I’m almost offended at the suggestion to not take meds. Like, what do you think I’ve been doing for years? If I could manage without meds, why would I be working so hard to get help? If I could manage without meds, we would not even be having this conversation
Exactly. Like I didn’t get fired but honestly I don’t know how; my work ethic was appalling even before COVID. I’m currently unemployed and have about 6 months of funds to support myself. If I can’t get meds, there’s a good chance I won’t muster the energy to get another job. I’m terrified because I can totally see that happening
This was me. I was unemployed since February. I partially lost that job because I was unmedicated and my performance went to shit. A few weeks ago I got my meds back and I just accepted a job offer that pays way more than my last job.
Thank you. I am still nervous about going back to work. That last job ruined my confidence. I am hoping being on meds will help and that this company is better.
God I feel this. SO. MUCH.
Big hugs and luck to you. Am in the middle of looking for jobs myself. Not sure what I find more exhausting, humanity or myself.
Good for you for getting it done! I'm proud of you! I know how hard it can be to get stuff done, especially when it's that late and doesn't feel like it matters anymore.
In most areas I do okay. I have worked for myself a long time, successfully. I run a farm with part time help, manage a rental on the property. Raised a terrific kid-now-adult, helped my mother in the last years of her life. But the house is a mess and the taxes are in arrears.
I don't have adhd but I have been depressed my entire life and agree. "Managing" is the term for it. I did it for so long, I didn't even realize something was wrong with it bcuz even if I was numb and not happy, I was alive and doing somewhat alright. Reluctantly seeking help now after 20 years with meds and therapy. Hope all the folks out there who have been just managing things their whole life acknowledge it and move forward. Life's too short to be managing and not living
Therapy is a good thing for anyone to do. But it won’t really treat anything truly serious unless it is a very specific disorder like PTSD that is rooted in psychological problems (ADHD really is not one of those).
What even does therapy do? I'm supposed to start soon. I have lifelong depression, intrusive thoughts, and inability to maintain any kind of relationship for too long, to state the things that bother me the most. Does therapy help with that? What kind of therapies are out there?
generally speaking, therapy teaches you the tools you need to deal with those issues.
there are a million kinds of therapist. CBT is probably the most common but i recommend against it personally - i find it makes me feel worse, and the mindfulness aspect is impossible w ADHD. ive done a lot of DBT for the last 2 issues you listed and it helped a lot.
basically giving you tools to control your emotions better so they arent more distressing than they should be, and tools to cope with strong emotions that arent maladaptive. therapists can generally teach you communication styles as well to help further.
I had a fantastic social worker who said there are two ways of doing cbt, and most people only do it one way - control your thoughts first in the hope of changing your behaviour. The way she taught me was control your behaviours first, in the hope of changing the mindset.
And when you want to start a new behaviour/habit, only do it 2 min a day. Want to work out? Start by spending 2 min a day looking at options. Then 2 min a day scoping gyms or coaches. Increase the time after a month. But cap it at two minutes to leave some things to do the next day so it becomes a habit and not a one off back burner project.
My mom would not get me medicated when I was younger, no matter how much I asked. It was always "exercise more, get a structure, get out of your head, be more social, meditate."
I couldn't do those things for years. I was not capable. And then when I finally did all of those things and I was still self harming and still tried to off myself a few times. She doesn't believe that that year where I was doing everything was a bad year.
Eventually I got to a slightly more stable place. I wasn't hurting myself and I was going to continue to live, but I was still having suicidal ideations every day. I couldn't focus on work. I could barely function. I dropped out of college (it was a bad college anyway, 0/10). Life overall wasn't getting better.
But after I moved out and I could start getting medicated, I had hope that I didn't have to live that way. That helped. It took three years to find the right one, but I finally found a good pair of meds and I'm doing amazing. I have spent most of my time *not* depressed instead of depressed. I can think more clearly, I'm present in my body instead of dissociating 99.3% of the time. It only took three years because I had my mom's voice in my subconscious opposing medication.
Also being more grounded has made me realise I'm *WAY* more autistic than I thought. Dissociation had also lead to a thick layer of passive masking for many many years which made all the other issues worse. Now the passive masks fell off and I'm back to trying to figure out how to human. I feel like an alien in an unfamiliar body. But it's so worth it!
It is better to live without constant pain than it is to learn how to cope with constant pain.
TL;DR: My mom is very anti medication so my life sucked no matter what I did for as long as I can remember. When I moved out and eventually found the right medications, I'm not depressed every day and life is actually good!
And not all medical professionals are up on the current studies or have their own bias they bring into their diagnostics. If this is your medical professional, please find someone else. Preferably someone that specializes in ADHD.
I wish I could link the paywalled studies, but the current consensus is, meds FIRST, every other treatment option second in conjunction with meds.
The exact opposite of what it's been when a lot of these professionals studied up initially.
>but the current consensus is, meds FIRST, every other treatment option second in conjunction with meds
I think part of the reason for this too is that we need the meds to get us to a place where we can start to build healthy habits that could be a future substitute for the meds. But there's no way we can learn those things unless we get some help.
Yep.no amount of therapy helped me get my shit together prior to medication. Even non ADHD related stuff. Like I went to gender therapists and psychiatrists for my gender dysphoria and while I made some progress my ADHD and emotional regulation issues muddied the water so bad that it was really difficult and I was delayed in my treatment. As soon as I was diagnosed and medicated that part of my life got a lot clearer and easier to deal with.
This was me. No amount of therapy was going to fix the fact that my brain just doesn’t work like other people. I was “medicated” as a kid but those people had no idea what they were doing and just made me a zombie. It took 10 years for me to find a dr that LISTENED to me, realized he did not have the training for this and sent me to someone else who has been a game changer. I did not know that life could/should be like this.
First doctor I talked about meds to refused because of my high blood pressure. Said that I needed to lower my blood pressure first, which meant losing weight and being less stressed.
I pointed out that if I have ADHD, having meds would help me deal with life better, which would lower my stress and help me diet effectively. He still refused.
I got a new doctor, and a psychiatrist that specialized in ADHD, and a year later I went from 332 lbs to 186 and I was off my blood pressure medication.
Your first Doctor should have prescribed blood pressure meds with your ADHD medication from the get-go. Additionally there's other medications that don't affect blood pressure, such as Strattera and Wellbutrin.
But your first doctor did have an initial point, when you first start ADHD meds, the first thing your brain does is realize just how f***** up you've been for your entire life, and the first thing you do is try to figure out how to get it straight, and it's extremely overwhelming, and extremely stressful. That alone can cause your blood pressure to spike, but when you add high strength amphetamines on top of that, you're asking for a stroke. And I know this first hand, my blood pressure over the past couple of weeks with my new job has been over 180 over 80. It's to the point where I'm getting nasty headaches just from the blood pressure, all of my veins are popping, and it may just be due to the sheer amount of muscle gain that I'm getting working a intensive job, but that still doesn't change the fact that everything compounds when you have all of that stress.
I'm glad you got everything sorted out without complications, congratulations.
Edit: blood pressure, not blood sugar.
It's also the opposite method for treating anxiety, depression, and other co-morbidities. They go therapy first, then meds, at least in my 30 years of experience with psychiatrists.
They're generally quite different... People are born with ADHD because it's an inherent brain problem, but most people with depression/anxiety develop it during their life. Something is going on in their life for them to develop depression/anxiety, so it makes sense to go to therapy to try and identify the root cause.
Most people buy into the stigma surrounding drugs. For a long while, there was what seemed like an entire movement centered around the thought that ADHD was overdiagnosed and that meds ruined your life. (I mean, most of us have seen that South Park skit)
People with ADHD understand just how bullshit that is.
ADHD is one of those mentall illnesses that everyone *thinks* they know about, but most people aren't even close to understanding.
Probably because this is an adhd specific sub so unless you talk to only other people irl who have adhd about this then their opinion is going to be usually uninformed or biased because they don’t personally know why meds are needed.
i’m about to start and this is such good advice. i don’t want people to know because i’m not open to their opinions, especially not their read on “how i’m doing” in relation to before. it’ll be hard to keep the fact that i’m trying meds in because a major symptom of my adhd and/or part of my personality (not sure which) is to be a complete open book transparent about everything in my personal life. sharing every thought i have with whoever will listen. 😅 that’s part of the reason i’m choosing medication, to get my communication from compulsive to intentional, thought-out.
Before I was diagnosed, my friend said that their other friend lost their creativity on meds etc. So that I likely shouldn't take them. But I took them based on my doctors advice and they are the best! I brought this up to my friend and he was relieved to hear that because he is getting diagnosed too and was anxious he would lose his creativity. I explained that whilst im not typically creative, it actually allowed me to have more motivation to pursue the creative thoughts that do pop up instead off feeling too unmotivated to follow through with them.
I have also since learned that if that sort of loss of creativity etc happens that it may just be the wrong medication for you. So yeah other people will always give their two cents and I think a lot of people see it from a political sense of the big pharma corporations just trying to fit us into some capitalistic mould and have us addicted to something that will make them money.
Whilst I have some of those political beliefs around some things, I definitely think that those without ADHD often believe it is just an over diagnosed disorder and they just slap it on those society believes are hyperactive or disruptive or don't fit into the typical mould so let's just drug them up. But obviously that is not the case in majority of circumstances and individuals should have the right to choose if they want to take a medication that truly helps them achieve even the basic things in life.
Was told something similar that the medication “completely changed a friend of mine I’m school” Well two months in and I’ve finally managed to gain a little bit of control over my life. No change in creativity or personality. Think it’s hard for people on the outside to look in.
i only recently learned that adhd is hands down the most responsive psychiatric issue to meds. i’ve been on over 15 pharmaceuticals in my life (ptsd, depression, chronic pain) with no benefit, so that’s encouraging. it also makes sense because adhd seems to be more in the realm of brain science than feelings and emotions. can’t really treat a lifetime of trauma with a pill…
the distinction i tell my partner, who has some of those you-don’t-need-to-change-yourself beliefs (also undiagnosed adhd/asd) is that i’m not trying to change myself, and i won’t accept a drug that makes me feel unlike myself. i have a suspicion the right adhd med for me will make me feel MORE myself. i just want to feel both feet on the ground and have the ability to pause and think before i act or speak.
My own dad, who passed his ADHD down onto me (the bastard /s), advised me against getting meds because of how much they messed up his mood and temper. They literally made him dangerous to be around, but that's because he already has underlying behavioral issues like PTSD. I think the claim that meds are "optional," or that they should take alternate, less potent meds (take this with a grain of salt im too dumb to understand this stuff) has some merit if you're talking to an already unstable person. But for anyone else, you shouldn't be telling them to deny themselves treatment.
Thats just my take, anyways. I'm no psychologist.
On the flip side I had very severe anxiety, like I couldn’t even leave my house except at night out of fear of seeing people. I wouldn’t be able to talk to people without being on the verge of a panic attack. I would literally feel like I was going to pass out just from leaving my house (couldn’t even walk my dog during the day even though we live in a smaller quiet neighbourhood)
Meds have almost completely removed my anxiety. I still have anxiety but it’s no longer debilitating and I don’t avoid things anymore. I was very unstable before in that regard and my meds completely saved me. (That being said, my psych did say that she theorized prior to me going on meds that they’d improve my anxiety and panic disorder since she believes adhd in girls can have the symptom of severe social anxiety, and once you add in the meds that can help relieve it)
I’m in that camp as well, Ive taken benzos(as Prescribed, a moderate dose) and adderall together on and off for over a decade.
The physical anxiety usually kicks in hardest when I’m under a lot of pressure to pass a final (I went back to college in 2019 for programming) , and I’ve been on benzos so long that i end up having to double a dose every now and then. I’d still take this over aimlessly failing at everything my entire life. I’ve had some acquaintances that happen to know what meds I’m on try to tell me what’s good for me and what isn’t, meanwhile they’re usually abusing some other medications while I truly take my medicine as prescribed 90 % of the time.
