How To Cope With Adhd Burnout
There are some golden rules for preventing burnout that I think are crucial for ADHDers to remember. Here are a few:
1. Affirm your self-worth
Your worth is not dependent upon what you give to people, and your sole purpose in life isnât to make everyone but yourself happy. As the saying goes, âDonât set yourself on fire to keep others warm.â You are inherently valuable, regardless of how useful, productive, or helpful you are to others.
2. Practice saying ânoâ without apology
You canât be everything to everyone, and your capacity is not limitless, no matter what your brain tells you. Give yourself full permission to say âno, I canât,â âI donât have time for that,â âIâm not available at that time,â and every other variation on that. You may disappoint someone, sure! But you arenât responsible for managing other peopleâs emotions.
3. Overestimate how much time something will take
This is a general rule that I find quite helpful. Take the amount of time you think something will take â and double it. It may feel absurd at first, but itâs better to overestimate than to underestimate, and this will help you get a stronger sense of your limitations.
4. Commit to rest
Notice Iâm saying âcommit to restâ and not âpractice self-care.â
5. Ask for help when you need it
Itâs okay to struggle, and itâs okay to ask for support when you do struggleâwhether that’s therapy, your colleagues, an ADHD coach or a manager at work.
Coping With Sleepiness Caused By Adderall
If Adderall is making you very sleepy, talk to your doctor. They can help find the cause of this side effect and take steps to treat it.
If youre sleepy because you stopped taking Adderall abruptly and are experiencing a crash, theres no medication that can reverse your symptoms.
You should feel better within a few days to a few weeks. Talk to your doctor about how to properly taper off your Adderall if you want to stop taking it.
On your own, you can help cope with the sleepiness caused by Adderall by practicing good sleep habits. This includes:
- waking up and going to sleep at the same time each day
- having a relaxing bedtime routine
- avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and evening
- exercising regularly
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Adhd And Sleep Problems: This Is Why Youre Always So Tired
There is an important part of ADHD symptoms that hasnt been studied enough: How ADHD can cause issues with sleep. Neurofeedback is a potential remedy to these problems, but why do the problems exist in the first place? This two-part article will try to shine light on how ADHD can adversely affect sleep.
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Make The Most Important Decisions First
Every week, you can start your Sunday morning by listing the biggest decisions you know you have to make in the coming week. Is a coworker going on leave, and you expect your boss might ask you if youre willing to shoulder some of their tasks? Do you need to pick a topic for an essay due next week? Are you planning to buy a new laptop or make another large purchase?
Use that Sunday morning to make those decisions so that when the everyday choices of the week wear you down, you know that your fatigue at least wont impact the bigger decisions.
How Can I Boost My Energy With Adhd

Exercise Increasing dopamine in your brain will help you feel more energized, focused and in a better mood. Watch What You Eat Sugar is an energy zappers! Eat healthy snacks like almonds, fruits and vegetables. Drink water Dehydration increases fatigue, lets get hydrated and feel energized!
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Common Sleep Disorders Commonly In People With Adhd
In addition to generalized insomnia, people with ADHD have higher-than-normal rates of certain sleep disorders. Because ADHD symptoms often resemble the symptoms of these sleep disorders, underlying sleep disorders may go undiagnosed. Children in particular may have difficulty conveying what they are feeling, leading to a misdiagnosis of ADHD when in fact their problems stem from a sleep disorder. Or, they may have ADHD plus a sleep disorder.
Treating underlying sleep disorders is an important step toward improving sleep for people with ADHD. Ask your doctor for a sleep study to rule out any secondary sleep disorders that may need to be treated along with your ADHD. A good doctor should monitor potential sleep problems on an ongoing basis, as these tend to develop over time.
Why Adhd Brains Need To Recharge
Its like my car battery. If I leave my car lights on overnight, the battery will use all of its energy to keep them burning, but will eventually run out of power. Once I jump-start it, the battery will recharge with regular, smaller boosts generated by the engine.
If I permit my ADHD to leave me mentally exhausted, I need a large boost of outside support in this case, a change of medication. But if I get smaller, regular boosts from taking my medication every day I can operate normally .
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What Is Decision Fatigue
“The more decisions you have to make, the more fatigue you develop and the more difficult it can become, explains Dr. Lisa MacLean, a psychiatrist and chief wellness officer at Henry Ford Health System.
The human brain is like a muscle. It gets tired of working just like legs might get tired of running. As your brain reaches the point of exhaustion, you might find yourself experiencing some of these symptoms:
- Difficulty thinking clearly or staying focused on the decision
- Feeling easily overwhelmed
Why Does Adhd Cause Fatigue
There are several reasons behind the connection between ADHD and fatigue. For starters, ADHD affects motivation. When daily tasks become overwhelming and you struggle to complete them, it can lead to low motivation, which is similar to fatigue, especially when it becomes hard to keep up with responsibilities.
