I take Ritalin 10mg on a needs basis since I generally have functioned ‘alright’ into adulthood.
Just took one to get some work done today and it still amazes me how normal I feel about doing work once I’m medicated. Like there’s no massive hurdle to even starting. No massive reluctance and task paralysis to fight.
Coming from a whole week where I’ve been procrastinating on whatever isn’t urgent, suddenly it’s so easy to just… do.
I also get incredibly chatty (hence the post, lol), but yeah. I can’t imagine how life changing it must be for people who struggle even worse with executive dysfunction.
Wish I started this shit earlier. It’s sad to think about all the wasted potential and chronic under achievement.
Are you also a recipient of the “You have potential, you’re just lazy” award?
Its sad to see that we all bear that weight of all these great expectations we just couldn’t seem to meet, despite our best efforts.
Every. Report. In. School.
After my diagnose my life changed. I got a master degree while working full time and raising two kids.
I’m considering getting back on meds because my job is so demanding lately.
Those thoughts are natural but it’s important to put them behind you.
I was diagnosed at 39 and had the same thoughts about the wasted time, but less than a year later I was driving, had a car, drug use dropped dramatically, made better choices (not perfect), and now I work as a software developer.
I still can’t believe the before and after and the fact I have wanted to do this career for 20 years but I made it in the end.
This doesn’t mean I am “happy”, I don’t think I ever need I’ll be but I’m happier and that’s important to me.
I majored in communications because I was so burnt down after secondary school that it was more a process of elimination - I couldn’t do everything from A to Y, so that only left Z. But I would’ve liked to go into something to do with computers.
My father’s a software developer too, and seeing my neurotypical younger brother following in his footsteps now is a bittersweet experience. He gets a lot more attention from our dad, and I feel like he’s the white sheep of the family, where I’m the black sheep for not being able to do well in life
I don’t know if I’ll ever retrain to pursue that career, but I’m in my mid 20s and there’s time if I’d like to. Right now I have a stable career, and I’m working towards life milestones one day at a time.
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Applesauce in those little pouches, chilled. Chobani yoghurt smoothie drinks. Ensure if you like chocolate or need more nutrients
From somebody with an appetite disorder and a healthy love of uppers.
Wanting to see the assholes ruining our world be put down like a rabid dog is not some fucked thought, these people are actively killing the planet and our opportunities for their greed while fueling culture wars, may we soon collectively stand up like the French did. These fascist fucks need to be reminded who actually does work allowing this world to function and its not billionaires. The sui shit is definitely not good, though, so I’m glad you were able to get through it.
Fuck. I have a psych appointment with a new psychiatrist next week and I am hoping to god she hears me and helps. I have SO MUCH that I’m constantly falling behind on and the fucking task paralysis will be the death of me. I hate watching myself make these moves when I know full well that I aught to be doing something different or not put that email off until tomorrow which turns into next week. I’m less than 2 months out from this fucking conference I’m building and I have no keynote speaker. Like…. Fuck. It’s just too big and I can’t even think about actually dealing with it.
Neurodivergent people are the ones who’s obsessive nature has probably lead to many of the core discoveries in all major fields IMO. There is no struggle to concentrate when the desire to work on something pervades your entire being. Unfortunately we are not all lucky enough to have a job that pays us for our genuine interests.
(paraphrased from memory, not verbatim) Adhd is a genetic condition which warrants genetic therapy. Stimulants work well for this but they only work while it is in the bloodstream.
– Dr. Russel Barkley, paraphrased from one of talks on adhd
Personally different stimulants have different effects on different people. On Ritalin I am super chatty but cannot focus. On adderall/vyvanse I am not always chatty but I can focus. The generic of vyvanse is supposed to be out soon and if anyone is looking for all day meds but want something a little more gentle than the come up of adderall definitely talk to your doc. Tangent, but vyvanse has an interesting delivery mechanism: its a prodrug that turns into a stumulant in your GI tract. As such, it uses your digesting of food throughout the day to produce more stimulant. One advantage of vyvanse is that it cannot get you high if it is snorted (which helps alleviate the concern of abuse) because it must be made into a stimulant in your body. The big problem with vyvanse for a while has been that it’s non-generic and something like $400 a month if paid out of pocket.
