6 ms·

I got diagnosed as an adult and it was life changing for me, has been on them for 5 years. Here are some tips: 1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take

I got diagnosed as an adult and it was life changing for me, has been on them for 5 years. Here are some tips: 1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take them to do tasks to progress your life. ADHD doesn't prevent you from having fun, and having fun with stimulants is what makes them addictive. 2. Take regular breaks from the medication. You wont get much done the first day or two after, so don't plan on doing anything except stay at home and procrastinate those days since your inattentive symptoms will be worse than usual. 3. Sometimes try to do tasks without medication. Having worse focus helps in some way since it means you must master a topic much more before you can complete the task. My guess is that many of the PRO's of ADHD comes from this, since it means instead of just completing a task and moving on you have been forced to master the subject way more than other people with similar grades/achievements. Think of two people with similar grades, one worked hard and did lots of practice problems while the other was lazy and never worked. Who do you think understands things better? What do you think happens if the lazy guy suddenly puts in the effort? That is what happens with ADHD medication.

ryanianian 6y ago
> Take regular breaks from the medication "Medicine holidays." They're a necessary part of ADHD treatment to deal with tolerance and to ensure you still need the medication at your current dose. After you take a few days off (I do one weekend a month and one week a year) try taking a smaller dose. Everyone's tolerance and needs can change drastically over time. If you stay at the same dose forever without breaks you'll have no concept of if the medication is still working for you - much like your 3rd point. I took 40mg/day in my 20s, down to 30mg a year ago, and now up to 35mg/day in covid times.
sizzle 6y ago
Taking breaks simply isn't possible for many, like the withdrawals translates to sleeping 16 hours a day and not having an iota of energy to do everyday activities. It is a vicious cycle the deeper you get into taking stims and feeling normal baseline response by finding your therapeutic dose, why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'?
- username90 6y ago
  > why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'? I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapted for modern office work and bureaucracy, and having vacations where you can go back to your simple carefree self is very valuable.
  - neutronicus 6y ago
    The other thing your are not that well adapted for is parenthood (lots of getting shit together and going someplace on a schedule) and that is harder to take a break from
    - username90 6y ago
      Do you really need to do that on a weekend though?
      - zrail 6y ago
        Yes? Kids don’t stop just because the name of the day starts with “S”.
        username90 6y ago
        But most of the import places you have to visit stops during weekends. Edit: For example, when I was a kid I spent most of my time at home playing with toys during weekends. I don't see why that would be a bad life for a kid. When they get older to 8-10 they can get around on their own so no need to baby sit them any longer, at least if you live in an European city.
        WarChortle 6y ago
eyelidlessness 6y ago
> Take regular breaks from the medication [...] Sometimes try to do tasks without medication I can't and won't speak to your experience or your medical advice, but from my experience this is advice I would strongly advise considering your own experience before taking. My experience is that if I miss a dose I'll find myself, hours later, with my brain catastrophically grinding gears and in tears from a panic attack. This isn't from addiction, this is because I've actually adjusted to having a brain chemistry that isn't broken. I was just as much a wreck before I was medicated, I just didn't know and had a lot of really unhealthy self-medication techniques. I'm well near the highest dose on my medication (Vyvanse) and I still have many of the pros and cons of ADHD. I don't need to play chicken with my brain chemicals to exercise the unique heaven and hell that's in there.
- sizzle 6y ago
  Also operating heavy machinery, your reaction time and attention span is dangerously diminished behind the wheel of a car so I simply would have to refuse activities of daily living taking a med vacation day which means I'm not getting anything done and when I have a family I will have dependants that I can't ignore at all.
drfrank 6y ago
> Take regular breaks from the medication. I'm not sure this is universally necessary. When my pre-adolescent son forgets to take his medication in the morning it's immediately obvious, so it's clearly still having pronounced effect. He's been on the same dosage of the medication continuously for five years.
- morty_s 6y ago
  I’ve tried following the “take a break once in a while” advice and it does not work for me. I started to write daily and was able to realize being inconsistent with medication led to inconsistencies for me. I was hesitant to take any medication. I was concerned it would make me anxious or similar. Instead, my anxiety was greatly reduced. I had the thought, “is this what normal should feel like?” I don’t like the idea of being dependent on any one tool, but I’ll use a tool if it helps.
bootstrapping 6y ago
> Take regular breaks from the medication As others have said, this is definitely something you must discuss with your personal brain care specialist first. What others have not suggested, and again this is something I have been able to arrange in conjunction with my shrink, is medication switching. Since each has slightly different benefits, I use a different medication on a workday than at the weekend or holiday/social time. In this regard I've been fortunate to have access to a healthcare system, and specialists, that respect the individual and aren't reflexively invoking a) cookie-cutter solutions, or b) contrived histrionics about substances with abuse potential. The only raised eyebrow came from my pharmacist: "You're on both of these?" "Yes, but on different days, not together." "No worries". NB: I'm hesitant to specify which medications, because individual responses vary dramatically, and advice gleaned from one person's experience may be exactly wrong for another.
- sizzle 6y ago
  Since this may benefit others suffering from adhd, can you tell us the class of meds so at can discuss the combo with our specialists? I've never heard of switching meds this sounds beneficial to me, thanks.
  - bootstrapping 6y ago
    They are both CNS stimulants, but one is believed to be primarily a NDRI and the other a slow-release prodrug for a TAAR1 agonist. I have somewhat dissimilar responses to each, and the variation in utility is sufficiently well correlated to the varying needs of work vs life, that I can allocate one to workdays, and the other to the weekend and holidays, and find myself maximising the benefits. What's more, holidays from either (inadvertent or otherwise) have not provoke the catastrophic withdrawal sometimes described, for me it's more of a reversion to type. And at the risk of labouring the point, this all comes with a whopping YMMV notice. In particular, I am not reliant on self-assessment; I am privileged enough to have access to both psychiatric and familial help that is willing, able, and qualified, to provide external observation.
- daniel-cussen 6y ago

