the pregnant AD/HDer | ADHD Information
Is there anyone out there how has any tips for the frazzle-headed, pregnant AD/HD lady who is trying to make the next few months without her medication!!????
I am not on meds yet (I'm still awaiting an appointment with a shrink in order to get formally diagnosed), but there are days I wish I could at least try them. My job has me climbing the walls, and when I'm not climbing the walls at work, I'm often doing so at home.
But I figure I've made it over 26 years without taking medication, another little while won't hurt. Just take everything one day at a time. Try to work with your psych/therapist/doctor to devise a manageable organization system - something that will at least help you get by in the meantime.
Good luck and congrats on your pregnancy!
I am thinking of trying and currently on Ritalin. Can you tell me if you continued your meds until you found out you were pregnant or did you stop as soon as you were trying (assuming you were trying). Thanks.What helped me to get through those kinds of times (preg and young baby), was to make checklists. I had a morning checklist (included everything from eat breakfast to brush my teeth), before bed checklist (are the candles extinguished, oven off, doors locked etc), and a "I'm leaving the house" checklist (coffeepot off, purse in the car, phone in purse etc). I'd print off a new set every week. Very useful. I put them on the kitchen counter so I had to look at them.
Also, napping in the afternoon. Mmmm... napping! I would nap on my desk at work with my first pregnancy, and on the couch while my eldest child slept wiht my second pregnancy.
Oh, I remember when I was pregnant I was completely out to lunch! I would go back to the house 4 times to make sure the coffeepot was off, then get to work and be absolutely convinced I had not locked the front door and worry about it all day long. Not much has changed 
One thing about being pregnant is that so many women have a problem with memory and such during pregnancy because of hormone fluctuations. And everyone tends to be forgiving of pregnant women. I say work with it! Ask others for help (because the pregnant lady just can't remember her head even though it is attached to her shoulders
). I suspect you will find people to be quite accomadating. Congratulations!
Well, i had stopped taking strattera a while before i got pregnant because I did not like it. Too strong of side effects for me personally.
i was not trying to get pregnant, and I was on Wellbutrin XL when i found out that I was pregnant, and I stopped when I found out. My Midwife told me that I would be dealing with a lot of emotions during my pregnancy and if i felt I needed to continue my Wellbutrin, I could because it is a safe drug. But I'm kind of a pregnant "naturalist" and I would like NOT to have to take it if i can handle myself. I would like everthing about my pregnancy and birth to be as natural as possible.
Although, once I have the baby, i will be breastfeeding, and I want to find something that I can take that will be compatible with my breastfeeding.
The more I start to show, the more I find people....how can i put it?....I find people more 'accomodating"!! especially at work. A lot of frazzle headed scatterbrained things I do they make amends for because i'm pregnant...but they dont realize, or remember, that I was the same way BEFORE i even got pregnant!!!
I think i'll just "swing with it" while i can get away with it! maybe the next few months without my meds will not be so bad after all!!!!
Oh god, I remember when I was pg and I didn't even know I had ADHD - I just kept blaming everything on pregnancy brain LOL
I was actually on Celexa during my pregnancy because of depression (which I know realize was ADHD related) and that helped me cope mainly because, well I didn't get depressed 
What I would do was make a list of everything I needed or wanted to get done that day or that week and then after writing it, take a bit of a break, and then go back to the list and determine what was feasible and what was a priority. That helped. I also pumped myself full of insane amounts of fish oil capsules for the Omega 3's (which are GREAT for the baby) and in hindsight I realize that also helped alleviate a lot (not all though) of the things that are ADHD related.
I agree with Boggled, so many women who don't even have ADHD are a little off memory wise when they are pg and that ya, people are VERY forgiving to a woman that is pregnant LOL So I agree, work with it and if you have to, do what I did, blame everything on pregnancy brain!