Practices

Long acting stimulants are the usual starting point for a plain reason: they cover the most hours and they remove the lunchtime dose, which is the dose ADHD is most likely to swallow whole.

Remembering a tablet in the middle of a busy day is itself an executive task, so asking for it is asking the person to do the thing they came for…

The most useful question about a dose is whether the person can tell. A shrug and 'I think it sort of helps a bit' usually means it is not yet doing its job.

At a dose that suits them, most people can say when it comes on, what the middle of the day feels like, and when it leaves. Vagueness points…

Count good days, not unbroken runs. Whatever yesterday was, brilliant or a write off, the only live question is what can be done with today.

Streaks make one slip cost everything, so the missed night turns into a missed week and then the whole effort gets quietly dropped. Aiming for more…

Ask how many hours the cover really lasts, not only whether it helps. A long acting stimulant is meant to carry roughly ten to twelve hours, so if everything collapses by mid afternoon that is worth reporting.

Very few lives need only six good hours. Evenings hold homework, cooking, driving, tempers and the people you live with, and those hours get written…