyFans can send messages that include photos. So Madison's claims of being forced to deal with the sexual content sent in by trolls would be plausible.

I have ADHD, so music helps me maintain focus when I'm (usually) unmedicated. That being said, I do have a very strong media dependency, so I get where you're coming from.

I click on titles I find interesting, but I'm personally not a scroller. But I have friends that do go down that rabbit hole for large chunks of time at a time.

Short form content can be scarily addicting.

I'll split it into games your daughter could play, and some that could be fun to watch and get her to interact with. This is coming from someone who was playing Pinball 3D in preschool, so your mileage when bringing up a gaming child may vary.

One thing I haven't seen here is casual games. The less deep stuff that can still provide a lot of entertainment for kids that may just be starting to get a hang of things like computer mice and keyboard controls.

Alice Greenfingers (1 and 2) is a casual farm game featuring the titular character starting her own farm and selling the produce. No keyboard controls, just mouse controls and it was a pretty great introduction for me as a kid to finer motor movements.

The Diner Dash series is also a pretty good one to start. They have some variations, I know there's a detective game under the franchise that you could get input from your daughter on as you go through to encourage interaction.

There's the FATE (the WildTangent one, not the anime one) games, where it was one of the first games I remember that let me create my own female character. It's a diablo ripoff with much simpler mechanics. Gameplay can be repetitive but it's still a very fun, mouse-heavy game I still go back to. You can also choose between a cat and dog pet, and feed them special fish you find to turn them into awesome creatures like flaming unicorns!! (I'm sorry, I really love this game) i it's certainly playable with not much reading skill and therefore should be okay for a child, even if there's your standard combat violence.

For games that are fun to watch, I remember playing a Hello Kitty game for the PS2. There's still elements like hitting things, but it's overall a much cuter aesthetic.

There's also a PS2 Avatar: The Last Airbender video game that's based on the show (highly recommended watch even for kids), so you could relive the show you've just watched by playing the game with them. It's 2 player.

Crash Bandicoot Warped - while you play often as Crash, in the latest game I think it's possible to play everything as his sister Coco, who was already the only choice for some stages in the original game. Violence is mild, and was also one of my early games growing up. Fun to watch and play for kids.

I think there's a game called Infinity Nikki (PS4, PS5, PC, Android) that's a dress up platformer game. New outfits unlock different skills. The only issue is I've never played it, and it seems like microtransactions may inevitably come into play. Take caution. It's a crazy pretty game, though...

The Marvelous Miss Take (PC, and some consoles iirc) is a stealth game about a young woman trying to pull off several art heists. It features a female main character and is generally quite fun.

Hope this helps :)

I wish you guys all the fun!

Man, I remember laying my hands on Pokémon Blue before I could even read most of the words there. My uncle had bought it for my cousin brother who was 4 years younger than me, lol.

The older Pokémon games are a linear enough experience that literacy helps, but isn't required since as a child they'll likely explore everything anyway and will eventually trigger the right flags to allow for progress. I played like that up till RSE.

I like soups/broth. I put a bit of stock in, soy sauce, and then anything I please. Only takes one pot, set, cook and eat.

If I'm feeling indulgent I'll have rice to go with it. If I'm feeling healthy, I'll buy firm tofu and put a bit in too. Tofu also helps reduce post-lunch carb-induced food comas

Gosh, sorry to hear that. I'm also "functional", but I'm that duck paddling madly underwater to get anywhere.

I thought my psychiatrist was also going to say I'm normal because my parents insisted I was when I gave them the childhood ADHD assessment form.

I read a few questions to my mother because she didn't want to read it herself, and stopped at about 5 before giving it to my dad to fill out. The final question being: "Does your child have trouble completing schoolwork or household tasks?"

Her answer: (on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being normal and 5 being very bad ADHD) 1, you didn't have trouble, you're just lazy.

All my life, hearing "you have potential, but you're just lazy", or "I didn't see you dozing off playing games". No, I'm not lazy, and yes, I have fallen asleep gaming, multiple times.

I hope you'll be able to find that diagnosis or at least proper support for your struggles. Just because we function, doesn't mean we can't function even better with help and medication.