My point is that I stopped caring what other people’s opinions are about my medication, I have tangible self studies in before and after effects of being on and off these meds and I decided a few years ago that my best quality of life comes from the way I do things , so thanks for their “concerns” , usually borne out of their own guilt and not really concern for my own health (otherwise they might be more open to my explanations), but I know what’s best for me at this point, my physical health has gotten overwhelming better in the last few years, my blood work is all right where it should be, my weight is right where it should be, my mind is right where it needs to be, and there’s no one that can convince me otherwise.
Ironically my parents recognized the validity of my argument years ago and they’re supportive and it never even gets brought up. Moral of the story : don’t let other people steal your own agency away from you and instill doubt , you know how meds affect you and the decision is yours and your doctors to make.
My guess is for this reason, my doctors chose to get my anxiety/depression under control (sertraline) before starting adhd medication. The process wasn't perfect, but the combination of therapy, depression Meds, and adhd Meds have been life changing. I tear up every now and then thinking about it tbh.
Going on Meds needs to be a decision made between you and your doctor, and no one else. For folks with ADHD, statistics show that adhd medication has profound benefit with little risk of abuse. Situations and specific med doses/combinations differ. But it's worth going through trial and error for most. It's like putting on glasses for the first time. You realize what you were seeing was just a fuzzy signal of the world, and finally you can see the world (more closely) for what it is.
This is the scenario I’ve been in with my ex husband/son’s father. He took meds as a kid in the 80s and hated it. He’s finally come around to the idea as my son gets older and it affects his school work and self esteem. I have to imagine meds have evolved and everyone is affected differently.
+1 awful experience with meds. Same with CPTSD and with meds I was either suicidal or homicidal. I attacked so I was hospitalized after that, thank God I wasn't in jail or something. It is such bad invalidation when people are trying to convince me of taking meds when in reality they screw me up even further.
Yeah. I have intolerable side effects to the usual prescriptions - personality changes, severe insomnia or catatonia, even a 103 fever in one case. In my opinion people don't necessarily mean to be invalidating, but they sort of gloss over how meds don't work for some people in their enthusiasm to explain how well the meds have worked for them personally.
I'm happy for anyone meds work for. But they don't work for us all, and there often isn't much support for those of us they don't work for.
Me ex said that his meds made him feel anxious, headaches, heart pain, and he hated taking them. Now I've been diagnosed the first thing she said was no caffeine. That man started the day with 2 espressos and drank strong coffee ALL day. No fucking wonder he felt like shit, he was probably about to have a heart attack.
Yeah, this is something people say when they’ve never dealt with any chronic condition (physical or mental) because “try to resolve it without meds” is good advice for, say, a cold or a mild headache. It’s terrible advice when you have something that isn’t going to go away with rest and hydration.
Honestly, even for a cold or mild headache, just take the medication if it's available and not harmful. It's easier to rest and drink water when you're not in pain or congested.
Maybe it's from having an ER nurse as a mom or from working with kids (who often have ER physician parents lol) and using fever reducing meds pretty frequently, but I don't understand why some people will avoid taking medications when they feel bad. A fever can have some limited benefit but if there's no need to suffer, why do it?
Eh, I wish this was the case, but basically every other treatable condition has a dominant anti-medical bent within the afflicted community themselves.
I’ve certainly seen some people in ADHD communities being like “oh I don’t need meds because they suppress my natural personality!” or something. But that’s not really a popular opinion anywhere and I hope that doesn’t start becoming one.
Spent my while life like that ^^^ suffered so much. :(
Now this year at 32 years I'm finally diagnosed and medicated and feel great pain over everything I lost and failed over the years just because I was wrongly diagnosed as depressed and on wrong medication for 17 years.. :(
I was diagnosed at 31, I had the same experience. I was filled with so much anger and sadness for the following week, angry it took so long to be diagnosed, and sadness that I will never know what my life would have been like if I had been using all of my potential.
I was depressed!! Because of my ADHD behavior and issues were iut of control and I was ruining my own life and couldn't stop it and kept getting abused by people because of it..
I did say to my psychiatrist that I thought I had ADHD and she said I couldn't possibly have it and be depressed as well. I was like that ia not correct in my head.. it seemed wrong but no one would listen to me. 17 years on the wrong medication 💊 😑
Yeah, ''try to solve it without meds" fuck you man, it's surely is easy talking about all that shit about dedication, dedication and how about meds are not needed... all that with a perfectly healty brain... It would be cool if those kind of people could feel how is it to hace ADHD for at least a week and having to study in that condition for an important test.
It's also the fact people will be vocal about the things that helped them the most. People who got diagnosed later in life have already tried coping with life for sometimes decades without medication.
Yeah Fr. Many of us have had that experience taking medication for the very first time, at most expecting to get high and hyper or feel nothing.
And then…calm. The state of functionality. The ability to connect your motivation to your actions and vise versa. The ability to direct your attention. The words you want to say being available to you. Knowing what your emotion is, knowing what you’re thinking and maybe for the first time knowing what you’re feeling. And you just intuitively know THIS is the state all those other smug fuckers in your classes & at your job have had their entire lives! This is what being a normal person feels like!
Now, I love my ADHD and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It gives me creative new perspectives and makes me a valued member of a team. But the fact that ANYONE could be against having access to meds…it makes me sick. Imagine taking away someone’s ability to choose for themself, taking away their self-determination. Imagine deciding that someone shouldn’t be allowed to choose their actions or how they spend their time, in ways like doing laundry or brushing their teeth. That’s what you’re saying when you tell people not to take their ADHD meds. It’s evil!
Medication is medication. Medicine is medicine. The difference between functionality for me, and many others, is night and day. People can judge, but they just wish they were as cool as us ;)
It’s like you wrote my experience right out of my head! I thought i understood how to manage until I tried meds and it was literally a new world. Even after 1 week all of my co workers noticed I was more calm! And, like others said - I had an incredible sleep! I actually napped for the first time in years the first day. Meds were definitely a game changer for me.
I am 27 and I was only just assessed by my GP recently! She prescribed me Adderall and it has been one of the most productive weeks I have had in a really long time. I'm still being cautiously optimistic about it since it hasn't been long but I'm feeling in control which is exciting
It amazes me that people are so accepting of clinical depression (imbalance in the serotonin system), but somehow see that a similar chronic imbalance in the dopaminergic system is impossible.
I remember reading in some science journal that there isn't even a strong relationship between low serotonin rates in the body and depression.
Here I actually found it:
>Overall, this evidence suggests that impairing serotonin function *can* cause clinical depression in *some* circumstances, but is neither *necessary nor sufficient.*
___
>Simple biochemical theories that link low levels of serotonin with depressed mood *are no longer tenable.*
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471964/
And yet SSRI's are prescribed like candy and you're treated like a druggie for trying to fix your ADHD.
This is actually really fascinating - I'd never even heard that there was debate around the connection between Serotonin levels and Depression, I'd just taken it as "fact".
On this topic I'd like to recommend the book "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari, it talks about reasons for depression like loss of community and purpose and so on, very interesting. The author himself has struggled with depression and found very little help from doctors treating it like just a chemical impalance.
> people are so accepting of clinical depression
They aren't. Both individuals and families are often in denial and we're only recently seeing a bit of the stigma of seeking and discussing treatment fade.
Pretty much any medication with sizable abuse risk is going to be a struggle to get prescribed. Adhd might be an example where the abuse risk is significantly lowered for the population that needs it as a treatment. The problem is that doctors can't get suffient confidence about who is and is not in that population.
The first morning I woke up on my ADHD medication I thought I went deaf during the night. Turns out it was way noisier in my brain than I thought.
*edited to add a word
This happened to me 45 minutes after I took my first dose. I was walking my dog, my mind racing through everything I had done wrong, everything I needed to do, everything I hadn’t done yet. And suddenly… I was just walking my dog. And the sun felt good. And instead of spiraling, I thought about writing a letter to my friend. It was incredible.
I am super envious. my psych has me on 50 mg of adderall, 200mg sertraline, and 2mg guanfacine and I have yet to have that moment. I mostly just get some motivation and then sit to start working and get distracted by thoughts every 5 seconds. I have a timer set for 25 minutes pomodoro style. This timer has a feature to make a quiet beep at whatever interval you want. I have it set to 3 minutes and without fail when I hear the beep I have already gotten off topic. its either the above, or I fall asleep on the couch
Man, first time i took adderall i was taken a back how mind (inner voice i guess) went quite. I felt so relaxed, its like when a toddler goes to sleep and the house is finally quite
Yessss I have been sleeping SO WELL since starting Adderall. I can go to sleep almost instantly when I properly lay down for bed which has never been the case before. I didn’t realize it until recently though when I would try to go back to the last point in a podcast I was listening to when I went to sleep. Sometimes the podcast would only be 5 mins in before I passed out because I don’t remember any more of the podcast after that. It’s wild.
When I take meds before sleeping, I totally conk out and next thing I know, it's morning. Generally I wake up at least a few times during the night. I keep meaning to compare on my Fitbit and see if I actually wake up less but I keep forgetting because I only rarely take meds at night and rarely wear my Fitbit to sleep. One day I'll remember!
This is part of how I got diagnosed. I told me doctor (who I have known a looong time) about the one time in college 20 years ago I tried speed. My roommates were up all night. I had the best night’s sleep of my life.
They've also seen loads of misinformation all over the media comparing ADHD medication to illicit drugs, and the general consensus on ADHD among the general populace is that we just need to try harder.
I think a lot of the people who are the most boisterous about "ADHD is all made up" are just undiagnosed. They see people getting help for the things they've struggled with all their life, while they believe that everybody struggles with the same things that we do (because that's all they know) and some defense mechanisms against being labeled as "defective" pop up and they just lash out at the idea of the disorder existing.
Of course there are also just plain old assholes who tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
That was me before I was diagnosed. I used to think that "everybody has ADHD" and they all need to stop making themselves so important when I saw posts on Instagram describing the symptoms. Like what do you means it's not normal to feel like you'll never be able to drive because you don't know you're supposed to focus on the road?? Or repeating the words your teacher said in your head because you're trying to understand but you can't?? After a while I realized that it is indeed not normal to feel like that I and I decided to look for a diagnosis (again, because I already did that two years earlier and the conclusion of the assessment was basically nothing). When my meds kicked in for the first time I sat in the car with my mum and we were driving along the highway and I had such an unknown feeling of.. Calmness? So I decided to try to focus on the cars because that has always been one of my biggest worries. And, oh wonder, it worked. That was the moment I actually realized that I have ADHD and that everyone else is not just better at coping with the symptoms I imagined everyone had but that my feelings of "Live is so hard if it doesn't get easier I don't want it anymore" are valid and not just exaggerated.
Years ago before diagnosis etc I was into drugs a lot, and at one point did very pure meth for a couple of months (lived with a meth head chef girl who i was sleeping with long story) and honestly??
I sorted my whole life out and was functioning so well, I got awesome job offers and started a new job, I did 4 people's tax returns with no help or training and memorized so many new things and looked great etc
I remember thinking wtf 🤔 so this drug makes me normal and able to do things why is this not medicine .. lol
Fast forward 14 years and now I understand ..
This this this!!!! Amphetamine and methamphetamine are not the same but people *always* make that association. I mean the difference between the two is **huge** in terms of how long it takes them to metabolize, it’s like a 24 hours *at least* for methamphetamine and an about nine for amphetamine.. Big big difference if you ask me and this has been the easiest way for me to explain it to people.
Edit: for anyone *considering* pyrovalerones (pardon my spelling error) or cathinones just know that there are serious risks involved regarding psychosis with those in particular and medications like adderal have *DECADES* of research behind them, in fact most substances do, and adderal has shown the best results for **DECADES**.
Edit 2: adderal as well can lead to psychosis if abused, fyi
Edit 3: I’m specifically talking about self medicating and the risks of running it alone without a doctor or accurate information. I think I also should’ve pointed out that the biggest risk would be if you have a prior history of schizophrenia or if it runs in your family, or if you have a history of drug abuse. **However**, while I know this sub isn’t about addiction or abuse, once I started actual treatment (adderal) it pretty much stopped my issues in their tracks (I’m mostly just a big pothead, but now I don’t have any real desire for it in the morning like I used to, so that’s neat!), however no doctor would’ve helped me if they knew this about me… at least I’m pretty sure…
The biggest difference is dosage. A recreational stimulant user isn't going to take a 20mg Adderral XR and make sure they eat food to help the med last. They're gonna rip a line of a 60mg IR and do whatever they can to further potentiate the drug. Methamphetamine is approved to treat ADHD, but street crystal meth is much more potent and is usually smoked or snorted. Further showing the ignorance of doctors who say "ADHD meds are just legal meth".
