341–350 of 455 posts
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I am not professionally employable without ADHD medication. I'm willing to that risk for roughly $3m in career earnings.
But just think of all those extra years you could have living in a cardboard box and feeling like a major disappointment! Or missing out on being completely spaced out, depressed, or anxious during major life events in your family!
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> The (largely mental) hyperactivity is controllable, that is, I retain my creative ideas generation and interest in new things, but I am no longer governed by it, and As a person who is in their 1st week of medication, that is a HUGE relief. Thank you. I have a lot more to comment here but have a quiz (engineering undergrad) to do rn..lol. But I gotta say your description of you experience is the most comprehensive…
I got diagnosed as an adult and it was life changing for me, has been on them for 5 years. Here are some tips: 1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take them to do tasks to progress your life. ADHD doesn't prevent you from having fun, and having fun with stimulants is what makes them addictive. 2. Take regular breaks from the medication. You wont get much done the first day or two after, so don't plan on doing…
As others have said, this is definitely something you must discuss with your personal brain care specialist first.
What others have not suggested, and again this is something I have been able to arrange in conjunction with my shrink, is medication switching. Since each has slightly different benefits, I use a different medication on a workday than at the weekend or holiday/social time.
In this regard I've been fortunate to have access to a healthcare system, and specialists, that respect the individual and aren't reflexively invoking a) cookie-cutter solutions, or b) contrived histrionics about substances with abuse potential. The only raised eyebrow came from my pharmacist: "You're on both of these?" "Yes, but on different days, not together." "No worries".
NB: I'm hesitant to specify which medications, because individual responses vary dramatically, and advice gleaned from one person's experience may be exactly wrong for another.
Anybody else here thinks their ADHD influences some hoarding tendencies or fear-of-missing-out? I am basically a tab-opening machine. Whenever I come across any link that I feel might be helpful in some point in the future, I open it in the background knowing full well that I don't have time to look at it soon. Thank god for TheGreatSuspender, and SessionBuddy extentions.
ADHD is a problem with your dopamine reward system and there are studies that link ADHD to risky behavior and higher risk of incarceration e.g. committing crimes, gambling, drug and alcohol addiction, etc. (anything to get more dopamine production going besides taking prescribed stimulants).
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I see this repeated often and I've never been able to find a source for it. I do not believe stimulant medications affect people with ADHD and without ADHD differently. > Stimulant drugs do improve the ability (even without ADHD) to focus and pay attention. One function, which is reliably improved by stimulant medications, is sustained attention, or vigilance. Stimulants improve sustained, focused attention, but “sel…
>I see this repeated often and I've never been able to find a source for it. I do not believe stimulant medications affect people with ADHD and without ADHD differently. I'm sorry but you clearly haven't even tried to research the subject, so I'm not surprised you don't believe it. People with ADHD have been scientifically proven to have deficiencies in specific neurotransmitters, namely norepinephrine and dopamine.…
> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…
The difference is in frequency, severity and duration.
In my case I've spent north of 1000 nights in the past 5 years doing the dishes at either 1am, 2am or 3am because I cannot stop doing what I want to do and direct my attention towards the dishes until it's the absolute last possible minute of the day. Often then it's just so painful to me to do it. It nearly caused my marriage to break down because I would leave them undone. No matter what I try I can't get myself to do them straight after dinner. Night after night I would wonder to myself "I wish I knew what this was called". I didn't seriously think there was something wrong with me, I just couldn't understand why I couldn't , despite my best efforts, get myself to behave in a different way.
And that's just one facet of my life and how it affects me. There's more and they just pile up. When you add it all up together and you consider pound for pound how I'm doing you start to appreciate the frequency, severity and duration that can be considered pathological.
It presents pretty differently across people, but by and large a diagnosis is a huge penny dropping revelation.
Getting chemically treated for ADHD is one of the life-changing moments for me. I spent most of my teen years learning "good habits" thru counseling and all that jazz. It wasn't until I started Vyvanse that all those "good habits" that was taught to me actually made sense. All the meditation practice actually got put to good use when it comes to controlling anger. I do wish I hadn't waited 15+ years between diagnosis…
I have undiagnosed ADD. I know partially because I observe my own behavior, but also because once at a party I took adderall and while everyone else frantically danced themselves into a heavy sweat, I was compelled to go into the kitchen and do all the dishes and reorganize my closet. I don’t like how stimulants make me feel, even though I know they might make it easier to fit into society. It is probably hard to des…
It's also terrible for raising kids in my experience as because of the large genetic component it's likely one of your kids has it too. So now you have this little firecracker who won't sit still and bugs you near constantly while you just want to retreat into your world and get sucked into what it is that you want to do. You get frustrated and aggravated when they disturb you and they get frustrated and aggravated when you seem disinterested in the thing they're intensely interested in.
At least that's how it tends to go in my household.
I'm in my 40s and have suffered with undiagnosed ADHD my entire life. Two days after I suspected I had it I saw my doctor. One month later I was on medication. A few more months and I am in weekly counselling. For me personally, the positive changes from medication and counseling have been dramatic and immediate. After only 4 months, my coworkers impression of me is starting to shift for the better. ADHD is a serious…
I waited until 25 yrs old. Took a break for a bit but restarted at 33. I don't think I'll look back. The medication is such a night/day experience but it's only half the battle for me. Gotta break the bad habits (not filing away, not reviewing the day, etc).
Pretty late to this party, but I was diagnosed with mild ADHD at 35, but had lots of signs when I was younger. At 9, my parents were recommended by the elementary school I get medicated, but didn't follow through. To be up front, my ADHD is quite manageable through "tricks" similar to how the post describes but not as strict/many of them. At 35, I always wondered what it would have been like if I had been medicated.…
Really I've never seen so much nonsense in one place... congratulations though on finding a steady supply of a drug that you like, just don't pretend you're any different from the rest of us junkies.