I wasn't sure where to post this. Apologies if the administration believes it should have been posted elsewhere.


Does anyone else with the inattentive subtype have problems with extreme crashes after getting away from high stimulation environments where concentration is essential?

For instance, I can participate a 25 person seminar discussion without much difficultly, but once I get out of the environment, my ability to concentrate will evaporate entirely, and I'll get a raft of somatic symptoms from a headache to a degraded sense of smell. All of this can take up to 48 hours to go away, during which time I generally won't have the clarity of mind or concentration to read more than a paragraph or to decide what to eat. Doing anything feels like more stimulation than I can cope with. Indeed, after a three hour seminar I will almost always be near bedridden for at least 24h.

Is this kind of experience known to other ADHD-PI types?

I definitely have combined type ADHD and I experience the same thing that you have described so well.

I'm one of the "inattentive" tribe.At my last job where I was a front desk clerk in a low-income building, I basically had to sleep in the the first day I was off duty. I find forced interaction with numerous people to be fatiguing -- never mind the inevitable crises that came with that job.

Another ADDer who "crashes and burns".

My grandchildren have been out of school all week (spring break) and yesterday my daughter and I took them to WalMart, which is a tough place for me even during a weekday. Then got lunch in a crowded noisy restaurant. Then went to the Groomer's to have the dog washed and dried and his nails trimmed. Small shop, more than half a dozen dogs, and three large and noisy birds. Plus my grandchildren who were talking to the birds and the dogs and then getting bored. After awhile it was too much for me and I went out and sat in the van to wait. I think it was all too much for my 6-year old autistic granddaughter because she followed me out and sat quietly with me while we waited.

And then I came home and went to lie down (I also have FibroMyalgia and get tired easily) and I fell sound asleep. When my daughter worke me up to take the girls to meet the daddy for the weekend I was very grumpy and could only focus on driving, nothing left in me for conversation.

This is very interesting as it means ADHD-PI would explain pretty much all of my symptom set.

Are there any treatments that people have found particularly useful in combating these crashes?

I'm not presently on any meds but that's going to have to change, by the look of it, if I'm ever going to manage to work for a living.

The reason we crash, even from good things, is because people with ADHD/ADD have to work harder to do "normal" things. Medication makes it easier for me to function and lessens the severity of the "crashes", but I'm still ADHD. As I tell people, I was good at my job before my diagnosis and treatment, but medication makes it easier and leaves me with something left to function in the rest of my life. I don't always take a late afternoon dose of meds unless I have a lesson, social function or meeting in the evening. It was my prescribing psychiatrist who recommended the extra dose, if needed.