Is it normal to miss my ADHD?

[connalmcgee]

30 year old male, diagnosed at 29 years old and started my medication today. I am starting on 18mg concerta XL. 10-12 hour release.

First day taking them fell on a day off from work, partner at work and kids at school. Not a load to do just prep dinner for later mow the grass, workout and general tidy up.

I did some last minute reddit prep yesterday so I had an idea of what to expect. As of yet haven’t had any notable side effects. Not as hungry as usual but on a health kick so forced some tuna pasta down me at lunch, if it wasnt for the health I probably wouldn’t eat.

I took my tablet around 7am with a bowl of porridge as it was suggested to eat with it. About 8am getting my boys ready for school and nursery I noticed I felt a lot calmer, despite my one year old impatiently screaming for no apparent reason and my 6 year old being painfully slow to do anything. (To note I wouldn’t react badly to this externally but internally previously it drove me crazy)

After dropping the kids off at school, the house felt quiet, like eerily quiet and I felt unsettled by it. Usually that is my time maniacally planning every second of the day to get all the jobs done so I dont feel like shit later.

The best way I can describe it is that it felt like someone opened up my head and swapped my ADHD brain for a normal one. It was nice for a minute but then it felt extremely boring, believe it or not I missed the thoughts constantly racing around my head. I had little motivation to do jobs.

I know its early days but it has made me worry that what if the ADHD was my edge. I’ve managed to get to where I am today with my ADHD brain. I have a family of 3 kids and work as a manager in a secure children’s home so my life is constant chaos and ADHD often made that chaos calm for me. It felt almost as if that was what people valued and if that’s gone i dont quite know who I am anymore.

I am aware this probably makes no sense and I know it is only day one so I will stick it out for a while through titration as stopping them all together is an option for me. I guess I just want to know if anyone has experience anything similar and if so do I just need to give it time for myself to adjust to the quiet brain.

[Joe]

Hi, I hope things have been okay in the days since you shared this story. Everyone’s experiences with titration and treatment are unique but your ‘day 1’ story has themes you’ll likely read about which can be reassuring, difficult/ other, depending on how you feel about your own situation, but I hope you’ve started to find some supportive spaces over the past few days, including hopefully seeing some of the other experiences posted on this community over time.

Have to state early on that I’m not a medical professional, so I can’t give medication advice on this, but there are lot of helpful resources out there to point to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1512YyLB0Q. I fully appreciate that sometimes we want (and need) community, shared understanding, and support (alongside, hopefully, some helpful strategies and resources).

I recommend speaking to your prescriber about any concerns as well as general feedback about how you’re feeling over the weeks, but also asking others how they found things like around the topic of missing familiarity of your usual experience of ADHD, will likely lead to interesting, inspiring, encouraging answers (everyone has a unique story to share, and you’ve shown you do too).

Going through changes in how you process, think, and feel in such a short amount of time as you’ve shared about is a huge experience to go through (you’ll frequently read or hear about others talking about their experience of the ‘quiet mind’, how they felt about it, how they adapted or what supported them ) ADHD titration/ treatment can be experienced in so many different ways, including for some people it feeling like a rollercoaster. Having people around to process it all with (after first following advice from your prescriber), can hopefully make each day and week feel is shared or done side by side with others. I know people sometimes recommend giving medication time to adjust as you say, but the right direction depends on what feels personally best for you.

https://events.adhduk.co.uk/events/calendar/?q=adhd%20uk&cal=list

https://adhduk.co.uk/support/

https://globaladhd.com/2026-global-conference-view-again-page/

Your post was in the uncategorised section, and moved to the Q&A here, so hopefully others will add to this thread. The above channels might also be of interest. I’m sure plenty of others would be up for sharing some encouragement! If you have any other questions as you go through the next few weeks do ask away. If it’s different from the theme of your original post, you can just create a new one. Thank you for sharing.

P.S. Want to acknowledge your practising patience with your kids on day 1… I find my patience regularly tested just with having one miniature dachshund at home!