{"id":334,"date":"2025-03-23T22:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=334"},"modified":"2025-06-09T22:42:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T05:42:48","slug":"adhd-journey-1-month-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/23\/adhd-journey-1-month-in\/","title":{"rendered":"ADHD Journey: 1 month in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So far so good. After 2 weeks on meds and a consultation with the pharmacist, I doubled the original dose, and i don\u2019t see increasing any more going forward. My sleep patterns have stabilized and I am actually sleeping more and deeper. This is probably in part due to the fact that I am no longer napping in the afternoon, so at night I am actually tired and fall right asleep.

My step count is on point, and for the last week I have averaged 5 miles a day. I am down 15 pounds from my January weight. I do sometimes forget to eat, but I\u2019m not actually skipping meals, and I have less of a tendency to just clean my plate on principle.

This is all great, but what about my attention? This is a little more difficult to wrap up succinctly. I have continued to experience a decrease in \u201cbackground noise\u201d that would pull me away from a task. I have also noticed a subtle but unambiguous change in my connection with my current instrument, the ukulele. I have always had a difficult time internalizing and retaining patterns\u2013I have to practice a lot to memorize and integrate new material, and even then it doesn\u2019t always \u201cstick.\u201d It seems lately that the circuits seem to be firing a bit more smoothly. Not a dramatic change by any means, but noticeable and welcome.

What medication hasn\u2019t helped with is the sense of panic and dread I feel from situational sources: caring for and managing the affairs of a loved one with dementia; a marked downward trend in enrollment in music classes, my source of income; parenting a neurodivergent teen who, like me, learns everything the hard way and navigates a world that wasn\u2019t necessarily designed for him; and watching the failure of our justice system and legislature to stop the dismantling of our hard-won civil liberties, environmental protections, and social safety net. All I can do is focus on the task at hand and avoid ruminating, and with that I feel more vulnerable and see fewer options each day. My instinct for self-preservation has seemedly not increased with my ability to focus.

My mind’s tendency toward world-building seems to continue unchecked as well\u2013there is an unrelenting “impossible dream” that a big part of my consciousness is trying to realize, which saps a great deal of the energy which I feel should go into organizing my activities into a sustainable livelihood.
Well, that’s that. To be continued \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far so good. After 2 weeks on meds and a consultation with the pharmacist, I doubled the original dose, and i don\u2019t see increasing any more going forward. My sleep patterns have stabilized and I am actually sleeping more and deeper. This is probably in part due to the fact that I am no … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neurodiversity","category-reflection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-4.png?fit=1080%2C1327&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-5o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/27\/ialac\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":0},"title":"IALAC","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"December 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As someone who has worked with children and their parents for 25 years, I would say that I have had more than my fair share of positive human interaction. I know there are many people who love me, and I know that I am a good person and that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img_0486.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/the-care-economy\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":1},"title":"the care economy","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world.\u00a0It is about recognizing the things in our experience that bring us joy, that give us a [wow] or a [yes], and responding to these moments in a supportive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/22\/neuroemergence\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":2},"title":"neuroemergence","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Because no one asked, here's one take on neurodivergence: We have the Latin-derived terms horizontal and vertical to describe the x- and y-axes in a two-dimensional model. The fact that there is no handy, colloquial Latin-derived word for the z-axis, or depth, suggests that writers and thinkers driving language forward\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/23\/the-middle-way-hub-or-hollow\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":3},"title":"The middle way: hub, or hollow?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Imagine a conversation about a trip to a museum between a person whose instrument of recall includes a detailed cinema projected onto the back of their eyeballs and a person with no access to visual formations at all. Imagine a conversation about a favorite album between a person who hears\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/img_0327-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/02\/different-specialties\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":4},"title":"different specialties","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A shout out to all my relations, especially the ones who have called me out for the ways I have spoken of we, (or written of we, more precisely, as written and spoken are mostly the same for me\u2013I feel safer, mostly, in writing, but they are mostly the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0385.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":484,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/25\/%f0%9f%97%bd\/","url_meta":{"origin":334,"position":5},"title":"\ud83d\uddfd","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 25, 2025","format":"aside","excerpt":"The first response of the conservative is 'actually\u2026' The first response of the progressive is 'consider\u2026' The first response of the ones who actually consider is 'resolve,' and we recognize that 'solver' and 'lovers' are both represented, and we're trying to figure out how to include the extra 'e.' The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ethos"","block_context":{"text":"ethos","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/ethos\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}