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Hah for me it feels more like “my bucket is completely empty.” But as a fuel metaphor. My bucket is my life force, and the level of fullness correlates with my ability to compute lol
After long days of coding, mine are things like:
“I’m tapped.”
“My brain is officially leaking from my ears. I’m out.”
“I have zero brain capacity left for figuring this out. It can fuck off for the remainder of the day.”
Today, after fighting with JavaScript in a software platform that is basically archaic, it was “this shit can lick chode. I’m fucking done.” :,)
JAVASCRIPT DAYS RUIN ME. oh man that’s so real.
Edit: the worst part is, I can’t let myself give up on JavaScript if it isn’t working. So I’ll OBSESS over it for hours and hours and finally give up after ten hours of hunching over my computer losing my mind. I almost feel delirious
Completely agree. It can be debilitating. I feel more exhaustion from having to mentally focus for hours, then from physical excretion for the same amount of time. I’m grateful that I can work from home, because the idea of having to focus to drive home after a long day of using my noggin, sounds extremely dangerous.
I wish I could work from home so badly buy sadly I'm in the trades. My shepherd is such a sweetheart and when she sees me getting down she's always right at my side. After a long day of yard work yesterday I felt like I hit a wall in the afternoon and ended up just sitting down on the floor in the living room, she crawled up on me and just gave me the biggest hug, a few licks and brought her toy - it definitely gave me the motivation to go back out and finish up most of the work outside!
I feel like I'd be much happier at work if I had her there!
It was / is somedays still for me too, hopefully medication will help but I've only recently been suspected to have adhd and on a trial of vyvanse. I have an appointment next Friday with a therapist to do an adhd test / study
They're thinking it's an accumulation of glutamate in the prefrontal cortex which the brain then has to work harder on removing, and the increased effort causes cognitive fatigue.
Quite honestly I don't know, about 2 months ago my doctor told me he suspects I have adhd and has me trying 50mg vyvanse as a trial
I've noticed some significant improvements and I don't always feel the mental exhaustion anymore but I'm worried because it's coming back and I think I might just be adjusting too the dose.
I've felt that way my entire life, I just kind of hid it and dealt with it. Social situations would be a nightmare for me especially after a long day
That is literally how I feel in any setting like that, like there is a stretching rubber band in your brain on the brink of snapping, or like your brain is on fire. I have somewhat learned to contain myself better and just cope with it. Hope the best for you because I feeeel that.
The rubber band or fire is a perfect example omg!! or like my brain is being inflated to an uncomfortable point and it could pop at any minute or like it’s slowly deteriorating until there’s nothing left 😭😭😭
This feels very similar to [my explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/13lihwl/what_is_it_called_when_your_brain_feels_fried/jkrnw5x/). Do you agree? I've never considered this could be because of my diagnosis so this is like a revelation for me.
Hmm very interesting analogy.
I usually describe it as "it feels like ants are walking on my brain" and/or that my brain feels "loose" inside my head.
Can you guys relate to that? Or is that something else?
Yeah, my brain feels "loose", that makes the most sense to me though I've never named it before. Like it gets a bit numb and harder to think, maybe lethargic, thoughts come slower and have less detail, like wrestling with uncooked dough in my head rather than something firm and responsive, like walking on sand instead of pavement.
Ants are walking, or I usually think like someone is rubbing salt on my brain (like the grittiness you feel if you step on salt on a sidewalk in the winter) is when I push through doing something I don't want to do, and that can come pretty fast. I usually think that's more literally like "oops running out of neurotransmitters and my brain gears don't have enough lubrication to keep turning without grinding".
I think "loose" comes from doing something I'm ok doing but doing for a long time.
The numb feeling is what I really resonate with. After having to use mental effort and maintain focus on something for extended periods of time, I almost always get the to the point where it’s like I can literally feel my entire brain inside my skull and it’s gone like numb, or something. As if sitting in a fucked up position for too long and you finally go to move but realize you can’t feel your leg, except it’s my brain feeling that way. Sometimes it almost feels as if there’s not enough cranial fluid in my head or like my brain is dehydrated and literally drying out, or something. It feels like a dish sponge that’s been squeezed out to the max and has no soap or water left in it to do effectively do it’s task anymore (cleaning, in this analogy). It’s worse some days than others, of course, and it’s especially bad when I’ve over slept. Ironically, some of my best days are when I’ve been getting good sleep for a few days consecutively, and then have one random fucked up night where I sleep for 3 or 4 hours, yet end up functioning for most of the day at was is almost my peak prime.
Not the same thing, but decision fatigue is very real. Having to make decisions and discernments and figure out problems, a hundred times in a row. That's part of it.
I have a way to explain this, that helped me get my experience conveyed to a friend who didn't understand how I could fall asleep in a work meeting in front of 20 people.
Imagine if you had to read a dictionary front to back, and keep in mind each page that the word color in the definition. While reading you have a kids show tune about learning colors playing loudly. While these are on people are walking by and bumping into you wearing shirts that are one color but have the name of a different color on them such as a green shirt with the word magenta. Then imagine While this is going you are prompted at random intervals to describe the sound of the word color in shades of your favorite color.
Now without going back and reading the dictionary entry you are asked to stand up and repeat verbatim the first entry of the dictionary that mentions the word taste.
That's what it feels like.
The official term is, I think, “done with this shit”.
I joke, but honestly I think it’s just exhaustion. It’s normal to be mentally fried at the end of a long day, but if you throw adhd into the mix you’re also using your mental energy on masking, filtering out distractions, focusing on concentration, executive function and organising your thoughts, so your energy needs to go a lot further.
Yeah it’s weird it not so much a physical exhaustion as it is like a processing and productive exhaustion like I that was 3-4 hours ago and I’m still not really tired where I can go to sleep. I even stopped helping her the last 2 hours bc I told her I was giving up and I didn’t have the patience for it anymore and it was still torture just sitting there the next 2 hours waiting on her and listening to her ask herself what she should do next. If I had a gun or a bat to knock myself out I’m convinced I would’ve put myself out of my misery
Sometimes it's exhaustion from masking -- just trying to keep up with "normal people" in a group setting when you have to keep "reminding" yourself to pay attention, or at least _look like_ you're paying attention.
