I’d like to know what anyone is using that they really think is helping them that isn’t taking traditional prescription medication for ADHD. Please make sure whatever it is can be found “over the counter” or readily available commercially. Please keep it to simple items that are easily found separately - i.e. a B vitamin of B6, 12 and vitamin C along with Magnesium glycinate or something. If you notice it helping in a specific area, please say what it is.
I have to throw in a couple caveats, just to make sure we can get a decent picture of what is actually helping, so…
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Please nothing illicit or illegal.
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Please no blends or other proprietary herbal combinations. If a blend helps you, great…but we don’t know what is in the blend that is helping, and someone may not have access to that product where they live.
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Please be specific, like making sure to differentiate between magnesium glycinate and magnesium L-threonate.
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Edit: “votes” so far:
1 - Creatine monohydrate - short term memory
2 - Lion’s mane (a fungus) - brain fog
2 - Omega 3, 6, and 9 - brain fog
1 - exercise. Not really a supplement, but it’s a great idea for overall health.
1 - keto diet - brain fog
1 - N-Acetyl-cystein (NAC) - ?
2 - magnesium glycinate - ?
1 - Magnesium carbonate
Stimulants:
2 - Coffee
1 - caffeine (via energy drink)
1 - Guarana
1 - Green tea (caffeine and L-Theanine)
Saffron.
What does this do? Do you have any research indicating this has potential benefits?
NOS brand energy drink seems to work better for me than any other brand, so it may be worth looking into its ingredients list for things that potentially have a synergistic effect with caffeine
A quick look at the NOS ingredients shows caffeine, taurine, and l-carnitine. Caffeine is a stimulant, so I’ll add that ✅, taurine isn’t mentioned anywhere to be any specific benefit to concentration or mental ability, and l-carnitine seems to just be used to make the stimulant hit faster.
Weed helps, in edible form, when taken with ritalin and adderall
I bet, but unfortunately the legality of weed is still by state, and not legal federally. The rest are by script.
Weed has been legal in my country federally for a decade. What are you talking about?
Not everyone lives where you do. There’s plenty of the world where it isn’t federally legal.
Maybe let us know that?
You say states so I assume USA, you can get THC mailed to you totally legally as long as it’s below a certain amount per volume.
I just started microdosing THC and CBD (2.5mg each a day) and it’s really helping with my productivity! I buy online from a shop called Mr. Moxeys or something like that, they ship mints or gummies to most US states to microdose. Kind of expensive (87 cents a day) but WAY cheaper than Adderall, and less dangerous.
Did you read what I said? I said legality varies by state, and it’s still illegal federally.
That is 100% correct.
Good for you it works.
Coffee, fasting during mornings, and lowering carbs
Another upvote for coffee!
Coffee makes me crash, I don’t understand how it works for you guys. I fucking love it still, but boy can it send me back to bed in a jittery mess as soon as I get a strong morning cup of if I haven’t eaten breakfast.
I make it rather mild, one table spoon (fairly loaded) of light roasted coffee for a liter of water.
Green tea
Caffeine?
Green Tea contains a fraction of the caffeine of coffee. The real wonder though is L-Theanine, which increases focus.
Drinking a cup of green tea will make you feel way less jittery than coffee. Instead, it is calming.
Ok, I’ll add it with that caveat.
p.s.: argh, typed this over 12 hours ago and just found this open page. It’s clearly not working. But here we go anyway:
- Guarana, for example in a capsule. Effectively a mild stimulant, basically extended release coffee.
- Get out of the slow cycle of: symptom -> doctor -> check for specific deficiency -> supplement. Check for everything proactively. In many countries, you can go directly to a lab and have your blood taken there, if your doctor doesn’t play along.
Added guarana as a stimulant
Creatine monohydrate helped for me. It’s usually taken by athletes and gym-goers but there’s a study saying that it may improve short term memory and intelligence/reasoning
Added to the post
Omega 3-6-9 fatty acids. There’s been a fair amount of research done on its role in mitigating ADHD, specifically. I take them and notice a decline in mood and overall presence of mind when I’ve forgotten to take my pills for a while.
Big props for the PubMed link, hard to take anything else seriously.
I believe in good sources. Thanks for noticing ~
Interesting, thanks for the paper link, I’ll have to come back to that!
Added to the post
Could you recommend your supplement? There are a LOT out there.
I get whatever’s on sale.
Magnesium glycinate. Made every difference in the world for me - I still need my meds to perform at my best, but I can muddle through without them with magnesium and a good night of sleep
Added
This.
I’ll apply your “this” as a second person using it.
NAC - N-acetyl-cysteine. Psychiatrist recommended it for weaning myself off a THC dependency, but after reading a few PubMed-available research papers I found data supporting further research into its effects on ADHD.
Additionally, I kept researching in an attempt to improve brain fog and sleep issues I suspect are from long COVID. I found studies indicating NAC combined with guanfacine may help those symptoms.
I’ve found better results from 600mg NAC (standard daily dose is 1200mg) taken three times a day, and started 1mg guanfacine twice a day recently with plans to increase to 2mg twice a day in a week or two.
I would love to share the NIH papers with anyone interested. Educating yourself about your condition and its particular manifestation will get you far with an invested care team. I’m headed to bed bit will reply to any and every person interested in the research tomorrow morning.
The message I sent to my psych two days after she recommended NAC contained inline citations referring to the papers I had linked at the bottom. That due diligence communicated my dedication not only to my own care, but also to my dedication and respect for knowledge.
Don’t take random supplements recommended to you on the internet. Discuss their use with a doctor or, barring that, ground your decisions in science.
I personally had phenomenal results with decreased skin picking compulsions after my dermatologist recommended it. May not work for everyone but absolutely worth a shot.
