Any adults with anxiety and ADHD who learnt to cope without meds?

[Anonymous]

I have both diagnoses, and probably would have been on the meds, if I was able to find a psychiatrist who sees new patients and takes my insurance (I'm on my month 10 of attempts to find one), so coming to conclusion that psychiatric help cheaper than $300/hour doesn't exist in the US anymore.

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips that actually helped them maintain good quality of life without medication?
Morning walks definitely help me, but then sometimes my jitteriness and repetitive thoughts spiral down closer to the evening.
I prefer not to simply get my meds through primary care, because they speed at which they throw new diagnoses and medications on me (Adderall helps only partially, and sertraline doesn't help at all) is concerning.

[Anonymous]

Me! Sleep hygiene is a huge priority.

[Anonymous]

Working out daily helps with focus. Also, constant checklists everywhere and you train yourself to check the checklist when you feel yourself wandering from tasks.

[Anonymous]

I exercise a lot. I think I'm coping well. I have a steady job and a marriage with kids who i adore. But every once in a while I will realize that I'm not performing as optimally as I thought. I do take vitamin B, which wasn't for ADHD but I remember when I started taking it my thoughts got clearer (to the point I thought I was cheating in school by taking it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me! Sleep hygiene is a huge priority.

Could you pls explain what you did to achieve this?

[Anonymous]

Your primary care physician can prescribe adhd meds.

[Anonymous]

Lexapro helped when zoloft didnt. Mon stimulant adhd med straterra did not work at all.
writing things down in one place only and keeping a junk box to hold stuff I dont know what to do with helped alot.
exercise helps but you won't notice until after you have been working out for awhile and then you stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your primary care physician can prescribe adhd meds.

Mine won’t. They are a controlled substance and she wants me to see a psychiatrist.

[Anonymous]

I really like the YouTube Chanel “How to ADHD”. Lots of great tips.

For anxiety: have you by chance read The Discovery of Witches? This sounds silly but after reading that I decided to manage my anxiety the same way the main character did: working out as much as possible. A morning walk isn’t enough.

There is this amazing book called The Anxiety and Phobia work book that helped me a ton. I am also in therapy now and it is helpful but pricey. 😕

[Anonymous]

I am the spouse of an ADD husband that has refused to medicate. His alternates and routines have been extremely disruptive to family. I’ve been in this 26 years and the kids are grown. He is getting worse as he gets older and is now leaving the gas stove on, leaving his stuff everywhere, and exercising to the point where it leaves NO room for anything else. Work-bike ride until 8:30 PM-shower-eat-bed.

If you live alone and plan to stay that way, this natural control works well for you. Otherwise, don’t think you aren’t impacting your family. You are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the spouse of an ADD husband that has refused to medicate. His alternates and routines have been extremely disruptive to family. I’ve been in this 26 years and the kids are grown. He is getting worse as he gets older and is now leaving the gas stove on, leaving his stuff everywhere, and exercising to the point where it leaves NO room for anything else. Work-bike ride until 8:30 PM-shower-eat-bed.

If you live alone and plan to stay that way, this natural control works well for you. Otherwise, don’t think you aren’t impacting your family. You are

Sounds like you’re having a rough time and I’m sorry for that, but there is absolutely no need to dump your shit on OP.

[Anonymous]

My DH was completely miserable from his untreated anxiety and ADHD and he also ran into major walls trying to find treatment. He's been using one of the online ADHD medication providers for a while now - I can't remember the name - but if you are desperate for a consult and meds worth looking into.

[Anonymous]

My dad has done this. He is very adhd (anxiety is present and not as severe) and my mom is severely anxious but not adhd. My dad has a heart condition and can’t take any meds and part of my mom’s anxiety is that she believes that meds are dangerous so she doesn’t take them either. So my parents have managed by getting lots of exercise (stress relief) and generally leading highly structured (rigid) lives. It was pretty rough sometimes as a kid because their rules and anxieties were a bit nuts but they are well-loved (but quirky) members of their small town so it worked for them. I don’t thing that would be as successful in dc where there’s just more outside of your control (traffic, more people, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really like the YouTube Chanel “How to ADHD”. Lots of great tips.

For anxiety: have you by chance read The Discovery of Witches? This sounds silly but after reading that I decided to manage my anxiety the same way the main character did: working out as much as possible. A morning walk isn’t enough.

There is this amazing book called The Anxiety and Phobia work book that helped me a ton. I am also in therapy now and it is helpful but pricey. 😕

Oh, another thing that helps me is just looking at the ADHD tag on tiktok while I work out. I know it sounds like tiktok would be terrible for somebody with ADHD, but I only look at it while I am working out (or on the 🚽) and I have gotten so much great advice, learned some much, and been able to find a little more humor in it all.

Another thing is it might be worth paying out of pocket for the psychiatrist, especially if your insurance covers anything for out of network providers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH was completely miserable from his untreated anxiety and ADHD and he also ran into major walls trying to find treatment. He's been using one of the online ADHD medication providers for a while now - I can't remember the name - but if you are desperate for a consult and meds worth looking into.

I haven’t heard of these. Do you know which one your husband uses?