Simon Baron-Cohen can stuff right off

[Smunder Woman]

Oh wow, that's sounds amazing, I get dry mouth so much, please can you share details about it?

Sorry, I forgot to come back last night. It doesn't look as though the brand I've got (xerodent) is available in the UK, but it just seems to be sour flavoured tablets that make your mouth water. I haven't tried yet though :))

[Cosmopolitan]

Sound fascinating. I'm going to do some googling. Or some Binging

[Smunder Woman]

I've tried one now and it definitely works. It's an odd sensation, but that's possibly because I'm so used to having a dry mouth.

[Cosmopolitan]

Well, that all sounds like a good result, I wonder how long the sensation lasts? Too my xylitol (I see in the ingredients) has a laxative affect so guess 2 or 3 a day? Thank you for helping my curiosity!

[Smunder Woman]

It says up to 6 or 8, but it's definitely a case of balancing one effect with the other :))

[Cerise]

I’ve been reading Dirty Laundry. There’s a whole chapter about poor personal hygiene in ADHDers. I know that everyone’s different but I’m not really sure that I’ve heard of it as a symptom before.

I’m definitely going to make Mr Sax read it though and hope it helps him understand more.

[Jet]

Interesting hearing about the shortages. We've been having problems here getting the kids' meds filled but I heard it's not a shortage more so a government control issue...as it's a controlled substance the government controls how much gets 'released' and they aren't releasing enough to account for increased demand due to us getting better at diagnosing and also more people in their 30s and 40s getting diagnosed.

I've actually weaned S back to mostly taking half doses (because he can handle that) so that we have some back up supply because I'd prefer that to L having to split with S when he really needs it more.

[Dutchie]

I’ve been reading Dirty Laundry. There’s a whole chapter about poor personal hygiene in ADHDers. I know that everyone’s different but I’m not really sure that I’ve heard of it as a symptom before.

That's interesting! Our resident ADHDer has always had awful personal hygiene and needs daily reminders to shower, brush teeth, put on clean socks. I thought it was just a J2 thing.

[Bat Macdui]

I'm currently running at about 10 days in hand on my speed. :)) I put in another prescription request this week, though, so we'll see how that goes. I get 30 prescribed monthly as one a day but skip days. Does anyone else (preferably adult, managing LIFE responsibilities) skip? I am curious about how many, if one day at a time or two, and how manageable you find it? I usually skip at least one weekend day, preferably the one where I am doing 8 miles up a hill or moor. :))

[Cerise]

Not an adult but J only takes his on school days and not at weekends. Seems fair to give yourself a day off if you don’t need it and I imagine that scrambling up a hill gives a decent dopamine hit. :))

[Smunder Woman]

I find that I get really depressed if I skip. I take less at weekends, but a total day off is Not Good.

[Cosmopolitan]

I skips days intermittently, especially days when exercise allows me to manage symptoms better (so basically what you're doing). Bizarrely I usually skip days where I have boring meetings and am wfh because I don't really need to focus then. I'll just take a short acting ampexa in the arvo if I feel I need it. There's apparently a calc between number of ampexa to match lisdexamphetamine as its the same drug, just differently metabolised.

I've got 2 owing notes from the pharmacy. Will be calling in there later to see if I can collect on any of them. Last time I went in, she said she tried every day to order some and there was hardly ever any. However I've been very ill over the last week and haven't taken any in 8 days so have a little more available now. And when I was in hospital, the pharmacist there said they had a few boxes available for staff and that's it and they were worried as well. I felt like nhs staff deserve it more than me anyway.

[Bat Macdui]

I feel like it's quite important NHS staff concentrate, whereas maybe less important if I get a bid response a bit askew on first go. :))

I do feel like the madness creeps in after more than a day off, so skipping is a bit less about the concentration and more about the bit where I start going round in bad circles in my head. Plus there's a recognisable difference in impulse control that I am wary of letting get too out of control. Though I do seem to be quite a long way past the 'buy a packet of fags, smoke two' bit of that, fortunately. Especially as they're about £15 a go now.

Interesting, thank you.

[Cosmopolitan]

I agree that the impulse control is very bad now that I've been without for 8 days. And yes bad circles are beginning. As is the paralysis. Might go take a Ampexa to cut that out right now.

[Smunder Woman]

When I was almost off it for a good while recently, the bad circles and paralysis were really noticeable. I seem to have mostly trained myself into better impulse control, but it's still pretty shit. Also, I'm certain it would slide back to square one very easily.

I think I'm just as unfocused on meds, but that seems to be a lesser problem in itself once the doom and paralysis are a bit more under control.

[Smunder Woman]

I've just thought of this now I'm thinking about meds, but the dry mouth stuff was a bust. My IBS did not like even one piece of it. I'll ask next time if there's other stuff I can try.

[Cosmopolitan]

Yeah, xylitol is a major league fodmap so that would definitely make ibs worse.

[Bat Macdui]

The focus thing is interesting. I'm not sure I get more focus on the meds, just that I'm better at being able to direct my focus to where it needs to be, so work instead of social media. I still need strategies and everything, especially if it's something I could easily procrastinate about. So last week was all about the pomodoro to get going because I kept arsing about doing little jobs that weren't urgent rather than the start the big one, which had a deadline of a week, so therefore didn't feel urgent. And I've still done nothing about my pensions, even though I swear at least three of them are just logging into a website and changing an address. I found myself thinking today maybe I should take a day's leave to do it. Because obviously I need that much time.

[Smunder Woman]

So, I mentioned ages ago that I suspected Joe had ADHD, but he wasn't really keen on any kind of assessment. He's struggling a lot with school just now as he's hit the stage where he can't wing it anymore, so we've just had his first appointment. They said he is showing a lot of signs of ADHD, so we'll have his first proper assessment in the next few weeks. He is 15 year old me, it's very difficult to watch.

[Ruby]

He is 15 year old me, it's very difficult to watch.

I feel your pain.

What's the diagnosis pathway where you are?