Comment by kstrauser
7 hours ago
Ooh, let me count the privileges I get, starting at zero.
Zero…
There, done. What treatment for ADHD has done for me in the real world is drastically cut my anxiety and stress. Turns out the most challenging parts of my life involved knowing I had to do a thing, or I’d get fired or evicted or sued or such, and being utterly incapable of getting myself to do it until it became a crisis. What a piece of crap I must be, right, for ignoring the things a responsible adult would be doing!
And then I started taking meds for it, and found out I could, just, decide to sit down and gather my tax paperwork, or write that report, or balance the checkbook, even though those things didn’t need to be done for several more weeks. At first, it was utterly liberating. And then it was kinda soul-crushing. I could’ve been living like this the whole time, minus all the stress and self esteem issues and anxiety? And then it was liberating again. Well, bummer life use to be like that, but it’s not anymore, so yay!
And it didn’t do a single thing to my emotions, other than removing about 90% of the anxiety from my life.
(I have to get this in before the inevitable jackass opines: no, life isn’t suddenly “easier because you’re taking meth”. I get no stimulant sensation whatsoever from my dose of Adderall. My morning coffee has a much stronger effect. It just allows me to decide what I should be working on at any given moment, even when no one’s angry at me. It is not an energy booster in any way.)
> (I have to get this in before the inevitable jackass opines: no, life isn’t suddenly “easier because you’re taking meth”. I get no stimulant sensation whatsoever from my dose of Adderall. My morning coffee has a much stronger effect. It just allows me to decide what I should be working on at any given moment, even when no one’s angry at me. It is not an energy booster in any way.)
I started medication recently, and it was very much You Can Just Do Things.
Before, I'd need to force myself to start working, and was easily distracted. That appears to be significantly reduced once I started the meds, which makes basically everything in my life much easier.
One interesting thing I noted was that when not taking them (at weekends) then I can still do most of what I need to (have kids, so lots to do), but I was much, much more tired by the end of the day, presumably because it takes more energy to force myself to get up and move.
But yeah, it's super weird that stimulants have this impact on ADHD, but they are definitely really helpful for me.
I guess we'll see how I feel in 3m/6m/1y etc.
Honestly your description of the medicine tells me I should try it, but I’m going to hold back. The benefits you describe are the sweet spot of what I need, even today.
But come again, I have excess anxiety and that is getting in the way of how I do things. And work only happens when in crisis mode. Or rather I should describe it as the stress of not doing a task overcomes the anxiety of doing the work wrong.
The reality is I need all of those emotional responses even though they come in the way. And I also need a healthier mind so that when anxiety (aka a brick wall) starts building up, I have mental tools on how to address it.
The privileges and extra care I mentioned are the responses other people give to your ADHD by backing off from putting you under pressure. Or demanding stuff in excessive form. Or the passes they give you for the stupid stuff you do. I didn’t get anything like this amd sometimes I wished I had. My mind would have been less traumatized and I would have had a greater ability to learn healthier responses.
I am so glad it works for you. I hope that one day you can have healthier responses to the anxiety you face. I hope we become stronger and less dependent on privilege and passes.
> work only happens when in crisis mode That’s a textbook case of ADHD behavior where one can only do things when urgency hits a threshold. It seems as if you are concerned that medication may remove this urgency, resulting in zero work done at all. Positive scenario is that you would not need the urgency to deal with what you deem important.