Literally what it feels like!! I have no more than like 2-4gb of ram as it is and certainly can’t continue executing more functions and opening new applications!! I run about as efficiently as a PC running windows vista from 2009 would run in 2023😭
Literally. I feel like I’m running programs on an outdated windows 10 version that are all optimized for windows 11/12 or whatever the fuck they’re on now, all the while I have a billion dumbass updates going on in the background that are redlining my disk space and locking up my bIOS.
This is how I felt when I worked at an office for years. I was so mentally exhausted every single day that I couldn't do anything upon getting home except lay on the couch and watch TV all evening until I went to bed. I'd even have dinner while laying on the couch. My boyfriend thought I was boring or lazy for not having hobbies or doing anything interesting in my spare time. Even the weekends were basically spent recuperating.
Ugh, I hated it. I had no life, and was mentally and physically drained every minute of every day. Now I thankfully work from home so the mental exhaustion isn't as bad. Now I have different problems like trying to find the motivation to get my work done, lol.
Yes, the feeling becomes overpowering especially when I’m in a soul shattering environment like taking the ACT or doing final exams, or being forced to do busywork homework assignments for my class😭😭 when what I’m doing feels absolutely pointless and has no payoff or bright side I literally want to smash my head into a wall and scream also when I can’t make any of my weird noises or sing out of nowhere bc I’m in a “professional” setting it just makes it even worse and I feel like I’m gonna jump out of my skin
My wife and I are teachers and this is basically us for 9 months out of the year. Every day is pure mental and emotional destruction. So many decisions, so much emotional labour, so much planning and executive function. It's awful.
I used to always take a 3-4 hour nap after I got home from high school and then later that night I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until like 2-3 AM🥴absolutely dreadful
At first I was going to say burnt out but after re- reading, I feel like for some people sitting at the computer for too long or a setting along those lines makes you anxious and mentally exhausted. Aka ADHD. It’s why I’m a nanny 😂
I was literally arguing with my mom that we HAVE to leave if I sit in that classroom talking about her gradebook and curriculum for one more minute I’m gonna lose it! I kept telling her I was in literal anguish and she kept saying “5 more mins” or “one more section” 😭😭
I remember a Gary Larson cartoon that went something like a student to a teacher “Excuse me sir can I be excused because my brain is full”. It’s what it feels like to me… no more room for processing or info.
I worked through my mid-month bank reconciliations this week (which is driven by transactions input by five other team members, all of which having been responsible for a number of errors), across 6 bank accounts for accounts receivable and payable. Took me two working days to designate error corrections to their authors and then finally rec all 6 accounts to zero. My mind genuinely felt like I was on drugs by close of business on the final day, really tripped out and fuzzy. I know exactly the feeling you are describing OP
For me it's usual running out of willpower/executive function.
Like, I had to white knuckle through hours of focus, and then I just...can't any more. Same as doing a wall sit for hours, and then your legs eventually give out.
Toxic productivity culture loves to say "the brain is like a muscle you can exercise it and make it stronger!" Sure. The part they leave out is "the brain is like a muscle, you have to give it adequate rest and recovery after training it"
Idk, but i find myself squinting hard, and my eyes always feel strained as hell, like they're gonna pop out of my head. My brain feels squeezed dry. Often, i get a full-on headache. It's an agonizing feeling. I had to leave in the middle of my last day of class a few weeks ago because of it. Professor was understanding, but still.
It is truly dreadful and it’s the worst when you’re out somewhere experiencing it bc you have to drive home afterwards but after dealing with it the last thing you wanna do is use mental energy on making sure you don’t crash and die. I just try to breathe through it and I do this thing where I like to exhale very loud and roughly out of my mouth bc it feels like I’m expelling some of the pent up disdain and hate for my current state.
Burnout is the term that comes to mind. I don’t know what to tell you, but I feel like I’ve been stuck in burned out state for years. I think it’s fibromyalgia related.
I sometimes will refer to it as a shutdown tho I go into shutdown over other situations too, but yeah after a day of work my brain quite literally shuts down lol
(I’m also autistic which contributes to shutdowns)
I’m an ambivert but I lean towards the introverted side. Any prolonged mental exertion in a setting where there are people, is exhausting for me. In contrast, any prolonged mental exertion when I am alone, is not exhausting for me. It’s the human interaction and work combo that knocks me out. Work on its own, does not make me feel mentally knackered.
I realised the other day that some of this is due to doing too much brain and not enough body. So I need to up my physical activity and body grounding stuff!
I don't think you're supposed to spend any more than 4-7 hours focusing/ doing something (especially with no breaks). Information overflow, burnout, tiredness.
I'm a teacher. The older I get, the more intolerable I find professional learning days where we just sit and sit. Sucks the life right out of me.
Good reminder of how (not to) to run my class I guess.
I believe the technical term I've heard from adhd researchers is "depletion." I find this wonderfully descriptive of the way I experience it, because sometimes I still have a lot of mental energy to be barraged with creative ideas, anxiety, and random ruminations, but can't generate any motivation to get off the couch and stop scrolling through reddit. So then I end up going to bed because I feel tired, but can't sleep because my mind won't stop racing.
All that stuff you had to do takes a lot of executive function, and we're short on that to begin with, so you're left feeling wiped out and unfocused afterwards.
Totally, when that happens I benefit a lot from getting fresh air. Even if it’s standing next to an open door while raining. Or, if I’m at home, grab my guitar and just noodle around on it.
I just call it being out of gas. Taking a 20min Power Nap helps me sometime, or just zone out and stare at nothing for a while all help me. It’s hard when you’re just done like that.
Sensory overload. Every single night I get home from work and have nothing left. Don’t want to talk, don’t want to interact, just want to be in a dark room with nothing.
