Getting Stuff Done with ADHD, Anxiety and Sleeplessness

Q: ADD affects my ability to get stuff done which leads to anxiety which causes me sleeplessness which causes my stimulant medication to make that worse so I don’t take it as prescribed. I don’t want to take sleeping pills, although I do sometimes resort to it. Thoughts/ideas?

My first question would be – Is it the chicken or the egg?

If you take your medication do you get more done? If you get more done, based on what you wrote, your anxiety should** be better at the end of the day.

If you don’t take the meds as prescribed then it’s hard to judge their effectiveness.  Try taking them as prescribed for a week and see what happens.

If the anxiety is a consistent problem despite the medication, you will want to talk to your prescribing physician. The two diagnoses often go together and can be treated at the same time. I’ve taken anxiety meds and Concerta together with no ill effects myself.

If you work with your providers, but you’re still suffering with insomnia, I would ask for a sleep study.

There has been some research into why so many of us struggle with this.

here are some resources – https://add.org/adults-with-adhd-and-the-sleep-problems-they-face/

https://add.org/tadd-2018-getting-sleep-when-you-have-adhd/

https://chadd.org/about-adhd/adhd-sleep-and-sleep-disorders/

I hope that helps. Here’s to a good night’s sleep!

-Liz

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      • robin.plank
      • February 1, 2019
      Reply

      A word of warning.

      There seems to be a common misperception among doctors that if you get a sleep study done it will reveal some of the reasons for insomnia. Uh, no.

      In a sleep study they are looking to see if you have sleep apnea, not insomnia. I have had two studies for insomnia and both my doctors were surprised the studies did not reveal anything to help with insomnia. Same for my sister in a large city.

      Before you take this expensive test, have a chat with the nurses in the office of the pulmonologist they assign to read your study. GET CLARITY on what that doctor can tell about insomnia from the sleep study. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but in my experience there is a big disconnect here.

      There were also problems with processing the doctor’s order to get the prior authorization. The sleep tech told me my prior authorization went through, so we went ahead with the test. But guess what? It hadn’t. Bureaucratic nonsense.

      Have a PAPER COPY in your hot little hands when you walk into that sleep center and hold onto it for the aftermath. The tech had called in to see if my prior was good, so there was no document there either.

      The hospital was after me for $1300, and I really had to work to make my case. I really had nothing to stand on, but they realized it was not my fault., so they finally wrote it off. However, you do not need this kind of stress in your life!

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