Stimulants and sedatives - paradoxical reaction

At the moment I am not on any pills but I self medicate.

I find that, rather than make me anxious or anything, caffeine helps me concentrate and, relax in a way. It generally doesn't interfere much with sleep, I don't think, because I sleep poorly most of the time no matter how much caffeine I consume.

Whenever I have tried sleep aids I have found they keep me awake worse than any caffeine binge.

Do you ever experience anything like that and do you think it makes a diagnosis of ADHD more or less likely?

I don't know much about ADHD or its treatments but do stimulants help you, and do they affect you the same as people without ADHD?

What you're describing is common for people with ADHD

There are tons of theories as to what actually causes ADHD but it is widely accepted that it's related to our brains either being structured slightly different or that our brain chemistry is different.

In my personal experience this has some interesting effects, such as the ones you mentioned. I can pop straight caffeine pills and go right to sleep yet if I take sleep aids I tend to feel more alert.

I'm not a medical professional so I won't even begin to theorize why this happens, I just know that I have experienced this phenomenon my entire life, interestingly enough though Nyquil and Zquil work incredibly well, as does melatonin.

It's typical for stimulants to have a sedating effect on people with ADHD - don't ask me why - seems totally counter-intuitive, right? But if you do some googling around, you'll find lots of places discussing this up to and including the neurological machinations that happen when someone with ADHD takes that sort of med. It's pretty fascinating.

Yes, I agree with that last part but I think that's because they include strong antihistamines.

Good to know. I thought it was just me, but then, I don't know anyone IRL with ADHD that's ever mentioned it.

I start to yawn excessively (not necessarily tired) when I take concerta + coffee. Or sometimes just concerta alone.

The funny thing is, concerta works best for me when I am slightly tired (from lack of sleep). If I have a good 8 hours sleep, I would start to yawn non-stop after taking concerta (even without coffee).

Am absoltuely restless today. Took a pill just now, but I think it is just the anxiety (over deadlines being missed) that is keeping me on my toes. My brain is starting to feel numbbbbb.

It's easier for me to sleep after I've taken a stimulant.

I also fall asleep on sedatives though. However, anesthesia doesn't really work on me. Strange...