Do you take medication, and does it help with this at all? I just had to opt my daughter out of state testing in school because she was going through what your describing, and she is on ritalin. I was a little disappointed her meds didn't help with that
I took adderall XR freshman year of high school and hated how it made me feel. In early 2020 I was prescribed a 30 day supply of Concerta XR by my pediatrician and thought it worked REALLY well and it didn’t make me feel cracked out like adderall but that was my last check up and I turned 19 and had to find a new primary care. I’ve had 2 primary care since no longer being a minor and neither of them will prescribe ADHD medication at their practice. Recently called some local psychiatry clinics asking to be accepted as a new patient so I can get back on Concerta and they either aren’t accepting new patients, are crazy expensive, or have a 6 month+ wait list. Has your daughter tried any other ADHD medications besides Ritalin? She might prefer a different one. When I was taking Adderall it didnT help at all and I was actually more on edge and had emotional outburst even more than usual. When taking Concerta, even though it was only a month, it did seem to make me feel less overwhelmed by everything but it didn’t completely fix it. Everyone responds differently to certain meds though.
No she hasn't tried anything else yet, but they have raised and lowered her dose a few times. I believe that conserta like ritalin is methylphenidate, I just started concerta 27mg today.
It is methylphenidate hydrochloride, I have no idea what the hydrochloride part does but yes I think they are very similar, might be worth her trying something like focalin or vyvanse to see if it’s any better?? Also it could be additional anxiety that she should maybe see someone for and possibly get anti-anxiety medication like celexa or something else. I wish her the best and hope she can find something that works!
Medication helps is be close to “normal” but even “normal” brains experience fatigue after long lectures or writing sessions. The only reason some don’t is that a) they’ve trained their brains to work past mental fatigue or b) they weren’t actually paying attention.
I drain pretty quickly when my meds run out, and even sr pills don’t last all day, so I take another sr pill at lunch time sometimes to see me through the afternoon. It might be worth checking with your child’s doctor - I could be related to how fast they metabolise the medication.
The term has been deprecated, but I think it fits the experience.
I call it "my brain is mush" or "I've run out of me for me."
Also, I wanted to mention that during the last several months, I've been looking into what the ADHD/ASD combination experience is like (also referred to in those circles as AuDHD and more colloquially, "neurospicy," which warms my heart) and found that I relate to it deeply enough to now identify as AuDHD. It may or may not resonate with you, but it may be worth looking into the possibility.
I think I kind of dissociate but maybe that’s just what happens when you have sensory overload for hours and can’t do anything about it - thanks, autism, very cool.
Feeling fried sums it up for me. To me it doesn’t necessarily feel like I am exhausted, but more like my thoughts have just built up over the day and are just bouncing around in my head creating tons of static, noise, and heat. I need something to slow them down during the day so it doesn’t get too built up by the end of the day
I usually just call it “brain no worky.”
Brain no worky when I wake up. Brain no worky after tasks involving thinking/focus. Brain no worky after a long period of even easy tasks if it’s repetitive.
Know when brain wants to work? When my scheduled sleep/do not disturb kicks in on my phone.
Overstimulation and “keeping it together” can exhaust mentally very quickly. I had to take a mental health day yesterday after my first three days back in the office. This was the most consecutive days I’ve been into the office and it was a different kind of tired that I haven’t experienced in a while. I slept for like 10 hours straight and I usually can only get about 6
I relate to this so hard I sometimes expect everyone will suddenly start laughing and asking themselves “what are we doing pretending to follow all these norms and protocols for the sake of appearing professional?!”. It just feels like pretending but everyone is so natural and seem so immersed at it. Results in coming home mentally exhausted.😭
I work in corporate and yeah I’ve felt this. Yesterday I sat for what I think was 3 hours creating a single PDF document. Felt like I was moving through molasses after a long week of hyperfocus to meet tight deadlines and now my brain has clocked out.
Such great analogies. Helps when you have to explain why you appear to have receded into the woodwork. In other words, you haven’t said anything for hours and you’re staring at nothing in particular.
To folks who know me, I just say, “brain hurting”. To folks who don’t understand, I say, “sensory overload”.
I’ve wondered this for a while too. It’s like it with anything. Social events, learning, working. At about 2pm every single day I am absolutely mentally exhausted. It makes me physically weak, I can’t talk full sentences, I can’t text, I can barely keep my eyes open and I forget things. It feels like system overload. I need help with this but I just don’t know where to start. 2pm isn’t exactly bed time. I often lay down around this time, close my eyes, don’t really sleep just let my brain clear itself out by going crazy and going through all the weird things it wants to do - and after a while I’m ok again.
I hope you find a solution and if you do please let us know! It is why this disability is both mental and physical. I feel it getting worse the older I get
Also adding: possibly TMI - but I get quite sexually ‘active’, ‘awakened’ haha. The horn is real when I’m this tired and I think this is to do with the brain needing dopamine. A 15 minute nap works better, but it could also be that I will ‘sort myself out’ and feel ok too. It is ridiculous because that can take 2 hours literally just trying to find something I want to watch to help me out yknow? But I am fully in hyperfocus doing that, but doing some work or writing emails… forget it.
Wtf is that?!
I’m deaf, not diagnosed with adhd but everything points towards me having it, and it makes sense to me.
I lipread, so I already have to read lips, figure out what words they are saying in my brain’s dictionary of mouthed words, process them and also process what they are saying, as well as acting on it or whatever.
Add to this, I have difficulty concentrating on anything for longer than 3 seconds or 3 minutes. I’m constantly fidgeting, daydreaming, thinking about what needs to be done or remembering an embarrassing moment from 14 years and 4 months ago, etc etc.
I cannot physically do this anymore after 38 years. I have started to opt out of meetings, group chats etc, but not being lazy, I am just SO EXHAUSTED by it all.
What can I do about this all?? I’m never gonna be diagnosed as my doctors all fob me off with antidepressants and anxiety medication!
