ADHD Meds: I Love This Stuff Like I Love Epidurals

I've been taking meds for my ADHD for a month now, and it's time for me to report in again.

Report Summary: I love this stuff like I love epidurals.

I get so much more done these days, because I'm not spending all my time going up and down the stairs for stuff I forgot. Also, for the first time in the whole history of ever, I feel reasonably organized.

That is no small thing; I have been carting around boxes of loose papers for the last two moves. I had to make 32 new file folders to get it straightened out.

I also had to purge about forty pounds of files. (So glad we paid by the pound for those moves.) See, it turns out that you don't actually need to keep every single tax return you ever filed, starting with your junior year of high school.

To deal with the forty pounds of files, I have dubbed next weekend "ShredFest 2011." Because I am paranoid about identity theft, I will be shredding the files, then burning them, and then using the ashes as kitty litter. If someone wants to try to reconstruct my social security number after that, they can be my guest.

Before my ADHD diagnosis, I would often think about organizing my files. I would walk past the boxes of papers, and feel guilty. The guilt would morph into stress, and anxiety, which would actually make my ADHD worse, and before you knew it I was rocking in the corner clutching my mug of self-medication coffee.

This is me before the ADHD meds:



This is me after the ADHD meds:

OK, well, maybe I'm not Martha.  She must smoke a vat of ADHD meds every day to do everything she does.  Or maybe she just has a staff of hundreds of assistants.  Whatever.

Lest you think I've gone all June Cleaver on you, here's a short list of stuff I've messed up since going on ADHD meds:

• I left my van at the mechanic to be inspected, and Little Dude and I walked home. It's less than a mile, and lovely exercise. When we got home, I realized that my house key was still on the keychain with the car keys, at the mechanic. Fortunately, my back porch was unlocked, so I was able to use my own ladder to break into my own house through an unlocked window. I am so good at breaking into my own house, I should probably steal my own TV soon. I should point out that Little Dude did not find this little adventure to be amusing. In fact, he covered his eyes while I climbed through the window and didn't open them back up until I opened the door for him. I should also point out that no one in my neighborhood noticed and/or cared that someone was breaking into my house in broad daylight. Organization / parenting / neighborhood watch FAIL.  Awesome, all around.
• I scheduled my cholesterol and blood sugar work-up for the day after Easter. Yeah. Good planning. Because two pounds of ham and ten pounds of chocolate surely won't mess with any of my numbers, right?
• I failed to pack sweatshirts for the Pork Lo Maniac and Cookie for their two-night Girl Scout trip. I almost forgot to bring their duffel bags completely when I brought them to the meet-up point, so the fact that they had anything to wear at all is actually kind of a win.
• I forgot to bring birthday presents to a birthday party. I had the presents, and they were wrapped, we just didn't bring them.  Given the fact that we had four birthday parties to attend during a five-day time span, I should have gotten the routine down.  However, I'm giving myself a pass on this, because the fact that I remembered to get my kids to all four parties is a triumph.
• I forgot to give one of my kids lunch money, which was ridiculous, because we almost never buy school lunch, so it was this whole big deal that one of the girls was going to buy it. And yet she had no money. She came home with the elementary school equivalent of an overdue electric bill notice.

I still make mistakes and forget stuff, but it's minimized. I still don't get everything done, but it doesn't stress me out as much -- because usually, I've actually made decisions about what to do and what not to do, not just forgotten to do stuff.

Oh, I should mention some side effects I've had, so you don't think it's all sunshine and lollipops. I've been able to cut back on caffeine significantly, but I'm a schmuck and haven't yet mastered the art of replacing the Diet Coke and coffee with water, so I'm constantly dehydrated, which gives me headaches.

Also, my blood pressure is up slightly. My blood pressure was previously on the low side, so this is fine for me. But I would be remiss not to mention that Adderall is speed and therefore raises your blood pressure. I'm on the lowest possible dose of Adderall, and it works for me.  But lots of people need a higher dose for it to work, and that could definitely cause significant blood pressure concerns.