May I ask what dosage you’re taking? I started at 1200mg twice a day for awhile, but ran out and about a week later noticed a worsening of my tics/hand-talking/dropping things issues. Started 1800mg (3x600mg taken morning/afternoon/night) once I bought more, but saw dosages of 2000-2400mg in a study or two.
600 mg/day. I have a history of responding to surprisingly low dosages of everything, though. E.g. I take the lowest available dose of methylphenidate that my pharmacy stocks, and usually split my sleep aid in half unless I’m really wired and need to knock myself out
I’m not a small or very active human, so it’s odd.
I added the NAC, but Guanfacine is prescription, so I’m leaving it off.
NAC without guanfacine improved several of my hyperactive symptoms and the other poster’s skin picking if you’d like to mention that in the post.
Also, I think it’s chelating effect on lead and other heavy metals in the bloodstream is valuable on it’s own since we’re still using leaded AVgas and such. Leaded gasoline is why engineers need history classes; the Romans showed us how great ingesting lead is, and then 2000 years we decide aerosolizing it sounded like a good idea‽
Doesn’t seem to be that much evidence, but I’m in the mood for a new supplement obsession - on it!
I looked back through my NIH history and you’re right about the sparse evidence for ADHD, actually. Looks like my interest in NAC, in addition to weaning off THC, came from the bipolar and autism angle, its ability to act a a lead chelator, as well as some tentative dots I connected between its glutamatergic effects and some reading into a mutation of the MC1R gene as passed down to me by my red-head mother.
Likely also conflated my more recent readings into the guanfacine+NAC combo for my brain fog and sleep issues and misremembered my findings from the initial research. Good catch, and an excellent example of ‘don’t listen to the internet dude.’
Here are some starting points
NAC https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8211525 - NAC review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763415001190
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35316513/
NAC+Guanfacine https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10960163
I hyper focused on my gut microbiome and the results are very interesting. No more anxiousness, amazing sleeps, and way better ment focus. Almost never forget things now. There is a lot of scientific support here too as the microbiome really does play a large role in our mental state.
It sounds like you’re improving your overall health. That’s always valuable.
Absolutely
What did you do exactly?
It was not one thing but months of things starting with a 7 day water fast then on to rice porridge and then onto streamed sweet potatoes and carrots and over time more and more options. It was brutal but my circumstances dictated such extreme measures as I had developed a severe histamine and glutamate sensitivity. AI was amazing at navigating it all, but it is not perfect so I used 2 AIs and many other sources to validate each step of the journey. I am honestly shocked it worked so well.
I got to get back there, too. I lived like that for a decade, back then no clue that ADHD was one of the main problems, and it seemed to help. But due to lack of “evidence” & a diagnostic that requires this, I slipped up. Now I’m the average eater with some good, some bad parts of the diet.
My diet was a kind of “low carb”, but not in the strict sense that it’s much lower than recommended, just much lower than the average sinner.
Tom Brady poop
The best supplement is regular exercise imo
Added. It’s not really a supplement, but improving one’s health can do a lot for stress and sleep. That can take some of the edge off the related ADHD issues.
Adding my own, and I just started these a month or so ago so I’m not entirely sure that the effects are correct, but they seem to be helping slightly.
Magnesium Glycinate
L- Threonate (1/2 dose, found it made me sleepy too early at full dose)
D
Standard multivitamin (no “extreme” values, everything is 100% or less)
Omega 3
I have absolutely noted a better sleep. Far less mind-churning time when trying to fall asleep. I would guess a little less brain fog and stress, but I don’t know if memory is any better. Having a little less anxiety does help a bit, because you’re not focusing on the stressful thing and have a chance to remember what you were supposed to. The last three I was taking anyway for general health reasons. The magnesium and L-Threonate I picked up just to see if they might help with ADHD.
Magnesium, D and Omega 3 are, as far as I know, all things where you gain a lot if you have a deficit that they compensate, otherwise nothing.
I too took shots in the dark, as I didn’t find a doc who was willing to do some more tests. But recently I found out that in some countries, you can just go to a lab directly and they’ll draw the blood.
Currently on Magnesium, too (Carbonate though), paused the D due to long times in the sun recently, Omega 3 currently through engineered staple foods & rape oil.
Added.
It’s super hard to “OD” on D, so probably not much need to stop it other than just not consuming the $ as fast. Added to the list.
afaik, 25µg D3 in combination with 20µg K2 should cover it in theory, even when there is hardly any natural source. Some supplement nerds have some reasoning for 100µg, which is near the upper bound of “harmless”.
Much more than that can be quite dangerous, though! One drop of the stuff I have is 25, so it’s not just theoretical.
EDEKA are the ones where too much is harmful.
Lions mane extract seemed to help me, before I knew I had ADHD. Just seemed like when I had it regularly I had less brain fog. I used a few ml every morning in stone water.
I stopped using it because it seemed pricey, and I only bought it from one guy at the farmers market because I know a lot of commercially available supplements dont have what they say they do in the US.
I should try to find another good source to see if it helps now that I have other things as well.
Also black coffee but fresh roasted / fresh ground specialty coffee seems to help way more. Grocery store coffee gives me heartburn
Added to the post
Just grow it, to be honest. Not that hard, though might be a little pricy?
I find a combination of St. John’s Wort and Lion’s Mane Extract help with my mood and focus.
Added lion’s mane. Which one do you use for what?
Lion’s Mane is for focus. St John’s Wort is for mood but as someone else has correctly commented, SJW should not be used if you are already taking any prescription anti-depressants as it can cause seretonin syndrome.
FYI, St John’s wart can affect serotonin, which can be dangerous if you’re on anti depressants.
It can also reduce the effectiveness of hormonal birth control.
