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There's so much negativity in this thread towards ADHD meds. I want to chime in with my own experience, when I was in elementary school, there were suspicions t

There's so much negativity in this thread towards ADHD meds. I want to chime in with my own experience, when I was in elementary school, there were suspicions that I had AD(H)D, and I got tested, but apparently "I was the quietest and most compliant kid they had ever had". Didn't get a diagnosis. ~15 years later, and I have serious trouble with executive function, I am insanely easily distracted, I have trouble with emotional regulation, I was physically incapable of focusing on something that I did not enjoy for more than 10 minutes, ever. I have no idea how I got through college, heck, I almost didn't. In addition to all this, I was hyper, impulsive, and completely incapable of ever taking a second off, I couldn't relax, at all. At some point, I saw ADHD somewhere, and I decided to take a more serious second look at it, "what actually is this thing?", and it resonated with me to the core. So after that, I pretty quickly got myself a diagnosis, and not much later I got a ritalin prescription. I have barely any significant side-effects, I'm calmer, I can focus, I can talk to people without losing my train of thought during the conversation, I can relax better, I can take time to prepare my days and weeks; clean my room, make and follow todo-lists, continue work on a single project for more than a week, I could finally read books without going like "oh huh?!" to every single sound around me 10x a minute, etcetcetcetcetcetc... My life is pretty terrible still for all kinds of reasons, but no, ritalin doesn't make me feel lethargic -- especially not if I take a slightly lower dose than I'm prescribed -- nobody forced this onto me, I'm not doing this for "compliance" or whatever, I'm not abusing this to be more productive or whatever weird Silicon Valley stereotypes there are about ADHD meds. Ritalin helps me maintain a relatively stable foundation for my disturbingly disorganized life. It's not magic, and there are real downsides to it, but it really, really helps me very, very effectively.

all_factz 8y ago
Fair. I didn’t mean to imply that medication is never beneficial. I just think it’s over-prescribed (but this is anecdotal so if anyone really wants to take me to task on it, I forfeit in advance).
skksjsnaahs 8y ago
Have you ever considered whether you suffer from depression and/or anxiety? I was in a similar place after my ADHD diagnosis. Ritalin helped my career greatly, but I was still unsatisfied with life in many ways. After I started taking an antidepressant (Remeron), things got really good for me. I took control of my life and fixed a lot of problems. I find my work and my social relationships more fulfilling. It also fixed my insomnia.
- azeirah 8y ago
  Haha, I've definitely "considered" that, I've been depressed for the past ~9 years. Finally know why now though! It has nothing to do with ADHD. Taking an antidepressant won't cut it for me, unfortunately. Although I do expect to get on them soon-ish, maybe it'll help a little.
  - skksjsnaahs 8y ago
    I don’t know the nature of your problems of course, but I found the antidepressant didn’t just make me feel better about things - it also made me better at actually solving my problems. It fixed my social anxiety and made me better at talking to people, which helped with all sorts of human-related problems. People enjoy my company in social situations, and I enjoy my family’s company (I didn’t really connect with many of them before). I used to think I couldn’t relate to people because I was autistic - maybe I’m on the spectrum, but now that I’m not scared of talking to people and am less of a bummer, I can be friends with all sorts of people. Also made me less afraid to deal with a bunch of other things I needed to change. It makes things that seemed too hard to bother fixing, suddenly doable. Problems that I used to think of as “facts of life” have been solved. Of course if you’re dying from a terminal illness or something it’s not going to fix that. And, different antidepressants work for different people, and it’s possible that none will work for you. But there are combinations like Remeron + Effexor (aka “California Rocket Fuel”) that are much more effective if the first attempt fails.

all_factz 8y ago

Fair. I didn’t mean to imply that medication is never beneficial. I just think it’s over-prescribed (but this is anecdotal so if anyone really wants to take me to task on it, I forfeit in advance).

skksjsnaahs 8y ago

Have you ever considered whether you suffer from depression and/or anxiety? I was in a similar place after my ADHD diagnosis. Ritalin helped my career greatly, but I was still unsatisfied with life in many ways. After I started taking an antidepressant (Remeron), things got really good for me. I took control of my life and fixed a lot of problems. I find my work and my social relationships more fulfilling. It also fixed my insomnia.

azeirah 8y ago
Haha, I've definitely "considered" that, I've been depressed for the past ~9 years. Finally know why now though! It has nothing to do with ADHD. Taking an antidepressant won't cut it for me, unfortunately. Although I do expect to get on them soon-ish, maybe it'll help a little.
- skksjsnaahs 8y ago
  I don’t know the nature of your problems of course, but I found the antidepressant didn’t just make me feel better about things - it also made me better at actually solving my problems. It fixed my social anxiety and made me better at talking to people, which helped with all sorts of human-related problems. People enjoy my company in social situations, and I enjoy my family’s company (I didn’t really connect with many of them before). I used to think I couldn’t relate to people because I was autistic - maybe I’m on the spectrum, but now that I’m not scared of talking to people and am less of a bummer, I can be friends with all sorts of people. Also made me less afraid to deal with a bunch of other things I needed to change. It makes things that seemed too hard to bother fixing, suddenly doable. Problems that I used to think of as “facts of life” have been solved. Of course if you’re dying from a terminal illness or something it’s not going to fix that. And, different antidepressants work for different people, and it’s possible that none will work for you. But there are combinations like Remeron + Effexor (aka “California Rocket Fuel”) that are much more effective if the first attempt fails.