I know this forum is geared mainly toward people in college, but hopefully there are a few people out there who can identify with my situation.
I was diagnosed (or diagnosed myself - I'm finishing a degree in clinical psychology) one year ago and have been taking adderall xr during that time. However, because the adderall interferes with my sleep, I just started Strattera and have been feeling nauseated and sluggish, which does not enhance my motivation to work on this beast of a project. At present I am working on the first draft of my dissertation. It is an evil process. I'm a pretty good writer, but my writing process is verrrry slow and torturous because I am sort of anal-retentive when i write (perhaps a product of having written so many papers at the last minute, so what I wrote had to be good the first time) and I'm constantly going over what I've written and trying to perfect it. This interrupts my thought process, so I feel like I'm constantly starting over - not great when motivation and procrastination are issues for me.
The sheer length of the dissertation is just overwhelming for me. Though I have about 50 pages written, I probably have another 50-70 to go, and I already feel burned out and exhausted. I love the field and doing psychotherapy, so I know the effort will be worth it in the end, but it's hard to keep that carrot at the forefront of my mind when I started feeling overwhelmed and dispirited. Also, I am a very social creature, so sitting alone in my office for hours on end, staring at a screen, just sucks. I've thought about going to a coffee shop or something to work, but the scope of my project makes it difficult to transport to a different locale (lots of notes, articles, books, etc, that I need to have on hand).
I owuld love to hear from other people who can relate, either to the OCD writing style stuff, grad school trauma, or whatever else strikes you.
Thanks!

Hey there. I replied to you in the Adult ADD forum. So I won't copy it here.
Peace, bythesea

I dunno if this will help, so just take it as an idea. I am extremely anal-retentive with my writing, although it has gotten so much easier to keep a steady flow of words into my writings at a much faster rate. Than I used to since I started taking meds again. I am still usually one of the last one's to finish writing or taking a test, but then again, my writing is much better than their's and I get better grades on the things I actually do turn in. Although, I don't think its a bad thing, I would rather finish my assignments with all of my perfectionistic needs satisfied in a timely manner. I am getting much faster since I started meds. again and I get better everyday.

I remember w/o having my medication, I was obiviously OCD when it came to writing an essay, or research assignment. I would forget what I have written and since I am an extraordinarily aware individual, I would realize this most of the time and try to perfect everything I wrote, so it took extremely long to complete any writing assignment.