Dopamine Levels
Dopamine is one of the many neurotransmitters or chemical messengers produced by the brain. Dopamine allows us to regulate emotional responses and take action to achieve specific rewards. It is responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward. ADHD can affect dopamine levels, making it difficult for the body to respond to them.
Trouble Sleeping
ADHD sleep problems may be a side effect of impaired arousal, alertness, and regulation circuits in the brain. When your brain wont shut down before bed, its hard to get a full nights rest, and active thoughts can also make falling back asleep in the middle of the night difficult as well.
Burnout
Burnout is experiencing physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion. Additionally, it involves feeling things such as negative or anxious thoughts. Too much ADHD-induced hyperfocus and overperforming, coupled with subsequent trouble sleeping, will inevitably lead to burnout.
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The Truth About Fluoxetine: Does Prozac Make You Tired And Sleepy
The name of the drug, Prozac, sounds both scientific and clinical. But does it really? To many people, the drug sounds like a miracle cure for Anxiety and depression. With its therapeutic effects and the best time of the day to take fluoxetine is 20 mg, in mind, does Prozac make you tired and sleepy?
One of the side effects of SSRIs such as fluoxetine is it gives you fatigue and sleepiness, especially during the early weeks of treatment with an antidepressant. The reason why these medications cause sleepiness is that they inhibit the natural production of serotonin in your brain. Many people experience fatigue and sleepiness when they take Prozac. And while this side effect isnt common, it is possible for your body to react negatively to Prozac.
You should never stop taking Prozac without consulting a doctor first who can recommend changing the best time to take Prozac a=or help you taper off the medication. If you do, there is a risk that you will experience withdrawal symptoms like dizziness, anxiety, and agitation.
If you find that you or someone in your family is experiencing these side effects from Prozac, consult with your physician as soon as possible so they can help decide if the side effects can be managed or if it would be best to stop the medication altogether.
Although the harmful effects of taking too much Prozac are not common, there are some side effects of the medication that many people dont know about.
Contents
Why Do I Feel Sleepy After I Drink Tea
Caffeinated beverages like tea and coffee work as diuretics, which causes people to urinate more frequently and ultimately leads to dehydration. According to Worley, fatigue can be caused by a combination of factors, including dehydration, withdrawal from caffeine, and an accumulation of adenosine in the body.
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How Decision Fatigue Affects Different Areas Of Life
Struggling with frequent decision fatigue can make just about every part of your life more challenging. In your personal life, decision fatigue can put a lot of strain on your relationships.
If you tend toward impulsivity, you might not think through the things you say and end up saying something inconsiderate, offensive, or just not helpful. It can also lead to impulsive actionslike ordering that extra round of shots when you should have just called it a night or agreeing to foot the dinner bill even though you’re already over budget.
Impulsive decisions in the workplace can lead to mistakes and oversights in your work. The same is true for homework and class assignments if you’re a student.
Avoidance and procrastination can be just as harmful. If you often procrastinate or avoid giving a firm answer to friends about plans, they might assume it’s a lack of interest rather than decision fatigue. When your boss asks if you’d like to take on a new project, waiting too long could both signal a lack of ambition and hurt your chances of career advancement.
What You Can Do

If you have ADHD and trouble sleeping, you should tell your doctor. You might need a change in your medications to make sleeping easier, or you might do a sleep study to see if there is another underlying cause of your sleeplessness.
If youâve ruled out other causes, then your ADHD symptoms may be to blame. You may be able to improve your rest by doing the following healthy habits and routines. You should:
- Avoid napping 4 hours before bedtime.
- Avoid drinking caffeine 4 hours before bedtime.
- If you take stimulant medication, make sure you are taking it as early as possible.
- Have a calming bedtime routine.
- Go to bed at about the same time every day.
- Sleep in a comfortable bed in a dark and quiet room.
- Avoid looking at screens and electronic media in the evening.
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Tiredness Is A Common Symptom Of Adhd
Recent research has found a connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder . Specifically, studies indicate fatigue may be a notable symptom in adult ADHD. Therefore, healthcare providers should look for ADHD, or a history of it, in people with ME/CFS or other types of persistent fatigue.
This article explains ADHD fatigue and how to treat it.
It Can Be Difficult To Recognize Fatigue Until Were In Deep Though Especially When We Live With Adhd
So what to do? Everyones needs will be different, so check in with medical professionals to strategize around what habits will be most effective for you. But here are some general ones to get you started:
- Chill the hell out, in whatever way works. Work that stress out of your body with exercise, find some quiet with meditation, or get into a form of treatment that targets fatigue and sleep deprivation, such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Energy levels are
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Adhd And Fatigue By The Numbers
If it seems like youre alone, fighting ADHD and sleepiness, know that youre not! In fact, theres a growing abundance of studies that indicate that fatigue is a legit symptom of ADHD.