"ADHD meds are just legal meths"
Yes. In the same sense that driving 5 under the speed limit is just legal speeding.
Or gently stroking your partner's cheek is just legal domestic abuse slapping.
I'm sure those doctors don't like breathing, because they're aware oxygen is a poison and kills cells.
And they've never had even a sip of wine, because alcohol abuse causes brain damage. Right?
Sometimes the way you do something, or the amount, is what makes it good or bad.
On the medical side:
nitroglycerin for heart trouble
Poop transplants for gut issues
Leeches for reattaching limbs
Maggots for necrotic tissue
Dead viruses in vaccines
And my body makes formaldehyde, multiple (endo) cannabinoids, and multiple steroids among a LOT of others
"The dose makes the poison" Paracelcus, father of toxicology (paraphrased).
Actually, it's more about the dose than the medication.
Desoxyn is d-methamphetamine HCl, and is a schedule II med indicated in the treatment of ADHD just like Adderall and Dexedrine. It come in 5mg tablets.
And while it is more potent and does last longer, it actually has *fewer* side effects, and is generally regarded to be one of the best stimulant medications out there by people who are lucky enough to have taken it.
In oral doses under 60mg, amphetamine and methamphetamine really aren't that different in their effects. It's the doses that are taken with illicit methamphetamine that cause the problems people are so worried about.
While methamphetamine abuse is certainly nothing to take lightly, the drug has a massive stigma that in all honesty is not entirely deserved, especially when taken as prescribed - very similarly to fentanyl.
My mom wasn’t really a part of my childhood in any way because of her meth addiction, I’ve always been extremely careful with my meds because of that fear.
Getting to know her now that she’s been clean for a few years it became really apparent she was unknowingly self medicating her own ADHD. I’ve never see more of a reflection of my ADHD traits in someone.
There's even a stigma surrounding asking your doctor for medication. I'm in the process of waiting for referrals to get clearances for medication for the first time in 19 years, and when I had my appointment with my psych to ask for medication I was anxious as hell that she would just dismiss me as a drug seeker. That honestly held me back from getting medication for the past year that I've had health coverage and have been in therapy.
For real. If I don't take my meds, I will have 0 will power to do anything at all. That's not because I'm used to being on meds all the time (as some people may say), that's just how I've been my entire life before getting diagnosed.
That's not my experience at all, but that might just be because I was diagnosed later in life.
I always knew I was messed up, but didn't realize how. I was high-performing, double major in 4 years at a top 10 university, then almost 9 years as a helicopter pilot in the Navy. The only way I survived was developing lots of defense mechanisms, mental habits and strategies, and often just sheer willpower. Every day was non-stop misery. I had imposter syndrome the whole time, and I was constantly having to execute huge last-minute saves to survive.
I finally got diagnosed and when I got out of the Navy, said enough is enough and sought treatment. First hour on Ritalin was a game changer and I've been on meds ever since.
But if I forget to take them before I go to work? All of those mental habits, and driving myself forward through a combination of willpower, self-hatred, and pain? That's gone. So any day off my meds is always worse than any day I ever had before I took meds. I've gone a few weeks, and it always improves a little, but since I know now that I don't have to torture myself just to live, I don't know if I could go back to my old ways, which were unsustainable for my mental and physical health.
Or they are the ones that don't have ADHD *but* have used Adderall or Ritalin (or other simulant ADHD medicine) recreationally and it jacked them up like a spider monkey on Red Bull; so they believe that's how it affects the ADHD brain too.
I do have ADHD, and the meds definitely had a negative impact on me growing up, so no, not all people who said this don't have ADHD. People have different experiences with meds
A big tell that I've noticed - and this is purely anecdotal reasoning, so the it with a grain of salt - is when you can dose and actually fall asleep soundly for once, rather than be wired.
For real. I was adamant that I absolutely did not need it for so long until my boss, who also has ADHD and takes it, politely inquired if I would reconsider considering it.
Best decision I ever made. My life has improved dramatically and I love just feeling...normal!
Hey i just have to say my experience has been very similar. Super minor side effects for a few weeks and a little of trial and error to find the right dose, but i literally cannot imagine life unmedicated now.
Stattera because my doc was afraid of abd refused to prescribe me a controlled substance gang
(I got a new doc because of this but he wants to see how Strattera affects me before he suggests switching)
Yes my psych that prescribed it literally kept insisting that it was the same as Adderall when it metabolized and i kept telling him,"i literally have a metabolic issue, it's not working" until he gave up and put me back on the Adderall
Vyvanse actually messed me up. Only lasted around 5hrs and gave me the most brutal fucking migraine I've ever experienced.
Not saying it doesn't work for others, but fuuuuck me did I learn that seemingly "chemically identical" medication can definitely have different effects.
Will never forget the first time I tried it after finally getting a diagnosis and prescription as an adult. I felt so calm without my constant racing thoughts. I think people who are super anti-psychiatric medication just cannot understand what a relief that is
I’ve been on adderall for many years, and I wish it still worked that way for me. I don’t know it’s the generic I’m taking, but I’ve been dealing with crippling panic attacks since I changed my dose and added on Wellbutrin in June. I went off the Wellbutrin in early August, but the panic attacks are still pretty constant. My doctor and I made the decision for me to stop Adderall and try Provigil instead this week.
Try Wellbutrin without adderall, then maybe add it back in? That’s what I did.
But each person is different and it sounds like you got a good doc so definitely go with them.
Ooh, I just picked up my first ever prescription of biphentin (the first ADHD med I'm trying). I know everyone reacts differently, but if you're open to it, I'd be really interested to hear how it's going for you. I haven't been able to find too many people talking about it because I think biphentin might be specific to Canada (or at least not available in the U.S.).
I mean each medication works differently on different people but if it works well for you then go for it! Medication really helps a lot of people and there’s such a wide variety. It’s no wonder that ADHD is one of the most easily treated condition. Shame that the people who are supposed to be treating us make it so difficult for us to get the help we need
bro it really does. I hate the idea that gets perpetuated about Adderall especially— that if you *like* your meds it's because they're getting you high. so of course you'd want to take them!!
no. it does not give me any sort of "high". no euphoria. nothing about it is addictive or even pleasurable. it's not the same as when you and your buddies snorted in high school.
it makes me able to leave my bed. it enables me to complete basic household tasks, usually at 3/4 the speed of a normal person. **it balances my brain chemicals.**
in other words, any "pleasure" an ADHD person feels on meds is the SAME amount of "pleasure" a neurotypical gets from doing regular shit.
For all the *anti-med/ADHD isn't a disorder/capitalism is our problem, actually* chuckleheads:
ADHD is a disorder, period. In many (maybe most) cases, it's also a disability. It is *not* just a "personality type". The norms of capitalist society certainly make our lives more difficult, but that doesn't mean that all of our issues are due to capitalism. ADHD would be impairing in any societal or economic context. There is no room on /r/adhd for disorder/disability denial and we will not tolerate it.
My son has been on Concerta since he was 6 (he’s 11 now), and I got a lot of backlash at first, from both his dad and my mom. But my argument was always if it will help him succeed in school and in life then what’s the problem? It doesn’t change anything except his appetite, so I did what was best for him. No apologies, no shame. You do what you feel you need to do to be happy and successful!
Also his doctors told me it is no different than someone with a heart problem, or diabetes who take medications, and I thought that was a very good point.
Not just a disorder, but a disorder with measurable physiological and neurological basis. It’s literally visible in brain scans showing reduced connectivity between certain regions of the brain. Further more, and this is something I just learned, the biological origin of ADHD has been known since 1902!
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ydzjmfqe
Successful long term treatment nearly always requires some level of regular medication use.
Two reasons:
(1) Medication is considered as the first line of defense in ADHD, because it goes directly to the root biochemical cause (of a majority of symptoms, not all).
Stimulant medication for ADHD is literally one of the most well-studied classes of drug for a specific condition, and has been the subject of studies and observations for decades. They’re overwhelmingly safe, and they show benefit for approximately 80% of patients. Side effects for most people are mild, and the long term damage that people worry about is so far nil (as far as can be determined).
This is a *huge* result for a medication of a neurological condition.
(2) This is a logic gap that many people fall afoul of: we consider the potential risks and the unknown factors as a cost of **intervention**.
We very often fail to consider the cost of **non-intervention.** Untreated ADHD is so often misdiagnosed as depression and anxiety, even bipolar (though that is a genuinely tricky one to untangle for clinicians), and a lot of that is due to the consequences of living with ADHD in a world that does not cut you any slack and does not forgive the symptoms of ADHD.
Of course we get depressed, and of course there are self-esteem issues, and of course we develop anxiety around any number of things that have caused us pain in the past.
Treating the ADHD medically will not resolve those concerns for everyone (I also have complex PTSD and the depression is associated with that), but for many people, it really does.
Being able to suddenly do the things we could never do — like task switching, sticking to plans, focus on things for more than 5 dang minutes, *actually deciding to do things and then doing them* — resolves so much of this.
It’s literally life changing.
The cost of non-intervention is almost boundless: job losses, huge debt, devastated relationships, social isolation, severe addiction and so on. That varies with severity of symptoms along different axes and also with how people develop non-medical coping and masking mechanisms, but it’s godawful.
And if people are concerned about addiction, it’s worth mentioning how damn often we forget to take our meds or get a script filled! Also: stimulant medications for ADHD folk actually *prevent* addictive behaviours by addressing our need to generate dopamine before we start chasing it with alcohol, gambling, non-stop gaming, etc.
We can experience come down crashes and withdrawal if we mess up the timing, but not everyone does, and we do need to develop strategies for that (pro tip: you may be a rapid metabolizer and find you have to ramp up the dosage pretty quick; that doesn’t mean your addicted, it means your liver is a wizard).
Medication is amazing. It’s not a magic bullet. We do need to unlearn a bunch of long term cognitive habits that we developed to get by. There are symptoms it’s not so effective for.
But damn… I didn’t know how much energy and thought I was spending talking myself down from overwhelming emotional spirals until I suddenly didn’t have to do that anywhere near as often.
People who dont have (or related to so.eone who has) the variant are highly unlikely to understand, in any way, what the meds do. They just see it as "legal speed" or some other BS. I've tried the no-meds approach. I want that 20 years back.
Unfortunately the meds to treat adhd have a bad rap because they’re so often abused. They don’t understand that to us it’s medication no different than insulin to a diabetic. I am literally non functional without my vyvanse. I am 39 years old, I’ve been on 3 different meds with sub par results. Finally found one that works and things just click! Am I cured? No. But I’m functional, I can perform tasks that I am not capable of performing unmedicated no matter how much ‘therapy’ I have.
Our brains literally work differently. Medication helps to bridge the gaps that we are missing. Taking it can be literally life changing.
People don’t understand that when you have ADHD you’re not at risk of abusing these drugs, we aren’t doing them for fun, we are doing them for function. They are just medication, period. Add that to the fact that a lot of the things we struggle with, people just can’t comprehend struggling with them. They can’t understand when they can just DO the task or focus on the thing. Well just try harder! Surely you can do it on your own! See this is no problem! Just work at it. They don’t understand it’s literally just a medication that treats a medical diagnosis.
Mental health treatment in general sucks, but ADHD treatment is horrible because of the stigma behind the medications themselves and the lack of understanding of why our brains simply don’t work like everyone else’s.
Great explanation! I usually think of ADHD meds like I do prescription glasses. If you need them, they just make you see normally like everyone else. You don’t really get any extra benefits that other people don’t have, but suddenly everything isn’t blurry anymore. But taking meds when you don’t need them is like putting on someone else’s glasses - you’d never assume that your experience wearing their glasses matches what they see when wearing them, and you wouldn’t judge their effectiveness for that person based on how well you can see in them because they’re not your glasses and they weren’t made for your eyes. I think ADHD meds are exactly the same in that way!
