Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

I have a friend who discovered that ADHD was the root of a bunch of issues. They had developed some coping strategies organically that were contributing to other issues. Diagnosis and therapy made a dramatic improvement in their life.

Prior to that, I could excel in academics and my career IFF it was interesting or challenging. When it wasn’t, I couldn’t bring myself to focus. After diagnosis and medication, suddenly I could just do stuff. The best part is that my ability to hyper-focus on interesting work didn’t diminish, something I think most people fear when starting medication for ADHD.

I started on Adderall XR, which worked fine for a while. A better way to say that would be that I got used to feeling normal, and so was more aware of when I wasn’t. I noticed that it was wearing off right when I needed it the most, mid-late afternoon. In theory it’s a 12 hour release, but my psych said most people don’t experience that.

So, I shifted to Mydayis, which is the exact same drug, but with a triple release so it lasts longer. They claim 16 hours; IME it’s more like 10, but YMMV.

The other thing to be aware of is that depression is often correlated with ADHD. I was diagnosed with mild depression, but didn’t really think it was a big deal (I felt happy enough), so I didn’t treat it. Then this last winter came. I’ve been aware that I have seasonal affective disorder for years, and have always treated it with Vitamin D supplements. That didn’t work this year. I then bought a light therapy box, which also didn’t work. I already exercise regularly, so that wasn’t it either. I went back to my psych, who recommended Wellbutrin XL, at the smallest dose. As an aside, this also has an off-label use for treating ADHD if you’d rather not use stimulants. After precisely 13 days of being on it, I realized I did not feel mopey, despite it being a gloomy day. It was incredible.

I tried coming off Wellbutrin this spring, and it did not go well. My thought, and my wife’s, is that I had forgotten my previous baseline mood, and so it was a shock to realize the difference. AFAIK, and according to my psych, there are no known long-term effects from Wellbutrin, and I’ve exhibited zero of the known side effects, so I’m just on it for the foreseeable future.

Hope that helps, and I hope you seek professional help. Anecdotes are great for getting a variety of opinions, but they’re no substitute for a trained medical professional.

I think it became really obvious to me when I would require a ton of discipline to do assignments around making applications, but doing something like configuring linux from scratch was so personally interesting to me I could stay up nights and days without any external stimulation.

I found that medication (Methylphendiate 20mg) have definitely helped me focus, but the direction of what I'm focusing doesn't always yield productive results (hyperfocusing on reddit for example). I've also started worring that what I've really done is created a dependence, where eventually ill have to up the dose as what I'm currently on will make me feel like I did pre meds, and stopping will make me feel worse.

I hope you find a treatment that works for you OP, but I agree with other comments that you might have just discovered you have had ADHD all this time because its not 'onset'.

I've never heard of "late-onset" ADHD. Late-diagnosed, absolutely (I was diagnosed while I was in university), but to my knowledge there are no identified environmental causes that would cause ADHD to develop later in life. Professionals can help you determine whether you in fact have ADHD that was not diagnosed until now, or whether there are other factors.

For the medication, I currently don't use it. I tried some stimulants, but I have a non-operable arrhythmia (the good kind) situation which got worse every time I took the meds. With the help of therapy and my closed ones I've become better at regulating my emotions, so I don't feel the need to take medication. I still have some periods of hyperfocus or periods where my attention is certainly just all over the place, but then I just try to focus on stuff that is good to do when in those periods. Kind of stopped trying to force myself, a square peg, to fit through a triangle hole.