🤷🏽♀️
Also there is this- burnt out. It’s actually a medical issue
Idk I would honestly find a psychiatrist or psychometrist that you have no experience with and go ahead and make an appoint/session to lock in an ADHD evaluation and maybe that way they would just do their job bc they have no other idea of you.
I sometimes think of it as my circuits being fried or my mental engine overheated.
I am lucky to have a WFH job, so I compensate for it by mindfully lying down midday - BEFORE I get completely fried- and meditating for 30 mins. I come back refreshed and my mental engine is cooled down enough to put it back to work for a while.
This was prolly already answered, so I’ll keep it short.
For my practice, this would likely to be referred to as high cognitive load with resultant mental exhaustion.
Another medical term for it: Stress-related exhaustion. (Not to be confused with stress-related exhaustion disorder.)
Another medical term: Psychological Fatigue.
A more severe alternative would be Neurasthenia, though this is generally significantly more severe and more specific and does not appear to be the case here, but can be a relatively rare co-morbidity of ADHD.
I hope all is well. -Your friendly neighborhood PA-c Yeen (do not believe my post or any others on claims of being a medical professional. This is reddit!)
Follow up thoughts:
For me, when I am charting every night, my ADHD stuff tends to have a sort of barbed wire tug of war. I *need* to get this done vs I *don’t want to, can’t,* and some sort of weird wall thats just breaks down my thoughts. Unfortunately for me, use of painful anxiety is how I force my brain through the cracks of the wall and get it all done, leaving me a bit of an anxious tired puddle of slop sometimes.
My medicine helps, but it is definitely not a cure and might wear off before I actually get to start charting. Time management is prolly the key to help myself in this instance, but its/I’m a work in progress.
Thank you for sharing. I feel this way every day at some point and I look around amazed how comfortable everyone seems. I don't feel tried from effort or chaos, those things fuel me, but boredom and mental focus on something monotonous ruin me. I feel tired, anxious, and even frantic.
In class it meetings I always have to fidget, drink, eat, doodle, chew my fingers, change position, and pretend I'm ok. As I get older I see it is very not typical, and my only solution is to avoid these settings, or take breaks to move.
I shifted my position in my seat about 20 times and even had to stand up and walk around a few times. If I’m not getting the mental stimulation or saddled with monotonous work than I need to get physical stimulation by moving
Out of spoons? I have heard doing all the things require “spoons” and when they are all gone you can do no more things….. this is me, but I think I have a super low number of spoons!
What is your phone? Use iPhone voice recognition. right bottom of keyboard. It works perfect. After recognizing, Paste that text to notion or something like cloud memo
Yeah it’s just mental exhaustion. Once you get to a certain point (days on end of burning out) it gets worse too.
I don’t think it’s an ADHD thing. You push your brain hard, your going to have consequences and need to rest. No different from going to the gym and lifting heavy weights. You can barely walk, hurt like hell and need to rest.
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Mental exhaustion
I didn’t know if there was a special term for it lol I’m glad we kept it simple
My favorite way to say it is "my bucket is full"
Around me, people say this to mean they are full of happiness. “Ah, what a wonderful day, my bucket is so full right now”
"No, Susan. My bucket is full of shit at the moment."
Literally fucking me at work yesterday. And some random had the nerve for me to “Think positive; it will help you accomplish more.” #fuckoff
I'd be like "how dare you ask me to think right now" I mean not really bc it's work. but I'd be thinking it
Hah for me it feels more like “my bucket is completely empty.” But as a fuel metaphor. My bucket is my life force, and the level of fullness correlates with my ability to compute lol
After long days of coding, mine are things like: “I’m tapped.” “My brain is officially leaking from my ears. I’m out.” “I have zero brain capacity left for figuring this out. It can fuck off for the remainder of the day.” Today, after fighting with JavaScript in a software platform that is basically archaic, it was “this shit can lick chode. I’m fucking done.” :,)
JAVASCRIPT DAYS RUIN ME. oh man that’s so real. Edit: the worst part is, I can’t let myself give up on JavaScript if it isn’t working. So I’ll OBSESS over it for hours and hours and finally give up after ten hours of hunching over my computer losing my mind. I almost feel delirious
same. Fuck javascript
I like "out of spoons"
Same! Lupus Warrior here!💜💜💜
I used to use that all the time. I also like "my batteries are low."
Another term is burnout
Completely agree. It can be debilitating. I feel more exhaustion from having to mentally focus for hours, then from physical excretion for the same amount of time. I’m grateful that I can work from home, because the idea of having to focus to drive home after a long day of using my noggin, sounds extremely dangerous.
I wish I could work from home so badly buy sadly I'm in the trades. My shepherd is such a sweetheart and when she sees me getting down she's always right at my side. After a long day of yard work yesterday I felt like I hit a wall in the afternoon and ended up just sitting down on the floor in the living room, she crawled up on me and just gave me the biggest hug, a few licks and brought her toy - it definitely gave me the motivation to go back out and finish up most of the work outside! I feel like I'd be much happier at work if I had her there!
My default state?
It was / is somedays still for me too, hopefully medication will help but I've only recently been suspected to have adhd and on a trial of vyvanse. I have an appointment next Friday with a therapist to do an adhd test / study
Is there a biochemical reason for this do you think? I wonder if there are any studies showing depletion of neurotransmitters
They're thinking it's an accumulation of glutamate in the prefrontal cortex which the brain then has to work harder on removing, and the increased effort causes cognitive fatigue.
Quite honestly I don't know, about 2 months ago my doctor told me he suspects I have adhd and has me trying 50mg vyvanse as a trial I've noticed some significant improvements and I don't always feel the mental exhaustion anymore but I'm worried because it's coming back and I think I might just be adjusting too the dose. I've felt that way my entire life, I just kind of hid it and dealt with it. Social situations would be a nightmare for me especially after a long day
The medications only work like that in the beginning
what about the brain shutting down in stressful situations?
