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Be careful with the stimulants -- I say this not as a value judgment but because they can have cognitive side effects that impair your ability to understand you
by wayoutthere 7y ago
Be careful with the stimulants -- I say this not as a value judgment but because they can have cognitive side effects that impair your ability to understand you're having those side effects.
Even when they work well there will be some collateral damage with stimulants. I was a great employee on them, but I was a shitty, narcissistic friend. The focus many people get from stimulants is an inward focus, which makes it easy to get things done but hard to empathize with other people. As a result I didn't have many friends, and once I started wanting more out of life I realized the stimulants were holding me back from personal growth. The inward focus clouded my ability to understand why people didn't like me -- I couldn't make enough space for another person to even see why people didn't want to be around me.
I'm not saying that stimulants don't help (they totally do) but you should understand what you want out of your life and how that aligns what you get out of the drugs.
- rtikulit 7y agoI have the opposite experience. I am formally diagnosed with ADHD, none of my friends would dispute the diagnosis. When I am on stimulants (Vyvanse and Dex) I have a ton more patience and emotional equilibrium. I pay attention to other people longer and more deeply... aka empathy. I can sustain an outward focus without distraction. When I am off meds I am distracted by my own free-running cognitive and emotional processes, and I have to spend effort looking inward to manage them. I have had no temptation to abuse the stimulants. I don't really enjoy them, on the balance, but they make an incredible difference that meditation, high quality diet and physical activity can't even begin to approach. They really calm me down. My wife prefers me medicated. I'm apparently nicer, more patient, more even-tempered and easier to get along with.