My doc thinks I have no ADHD but it is a trauma symptom. But I struggle.
I am exhausted because of the chronic stress. I find it hard to be organised. I am distracted by my thoughts about the issues with dad. Preoccupied with what to say to CPS-like people. How to make them see. Because of this my mind wanders during convos. And other tasks are harder.
This makes me do worse in life. And this be less likely to escape the situation.
One related problem: low iron.
How to overcome this?
Many of us have those exact same difficulties. They are from the brain and nervous system changes from trauma. I have no idea if adhd medicine helps mask the symptoms and improve functioning. Over time they improve a bit with therapy and healing the old wounds as it frees up your mental space. With you still dealing with your trauma day to day because it really isn't fully in the past in your case, it probably means you have to really focus on settling your nervous system as much as you can.
I recently got set up with neurofeedback and specifically a technique called the vagus nerve reset protocol. I don't know how easy it is to find someone but I'll ask my provider if there's a list of people. Neurofeedback can be expensive but this particular piece of it doesn't require complicated brain mapping and seems to only require 15 minutes a week so maybe it isn't too inaccessible. I've also seen that there are devices to do this approved by fda for ptsd. So that may be something to ask your medical provider about.
Anyway the thing that is being done to me during neurofeedback is that little electrodes are placed behind my ears and then wires are run down the front of my body on both sides that correspnd with where the vagus nerve runs through the body. I thought this was BS the first time it was done and just another gimmick to take money from people with trauma. So I definitely wasn't expecting it to work.
But without having to do anything it activates the vagus verve and send electrical impulses down the nerve so that it is at the same level of activation as it is in normal healthy people without complex trauma. It takes about 15 minutes. You sit there and it is like forced relaxation where no matter how anxious you are feeling, your body and mind and nervous system all relax and for me at least I started having these intense feelings of safety and protection and connection.
When I went home I was able to snuggle against my husband without feeling all triggered and scared and tense and reactive like i normally do and I started having all these dreams that would normally be nightmares but that instead were resolving in a way that left me feeling safe and protected instead of ending on the scary stuff with no resolution. That effect lasted 2 weeks till my next appointment.
Oh breathing calmly also started to happen naturally so I just felt more settled and calm because i could finally breathe.
After that I had my second appointment and the next day after treatment I sat in one spot pretty much all day focusing on a mental task from around 9am to 11pm. Normally I cannot focus. I jump up after 5 minutes of sitting down, forget what I was doing, do something else, come back and repeat without accomplishing anything. Around 5 pm I realized that I had been focused all day and how different that was for me so I asked about the connection to neurofeedback and learned that activating the vagus nerve helps you feel safe enough to calm down and focus. I did not know that would be a side effect but it was remarkable in how different it was. I didn't have to do anything different, it happened effortlessly.
There's been a lot of focus on the vagus nerve in cptsd recently but I had ignored it thinking it was just one more thing that wouldn't work. I don't know if the "natural" ways of stimulating the vagus nerve work but here's a little more information about the vagus nerve and cptsd and some natural ways to stimulate it.
I don't think it's going to solve the adhd-like symptoms completely but it seems like a promising thing to try.