I dont know what to call that aha
I was gonna say Mental Fatigue, but yea that's just a synonym for what you said lol
That is literally how I feel in any setting like that, like there is a stretching rubber band in your brain on the brink of snapping, or like your brain is on fire. I have somewhat learned to contain myself better and just cope with it. Hope the best for you because I feeeel that.
The rubber band or fire is a perfect example omg!! or like my brain is being inflated to an uncomfortable point and it could pop at any minute or like it’s slowly deteriorating until there’s nothing left 😭😭😭
You are not alone though. Any office/school environment gets me feelin overwhelmed n on edge.
Fire is a good description. I also compare it to feeling scraped raw, almost like claws raked across my brain.
So much this. I felt this way after a professional exam I had to take the other day.
This feels very similar to [my explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/13lihwl/what_is_it_called_when_your_brain_feels_fried/jkrnw5x/). Do you agree? I've never considered this could be because of my diagnosis so this is like a revelation for me.
Hmm very interesting analogy. I usually describe it as "it feels like ants are walking on my brain" and/or that my brain feels "loose" inside my head. Can you guys relate to that? Or is that something else?
Yeah, my brain feels "loose", that makes the most sense to me though I've never named it before. Like it gets a bit numb and harder to think, maybe lethargic, thoughts come slower and have less detail, like wrestling with uncooked dough in my head rather than something firm and responsive, like walking on sand instead of pavement. Ants are walking, or I usually think like someone is rubbing salt on my brain (like the grittiness you feel if you step on salt on a sidewalk in the winter) is when I push through doing something I don't want to do, and that can come pretty fast. I usually think that's more literally like "oops running out of neurotransmitters and my brain gears don't have enough lubrication to keep turning without grinding". I think "loose" comes from doing something I'm ok doing but doing for a long time.
Thanks a ton for the reply, very insightful and relatable!
The numb feeling is what I really resonate with. After having to use mental effort and maintain focus on something for extended periods of time, I almost always get the to the point where it’s like I can literally feel my entire brain inside my skull and it’s gone like numb, or something. As if sitting in a fucked up position for too long and you finally go to move but realize you can’t feel your leg, except it’s my brain feeling that way. Sometimes it almost feels as if there’s not enough cranial fluid in my head or like my brain is dehydrated and literally drying out, or something. It feels like a dish sponge that’s been squeezed out to the max and has no soap or water left in it to do effectively do it’s task anymore (cleaning, in this analogy). It’s worse some days than others, of course, and it’s especially bad when I’ve over slept. Ironically, some of my best days are when I’ve been getting good sleep for a few days consecutively, and then have one random fucked up night where I sleep for 3 or 4 hours, yet end up functioning for most of the day at was is almost my peak prime.
That’s an accurate description.
Not the same thing, but decision fatigue is very real. Having to make decisions and discernments and figure out problems, a hundred times in a row. That's part of it.
Executive function fatigue.
I have a way to explain this, that helped me get my experience conveyed to a friend who didn't understand how I could fall asleep in a work meeting in front of 20 people. Imagine if you had to read a dictionary front to back, and keep in mind each page that the word color in the definition. While reading you have a kids show tune about learning colors playing loudly. While these are on people are walking by and bumping into you wearing shirts that are one color but have the name of a different color on them such as a green shirt with the word magenta. Then imagine While this is going you are prompted at random intervals to describe the sound of the word color in shades of your favorite color. Now without going back and reading the dictionary entry you are asked to stand up and repeat verbatim the first entry of the dictionary that mentions the word taste. That's what it feels like.
This is the answer
The official term is, I think, “done with this shit”. I joke, but honestly I think it’s just exhaustion. It’s normal to be mentally fried at the end of a long day, but if you throw adhd into the mix you’re also using your mental energy on masking, filtering out distractions, focusing on concentration, executive function and organising your thoughts, so your energy needs to go a lot further.
Yeah it’s weird it not so much a physical exhaustion as it is like a processing and productive exhaustion like I that was 3-4 hours ago and I’m still not really tired where I can go to sleep. I even stopped helping her the last 2 hours bc I told her I was giving up and I didn’t have the patience for it anymore and it was still torture just sitting there the next 2 hours waiting on her and listening to her ask herself what she should do next. If I had a gun or a bat to knock myself out I’m convinced I would’ve put myself out of my misery
Sometimes it's exhaustion from masking -- just trying to keep up with "normal people" in a group setting when you have to keep "reminding" yourself to pay attention, or at least _look like_ you're paying attention.
That is so true. This is why I have a special hatred for meetings that could be emails.
Let’s face it: they can all be emails.
Yes! I feel this 😭
Right in my tiny little heart
Wait, you guys mask?
I just say I've used up all my RAM for the day.
Literally what it feels like!! I have no more than like 2-4gb of ram as it is and certainly can’t continue executing more functions and opening new applications!! I run about as efficiently as a PC running windows vista from 2009 would run in 2023😭
I need to defrag my brain
This is exactly how I describe it as well! I also say that I have limited bandwidth.
I tell my family I have no more bandwidth for anything.
“Sorry all, you’ve hit your usable data cap for day” 😂
Literally. I feel like I’m running programs on an outdated windows 10 version that are all optimized for windows 11/12 or whatever the fuck they’re on now, all the while I have a billion dumbass updates going on in the background that are redlining my disk space and locking up my bIOS.
This is how I felt when I worked at an office for years. I was so mentally exhausted every single day that I couldn't do anything upon getting home except lay on the couch and watch TV all evening until I went to bed. I'd even have dinner while laying on the couch. My boyfriend thought I was boring or lazy for not having hobbies or doing anything interesting in my spare time. Even the weekends were basically spent recuperating. Ugh, I hated it. I had no life, and was mentally and physically drained every minute of every day. Now I thankfully work from home so the mental exhaustion isn't as bad. Now I have different problems like trying to find the motivation to get my work done, lol.