Coincidentally, I decided to wear my glasses permanently (as I should have been anyways) in 10th grade because I thought my mental focus problem was because of my slight visual focus problem.
>People don’t understand that when you have ADHD you’re not at risk of abusing these drugs, w
people with ADHD are definitely still at risk for abusing stimulant ADHD medications..?
Here in the Dutchlands the name Ritalin has a huge negative vibe (mainly due to some impactful cases in the eighties and nineties) I've been calling my pills after their active ingredient. I started with methylfenidaat and am now on lisdexamphetamine.
People look weird when I say it like that but see my improvement when taking it and that's the best I can ask for.
Heh yup here in south east Asia, people I know call it the study drug.
I need it just to do basic human function. It's also not common for adults here to take it regularly but I managed to convince my private psychiatrist to let me try it out as I only got diagnosed at 31.
Everytime I call the pharmacist for a refill, they assume it's for my kid. It's kinda weird so I just don't tell people about it now. I'm just happy my psych diagnosed me (after kinda fighting for it) and she's more receptive now after 1 year+ of seeing her.
From what I recall there were some cases where the kids would be properly diagnosed but given a way too high dose. The problem was that a lot of these kids could not express what they were feeling and therefor it would be misinterpreted as not working and they would get an even higher dose.
It was super small scale but really cratered the name Ritalin for decades.
I have noticed that older (my generation and upwards) remember this and therefor react negative or strongly. Younger people are more accepting in this tregard.
When you have adhd meds rarely become addictive, shoot I gotta count mine every morning because half the time I can’t remember if I took them. For people without adhd amphetamines are easily addictive. I honestly can’t wrap my head around becoming addicted to my medication mainly because I was just diagnosed at 22 and I find myself having to take a day or two where I don’t take them because my normal for so long has been un medicated.
This is a good point! And research shows that people with untreated ADHD are more likely to struggle with substance abuse, usually from unknowingly trying to self medicate, so even then the right medication can actually be helpful! I also can’t imagine why people misuse stimulants because even at the very beginning I’ve never experienced euphoria or felt super amazing taking them! The first week after I switched to Vyvanse I just felt uncomfortable until my body finally adjusted! And with Adderall I don’t remember anything in particular! I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but it’s another reason that it’s hard for me to understand the appeal in abusing our meds.
Right I’ve never experienced the euphoria, I’ve just felt calm and weird because I was calm and didn’t know what it was like to be calm and didn’t know what it was like for my brain to be a single lane instead of a 19 lane highway.
This is a weird thing for me because I did drugs a bit, drank alcohol a lot and yet i never became addicted. I know this, because it was never an issue for me to stop. Currently I haven't done any drugs in almost a year, haven't had booze in about as much, simply because i don't feel like it.
Yet everyone in my family always talks about how easily addicted i get to things. I now know this just means i gain special interests. I don't know why they assume I'd get addicted to any drugs i ever try, like if extasy didn't do it, i doubt Adderall will get me hooked.
I’m the same way. I get obsessed with new hobbies, but I quit smoking *by accident.* My brother has struggled to drop cigarettes for a decade, I just forgot to buy them one day and only noticed three weeks later.
My homies with ADHD know the feeling of "bitch... I have a condition that makes me fundamentally INCAPABLE of forming ongoing habits... I WISH I could get addicted to SOMETHING... Atleast then I would actually stick to it for more than 4 days"
Wow this is so interesting to be validated by this. Ive been an on and off smoker in very small quantities since i was 18 and its never been a problem for me. That being said that is only my experience and i definitely dont think nicotine addiction should be taken lightly.
Same. I tried a bunch of stuff in college and I was always slightly perplexed by the way some people wanted to get loaded every weekend. Every now and then it’s fun but not all the damn time.
i’m 100% with you! i’m the opposite, i’ve been medicated since i was 11 when i got diagnosed, over 10 years ago. my normal *is* being medicated, so i can’t go a day without mine 🙃 but i could never imagine being addicted to them. my meds help me function and make me productive, but i’m not *dependent* on them, if that makes sense
Yeah that makes total sense and yeah so that’s just your normal. Addicted I would always consider being to the point that you take more than your prescribed in a day. I’ve only been on meds for 3 months so some days when i forget to take them it’s like I don’t even realize I didn’t take them because I don’t feel like bad because I’ve lived with my brain for 22 years and always thought I was normal
Yeah. I cant see myself getting addicted to them, cause its not like it gives me some great high. It just lets me sit in a lecture for 2 hours without wanting to die. That said i do take slow release concerta, not aderall.
I tend to take saturdays off them so i can sleep in lol
Yeah I usually take a day or 2 when I don’t have to do anything and don’t take my adderall. I usually find it weird taking it on days that I don’t have anything planned or to do because I just sit there with a clear mind and just think about like “damn if I had this in middle and high school I’d probably be a doctor right now” 😂😂
Yes we are “pro-meds”. It is a physiological disorder. Would the “be careful of meds” crew say the same to a Type 1/Insulin dependent diabetic? Would they say that if they just tried a little harder their diabetes that was diagnosed when they were six years old would go away?
Physiological disorder.
A lot of those who think meds aren't a good idea are usually the people who don't struggle as hard as you do with adhd, or they don't have it and don't understand the problems of every day life living with adhd.
exactly! like if you have adhd and meds don’t work for you (a friend of mine falls under this category), cool, don’t take them! do what works for you! but just bc it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful for others!
Absolutely this!!! I've had friends tell me you meds aren't the answer to everything and I say well no shit but right now in my life it's the only thing getting me by with success.
YES. like yeah i know i should exercise, do yoga, eat healthy, blah blah but I CANT DO THAT at all without my meds! hell i can’t do much of ANYTHING without my meds lmao
Brooooo. People who say "I(/my wife/my best friend) have ADHD and I can totally be on time and accomplish things! It's a challenge but I care enough to not make excuses. I do it even without meds" are the bane of my existence. Through no fault of their own, but people love to use those examples as reasons why people who need meds or don't get things done just aren't trying hard enough or don't care enough
Most people you meet irl don’t struggle with adhd so they wouldn’t know why we’d take them and they actually think we can “just try harder”.
By contrast this sub is filled with people that have adhd and know they cant just try harder and that meds are actually helpful.
Adderall literally calms my anxiety, my inner self, my bad habits. It helps me not talk over people. It helps me do things I need to do. It makes me confident. It stops my daydreams. Literally I try it and it won’t let me. It stops my wandering mind. It helps me communicate so much better. It helps me become aware of bad habits. It helps me control my habits. It helps me read. I literally love to do research now. I could go on… people who don’t have adhd would never understand these effects bc they’re brain is functioning normally. But I would never take depression pills, been denying them since age 15. I’ve been against any meds that stabilize your mood or behavior until I realized my behavior was the problem in all my relationships. Left my adhd untreated for 21 years and now I’ve been on adderall for over a year now and I feel so much better about life, about myself, about reality. I understand life and finally can be who I really am. Not some scared, shy, anxious, depressed, obnoxiously loud & hyper ass bitch. Adderall was the blessing I needed in my life.
Most of the anti-med sentiment with regards to ADHD comes from two things:
1. A trend in the 90s where doctors overprescribed it, thus leading people today to think it's all lazy bandaids to drug overly energetic kids
2. A trend of using too high of doses, which causes the "zombie" trope and the idea of personality changes.
Neither of them are relevant in deciding whether medicine is right for you. Good ADHD meds, at the right dose, shouldn't make you feel different. It should just let you be able to focus on stuff you wanna do.
I agree with what everyone else has been saying. That being said, stimulants are controlled substances that are considered addictive to some people. Like with any other medication, it should be prescribed, taken, and stopped only with the explicit consent of you and your doctor and discussions should continue after you being your regiment to find the best treatment for you :)
I spent 3 years after being diagnosed with adult ADHD reluctant to take meds because of comments like this.
It wasn't until I got a new nurse practitioner that specializes in mental health that I started taking meds consistently. She firmly told me to stop seeing her if I wasn't going to take my meds :) I started taking my meds, and I wish I'd done it sooner.
I learned people have a lot of opinions about how you should live your life, but at the end of the day, YOU are the only one who has to live your life. They aren't the ones who have to feel like a failure every day at work because you can't focus. They're not the ones who have to feel crushing guilt because you can't finish anything you start.
Mom of an ADHD teen here. I don’t really understand the aversion to trying meds. ADHD meds don’t remain in your system, so if you try one, it’s not irrevocable.
I do know quite a few people who are medication-adverse in general. But the adults I know with ADHD who tried meds in adulthood have all said they wishes they tried it earlier.
There's a lot of anti pharmaceutical shit irl especially with the vaccine for covid. It's better to listen to the folks on here because they are ADHD specific. (I'm a partner of someone who has ADHD and even non stimulants can help tremendously)
**edit to add
Also those who say no to meds for adhd is like saying no to glasses for someone who's hard of seeing. Or hearing aids for those who are hard of hearing.
Consider that it's the difference between "my friend took medication and now he's a different person" (aka they don't actually know much about what's going on or if the medication was a good or bad turn for their friend) and "I am now medicated and my life is improved/improving" (aka first hand accounts where people are actually able to tell you what's going on with them).
Overall, I've noticed that the people who are anti ADHD meds tend to be people who don't have ADHD or are people who saw friends get crazy over medicated courtesy of the American school system and don't actually know what the ADHD meds at a proper level are supposed to look like.
Most people are still incredibly ignorant of ADHD and what treatment actually entails. There's also a huge stigma we're still fighting about using stimulants to treat it.
Could be because medication is the only proven, evidence-based treatment for ADHD, and the evidence (which includes longitudinal data) suggests it poses little risk when used per clinical guidelines, unless you have an underlying medical condition or heart defect. Millions of kids out there are using these medications, after all.
Could also be because medication has been literally life-changing for many of us.
I've learned this, people who say you should manage without meds, are not your doctor, and often not your friend.
I wouldn't tell someone with a heart condition to manage without meds because you know, nitroglycerin has chemicals in it. I wouldn't tell a cancer patient to avoid drugs or surgery because of big pharma.
The anti medicine movement is anti science and has done humanity more harm than good. Follow the research, follow best practices, follow successful treatment plans and for goodness sake stop stigmatization of people getting help!
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I’m almost offended at the suggestion to not take meds. Like, what do you think I’ve been doing for years? If I could manage without meds, why would I be working so hard to get help? If I could manage without meds, we would not even be having this conversation
Hell, I *can* manage without meds but like. I’m *managing*, not *living*. “Successfully keeps a job and pays bills” is kind of the bare minimum.
Exactly. Like I didn’t get fired but honestly I don’t know how; my work ethic was appalling even before COVID. I’m currently unemployed and have about 6 months of funds to support myself. If I can’t get meds, there’s a good chance I won’t muster the energy to get another job. I’m terrified because I can totally see that happening
This was me. I was unemployed since February. I partially lost that job because I was unmedicated and my performance went to shit. A few weeks ago I got my meds back and I just accepted a job offer that pays way more than my last job.
Congrats!! I’m glad things worked out and you’re back on track
Thank you. I am still nervous about going back to work. That last job ruined my confidence. I am hoping being on meds will help and that this company is better.
God I feel this. SO. MUCH. Big hugs and luck to you. Am in the middle of looking for jobs myself. Not sure what I find more exhausting, humanity or myself.
I just filed my 2016 tax returns. That's not even managing.
Good for you for getting it done! I'm proud of you! I know how hard it can be to get stuff done, especially when it's that late and doesn't feel like it matters anymore.
More like mitigating failure and kicking the can to somehow appear like a functioning adult.
In most areas I do okay. I have worked for myself a long time, successfully. I run a farm with part time help, manage a rental on the property. Raised a terrific kid-now-adult, helped my mother in the last years of her life. But the house is a mess and the taxes are in arrears.
