Comment by muhblah
2 years ago
This reflects exactly my day to day struggles. Especially that productivity boost when every one starts leaving, and I _was not able_ to finished the smallest one of my tasks planned for the day 'til then most of the time. I'm writing "was not able" on purpose here, because as someone (being blessed) with ADHD, your brain does not allow you to make progress on the smallest tasks due to all those fireworks being blown around you in your brain.
During my part-time studies (I had a 70-80% employment at that time) the time I really started studying productively was after 9-10pm when everyone around me went to finish their day and the world around me started to go silent and night is coming in. Thinking of it today, I don't know how I would have survived that time without the huge support from my wife back then. So all the credits of me being able to complete my studies go to her!
Nowadays, I would not know how I would get through the day-to-day work without medication most days. That often worries me a little.
Yup, I think all the meds for this can succumb to tolerance. A real life Flowers for Algernon. Over the years I've upped the dose, switched meds, drug holidays but nothing has matched how well my brain worked the first couple of years on meds.
> nothing has matched how well my brain worked the first couple of years on meds
As someone who also has a bit more than 2 decades experience with ADHD medication and started with meds quite early in my teenage years when I went to school, I have very similar experience to yours.
One of my assumptions is that it also has a lot to do with the humans metabolism that changes over the years.
That theory makes sense to me. However, my anecdotal experience is that I never tried any of these meds until my early 30's.
The first few weeks on Adderall were f'ing magical. I remember tearing up, I was so happy. Finally I was laser-focused. A bit emotional thinking of it now.
The magic faded fast. Adderall was still a large net positive for me for ~6-7 years. But never like those first few weeks. I guess I got somewhat close to that original experience a few times, after extended breaks from Adderall and restarting it.
Anyway, this is of course a sample size of 1. But since all the experiences described above took place in my 30s I don't think that metabolism change was a major factor. Certainly not within the first year. Again I know... n=1 =)
Well, I'm jealous. For me it was literally like... the first few weeks on adderall lol.
I continued to benefit from it for ~6-7 years. But, never felt anything like those first few weeks.
> Especially that productivity boost when every one starts leaving, and I _was not able_ to finished the smallest one of my tasks planned for the day 'til then most of the time.
This is super true for me as well, to the point where I structure my day around this. I'm lucky to have a workplace with flexible hours and enough seniority that nobody complains when I roll in at 10, which gives me a few "quiet hours" from 4-6 as others trickle out.