Damn I’m so glad I don’t have to care about how much my meds cost.
I’m on elvanse (same as vyvanse) and it’s the best of them so far but I still get plenty of side effects, I’d definitely wish I could just “fix” things instead of taking stimulants.
I only recently was able to work at a place that got good enough health insurance to afford vyvanse. It was still something that I needed to try the generic, and insurance-preferred drugs first like Adderall XR but once I tried it and mentioned that it didn’t work so well, I could get the Vyvnase Rx filled. $30 copay instead of $10 but well worth it. Generally, the only reason for this is because there’s no generic. So hopefully with the generic coming soon more adhd folks could try this.
I too wish I didn’t have to take meds. I wish my brain just worked the way it should. The thing about ADHD is though you’re already likely finding your own stimulants or stimuli. Kids with ADHD unknowningly self-medicate with sugar. Actually, Dr. Russell Barkley also mentions that if you have ADHD and you aren’t medicated and you want to have your brain work a little better for a short duration, you can sip (he emphases slowly sip) on a sugary beverage such as a soda. Liquified sugar passes the blood-brain barrier faster than solid sugars would in the stomach. Sugar itself lights up similar pathways in the brain as cocaine.
There are other forms of stimulation besides drugs but the intention of the drugs is to provide a baseline level of stimulation so that you don’t need to seek out your own stimulation (or, not as much of it). It’s such a strange thing to explain to people, but in order for me to concentrate on what someone is saying, I need to be doing something else at the same time.
Glad you’re getting your meds!
Agree about ADHD people needing to find their own stimulation, one way or another. In my case I learned to use stress. It’s my superpower. I can summon a stress response on command, until I just couldn’t turn it off.
So a big reason to take my meds is to try to replace that stress response since it’s making me crash mentally and physically. Even with meds, I spent most of my life not diagnosed, so it’s hard to stop.
Caution about using stress as a stimulant. Sometimes life gets stressful, then you have stress on stress on stress. Or maybe that’s just me
No, definitely. I wasn’t clear enough but using stress as stimulant most of my life has left me with long term physical and mental sequelae.
I forget if Vyvanse is available in my country, or if it’s only available in longer effect doses here. I’ve also heard about Concerta (is that the name?) but so far I’ve only tried Ritalin and it works pretty alright if I’m not overstimulated when it starts kicking in.
I have gotten overstimulated when I went out shopping once while it was in effect. Not a pleasant experience, but definitely a new one.
That’s a pretty interesting fact about Vyvanse though. What’s the window of effect for the one you take?
Concerta isn’t a stimulant. And if adderall isn’t allowed in your country, vyvanse likely will also not be available. Both adderall and vyvanse are amphetamines/ mixed amphetamine salts. The other option for stimulant meds is Ritalin which is Methylphenidate. In the US, doctors can technically prescribe methamphetamine but it is very rare if ever prescribed because it isn’t as good of an adhd med.
As far as a window for effect, the deug works something like 12 to 18 hours, which is perfect for me because I need it to do housework, work a d housework when I am home.
Yeah, it’s double. I quit Concerta a few days after I concocted the plan to sabotage CERN in Switzerland because I was convinced they would create a universe swallowing black hole when they would boot their large hadron collider. I had the bugout bag with supplied ready. Car fueled up and extra supplies in the trunk. Thank god I had an appointment with my psychiatrist to renew my prescription at that time. I told about my concerns and she figured out I was becoming paranoid because of a certain hyperfocus.
On that other hand, the few years I took it all the stuff that went dramatically wrong in my life because of me forgetting or not caring went away.