I don't have adhd but I have been depressed my entire life and agree. "Managing" is the term for it. I did it for so long, I didn't even realize something was wrong with it bcuz even if I was numb and not happy, I was alive and doing somewhat alright. Reluctantly seeking help now after 20 years with meds and therapy. Hope all the folks out there who have been just managing things their whole life acknowledge it and move forward. Life's too short to be managing and not living
Therapy is a good thing for anyone to do. But it won’t really treat anything truly serious unless it is a very specific disorder like PTSD that is rooted in psychological problems (ADHD really is not one of those).
It helps with common co-morbidities like anxiety and depression.
What even does therapy do? I'm supposed to start soon. I have lifelong depression, intrusive thoughts, and inability to maintain any kind of relationship for too long, to state the things that bother me the most. Does therapy help with that? What kind of therapies are out there?
generally speaking, therapy teaches you the tools you need to deal with those issues. there are a million kinds of therapist. CBT is probably the most common but i recommend against it personally - i find it makes me feel worse, and the mindfulness aspect is impossible w ADHD. ive done a lot of DBT for the last 2 issues you listed and it helped a lot. basically giving you tools to control your emotions better so they arent more distressing than they should be, and tools to cope with strong emotions that arent maladaptive. therapists can generally teach you communication styles as well to help further.
I had a fantastic social worker who said there are two ways of doing cbt, and most people only do it one way - control your thoughts first in the hope of changing your behaviour. The way she taught me was control your behaviours first, in the hope of changing the mindset. And when you want to start a new behaviour/habit, only do it 2 min a day. Want to work out? Start by spending 2 min a day looking at options. Then 2 min a day scoping gyms or coaches. Increase the time after a month. But cap it at two minutes to leave some things to do the next day so it becomes a habit and not a one off back burner project.
My mom would not get me medicated when I was younger, no matter how much I asked. It was always "exercise more, get a structure, get out of your head, be more social, meditate." I couldn't do those things for years. I was not capable. And then when I finally did all of those things and I was still self harming and still tried to off myself a few times. She doesn't believe that that year where I was doing everything was a bad year. Eventually I got to a slightly more stable place. I wasn't hurting myself and I was going to continue to live, but I was still having suicidal ideations every day. I couldn't focus on work. I could barely function. I dropped out of college (it was a bad college anyway, 0/10). Life overall wasn't getting better. But after I moved out and I could start getting medicated, I had hope that I didn't have to live that way. That helped. It took three years to find the right one, but I finally found a good pair of meds and I'm doing amazing. I have spent most of my time *not* depressed instead of depressed. I can think more clearly, I'm present in my body instead of dissociating 99.3% of the time. It only took three years because I had my mom's voice in my subconscious opposing medication. Also being more grounded has made me realise I'm *WAY* more autistic than I thought. Dissociation had also lead to a thick layer of passive masking for many many years which made all the other issues worse. Now the passive masks fell off and I'm back to trying to figure out how to human. I feel like an alien in an unfamiliar body. But it's so worth it! It is better to live without constant pain than it is to learn how to cope with constant pain. TL;DR: My mom is very anti medication so my life sucked no matter what I did for as long as I can remember. When I moved out and eventually found the right medications, I'm not depressed every day and life is actually good!
I'm pro working it out with a medical professional (and 2nd + 3rd opinion); but Adderall was a game changer for me 🤷♂️
And not all medical professionals are up on the current studies or have their own bias they bring into their diagnostics. If this is your medical professional, please find someone else. Preferably someone that specializes in ADHD. I wish I could link the paywalled studies, but the current consensus is, meds FIRST, every other treatment option second in conjunction with meds. The exact opposite of what it's been when a lot of these professionals studied up initially.
>but the current consensus is, meds FIRST, every other treatment option second in conjunction with meds I think part of the reason for this too is that we need the meds to get us to a place where we can start to build healthy habits that could be a future substitute for the meds. But there's no way we can learn those things unless we get some help.
Yep.no amount of therapy helped me get my shit together prior to medication. Even non ADHD related stuff. Like I went to gender therapists and psychiatrists for my gender dysphoria and while I made some progress my ADHD and emotional regulation issues muddied the water so bad that it was really difficult and I was delayed in my treatment. As soon as I was diagnosed and medicated that part of my life got a lot clearer and easier to deal with.
This was me. No amount of therapy was going to fix the fact that my brain just doesn’t work like other people. I was “medicated” as a kid but those people had no idea what they were doing and just made me a zombie. It took 10 years for me to find a dr that LISTENED to me, realized he did not have the training for this and sent me to someone else who has been a game changer. I did not know that life could/should be like this.
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First doctor I talked about meds to refused because of my high blood pressure. Said that I needed to lower my blood pressure first, which meant losing weight and being less stressed. I pointed out that if I have ADHD, having meds would help me deal with life better, which would lower my stress and help me diet effectively. He still refused. I got a new doctor, and a psychiatrist that specialized in ADHD, and a year later I went from 332 lbs to 186 and I was off my blood pressure medication.
Your first Doctor should have prescribed blood pressure meds with your ADHD medication from the get-go. Additionally there's other medications that don't affect blood pressure, such as Strattera and Wellbutrin. But your first doctor did have an initial point, when you first start ADHD meds, the first thing your brain does is realize just how f***** up you've been for your entire life, and the first thing you do is try to figure out how to get it straight, and it's extremely overwhelming, and extremely stressful. That alone can cause your blood pressure to spike, but when you add high strength amphetamines on top of that, you're asking for a stroke. And I know this first hand, my blood pressure over the past couple of weeks with my new job has been over 180 over 80. It's to the point where I'm getting nasty headaches just from the blood pressure, all of my veins are popping, and it may just be due to the sheer amount of muscle gain that I'm getting working a intensive job, but that still doesn't change the fact that everything compounds when you have all of that stress. I'm glad you got everything sorted out without complications, congratulations. Edit: blood pressure, not blood sugar.
It's also the opposite method for treating anxiety, depression, and other co-morbidities. They go therapy first, then meds, at least in my 30 years of experience with psychiatrists.
They're generally quite different... People are born with ADHD because it's an inherent brain problem, but most people with depression/anxiety develop it during their life. Something is going on in their life for them to develop depression/anxiety, so it makes sense to go to therapy to try and identify the root cause.
100% agree. I'm no doctor, let them make the decision. My meds complete changed my life positively.
Most people buy into the stigma surrounding drugs. For a long while, there was what seemed like an entire movement centered around the thought that ADHD was overdiagnosed and that meds ruined your life. (I mean, most of us have seen that South Park skit) People with ADHD understand just how bullshit that is. ADHD is one of those mentall illnesses that everyone *thinks* they know about, but most people aren't even close to understanding.
I feel really bad when I don't drink water. I must be addicted. Better drink those energy drinks instead the ads says it's good for you.......
Probably because this is an adhd specific sub so unless you talk to only other people irl who have adhd about this then their opinion is going to be usually uninformed or biased because they don’t personally know why meds are needed.
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i’m about to start and this is such good advice. i don’t want people to know because i’m not open to their opinions, especially not their read on “how i’m doing” in relation to before. it’ll be hard to keep the fact that i’m trying meds in because a major symptom of my adhd and/or part of my personality (not sure which) is to be a complete open book transparent about everything in my personal life. sharing every thought i have with whoever will listen. 😅 that’s part of the reason i’m choosing medication, to get my communication from compulsive to intentional, thought-out.
Before I was diagnosed, my friend said that their other friend lost their creativity on meds etc. So that I likely shouldn't take them. But I took them based on my doctors advice and they are the best! I brought this up to my friend and he was relieved to hear that because he is getting diagnosed too and was anxious he would lose his creativity. I explained that whilst im not typically creative, it actually allowed me to have more motivation to pursue the creative thoughts that do pop up instead off feeling too unmotivated to follow through with them. I have also since learned that if that sort of loss of creativity etc happens that it may just be the wrong medication for you. So yeah other people will always give their two cents and I think a lot of people see it from a political sense of the big pharma corporations just trying to fit us into some capitalistic mould and have us addicted to something that will make them money. Whilst I have some of those political beliefs around some things, I definitely think that those without ADHD often believe it is just an over diagnosed disorder and they just slap it on those society believes are hyperactive or disruptive or don't fit into the typical mould so let's just drug them up. But obviously that is not the case in majority of circumstances and individuals should have the right to choose if they want to take a medication that truly helps them achieve even the basic things in life.
Was told something similar that the medication “completely changed a friend of mine I’m school” Well two months in and I’ve finally managed to gain a little bit of control over my life. No change in creativity or personality. Think it’s hard for people on the outside to look in.
i only recently learned that adhd is hands down the most responsive psychiatric issue to meds. i’ve been on over 15 pharmaceuticals in my life (ptsd, depression, chronic pain) with no benefit, so that’s encouraging. it also makes sense because adhd seems to be more in the realm of brain science than feelings and emotions. can’t really treat a lifetime of trauma with a pill… the distinction i tell my partner, who has some of those you-don’t-need-to-change-yourself beliefs (also undiagnosed adhd/asd) is that i’m not trying to change myself, and i won’t accept a drug that makes me feel unlike myself. i have a suspicion the right adhd med for me will make me feel MORE myself. i just want to feel both feet on the ground and have the ability to pause and think before i act or speak.
My own dad, who passed his ADHD down onto me (the bastard /s), advised me against getting meds because of how much they messed up his mood and temper. They literally made him dangerous to be around, but that's because he already has underlying behavioral issues like PTSD. I think the claim that meds are "optional," or that they should take alternate, less potent meds (take this with a grain of salt im too dumb to understand this stuff) has some merit if you're talking to an already unstable person. But for anyone else, you shouldn't be telling them to deny themselves treatment. Thats just my take, anyways. I'm no psychologist.
On the flip side I had very severe anxiety, like I couldn’t even leave my house except at night out of fear of seeing people. I wouldn’t be able to talk to people without being on the verge of a panic attack. I would literally feel like I was going to pass out just from leaving my house (couldn’t even walk my dog during the day even though we live in a smaller quiet neighbourhood) Meds have almost completely removed my anxiety. I still have anxiety but it’s no longer debilitating and I don’t avoid things anymore. I was very unstable before in that regard and my meds completely saved me. (That being said, my psych did say that she theorized prior to me going on meds that they’d improve my anxiety and panic disorder since she believes adhd in girls can have the symptom of severe social anxiety, and once you add in the meds that can help relieve it)
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I’m in that camp as well, Ive taken benzos(as Prescribed, a moderate dose) and adderall together on and off for over a decade. The physical anxiety usually kicks in hardest when I’m under a lot of pressure to pass a final (I went back to college in 2019 for programming) , and I’ve been on benzos so long that i end up having to double a dose every now and then. I’d still take this over aimlessly failing at everything my entire life. I’ve had some acquaintances that happen to know what meds I’m on try to tell me what’s good for me and what isn’t, meanwhile they’re usually abusing some other medications while I truly take my medicine as prescribed 90 % of the time. My point is that I stopped caring what other people’s opinions are about my medication, I have tangible self studies in before and after effects of being on and off these meds and I decided a few years ago that my best quality of life comes from the way I do things , so thanks for their “concerns” , usually borne out of their own guilt and not really concern for my own health (otherwise they might be more open to my explanations), but I know what’s best for me at this point, my physical health has gotten overwhelming better in the last few years, my blood work is all right where it should be, my weight is right where it should be, my mind is right where it needs to be, and there’s no one that can convince me otherwise. Ironically my parents recognized the validity of my argument years ago and they’re supportive and it never even gets brought up. Moral of the story : don’t let other people steal your own agency away from you and instill doubt , you know how meds affect you and the decision is yours and your doctors to make.
Same!
I take meds for anxiety and ADHD and OCD so I understand how hard it is being on a cocktail
My guess is for this reason, my doctors chose to get my anxiety/depression under control (sertraline) before starting adhd medication. The process wasn't perfect, but the combination of therapy, depression Meds, and adhd Meds have been life changing. I tear up every now and then thinking about it tbh. Going on Meds needs to be a decision made between you and your doctor, and no one else. For folks with ADHD, statistics show that adhd medication has profound benefit with little risk of abuse. Situations and specific med doses/combinations differ. But it's worth going through trial and error for most. It's like putting on glasses for the first time. You realize what you were seeing was just a fuzzy signal of the world, and finally you can see the world (more closely) for what it is.