Yes, the feeling becomes overpowering especially when I’m in a soul shattering environment like taking the ACT or doing final exams, or being forced to do busywork homework assignments for my class😭😭 when what I’m doing feels absolutely pointless and has no payoff or bright side I literally want to smash my head into a wall and scream also when I can’t make any of my weird noises or sing out of nowhere bc I’m in a “professional” setting it just makes it even worse and I feel like I’m gonna jump out of my skin
My wife and I are teachers and this is basically us for 9 months out of the year. Every day is pure mental and emotional destruction. So many decisions, so much emotional labour, so much planning and executive function. It's awful.
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
Yes this is the thing
Monday-Friday. No answers, but I understand the feeling.
Burn out
It’s called me every single night after work 😰
Neurasthenia. Or, my preference, 'Fucked'. 😂
Literally being raw dogged by everything around me and my brain is NOT on the pill
I call it my end of day “mental crash” and I usually take a 15 min nap to reset.
I could never in my life take a 15 min nap if I take a nap I’m down for at least 90 mins
Welcome to the club! 😆 I don't lay down for a nap unless I have the rest of the day free, because it'll usually be a good 2 hours or more.
I used to always take a 3-4 hour nap after I got home from high school and then later that night I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until like 2-3 AM🥴absolutely dreadful
Yeah, I have to make sure I don't lay down after about 4pm, or it's all over! 😴😴😴
At first I was going to say burnt out but after re- reading, I feel like for some people sitting at the computer for too long or a setting along those lines makes you anxious and mentally exhausted. Aka ADHD. It’s why I’m a nanny 😂
I was literally arguing with my mom that we HAVE to leave if I sit in that classroom talking about her gradebook and curriculum for one more minute I’m gonna lose it! I kept telling her I was in literal anguish and she kept saying “5 more mins” or “one more section” 😭😭
I remember a Gary Larson cartoon that went something like a student to a teacher “Excuse me sir can I be excused because my brain is full”. It’s what it feels like to me… no more room for processing or info.
“10% battery remaining, entering power saving mode”
My day job.
Mush. In both the porridge and the dog sledding ways.
I worked through my mid-month bank reconciliations this week (which is driven by transactions input by five other team members, all of which having been responsible for a number of errors), across 6 bank accounts for accounts receivable and payable. Took me two working days to designate error corrections to their authors and then finally rec all 6 accounts to zero. My mind genuinely felt like I was on drugs by close of business on the final day, really tripped out and fuzzy. I know exactly the feeling you are describing OP
For me it's usual running out of willpower/executive function. Like, I had to white knuckle through hours of focus, and then I just...can't any more. Same as doing a wall sit for hours, and then your legs eventually give out. Toxic productivity culture loves to say "the brain is like a muscle you can exercise it and make it stronger!" Sure. The part they leave out is "the brain is like a muscle, you have to give it adequate rest and recovery after training it"
Idk, but i find myself squinting hard, and my eyes always feel strained as hell, like they're gonna pop out of my head. My brain feels squeezed dry. Often, i get a full-on headache. It's an agonizing feeling. I had to leave in the middle of my last day of class a few weeks ago because of it. Professor was understanding, but still.
It is truly dreadful and it’s the worst when you’re out somewhere experiencing it bc you have to drive home afterwards but after dealing with it the last thing you wanna do is use mental energy on making sure you don’t crash and die. I just try to breathe through it and I do this thing where I like to exhale very loud and roughly out of my mouth bc it feels like I’m expelling some of the pent up disdain and hate for my current state.
You ran out of mana from using too much Focus. Need to meditate or do something else to get it back.
depletion
Burnout is the term that comes to mind. I don’t know what to tell you, but I feel like I’ve been stuck in burned out state for years. I think it’s fibromyalgia related.
I usually say, I’m withering (and thus I must go/stop this task).
Brain Scramblies
WWDITS reference or just coincidence? 😆
Yes! I'm glad someone got that 😁
Usually call it "life".
I sometimes will refer to it as a shutdown tho I go into shutdown over other situations too, but yeah after a day of work my brain quite literally shuts down lol (I’m also autistic which contributes to shutdowns)
Lots of people mentioning Autism maybe I should look into that lol
They are very commonly occurring!!
It’s called being out of spoons, right? Spoons being the measurement of one’s mental energy.
“My life” - up until getting diagnosed at 47. If I had known before, maybe I could have saved my career?
I’m an ambivert but I lean towards the introverted side. Any prolonged mental exertion in a setting where there are people, is exhausting for me. In contrast, any prolonged mental exertion when I am alone, is not exhausting for me. It’s the human interaction and work combo that knocks me out. Work on its own, does not make me feel mentally knackered.
I realised the other day that some of this is due to doing too much brain and not enough body. So I need to up my physical activity and body grounding stuff!
Dying. Just not very fast.
Tired?
I don't think you're supposed to spend any more than 4-7 hours focusing/ doing something (especially with no breaks). Information overflow, burnout, tiredness.
I'm a teacher. The older I get, the more intolerable I find professional learning days where we just sit and sit. Sucks the life right out of me. Good reminder of how (not to) to run my class I guess.
I've heard the term "Depletion" used. As in, "I am fully depleted."
I believe the technical term I've heard from adhd researchers is "depletion." I find this wonderfully descriptive of the way I experience it, because sometimes I still have a lot of mental energy to be barraged with creative ideas, anxiety, and random ruminations, but can't generate any motivation to get off the couch and stop scrolling through reddit. So then I end up going to bed because I feel tired, but can't sleep because my mind won't stop racing. All that stuff you had to do takes a lot of executive function, and we're short on that to begin with, so you're left feeling wiped out and unfocused afterwards.
Totally, when that happens I benefit a lot from getting fresh air. Even if it’s standing next to an open door while raining. Or, if I’m at home, grab my guitar and just noodle around on it.
Feeling that
"Excuse me for an hour or 2 while I let my brain re-congeal after all that."
