I am FINALLY going to be able to trial Adderall after taking a long break from meds and want to track how I’m doing daily. What do you do so that you can know the meds are having a positive/negative effect? What are the indicators you track?

Worksheets, your own indicators, apps, etc. would by great. I’m leaning towards making my own worksheet but idk what some of the most important things would be to keep track of.

  • srry i fell off our megathread convo about this! the truth is i personally just didn’t really lol, i just noticed i was overall more able to Do Shit and felt that was good enough. it’s probably good to be more intentional about it than i was though!!

    • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      17 hours ago

      I mean just being able to tell that it’s effective is ideal lol. Tomorrow will be my first day, if it feels like a light switch flipping I will be so relieved

  • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    i dunno for me it’s basically an on/off switch. every stim has a different range but it’s always very low but not quite a micro-dose

    if i get a little sleepy when it hits followed by this sort of “brain smoothing” i’m in the neuro zone

    • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      18 hours ago

      God I wanna be in the neuro zone so badly lol. So it sounds to me that, overwhelmingly, people are able to notice a difference when it does work. I just can’t believe that the efficacy of the drugs are just so specific like I’ve tried 4 different types, this will be my fifth so I am convinced I’m missing something or actually don’t have ADHD

  • FedPosterman5000 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    I carry a little notebook, remember to use it regularly for a week, then forget about it mostly go off vibes lol. But yeah, I try take some time in the mornings to reflect on how I’m feeling and what actions/factors are causing that, and then via notebook or vibes track the trends (“well well well if it isn’t the consequences of my actions”).

    I’ll also use the notebook if it’s something I’m really ruminating on and need to think through.

  • LaBellaLotta [any]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    On a spreadsheet I just started after forgetting about the other spreadsheet I started 3 months ago to do the same thing and then never used

    • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      2 days ago

      Same here lol. But I want to try, the last time I was trying out meds I could NOT tell whether it was working or not. At least the autism in me enjoys lists and things like that so it kinda helps

  • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 days ago

    24 – (time spent laying in bed doing “nothing”) + ( 0.25 × (time spent in bed “getting stuff done”) ) hours ≈ my indicator of how my meds are working. Higher is better. 0.25 is an arbitrary coefficient between 0 and 1 that I set based on vibes and plans; higher values decrease the importance of physically getting out bed.

    Despite the formula…I’m too lazy to rigorously track this. I suppose you could do it with a spreadsheet or a few lines of Python. But this is the kind of calculation I make when I evaluate how my meds are working. And then during the psychiatrist appointment, I’ll roughly average the above formula using a vibes-weighted sum over a few weeks.

    Today I’m at 0 😭

    • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      18 hours ago

      that’s really creative that you came up with a symptoms formula! But alas, I suck at math lol. I’m sorry you were at a 0 yesterday though, hope today was/is better!

  • blipblip [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    When I was trialing meds I had a worksheet but it was for tracking side effects, the is it working bit was very obvious. How quiet my head is, basically, and if I’m able to sit still. Brain quiet = working, standing up and pacing = worn off.

    I think I have a photo of the side effect sheet somewhere that I can dig up if you’re interested.