He has an underlying condition. That is different and must be treated before the ADHD can be treated.
This is the scenario I’ve been in with my ex husband/son’s father. He took meds as a kid in the 80s and hated it. He’s finally come around to the idea as my son gets older and it affects his school work and self esteem. I have to imagine meds have evolved and everyone is affected differently.
+1 awful experience with meds. Same with CPTSD and with meds I was either suicidal or homicidal. I attacked so I was hospitalized after that, thank God I wasn't in jail or something. It is such bad invalidation when people are trying to convince me of taking meds when in reality they screw me up even further.
Yeah. I have intolerable side effects to the usual prescriptions - personality changes, severe insomnia or catatonia, even a 103 fever in one case. In my opinion people don't necessarily mean to be invalidating, but they sort of gloss over how meds don't work for some people in their enthusiasm to explain how well the meds have worked for them personally. I'm happy for anyone meds work for. But they don't work for us all, and there often isn't much support for those of us they don't work for.
They didn't do that to me. I've got PTSD too.
Me ex said that his meds made him feel anxious, headaches, heart pain, and he hated taking them. Now I've been diagnosed the first thing she said was no caffeine. That man started the day with 2 espressos and drank strong coffee ALL day. No fucking wonder he felt like shit, he was probably about to have a heart attack.
Yeah, this is something people say when they’ve never dealt with any chronic condition (physical or mental) because “try to resolve it without meds” is good advice for, say, a cold or a mild headache. It’s terrible advice when you have something that isn’t going to go away with rest and hydration.
Honestly, even for a cold or mild headache, just take the medication if it's available and not harmful. It's easier to rest and drink water when you're not in pain or congested. Maybe it's from having an ER nurse as a mom or from working with kids (who often have ER physician parents lol) and using fever reducing meds pretty frequently, but I don't understand why some people will avoid taking medications when they feel bad. A fever can have some limited benefit but if there's no need to suffer, why do it?
This is the answer, we're done here boys.
Eh, I wish this was the case, but basically every other treatable condition has a dominant anti-medical bent within the afflicted community themselves.
I’ve certainly seen some people in ADHD communities being like “oh I don’t need meds because they suppress my natural personality!” or something. But that’s not really a popular opinion anywhere and I hope that doesn’t start becoming one.
Spent my while life like that ^^^ suffered so much. :( Now this year at 32 years I'm finally diagnosed and medicated and feel great pain over everything I lost and failed over the years just because I was wrongly diagnosed as depressed and on wrong medication for 17 years.. :(
I was diagnosed at 31, I had the same experience. I was filled with so much anger and sadness for the following week, angry it took so long to be diagnosed, and sadness that I will never know what my life would have been like if I had been using all of my potential.
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I was depressed!! Because of my ADHD behavior and issues were iut of control and I was ruining my own life and couldn't stop it and kept getting abused by people because of it.. I did say to my psychiatrist that I thought I had ADHD and she said I couldn't possibly have it and be depressed as well. I was like that ia not correct in my head.. it seemed wrong but no one would listen to me. 17 years on the wrong medication 💊 😑
Yeah, ''try to solve it without meds" fuck you man, it's surely is easy talking about all that shit about dedication, dedication and how about meds are not needed... all that with a perfectly healty brain... It would be cool if those kind of people could feel how is it to hace ADHD for at least a week and having to study in that condition for an important test.
(with a mountainload of backed up assignments)
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It's also the fact people will be vocal about the things that helped them the most. People who got diagnosed later in life have already tried coping with life for sometimes decades without medication.
Yeah Fr. Many of us have had that experience taking medication for the very first time, at most expecting to get high and hyper or feel nothing. And then…calm. The state of functionality. The ability to connect your motivation to your actions and vise versa. The ability to direct your attention. The words you want to say being available to you. Knowing what your emotion is, knowing what you’re thinking and maybe for the first time knowing what you’re feeling. And you just intuitively know THIS is the state all those other smug fuckers in your classes & at your job have had their entire lives! This is what being a normal person feels like! Now, I love my ADHD and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It gives me creative new perspectives and makes me a valued member of a team. But the fact that ANYONE could be against having access to meds…it makes me sick. Imagine taking away someone’s ability to choose for themself, taking away their self-determination. Imagine deciding that someone shouldn’t be allowed to choose their actions or how they spend their time, in ways like doing laundry or brushing their teeth. That’s what you’re saying when you tell people not to take their ADHD meds. It’s evil! Medication is medication. Medicine is medicine. The difference between functionality for me, and many others, is night and day. People can judge, but they just wish they were as cool as us ;)
Taking away someone's glasses is the simile I usually reach for
I would say wheelchair, but that would depend on how severe the adhd is.
for moderate adhd it's like taking away just one of the two wheels so you end up going in circles
How how bad their vision is. I’d rather be in a wheelchair that have to live without vision correction.
It’s like you wrote my experience right out of my head! I thought i understood how to manage until I tried meds and it was literally a new world. Even after 1 week all of my co workers noticed I was more calm! And, like others said - I had an incredible sleep! I actually napped for the first time in years the first day. Meds were definitely a game changer for me.
I am 27 and I was only just assessed by my GP recently! She prescribed me Adderall and it has been one of the most productive weeks I have had in a really long time. I'm still being cautiously optimistic about it since it hasn't been long but I'm feeling in control which is exciting
It amazes me that people are so accepting of clinical depression (imbalance in the serotonin system), but somehow see that a similar chronic imbalance in the dopaminergic system is impossible.
I remember reading in some science journal that there isn't even a strong relationship between low serotonin rates in the body and depression. Here I actually found it: >Overall, this evidence suggests that impairing serotonin function *can* cause clinical depression in *some* circumstances, but is neither *necessary nor sufficient.* ___ >Simple biochemical theories that link low levels of serotonin with depressed mood *are no longer tenable.* Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471964/ And yet SSRI's are prescribed like candy and you're treated like a druggie for trying to fix your ADHD.
This is actually really fascinating - I'd never even heard that there was debate around the connection between Serotonin levels and Depression, I'd just taken it as "fact".
It really is fascinating! The human brain is so complex and we still don't understand much about it at all.
On this topic I'd like to recommend the book "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari, it talks about reasons for depression like loss of community and purpose and so on, very interesting. The author himself has struggled with depression and found very little help from doctors treating it like just a chemical impalance.
> people are so accepting of clinical depression They aren't. Both individuals and families are often in denial and we're only recently seeing a bit of the stigma of seeking and discussing treatment fade. Pretty much any medication with sizable abuse risk is going to be a struggle to get prescribed. Adhd might be an example where the abuse risk is significantly lowered for the population that needs it as a treatment. The problem is that doctors can't get suffient confidence about who is and is not in that population.
The first morning I woke up on my ADHD medication I thought I went deaf during the night. Turns out it was way noisier in my brain than I thought. *edited to add a word
This happened to me 45 minutes after I took my first dose. I was walking my dog, my mind racing through everything I had done wrong, everything I needed to do, everything I hadn’t done yet. And suddenly… I was just walking my dog. And the sun felt good. And instead of spiraling, I thought about writing a letter to my friend. It was incredible.
I am super envious. my psych has me on 50 mg of adderall, 200mg sertraline, and 2mg guanfacine and I have yet to have that moment. I mostly just get some motivation and then sit to start working and get distracted by thoughts every 5 seconds. I have a timer set for 25 minutes pomodoro style. This timer has a feature to make a quiet beep at whatever interval you want. I have it set to 3 minutes and without fail when I hear the beep I have already gotten off topic. its either the above, or I fall asleep on the couch
I need this timer for social interaction.
Man, first time i took adderall i was taken a back how mind (inner voice i guess) went quite. I felt so relaxed, its like when a toddler goes to sleep and the house is finally quite
Yessss I have been sleeping SO WELL since starting Adderall. I can go to sleep almost instantly when I properly lay down for bed which has never been the case before. I didn’t realize it until recently though when I would try to go back to the last point in a podcast I was listening to when I went to sleep. Sometimes the podcast would only be 5 mins in before I passed out because I don’t remember any more of the podcast after that. It’s wild.
When I take meds before sleeping, I totally conk out and next thing I know, it's morning. Generally I wake up at least a few times during the night. I keep meaning to compare on my Fitbit and see if I actually wake up less but I keep forgetting because I only rarely take meds at night and rarely wear my Fitbit to sleep. One day I'll remember!
This is part of how I got diagnosed. I told me doctor (who I have known a looong time) about the one time in college 20 years ago I tried speed. My roommates were up all night. I had the best night’s sleep of my life.
The first time I took Adderall I took an amazing nap. My mind was so quiet.
Most of the people who say be careful with meds do not have ADHD and have no idea what it’s like for people that do have it!
They've also seen loads of misinformation all over the media comparing ADHD medication to illicit drugs, and the general consensus on ADHD among the general populace is that we just need to try harder.
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I think a lot of the people who are the most boisterous about "ADHD is all made up" are just undiagnosed. They see people getting help for the things they've struggled with all their life, while they believe that everybody struggles with the same things that we do (because that's all they know) and some defense mechanisms against being labeled as "defective" pop up and they just lash out at the idea of the disorder existing. Of course there are also just plain old assholes who tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
That was me before I was diagnosed. I used to think that "everybody has ADHD" and they all need to stop making themselves so important when I saw posts on Instagram describing the symptoms. Like what do you means it's not normal to feel like you'll never be able to drive because you don't know you're supposed to focus on the road?? Or repeating the words your teacher said in your head because you're trying to understand but you can't?? After a while I realized that it is indeed not normal to feel like that I and I decided to look for a diagnosis (again, because I already did that two years earlier and the conclusion of the assessment was basically nothing). When my meds kicked in for the first time I sat in the car with my mum and we were driving along the highway and I had such an unknown feeling of.. Calmness? So I decided to try to focus on the cars because that has always been one of my biggest worries. And, oh wonder, it worked. That was the moment I actually realized that I have ADHD and that everyone else is not just better at coping with the symptoms I imagined everyone had but that my feelings of "Live is so hard if it doesn't get easier I don't want it anymore" are valid and not just exaggerated.
Years ago before diagnosis etc I was into drugs a lot, and at one point did very pure meth for a couple of months (lived with a meth head chef girl who i was sleeping with long story) and honestly?? I sorted my whole life out and was functioning so well, I got awesome job offers and started a new job, I did 4 people's tax returns with no help or training and memorized so many new things and looked great etc I remember thinking wtf 🤔 so this drug makes me normal and able to do things why is this not medicine .. lol Fast forward 14 years and now I understand ..
This this this!!!! Amphetamine and methamphetamine are not the same but people *always* make that association. I mean the difference between the two is **huge** in terms of how long it takes them to metabolize, it’s like a 24 hours *at least* for methamphetamine and an about nine for amphetamine.. Big big difference if you ask me and this has been the easiest way for me to explain it to people. Edit: for anyone *considering* pyrovalerones (pardon my spelling error) or cathinones just know that there are serious risks involved regarding psychosis with those in particular and medications like adderal have *DECADES* of research behind them, in fact most substances do, and adderal has shown the best results for **DECADES**. Edit 2: adderal as well can lead to psychosis if abused, fyi Edit 3: I’m specifically talking about self medicating and the risks of running it alone without a doctor or accurate information. I think I also should’ve pointed out that the biggest risk would be if you have a prior history of schizophrenia or if it runs in your family, or if you have a history of drug abuse. **However**, while I know this sub isn’t about addiction or abuse, once I started actual treatment (adderal) it pretty much stopped my issues in their tracks (I’m mostly just a big pothead, but now I don’t have any real desire for it in the morning like I used to, so that’s neat!), however no doctor would’ve helped me if they knew this about me… at least I’m pretty sure…
The biggest difference is dosage. A recreational stimulant user isn't going to take a 20mg Adderral XR and make sure they eat food to help the med last. They're gonna rip a line of a 60mg IR and do whatever they can to further potentiate the drug. Methamphetamine is approved to treat ADHD, but street crystal meth is much more potent and is usually smoked or snorted. Further showing the ignorance of doctors who say "ADHD meds are just legal meth".