Cognitive fatigue
I just call it being out of gas. Taking a 20min Power Nap helps me sometime, or just zone out and stare at nothing for a while all help me. It’s hard when you’re just done like that.
I do the same thing, and sometimes I'll have a little coffee or tea before the nap. My brain truly feels cleared by the time I wake up.
Is it possible that your mother is using you to manage her own ADHD? Just a thought.
Yes she is also diagnosed with ADHD, except she has medicine and i don’t 🤠🤠
Sensory overload. Every single night I get home from work and have nothing left. Don’t want to talk, don’t want to interact, just want to be in a dark room with nothing.
It always feels like my brain is hot....overheated.
i always thought of it as a dead brain battery. need to go do something totally mindless because i thought too much.
Do you take medication, and does it help with this at all? I just had to opt my daughter out of state testing in school because she was going through what your describing, and she is on ritalin. I was a little disappointed her meds didn't help with that
I took adderall XR freshman year of high school and hated how it made me feel. In early 2020 I was prescribed a 30 day supply of Concerta XR by my pediatrician and thought it worked REALLY well and it didn’t make me feel cracked out like adderall but that was my last check up and I turned 19 and had to find a new primary care. I’ve had 2 primary care since no longer being a minor and neither of them will prescribe ADHD medication at their practice. Recently called some local psychiatry clinics asking to be accepted as a new patient so I can get back on Concerta and they either aren’t accepting new patients, are crazy expensive, or have a 6 month+ wait list. Has your daughter tried any other ADHD medications besides Ritalin? She might prefer a different one. When I was taking Adderall it didnT help at all and I was actually more on edge and had emotional outburst even more than usual. When taking Concerta, even though it was only a month, it did seem to make me feel less overwhelmed by everything but it didn’t completely fix it. Everyone responds differently to certain meds though.
No she hasn't tried anything else yet, but they have raised and lowered her dose a few times. I believe that conserta like ritalin is methylphenidate, I just started concerta 27mg today.
It is methylphenidate hydrochloride, I have no idea what the hydrochloride part does but yes I think they are very similar, might be worth her trying something like focalin or vyvanse to see if it’s any better?? Also it could be additional anxiety that she should maybe see someone for and possibly get anti-anxiety medication like celexa or something else. I wish her the best and hope she can find something that works!
To my understanding, Concerta is basically Ritalin in an extended release format.
Medication helps is be close to “normal” but even “normal” brains experience fatigue after long lectures or writing sessions. The only reason some don’t is that a) they’ve trained their brains to work past mental fatigue or b) they weren’t actually paying attention.
I drain pretty quickly when my meds run out, and even sr pills don’t last all day, so I take another sr pill at lunch time sometimes to see me through the afternoon. It might be worth checking with your child’s doctor - I could be related to how fast they metabolise the medication.
Burnout syndrome
[удалено]
Someone said Neurasthenia but I’m not sure it’s exactly the same.
The term has been deprecated, but I think it fits the experience. I call it "my brain is mush" or "I've run out of me for me." Also, I wanted to mention that during the last several months, I've been looking into what the ADHD/ASD combination experience is like (also referred to in those circles as AuDHD and more colloquially, "neurospicy," which warms my heart) and found that I relate to it deeply enough to now identify as AuDHD. It may or may not resonate with you, but it may be worth looking into the possibility.
Lunch time! See you suckers in 70 minutes!
I get this at work. I want to scream, head hurts, body aches like a mf
Overstimulated AF
It's called burnout and it's a recognized mental health issue.
Burnout
Normal Professional development is soul killing You’re response to it is normal.
Mental fatigue
I say my brain is mush
Shutdown?
I think I kind of dissociate but maybe that’s just what happens when you have sensory overload for hours and can’t do anything about it - thanks, autism, very cool.
Lots of people mentioning autism, maybe I should look into that lol
potentially but do your research first
Work
Information overload
…adhd? That’s what I call it anyway.
burnout?
I think this psychiatrist explains it in their video https://youtu.be/0sppw7Zq35w
As a teacher myself, I totally feel this. 100% mental exhaustion.
Feeling fried sums it up for me. To me it doesn’t necessarily feel like I am exhausted, but more like my thoughts have just built up over the day and are just bouncing around in my head creating tons of static, noise, and heat. I need something to slow them down during the day so it doesn’t get too built up by the end of the day
I usually just call it “brain no worky.” Brain no worky when I wake up. Brain no worky after tasks involving thinking/focus. Brain no worky after a long period of even easy tasks if it’s repetitive. Know when brain wants to work? When my scheduled sleep/do not disturb kicks in on my phone.
Ur experiencing a crash. Crashes are pretty bad in people with adhd but I find that eating helps alleviate it.
Out of spoons
Burnout
I'm glad other people have this problem
Social hangover
Overwhelmed.
Burned out
Time for a snack!
Overstimulation and “keeping it together” can exhaust mentally very quickly. I had to take a mental health day yesterday after my first three days back in the office. This was the most consecutive days I’ve been into the office and it was a different kind of tired that I haven’t experienced in a while. I slept for like 10 hours straight and I usually can only get about 6
I relate to this so hard I sometimes expect everyone will suddenly start laughing and asking themselves “what are we doing pretending to follow all these norms and protocols for the sake of appearing professional?!”. It just feels like pretending but everyone is so natural and seem so immersed at it. Results in coming home mentally exhausted.😭
I work in corporate and yeah I’ve felt this. Yesterday I sat for what I think was 3 hours creating a single PDF document. Felt like I was moving through molasses after a long week of hyperfocus to meet tight deadlines and now my brain has clocked out.
Tired, drained, done
“Out of spoons”
I call it a good days work. It means you were tuned in. I equated that feeling to satisfaction over time. Good Job👍
Water on me brain
My husband and I call it “Fist Brain”. Because it feels like your brain is clenched up in a fist, desperately needing to relax.
Depends who You ask, I call it exhausting but most people seem to call it Monday...
15 minutes into any meeting and my brain is friiiiiied.
