its really weird to see all these articles about how people who have ADHD have sleeping problems but the issue I have is that if you look at it as a matter of your circadian rythym being out of sync? of COURSE you’re not going to be able to sleep. we don’t say people who can’t fall asleep at 4 pm and sleep 8 hours have insomnia, because that’s not a normally agreed upon time to sleep and its not your bodies time to sleep. if you tell someone to go to bed at 10 and they can’t sleep till 3 am sometimes in just not insomnia. people with ADHD are often wired to sleep from 4 am to 12 pm ish because of the delayed onset of melatonin but if you let us go to bed at the time we need? most of us actually sleep pretty well and consistently.
wAIT THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT EXISTS
“For most adults the onset of melatonin is around 9.30 pm; in ADHD children compared to controls this occurs at least 45 minutes later, and in adults with ADHD even 90 minutes (van der Heijden ea, 2005; van Veen ea 2010). After melatonin onset, it normally takes 2 hours to fall asleep, but in adults with ADHD it takes at least 3 hours (Bijlenga et al, 2013).”
Look at me awake at 1:47 am and reblogging this post.
So I’m actually trained in therapy for addressing insomnia and one of the things we learned is that a good chunk of sleep problems are societal disorders – as in they WOULDN’T EXIST as problems if society didn’t assume everyone was on the same circadian rhythm and that being up and working 9-5 was mandatory/normal. Blew my mind and made so much sense. You are not the problem, society is literally the problem.
It’s 2.46 a.m. and I usually wake up at 8 a.m. no matter what time I go to bed. Odds are it’ll be more like 3.30 a.m. by the time I get there this time. Happily I do actually fall asleep right away these days, if I’m actually sleepy when I crawl into bed. But I distinctly recall a childhood of me struggling to fall asleep and then to get up in the morning. (Also, my insomnia now is probably caused by my hormones being out of whack thanks to surgical menopause. No idea how that’s going to settle.)
I am actually worried there’s something wrong with me. I am suspecting myself to have some sort if dissociative identity disorder, but now adhd seems to be a fit too. Is it normal for disorders to blend together?
It is really common for people to have more than one disorder, and lots of disorders have overlapping symptoms. I saw that this isn’t the only thing making you wonder. I also saw that you had a really bad experience with a therapist previously.
I’m not equipped to help you with this at all, but I can suggest you write to @mentalillnessmouse and ask them what resources they can recommend for you to help you deal with stuff. They may have some information for dealing with the kinds of things you’re struggling with, and they may have some resources to help you decide what to do about a formal assessment. They do have links and resources available as well, but I think actually asking them for specific help might be really beneficial to you right now.
And you are always welcome over at @actuallyadhd, too. If nothing else, we can help you find ways to manage the stuff that may be related to ADHD.
-J
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