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[Sickntired]

Anyone with Attention Deficit going thru menopause who has resorted to taking antidepressants alongside hrt etc?
 The antidepressants are Venlafaxine xr. Generally better in the morning .  Really forgetful, but more like a concentration problem after a certain point in day.  No sense of urgency,   the pills help mood swings to a point but really beginning to wonder the benefits versus the problems.  Feel slightly detached so some stuff im just not bothered by esp a course im doing.  Reading,  listening to the news etc (doesnt help my course) .  After i come home its worse,  7pm , i feel the next thing its 9pm and am starting to think wind down,  bed, too late to start anything, etc so getting less done at home.  I feel its a pattern im trying to break , as if im unaware of what im doing , just sit myself on sofa with dinner and tv is on i just forget ironing board has sat there for a fortnight and im behind on my course.   Every morning im annoyed at self for falling into trap again.   Anyone else experience similar with venlafaxine?

[CLKD]

Morning.  When do you take the medication and how long have you been on it?

I shut down occasionally because I am tired.  I can feel 'numb' until mid-morning, because I have very busy, involved dreams associated with medication.  I prefer these feelings to the deep depression. 

Do you make a list of chores: every evening I would write what required doing the next day, ticking off gave me a sense of achievement.  It showed what I had done rather than dwelling on what I hadn't managed.

[Sickntired]

Sorry for taking a while to reply,  a lot of it down to the medication.   My AD is recently diagnosed and explains much.  Ive spent most of past 20 yrs list writing.   Past mental health probs around time of kids in school , necessitated being organised.  Though i say it myself ive had problems long enough to become a strategist,  finding solutions.   Thanks to childhood problems i like to have an element of control over my life so a list is divided into what is necessary for the evening , after work or day off,  and what is needing done over a week , and future jobs needing done but can take a month to a year.  I do it this way as i have a lot of stuff going round my head,   some disappear in seconds (now) so often i cant get to paper to write it - partly return of meno lack of focus and pills making me apathetic.    The apathy combined with meno apathy i strategise for,  i push myself , reminding myself of what happens when i dont do stuff.   Im good at analysing how unfocused/depressed/apathetic/negative i am in relation to where i am on hormones /pills .
Since i started Venlafaxine the tiredness side effect has depleted,  my testosterone is working well enough, im not tired but lost body strength and a slight dip in cognition again but able to cover it at work but, i find focus is worse than usual because i feel a bit blocked/distant = i have little emotional connection to any task thats slightly( or a lot) boring.   I can push myself to focus but i feel like i go off on tangents with tasks , its hard to explain but i feel a difference.   Last few weeks have gotten steadily worse so im wondering if its more a estrogen low as progressing thru meno and venlafaxine has  just switched off some things ....🤔

[CLKD]

If the medication is helping stick with it for at least 6 months?   I feel muggy a lot but that is preferable to the depression.

You sound well organised, pretty much like me.  I can start on a task then deviate quite easily  .  It no longer bothers me ...... i.e. I'll see something to do in the garden, walk to the compost with the 1st bucket of weeds and see something that has to be done B4 I forget.  Housework the same, though I much prefer being outdoors 

What support are you getting with the diagnosis?

[Sickntired]

Its the questioning what i prefer...  The mortality fears have stopped, the negative rumination is deadened but my compulsive behavoiur is worse and as i said being detached to the point i get no actual feeling of joy , enjoyment.   I wonder if as is often said , the eastrogen lack isn t going to be topped up by anti depressants.   I dont know,  not sure any more.  I started an OU course and totally lost the push , although plodding through it.
I cannot complain about treatment ive been given , either meno dr or gp, all good but no, i was told i had A D and that was it.

[CLKD]

I am sure that there are support groups for most conditions these days.  Have a look at The National Autistic Association as a starting point and ask 4 advice there.

If you feel better overall, stick with it.  When I had compulsion to wash hands which happens when stressed  I made a list of when I should wash m y hands and ticked each time.  If I was going to the sink more often, I would stand and take deep breaths.  Also, I think that my kitchen sink overlooks the garden where there is a lot happening daily, helped to refocus my need to wash with soap.  [clear as mud ? ]

[CherrySG]

Its the questioning what i prefer...  The mortality fears have stopped, the negative rumination is deadened but my compulsive behavoiur is worse and as i said being detached to the point i get no actual feeling of joy , enjoyment.   I wonder if as is often said , the eastrogen lack isn t going to be topped up by anti depressants.   I dont know,  not sure any more.  I started an OU course and totally lost the push , although plodding through it.
I cannot complain about treatment ive been given , either meno dr or gp, all good but no, i was told i had A D and that was it.

It affects us all differently - my son, for example, is on Venlafaxine and is doing really well on it - but it took ages to work for him. Me, I've been on SSRis not SNRis - but my experience was exactly as you describe, where I have bolded the text. I don't know which I prefer either 

Re the compulsions, the ONLY useful bit of CBT I've ever been given, is - go and do the compulsion, extremely slowly and deliberately, whilst keeping your mind on it. Just do it once. If you do it > once, it's reinforcing the idea that you didn't trust yourself to do it properly the first time. I barely have OCD anymore. Mine was locking things, securing the house, car, whereabouts of keys, payment cards.

[CLKD]

It's surprising how quickly my need to hand wash sets in when I'm worried about stuff