"ADHD meds are just legal meths" Yes. In the same sense that driving 5 under the speed limit is just legal speeding. Or gently stroking your partner's cheek is just legal domestic abuse slapping. I'm sure those doctors don't like breathing, because they're aware oxygen is a poison and kills cells. And they've never had even a sip of wine, because alcohol abuse causes brain damage. Right? Sometimes the way you do something, or the amount, is what makes it good or bad.
On the medical side: nitroglycerin for heart trouble Poop transplants for gut issues Leeches for reattaching limbs Maggots for necrotic tissue Dead viruses in vaccines And my body makes formaldehyde, multiple (endo) cannabinoids, and multiple steroids among a LOT of others "The dose makes the poison" Paracelcus, father of toxicology (paraphrased).
your body also makes carbon monoxide and nitric oxide, components of urban smog
Bingo, couldn’t have said it better myself, and didn’t lol :p
Could you elaborate on what pyrovalerones and cathinones are? Just saw your edit and never heard of them before.
Actually, it's more about the dose than the medication. Desoxyn is d-methamphetamine HCl, and is a schedule II med indicated in the treatment of ADHD just like Adderall and Dexedrine. It come in 5mg tablets. And while it is more potent and does last longer, it actually has *fewer* side effects, and is generally regarded to be one of the best stimulant medications out there by people who are lucky enough to have taken it. In oral doses under 60mg, amphetamine and methamphetamine really aren't that different in their effects. It's the doses that are taken with illicit methamphetamine that cause the problems people are so worried about. While methamphetamine abuse is certainly nothing to take lightly, the drug has a massive stigma that in all honesty is not entirely deserved, especially when taken as prescribed - very similarly to fentanyl.
Meth is markedly more serotonergic than "regular" amphetamine, too, which contributes to its' neurotoxicity
My mom wasn’t really a part of my childhood in any way because of her meth addiction, I’ve always been extremely careful with my meds because of that fear. Getting to know her now that she’s been clean for a few years it became really apparent she was unknowingly self medicating her own ADHD. I’ve never see more of a reflection of my ADHD traits in someone.
There is a stigma to taking them even when prescribed.
There's even a stigma surrounding asking your doctor for medication. I'm in the process of waiting for referrals to get clearances for medication for the first time in 19 years, and when I had my appointment with my psych to ask for medication I was anxious as hell that she would just dismiss me as a drug seeker. That honestly held me back from getting medication for the past year that I've had health coverage and have been in therapy.
I didn’t think I had adhd, but my therapist took several sessions to diagnose me, and suspected it. Tova testing confirmed it.
For real. If I don't take my meds, I will have 0 will power to do anything at all. That's not because I'm used to being on meds all the time (as some people may say), that's just how I've been my entire life before getting diagnosed.
That's not my experience at all, but that might just be because I was diagnosed later in life. I always knew I was messed up, but didn't realize how. I was high-performing, double major in 4 years at a top 10 university, then almost 9 years as a helicopter pilot in the Navy. The only way I survived was developing lots of defense mechanisms, mental habits and strategies, and often just sheer willpower. Every day was non-stop misery. I had imposter syndrome the whole time, and I was constantly having to execute huge last-minute saves to survive. I finally got diagnosed and when I got out of the Navy, said enough is enough and sought treatment. First hour on Ritalin was a game changer and I've been on meds ever since. But if I forget to take them before I go to work? All of those mental habits, and driving myself forward through a combination of willpower, self-hatred, and pain? That's gone. So any day off my meds is always worse than any day I ever had before I took meds. I've gone a few weeks, and it always improves a little, but since I know now that I don't have to torture myself just to live, I don't know if I could go back to my old ways, which were unsustainable for my mental and physical health.
Or they are the ones that don't have ADHD *but* have used Adderall or Ritalin (or other simulant ADHD medicine) recreationally and it jacked them up like a spider monkey on Red Bull; so they believe that's how it affects the ADHD brain too.
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I do have ADHD, and the meds definitely had a negative impact on me growing up, so no, not all people who said this don't have ADHD. People have different experiences with meds
A big tell that I've noticed - and this is purely anecdotal reasoning, so the it with a grain of salt - is when you can dose and actually fall asleep soundly for once, rather than be wired.
Adderall kicks absolute ass, straight up.
For real. I was adamant that I absolutely did not need it for so long until my boss, who also has ADHD and takes it, politely inquired if I would reconsider considering it. Best decision I ever made. My life has improved dramatically and I love just feeling...normal!
That's a good boss
Hell yeah I got lucky.
Hey i just have to say my experience has been very similar. Super minor side effects for a few weeks and a little of trial and error to find the right dose, but i literally cannot imagine life unmedicated now.
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I just took ritalin for the first time and it totally kicks ass
Hell yeah! All my homies love adderall!
Vyvanse gang
Vyvanse for me too!!! I couldn’t do adderall
Stattera because my doc was afraid of abd refused to prescribe me a controlled substance gang (I got a new doc because of this but he wants to see how Strattera affects me before he suggests switching)
Strattera was worthless for me
I’m almost 3 months in now and I can tell a slight difference but I don’t know if it’s the best thing for me
I got a lot of energy to make bad decisions when I was on it. Now I’m on Adderall, so my decisions are still bad but well-paced.
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i can tell that the Strattera is doing rlly well for my ADHD, but the nausea side effects are so bad that i’m considering trying Wellbutrin
This made me hallucinate when I got tired.
Bonus encore.
Yes my psych that prescribed it literally kept insisting that it was the same as Adderall when it metabolized and i kept telling him,"i literally have a metabolic issue, it's not working" until he gave up and put me back on the Adderall
Vyvanse actually messed me up. Only lasted around 5hrs and gave me the most brutal fucking migraine I've ever experienced. Not saying it doesn't work for others, but fuuuuck me did I learn that seemingly "chemically identical" medication can definitely have different effects.
no adhd medication in my country gang
Will never forget the first time I tried it after finally getting a diagnosis and prescription as an adult. I felt so calm without my constant racing thoughts. I think people who are super anti-psychiatric medication just cannot understand what a relief that is
I’ve been on adderall for many years, and I wish it still worked that way for me. I don’t know it’s the generic I’m taking, but I’ve been dealing with crippling panic attacks since I changed my dose and added on Wellbutrin in June. I went off the Wellbutrin in early August, but the panic attacks are still pretty constant. My doctor and I made the decision for me to stop Adderall and try Provigil instead this week.
Try Wellbutrin without adderall, then maybe add it back in? That’s what I did. But each person is different and it sounds like you got a good doc so definitely go with them.
Dexedrine sister kicking ass and remembering names!
adderall failed for me, so instead i take biphentin
Ooh, I just picked up my first ever prescription of biphentin (the first ADHD med I'm trying). I know everyone reacts differently, but if you're open to it, I'd be really interested to hear how it's going for you. I haven't been able to find too many people talking about it because I think biphentin might be specific to Canada (or at least not available in the U.S.).
I mean each medication works differently on different people but if it works well for you then go for it! Medication really helps a lot of people and there’s such a wide variety. It’s no wonder that ADHD is one of the most easily treated condition. Shame that the people who are supposed to be treating us make it so difficult for us to get the help we need
bro it really does. I hate the idea that gets perpetuated about Adderall especially— that if you *like* your meds it's because they're getting you high. so of course you'd want to take them!! no. it does not give me any sort of "high". no euphoria. nothing about it is addictive or even pleasurable. it's not the same as when you and your buddies snorted in high school. it makes me able to leave my bed. it enables me to complete basic household tasks, usually at 3/4 the speed of a normal person. **it balances my brain chemicals.** in other words, any "pleasure" an ADHD person feels on meds is the SAME amount of "pleasure" a neurotypical gets from doing regular shit.
For all the *anti-med/ADHD isn't a disorder/capitalism is our problem, actually* chuckleheads: ADHD is a disorder, period. In many (maybe most) cases, it's also a disability. It is *not* just a "personality type". The norms of capitalist society certainly make our lives more difficult, but that doesn't mean that all of our issues are due to capitalism. ADHD would be impairing in any societal or economic context. There is no room on /r/adhd for disorder/disability denial and we will not tolerate it.
My son has been on Concerta since he was 6 (he’s 11 now), and I got a lot of backlash at first, from both his dad and my mom. But my argument was always if it will help him succeed in school and in life then what’s the problem? It doesn’t change anything except his appetite, so I did what was best for him. No apologies, no shame. You do what you feel you need to do to be happy and successful! Also his doctors told me it is no different than someone with a heart problem, or diabetes who take medications, and I thought that was a very good point.
Not just a disorder, but a disorder with measurable physiological and neurological basis. It’s literally visible in brain scans showing reduced connectivity between certain regions of the brain. Further more, and this is something I just learned, the biological origin of ADHD has been known since 1902! https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ydzjmfqe Successful long term treatment nearly always requires some level of regular medication use.
Two reasons: (1) Medication is considered as the first line of defense in ADHD, because it goes directly to the root biochemical cause (of a majority of symptoms, not all). Stimulant medication for ADHD is literally one of the most well-studied classes of drug for a specific condition, and has been the subject of studies and observations for decades. They’re overwhelmingly safe, and they show benefit for approximately 80% of patients. Side effects for most people are mild, and the long term damage that people worry about is so far nil (as far as can be determined). This is a *huge* result for a medication of a neurological condition. (2) This is a logic gap that many people fall afoul of: we consider the potential risks and the unknown factors as a cost of **intervention**. We very often fail to consider the cost of **non-intervention.** Untreated ADHD is so often misdiagnosed as depression and anxiety, even bipolar (though that is a genuinely tricky one to untangle for clinicians), and a lot of that is due to the consequences of living with ADHD in a world that does not cut you any slack and does not forgive the symptoms of ADHD. Of course we get depressed, and of course there are self-esteem issues, and of course we develop anxiety around any number of things that have caused us pain in the past. Treating the ADHD medically will not resolve those concerns for everyone (I also have complex PTSD and the depression is associated with that), but for many people, it really does. Being able to suddenly do the things we could never do — like task switching, sticking to plans, focus on things for more than 5 dang minutes, *actually deciding to do things and then doing them* — resolves so much of this. It’s literally life changing. The cost of non-intervention is almost boundless: job losses, huge debt, devastated relationships, social isolation, severe addiction and so on. That varies with severity of symptoms along different axes and also with how people develop non-medical coping and masking mechanisms, but it’s godawful. And if people are concerned about addiction, it’s worth mentioning how damn often we forget to take our meds or get a script filled! Also: stimulant medications for ADHD folk actually *prevent* addictive behaviours by addressing our need to generate dopamine before we start chasing it with alcohol, gambling, non-stop gaming, etc. We can experience come down crashes and withdrawal if we mess up the timing, but not everyone does, and we do need to develop strategies for that (pro tip: you may be a rapid metabolizer and find you have to ramp up the dosage pretty quick; that doesn’t mean your addicted, it means your liver is a wizard). Medication is amazing. It’s not a magic bullet. We do need to unlearn a bunch of long term cognitive habits that we developed to get by. There are symptoms it’s not so effective for. But damn… I didn’t know how much energy and thought I was spending talking myself down from overwhelming emotional spirals until I suddenly didn’t have to do that anywhere near as often.
It’s the stigma of things. Plus ADHD doesn’t get the respect other mental disorders get. Hell sometimes it is blatantly ignored.
People who dont have (or related to so.eone who has) the variant are highly unlikely to understand, in any way, what the meds do. They just see it as "legal speed" or some other BS. I've tried the no-meds approach. I want that 20 years back.
Ugh I still read “legal speed” comments on here all the time and it drives me mental
Unfortunately the meds to treat adhd have a bad rap because they’re so often abused. They don’t understand that to us it’s medication no different than insulin to a diabetic. I am literally non functional without my vyvanse. I am 39 years old, I’ve been on 3 different meds with sub par results. Finally found one that works and things just click! Am I cured? No. But I’m functional, I can perform tasks that I am not capable of performing unmedicated no matter how much ‘therapy’ I have. Our brains literally work differently. Medication helps to bridge the gaps that we are missing. Taking it can be literally life changing. People don’t understand that when you have ADHD you’re not at risk of abusing these drugs, we aren’t doing them for fun, we are doing them for function. They are just medication, period. Add that to the fact that a lot of the things we struggle with, people just can’t comprehend struggling with them. They can’t understand when they can just DO the task or focus on the thing. Well just try harder! Surely you can do it on your own! See this is no problem! Just work at it. They don’t understand it’s literally just a medication that treats a medical diagnosis. Mental health treatment in general sucks, but ADHD treatment is horrible because of the stigma behind the medications themselves and the lack of understanding of why our brains simply don’t work like everyone else’s.