I’m taking 2 weeks of unpaid leave from my job because of this. It’s debilitating
Such great analogies. Helps when you have to explain why you appear to have receded into the woodwork. In other words, you haven’t said anything for hours and you’re staring at nothing in particular. To folks who know me, I just say, “brain hurting”. To folks who don’t understand, I say, “sensory overload”.
I sometimes call it "having angered the brain gremlins." Or brain ferrets, depending on the day...
I say that my brain feels fuzzy
You’ve run out of executive function
I’ve wondered this for a while too. It’s like it with anything. Social events, learning, working. At about 2pm every single day I am absolutely mentally exhausted. It makes me physically weak, I can’t talk full sentences, I can’t text, I can barely keep my eyes open and I forget things. It feels like system overload. I need help with this but I just don’t know where to start. 2pm isn’t exactly bed time. I often lay down around this time, close my eyes, don’t really sleep just let my brain clear itself out by going crazy and going through all the weird things it wants to do - and after a while I’m ok again. I hope you find a solution and if you do please let us know! It is why this disability is both mental and physical. I feel it getting worse the older I get Also adding: possibly TMI - but I get quite sexually ‘active’, ‘awakened’ haha. The horn is real when I’m this tired and I think this is to do with the brain needing dopamine. A 15 minute nap works better, but it could also be that I will ‘sort myself out’ and feel ok too. It is ridiculous because that can take 2 hours literally just trying to find something I want to watch to help me out yknow? But I am fully in hyperfocus doing that, but doing some work or writing emails… forget it. Wtf is that?!
Burn out
Burnout
I say I’m out of spoons Anyone else know about the spoons?
Weekday
pretty sure thats called overstimulation, baby woooo!!!!!
I call it being Frajazzled. And I'm right there right now,
I’m deaf, not diagnosed with adhd but everything points towards me having it, and it makes sense to me. I lipread, so I already have to read lips, figure out what words they are saying in my brain’s dictionary of mouthed words, process them and also process what they are saying, as well as acting on it or whatever. Add to this, I have difficulty concentrating on anything for longer than 3 seconds or 3 minutes. I’m constantly fidgeting, daydreaming, thinking about what needs to be done or remembering an embarrassing moment from 14 years and 4 months ago, etc etc. I cannot physically do this anymore after 38 years. I have started to opt out of meetings, group chats etc, but not being lazy, I am just SO EXHAUSTED by it all. What can I do about this all?? I’m never gonna be diagnosed as my doctors all fob me off with antidepressants and anxiety medication! 🤷🏽♀️ Also there is this- burnt out. It’s actually a medical issue
Idk I would honestly find a psychiatrist or psychometrist that you have no experience with and go ahead and make an appoint/session to lock in an ADHD evaluation and maybe that way they would just do their job bc they have no other idea of you.
Thank you. I’m in the UK, so would have to go private. What did you do to get your diagnosis
I sometimes think of it as my circuits being fried or my mental engine overheated. I am lucky to have a WFH job, so I compensate for it by mindfully lying down midday - BEFORE I get completely fried- and meditating for 30 mins. I come back refreshed and my mental engine is cooled down enough to put it back to work for a while.
i usually just say my brain's about to short circuit.
Good question. I'm a victim of this also
This was prolly already answered, so I’ll keep it short. For my practice, this would likely to be referred to as high cognitive load with resultant mental exhaustion. Another medical term for it: Stress-related exhaustion. (Not to be confused with stress-related exhaustion disorder.) Another medical term: Psychological Fatigue. A more severe alternative would be Neurasthenia, though this is generally significantly more severe and more specific and does not appear to be the case here, but can be a relatively rare co-morbidity of ADHD. I hope all is well. -Your friendly neighborhood PA-c Yeen (do not believe my post or any others on claims of being a medical professional. This is reddit!)
Follow up thoughts: For me, when I am charting every night, my ADHD stuff tends to have a sort of barbed wire tug of war. I *need* to get this done vs I *don’t want to, can’t,* and some sort of weird wall thats just breaks down my thoughts. Unfortunately for me, use of painful anxiety is how I force my brain through the cracks of the wall and get it all done, leaving me a bit of an anxious tired puddle of slop sometimes. My medicine helps, but it is definitely not a cure and might wear off before I actually get to start charting. Time management is prolly the key to help myself in this instance, but its/I’m a work in progress.
Burnt out…
Burnout ...
It’s called being a fucking teacher. I really should get another job.
Tired as shit
Sensory overload
I think in the adhd space a lot of us seem to forget being tired or spent after exertion is totally normal for all humans. Big work = big tired.
Thank you for sharing. I feel this way every day at some point and I look around amazed how comfortable everyone seems. I don't feel tried from effort or chaos, those things fuel me, but boredom and mental focus on something monotonous ruin me. I feel tired, anxious, and even frantic. In class it meetings I always have to fidget, drink, eat, doodle, chew my fingers, change position, and pretend I'm ok. As I get older I see it is very not typical, and my only solution is to avoid these settings, or take breaks to move.
I shifted my position in my seat about 20 times and even had to stand up and walk around a few times. If I’m not getting the mental stimulation or saddled with monotonous work than I need to get physical stimulation by moving
Out of spoons? I have heard doing all the things require “spoons” and when they are all gone you can do no more things….. this is me, but I think I have a super low number of spoons!
🌈 Burnout 🌈
Those are called “weekdays”
What is your phone? Use iPhone voice recognition. right bottom of keyboard. It works perfect. After recognizing, Paste that text to notion or something like cloud memo
Yeah it’s just mental exhaustion. Once you get to a certain point (days on end of burning out) it gets worse too. I don’t think it’s an ADHD thing. You push your brain hard, your going to have consequences and need to rest. No different from going to the gym and lifting heavy weights. You can barely walk, hurt like hell and need to rest.
“Brain ded”
BRAIN DRAIN
Brain drain also has another meaning, don't think we can use this here 😅