Ask HN: Should I medicate my ADHD?

It could be the case that you are working harder than you need to, im going to make an assumption about how you approach problems, hopefully its pertinent. I would recommend thinking critically about any given task before getting into the work. When assigned a task, I look it over and try to establish the plausability of its subcomponents first; think of this as reading the instructions and questions on a timed test before foolishly attempting to solve the first equation you see. I also try to think about who cares about that task, for what reason, and why; you can think about this as using the education you received leading up to the test, rather than using math you learned outside of the class and subverting the intent of the test.

I dont know what huristics and values will be most important to you, I dont know you; but I do think you could find an efficiency benefit from first evaluating a task based on that type of thought process, rather than immediately beginning the work.

It might be the case that you have enough systems and mitigations set-up in life that really only the parts that feel like superpower remain. Some part of that could be some degree of self-medication, i.e. I assume that many people that live on coffee, nicotine and spite do in fact have undiagnosed ADHD and switching coffee to some sort of modern amphetamine prescription would improve quality of their life.

I did get medicated fairly recently. Spent a year really flailing at work, in a way that was not usual for me, but I got to a team with little structure and deadlines, with a team-lead where we often didn't understand each other but not to a degree he would care?

I figured I hav adhd-like symptoms (the innatentive-kind) for most of my life and that I might be at a point I actually need help, took me several months to find a psychiatrist, she agreed that I fit the diagnosis, and in my country I basically had the choice between Strattera, Ritalin and Concerta. Tried Ritalin in mornings for two months and wow, for that time, 4 hours every day I could do stuff ... piles of invoices I have usually been avoiding for weeks disapeared. For the first time in my life I had the experience of actually finishing some work I thought was completely pointless. But I didn't like that after lunch I literally needed to lie down for ~hour.

Changed to Concerta, which is ~slow release version of Ritalin, effect is not that big, but still noticeable, I am capable of creating piles of invoices on Concerta, but when I take it I don't scroll on tiktok for 15 minutes before I gear up to get out of the car and go to office and instead I can just ... go work, and I like that.

I waited too long, until my wife and I were on verge of getting divorce, and I was struggling at my job. Medication put both back on track, but man do I wish I'd started earlier.