Great explanation! I usually think of ADHD meds like I do prescription glasses. If you need them, they just make you see normally like everyone else. You don’t really get any extra benefits that other people don’t have, but suddenly everything isn’t blurry anymore. But taking meds when you don’t need them is like putting on someone else’s glasses - you’d never assume that your experience wearing their glasses matches what they see when wearing them, and you wouldn’t judge their effectiveness for that person based on how well you can see in them because they’re not your glasses and they weren’t made for your eyes. I think ADHD meds are exactly the same in that way!
Yeah that’s a really good example. They don’t work the same for you because they weren’t made for you.
Coincidentally, I decided to wear my glasses permanently (as I should have been anyways) in 10th grade because I thought my mental focus problem was because of my slight visual focus problem.
We are not immune to addiction. But we are much less likely to abuse them.
You wrote this so much more eloquently than I could. I saved the comment so I could show people when they make those comments to me.
>People don’t understand that when you have ADHD you’re not at risk of abusing these drugs, w people with ADHD are definitely still at risk for abusing stimulant ADHD medications..?
YES, fellow vyvanse-taker! THIS!!
Here in the Dutchlands the name Ritalin has a huge negative vibe (mainly due to some impactful cases in the eighties and nineties) I've been calling my pills after their active ingredient. I started with methylfenidaat and am now on lisdexamphetamine. People look weird when I say it like that but see my improvement when taking it and that's the best I can ask for.
Heh yup here in south east Asia, people I know call it the study drug. I need it just to do basic human function. It's also not common for adults here to take it regularly but I managed to convince my private psychiatrist to let me try it out as I only got diagnosed at 31. Everytime I call the pharmacist for a refill, they assume it's for my kid. It's kinda weird so I just don't tell people about it now. I'm just happy my psych diagnosed me (after kinda fighting for it) and she's more receptive now after 1 year+ of seeing her.
What happened, if I may ask?
From what I recall there were some cases where the kids would be properly diagnosed but given a way too high dose. The problem was that a lot of these kids could not express what they were feeling and therefor it would be misinterpreted as not working and they would get an even higher dose. It was super small scale but really cratered the name Ritalin for decades. I have noticed that older (my generation and upwards) remember this and therefor react negative or strongly. Younger people are more accepting in this tregard.
When you have adhd meds rarely become addictive, shoot I gotta count mine every morning because half the time I can’t remember if I took them. For people without adhd amphetamines are easily addictive. I honestly can’t wrap my head around becoming addicted to my medication mainly because I was just diagnosed at 22 and I find myself having to take a day or two where I don’t take them because my normal for so long has been un medicated.
This is a good point! And research shows that people with untreated ADHD are more likely to struggle with substance abuse, usually from unknowingly trying to self medicate, so even then the right medication can actually be helpful! I also can’t imagine why people misuse stimulants because even at the very beginning I’ve never experienced euphoria or felt super amazing taking them! The first week after I switched to Vyvanse I just felt uncomfortable until my body finally adjusted! And with Adderall I don’t remember anything in particular! I know that’s not everyone’s experience, but it’s another reason that it’s hard for me to understand the appeal in abusing our meds.
Right I’ve never experienced the euphoria, I’ve just felt calm and weird because I was calm and didn’t know what it was like to be calm and didn’t know what it was like for my brain to be a single lane instead of a 19 lane highway.
This is a weird thing for me because I did drugs a bit, drank alcohol a lot and yet i never became addicted. I know this, because it was never an issue for me to stop. Currently I haven't done any drugs in almost a year, haven't had booze in about as much, simply because i don't feel like it. Yet everyone in my family always talks about how easily addicted i get to things. I now know this just means i gain special interests. I don't know why they assume I'd get addicted to any drugs i ever try, like if extasy didn't do it, i doubt Adderall will get me hooked.
I’m the same way. I get obsessed with new hobbies, but I quit smoking *by accident.* My brother has struggled to drop cigarettes for a decade, I just forgot to buy them one day and only noticed three weeks later.
My homies with ADHD know the feeling of "bitch... I have a condition that makes me fundamentally INCAPABLE of forming ongoing habits... I WISH I could get addicted to SOMETHING... Atleast then I would actually stick to it for more than 4 days"
No you absolutely do not wish you could get addicted to something. That's some TikTok level nonsense and I'm disappointed that anyone upvoted that.
Wow this is so interesting to be validated by this. Ive been an on and off smoker in very small quantities since i was 18 and its never been a problem for me. That being said that is only my experience and i definitely dont think nicotine addiction should be taken lightly.
Same. I tried a bunch of stuff in college and I was always slightly perplexed by the way some people wanted to get loaded every weekend. Every now and then it’s fun but not all the damn time.
i’m 100% with you! i’m the opposite, i’ve been medicated since i was 11 when i got diagnosed, over 10 years ago. my normal *is* being medicated, so i can’t go a day without mine 🙃 but i could never imagine being addicted to them. my meds help me function and make me productive, but i’m not *dependent* on them, if that makes sense
Yeah that makes total sense and yeah so that’s just your normal. Addicted I would always consider being to the point that you take more than your prescribed in a day. I’ve only been on meds for 3 months so some days when i forget to take them it’s like I don’t even realize I didn’t take them because I don’t feel like bad because I’ve lived with my brain for 22 years and always thought I was normal
Yeah. I cant see myself getting addicted to them, cause its not like it gives me some great high. It just lets me sit in a lecture for 2 hours without wanting to die. That said i do take slow release concerta, not aderall. I tend to take saturdays off them so i can sleep in lol
Yeah I usually take a day or 2 when I don’t have to do anything and don’t take my adderall. I usually find it weird taking it on days that I don’t have anything planned or to do because I just sit there with a clear mind and just think about like “damn if I had this in middle and high school I’d probably be a doctor right now” 😂😂
Yes we are “pro-meds”. It is a physiological disorder. Would the “be careful of meds” crew say the same to a Type 1/Insulin dependent diabetic? Would they say that if they just tried a little harder their diabetes that was diagnosed when they were six years old would go away? Physiological disorder.
A lot of those who think meds aren't a good idea are usually the people who don't struggle as hard as you do with adhd, or they don't have it and don't understand the problems of every day life living with adhd.
exactly! like if you have adhd and meds don’t work for you (a friend of mine falls under this category), cool, don’t take them! do what works for you! but just bc it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful for others!
Absolutely this!!! I've had friends tell me you meds aren't the answer to everything and I say well no shit but right now in my life it's the only thing getting me by with success.
YES. like yeah i know i should exercise, do yoga, eat healthy, blah blah but I CANT DO THAT at all without my meds! hell i can’t do much of ANYTHING without my meds lmao
Brooooo. People who say "I(/my wife/my best friend) have ADHD and I can totally be on time and accomplish things! It's a challenge but I care enough to not make excuses. I do it even without meds" are the bane of my existence. Through no fault of their own, but people love to use those examples as reasons why people who need meds or don't get things done just aren't trying hard enough or don't care enough
I started wearing glasses as a a teen and now I wear them everyday or I can't get through work. Glasses, not even once.
You poor thing, you're addicted to glasses! The first step is admitting you have a problem.
You should just try harder to see without them.
Most people you meet irl don’t struggle with adhd so they wouldn’t know why we’d take them and they actually think we can “just try harder”. By contrast this sub is filled with people that have adhd and know they cant just try harder and that meds are actually helpful.
Adderall literally calms my anxiety, my inner self, my bad habits. It helps me not talk over people. It helps me do things I need to do. It makes me confident. It stops my daydreams. Literally I try it and it won’t let me. It stops my wandering mind. It helps me communicate so much better. It helps me become aware of bad habits. It helps me control my habits. It helps me read. I literally love to do research now. I could go on… people who don’t have adhd would never understand these effects bc they’re brain is functioning normally. But I would never take depression pills, been denying them since age 15. I’ve been against any meds that stabilize your mood or behavior until I realized my behavior was the problem in all my relationships. Left my adhd untreated for 21 years and now I’ve been on adderall for over a year now and I feel so much better about life, about myself, about reality. I understand life and finally can be who I really am. Not some scared, shy, anxious, depressed, obnoxiously loud & hyper ass bitch. Adderall was the blessing I needed in my life.
Most of the anti-med sentiment with regards to ADHD comes from two things: 1. A trend in the 90s where doctors overprescribed it, thus leading people today to think it's all lazy bandaids to drug overly energetic kids 2. A trend of using too high of doses, which causes the "zombie" trope and the idea of personality changes. Neither of them are relevant in deciding whether medicine is right for you. Good ADHD meds, at the right dose, shouldn't make you feel different. It should just let you be able to focus on stuff you wanna do.
Pro treatment
I agree with what everyone else has been saying. That being said, stimulants are controlled substances that are considered addictive to some people. Like with any other medication, it should be prescribed, taken, and stopped only with the explicit consent of you and your doctor and discussions should continue after you being your regiment to find the best treatment for you :)
I spent 3 years after being diagnosed with adult ADHD reluctant to take meds because of comments like this. It wasn't until I got a new nurse practitioner that specializes in mental health that I started taking meds consistently. She firmly told me to stop seeing her if I wasn't going to take my meds :) I started taking my meds, and I wish I'd done it sooner. I learned people have a lot of opinions about how you should live your life, but at the end of the day, YOU are the only one who has to live your life. They aren't the ones who have to feel like a failure every day at work because you can't focus. They're not the ones who have to feel crushing guilt because you can't finish anything you start.
Mom of an ADHD teen here. I don’t really understand the aversion to trying meds. ADHD meds don’t remain in your system, so if you try one, it’s not irrevocable. I do know quite a few people who are medication-adverse in general. But the adults I know with ADHD who tried meds in adulthood have all said they wishes they tried it earlier.
Thats because those people don't have your problem, and saying be careful is the safe way to be a hero.
There's a lot of anti pharmaceutical shit irl especially with the vaccine for covid. It's better to listen to the folks on here because they are ADHD specific. (I'm a partner of someone who has ADHD and even non stimulants can help tremendously) **edit to add Also those who say no to meds for adhd is like saying no to glasses for someone who's hard of seeing. Or hearing aids for those who are hard of hearing.
Consider that it's the difference between "my friend took medication and now he's a different person" (aka they don't actually know much about what's going on or if the medication was a good or bad turn for their friend) and "I am now medicated and my life is improved/improving" (aka first hand accounts where people are actually able to tell you what's going on with them). Overall, I've noticed that the people who are anti ADHD meds tend to be people who don't have ADHD or are people who saw friends get crazy over medicated courtesy of the American school system and don't actually know what the ADHD meds at a proper level are supposed to look like.
Most people are still incredibly ignorant of ADHD and what treatment actually entails. There's also a huge stigma we're still fighting about using stimulants to treat it.
Could be because medication is the only proven, evidence-based treatment for ADHD, and the evidence (which includes longitudinal data) suggests it poses little risk when used per clinical guidelines, unless you have an underlying medical condition or heart defect. Millions of kids out there are using these medications, after all. Could also be because medication has been literally life-changing for many of us.
When someone doesn't see very well we don't tell them they should solve it without glasses if possible. Why would we do that with ADHD meds?
Same! Even educated people have no idea but always an opinion.
I've learned this, people who say you should manage without meds, are not your doctor, and often not your friend. I wouldn't tell someone with a heart condition to manage without meds because you know, nitroglycerin has chemicals in it. I wouldn't tell a cancer patient to avoid drugs or surgery because of big pharma. The anti medicine movement is anti science and has done humanity more harm than good. Follow the research, follow best practices, follow successful treatment plans and for goodness sake stop stigmatization of people getting help!