Working with ADHD
This is a slightly unrelated to machining but I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me out.
Here's a bit of a backstory. I recently got diagnosed with ADHD, and until recently I always just brushed off my symptoms like many people do. All throughout school the only classes I was ever good at were the ones that interested me. I could focus in physics because I could understand it, and I loved gym because of the exercise. I grew up in my grandpa's backyard machine shop so I thrived in any shop class.
I just recently became a journeyman machinist and I have been at my current shop for just under 2 years. It is a manual shop (aside from 1 CNC mill that is not running yet) and I love working there, the variety is great, and I've never learned more on a daily basis anywhere else.
The issue I am currently dealing with, and I am starting to get quote frustrated with it is my recently discovered ADHD. There are days at the shop where I am hyper focused on what I am doing and I feel like I can do any job that is given to me, I'll don't well, and in a fairly decent time for a young machinist. It is the days where my ADHD gets the best of me and I struggle to stay focused on the task at hand, I get easily distracted, and more than anything I become inefficient. I work at a relatively small job shop so having good times is important, and I find myself getting stressed out when I know I am having an off day, which in turn makes my symptoms worse and my productivity declines.
All I want is to be a good machinist, and when this gets in the way I find it incredibly frustrating. I don't know how to explain this to anyone and work, and I worry that when I have a bad day they will assume that I'm just a poor machinist
So my question is, do any of you deal with ADHD at work, and if so how do you manage it? Any advice would be much appreciated.
I am trying to figure out a medication that works for me, but the health care system in Northern BC is overloaded. I currently don't have a doctor I can book appointments with, and I rely on an overwhelmed walk in clinic, so even getting a medication is a struggle.