Struggling with Anxiety and ADHD

I think meditation is really helpful, but I totally get it. There’s too much going on to do it yourself SO my solution was to do guided meditations on YouTube. It walks you through the whole process, so it almost takes the anxiety of having to focus so hard out of the mix. I do it both for day time relaxation and for sleep. You can also do story line type meditation, which makes it a lot easier for me because it holds my attention more. For example, my favorite guided meditations typically deal with fantasy, like Harry Potter or some sort of mythical world. It feels relaxing AND like an escape to a different place all in one! 🤗

PEA (palmitoylethanolamide) is similar to adderall and over the counter supplement as well as L-tyrosine (amino acid precursor to dopamine needed to help ADHD). Also find it much easier to meditate while doing something- sitting on bouncy ball, while stretching, walking, looking at moving objects- waves, riding in car. It stimulates me enough to relax but when I try to just go into nothingness my brain goes wild and it isn’t helpful for me personally. PEA supplement-https://www.lifeextension.com/vitamins-supplements/item02202/comfortmax?gclid=CjwKCAjw9NeXBhAMEiwAbaY4lgyU6HVwjWmJVihrKhxpWvuav91b3tXkCsIz5hY3H9sZ5--9FoQ1WBoCj9kQAvD_BwE

I can't meditate. Overanalyzing makes it hard to clear my mind

One thing I've learned about meditation is that it's not really about "clearing" the mind and not thinking. It's about giving time and space foe those thoughts to be thunk and then practicing moving on from them because you allowed yourself to think them.

I have ADHD and anxiety and something that really helps me with meditation specifically is not trying to "force" my brain to focus. I really like the "cars on a highway" metaphor, where the cars are the thoughts that you have while you're meditating. You don't want to get in the car and follow the thought to wherever it's going, just kind of notice the thought and then let it pass you by. If you do follow it accidentally, that's okay, just take the focus back to your breath/the present moment. For me, I don't try to work on "staying focused" because that's basically impossible, I try to work on being able to "bring myself back". If I'm having a hard time sitting still, I'll just get up and walk around my house or just take a walk and try to do the same thing- that's still meditating! :)

I think I gave my treatment plan ADHD. 😆 I'm medicated many days. I take vitamins- Bs, D, Magnesiums, Omega 3. I use essential oils. I journal. I use fidget toys. I educate myself. I'm in therapy. I hyperfocus on some of these things sometimes and ignore others. There are so so many things for each situation. At the moment I'm just word dumping in comments.

I take 45 mg of Adderall. Xr daily

I like to use the meditation sounds that have bells ringing periodically. The sound is calm, but still gets my attention and helps me come back to reality when I space out. Also, I found meditation helped me a lot more when I changed the way I was doing it. Instead of trying to focus on one thing for a set amount of time (which I can NOT do) I let my mind wander to whatever and I just feel my emotions. It's ok if it feels positive OR negative, I just try to acknowledge what I feel and accept it. This helped me a lot while I was at a really low point last year. It doesn't get rid of the anxiety, but it helped a little to remind myself that the feelings I have are rational and to let myself take a little time to feel them. It's also nice when I drift off into positive thoughts and get reminded of all the good things in life too 😊

Lavender oil is a great calming smell and helps with anxiety. I like to smell the oil when I'm stressed because it helps calm me down.

Well it's not a medication, but journaling really helps me slow down a lot of my thoughts!

I feel this. I have a hard time calming my mind in general and I am a Christian and find it really to talk to God unfortunately

I have found meditation to help but totally agree, almost impossible to stay still and focuses. Great advice I got was to accept our mind will wonder, just bring it back. Don't quit or get upset, just bring it back. Also that o don't have to sit still, I can meditate walking around, or on a stationary bike. Do what you have to do. It really made a difference. It may not be traditional but it works for me. Good luck.

I am all for the natural route! Being outside and working out has really helped me. Also therapy is amazing at helping find ways to cope with anxiety. There's a few pages on YouTube that I enjoy for meditation. Goodful Meditation and Great Meditation

i don't have adhd, but my brother does and he sometimes uses this blend of essential oils for focus that he says helps him. it's not rly medication tho and essential oils tend to work to different extents with different ppl.

I take Lion’s Mane every morning and it helps me a lot! ❤️