A 2006 study in Sleep found that children with ADHD had higher rates of daytime sleepiness than their counterparts without ADHD.
Another study found that up to 50 percent of kids with ADHD had symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing, while children without ADHD were only affected at a rate of 22 percent.
It is thought that sleep problems may make ADHD problems worse in a 2006 study in Journal of Sleep Research, researchers found that treating sleep problems actually eliminated ADHD in some kids.
Psychiatry Research found that sleep problems were also common in adults with ADHD. In this study, researchers compared participants who also had narcolepsy, hypersomnia, and ADHD and found that symptoms overlapped, indicating that ADHD may be misdiagnosed in some adults.
Maintain A Regular Sleep Routine
You can have quality sleep by adopting a variety of regular bedtime habits. Essentially, you should aim at going to bed and waking up around the same time every day. When you have a regular sleeping rhythm, it synchronizes your biological clock with other normal functions.
You can achieve a regular sleep routine by doing the following:
- Setting a regular time for going to bed and waking up
- Having a bedtime ritual like reading a novel before sleeping
- Turning off all distractive devices such as cell phones before going to bed
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Talk Through It Out Loud
If you have ADHD, your brain is probably loud. You might start your thought process about what show to watch with every intention of arriving at a decision by the end of it. But somewhere along the way, you find yourself needing to know who the tsar of Russia was in 1679. Three hours of a Wikipedia wormhole later, you dont have time to watch anything because you have to go to bed.
Sometimes, talking through your decision aloud can help cut through the noise and keep you on track. For example, when figuring out a show to watch, you might say what your main options are and talk through why you do or dont want to watch each one.
Adhd And Being Always Tired: Faqs
1. Is it true that people with ADHD do not run out of energy?
âNo, it isnât. People with ADHD get tired, too! Even though they appear to be moving and talking a lot, the truth of the matter is some people with ADHD experience exhaustion and fatigue frequently.
2. What causes exhaustion and fatigue in ADHD?
âThe traits and symptoms related to ADHD, such as hyperactivity and sensory overload, can lead to fatigue. These symptoms might also make it challenging for ADHD adults to sleep well and âkeep up,â further contributing to their tiredness.
3. How can you address fatigue and exhaustion in ADHD?
âThe best way to address ADHD-related fatigue is to manage the symptoms of ADHD. This is best done with the help and supervision of an expert mental health professional. Not only can they accurately point to the cause of your exhaustion, they can also provide you with the appropriate treatment.
ADHD & Being Always Tired â Written by The Mini ADHD Coach â Updated on Sep 14, 2022
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Sleep Disorders Tied To Adhd
Sleep disorders are more than a bad night’s sleep. And if you have one, it can steal your rest and make you more distractible and impulsive during the day. These conditions are so common among people who have ADHD that experts often check on sleep problems when theyâre diagnosing ADHD.
Some of the more common sleep disorders to watch for include:
Insomnia. Along with medications and trouble sticking to a schedule, there are other reasons people with ADHD are at risk for insomnia. You may get a burst of energy at night, along with racing thoughts that make it hard to get to sleep. Even when you do sleep, it might not be particularly restful — especially if you also have nightmares. And stressing out about being unable to sleep can make your insomnia worse.
Circadian-rhythm sleep disorders. Your body makes changes throughout the day to adjust to the amount of light and darkness in a 24-hour period. Sometimes your body may not be in tune with the cycle and might not release hormones like melatonin at the right time. That, in turn, can make it hard to fall asleep. Bright lights, especially artificial blue lights from laptops and tablets, can throw off your bodyâs inner clock.
Restless legs syndrome . Symptoms include limb discomfort and a strong urge to move your legs while you sleep. Some people describe the feeling as pulling, throbbing, aching, or itching inside your leg. About 2% of all people and 44% of those with ADHD have RLS.
Take Your Medication And Supplements

Have you taken an ADHD drug holidayand never returned? Or, do you just take your medication every now and then when you happen to remember it? Many of us who struggle with managing our ADHD symptoms can find that most of the problem starts with our medication and supplements. The same is most likely true for when ADHD and fatigue causes us problems.
If you have been prescribed medications by your doctor than you have them for a very important reason. That reason is to make sure you can keep your ADHD symptoms in check and maintain a regular daily rhythm. While any of us might take a short break from medication, any such break should stay short term.
Furthermore, any change in medication should only be made with consultation with your doctor. If you go off your medication without getting feedback from your doctor, the abrupt change can impact you far more than you think.
When our ADHD symptoms dont stay in check, we can have trouble sleeping, have trouble with our thoughts and anxiety, and generally struggle with keeping focus. All of these issues can add up to create regular fatigue. Instead of letting your ADHD symptoms run rampant, you need to stick with your medication and supplements to stay on track.
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