First off: I am still undiagnosed. I’ve followed the ADHD topic for more than a year now since I seem to match a whole lot of symptoms and behavior patterns. An official diagnosis will most probably still take another year. I live in Germany.
One thing that got me wondering was caffeine. As I’ve heard, drinking coffee will make ADHD folks not feel any more awake, maybe even a little tired.
While it doesn’t make me feel awake as well, I very vividly remember my first coffee a long time ago that caused a massive outburst of productivity when all of the time I was known for being ‘lazy’ and distracted. However the effect quickly diminished with each subsequent coffee over the next year.
Isn’t this a contradiction though? If I actually had ADHD, why did coffee have this awakening effect on me back then?
If I have ADHD then it’s comorbid with and somewhat masked by my autism (which lets me hyperfocus, but when I’m not, I’m all over the place and switching tracks constantly). My partner though does have a diagnosis, and I’ve been doing some research into ADHD treatments for her because of the Adderall shortage. I came across a few papers like this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6574559/
L-Theanine is the main stimulant in tea (also found in other stuff like coffee and mushrooms, but in lower quantities). Maybe coffee would help with your symptoms if it had more theanine? I bought a bag of micronised theanine powder for our morning energy mix (100mg caffeine + 400mg theanine, in about 1L of water) on a health supplement site like this: https://taiyogmbh.com/en/start-en/brands/suntheanine-en/
Dissolves well, and it’s working for us as a replacement for coffee. It seems to help her focus even without the Vyvanse, more than when she hasn’t had either anyway. I really like that we can add any flavours we like, and we got a carbonator to make it seltzer too. Really refreshing on a hot sunny summer morning.
If you or anyone else in the thread try it, I’d love to hear how it works for you after a few days! Data points, y’know.
Huh, I’ve always been a tea drinker rather than coffee, and I’ve always found tea more calming that coffee or caffeinated sodas. This could be why.
It could also help explain why my mother, who I’ve suspected for a while was undiagnosed, favored tea over coffee all her life and really went off the rails once she developed a caffeine allergy and stopped drinking it.