ryanianian 6y ago

> Take regular breaks from the medication "Medicine holidays." They're a necessary part of ADHD treatment to deal with tolerance and to ensure you still need the medication at your current dose. After you take a few days off (I do one weekend a month and one week a year) try taking a smaller dose. Everyone's tolerance and needs can change drastically over time. If you stay at the same dose forever without breaks you'll have no concept of if the medication is still working for you - much like your 3rd point. I took 40mg/day in my 20s, down to 30mg a year ago, and now up to 35mg/day in covid times.

sizzle 6y ago

Taking breaks simply isn't possible for many, like the withdrawals translates to sleeping 16 hours a day and not having an iota of energy to do everyday activities. It is a vicious cycle the deeper you get into taking stims and feeling normal baseline response by finding your therapeutic dose, why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'?

username90 6y ago
> why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'? I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapted for modern office work and bureaucracy, and having vacations where you can go back to your simple carefree self is very valuable.
- neutronicus 6y ago
  The other thing your are not that well adapted for is parenthood (lots of getting shit together and going someplace on a schedule) and that is harder to take a break from
  - username90 6y ago
    Do you really need to do that on a weekend though?
    - zrail 6y ago
      Yes? Kids don’t stop just because the name of the day starts with “S”.
      - username90 6y ago
        But most of the import places you have to visit stops during weekends. Edit: For example, when I was a kid I spent most of my time at home playing with toys during weekends. I don't see why that would be a bad life for a kid. When they get older to 8-10 they can get around on their own so no need to baby sit them any longer, at least if you live in an European city.
        WarChortle 6y ago

eyelidlessness 6y ago

> Take regular breaks from the medication [...] Sometimes try to do tasks without medication I can't and won't speak to your experience or your medical advice, but from my experience this is advice I would strongly advise considering your own experience before taking. My experience is that if I miss a dose I'll find myself, hours later, with my brain catastrophically grinding gears and in tears from a panic attack. This isn't from addiction, this is because I've actually adjusted to having a brain chemistry that isn't broken. I was just as much a wreck before I was medicated, I just didn't know and had a lot of really unhealthy self-medication techniques. I'm well near the highest dose on my medication (Vyvanse) and I still have many of the pros and cons of ADHD. I don't need to play chicken with my brain chemicals to exercise the unique heaven and hell that's in there.

sizzle 6y ago
Also operating heavy machinery, your reaction time and attention span is dangerously diminished behind the wheel of a car so I simply would have to refuse activities of daily living taking a med vacation day which means I'm not getting anything done and when I have a family I will have dependants that I can't ignore at all.

drfrank 6y ago

> Take regular breaks from the medication. I'm not sure this is universally necessary. When my pre-adolescent son forgets to take his medication in the morning it's immediately obvious, so it's clearly still having pronounced effect. He's been on the same dosage of the medication continuously for five years.

morty_s 6y ago
I’ve tried following the “take a break once in a while” advice and it does not work for me. I started to write daily and was able to realize being inconsistent with medication led to inconsistencies for me. I was hesitant to take any medication. I was concerned it would make me anxious or similar. Instead, my anxiety was greatly reduced. I had the thought, “is this what normal should feel like?” I don’t like the idea of being dependent on any one tool, but I’ll use a tool if it helps.

bootstrapping 6y ago

> Take regular breaks from the medication As others have said, this is definitely something you must discuss with your personal brain care specialist first. What others have not suggested, and again this is something I have been able to arrange in conjunction with my shrink, is medication switching. Since each has slightly different benefits, I use a different medication on a workday than at the weekend or holiday/social time. In this regard I've been fortunate to have access to a healthcare system, and specialists, that respect the individual and aren't reflexively invoking a) cookie-cutter solutions, or b) contrived histrionics about substances with abuse potential. The only raised eyebrow came from my pharmacist: "You're on both of these?" "Yes, but on different days, not together." "No worries". NB: I'm hesitant to specify which medications, because individual responses vary dramatically, and advice gleaned from one person's experience may be exactly wrong for another.

sizzle 6y ago
Since this may benefit others suffering from adhd, can you tell us the class of meds so at can discuss the combo with our specialists? I've never heard of switching meds this sounds beneficial to me, thanks.
- bootstrapping 6y ago
  They are both CNS stimulants, but one is believed to be primarily a NDRI and the other a slow-release prodrug for a TAAR1 agonist. I have somewhat dissimilar responses to each, and the variation in utility is sufficiently well correlated to the varying needs of work vs life, that I can allocate one to workdays, and the other to the weekend and holidays, and find myself maximising the benefits. What's more, holidays from either (inadvertent or otherwise) have not provoke the catastrophic withdrawal sometimes described, for me it's more of a reversion to type. And at the risk of labouring the point, this all comes with a whopping YMMV notice. In particular, I am not reliant on self-assessment; I am privileged enough to have access to both psychiatric and familial help that is willing, able, and qualified, to provide external observation.
daniel-cussen 6y ago