5 ms·

>no one who isn’t(crazy) is going to feel calmed or feel their anxiety relieved by amphetamines. This is false. Pretty much all people will experience a higher

by to1y 5y ago

>no one who isn’t(crazy) is going to feel calmed or feel their anxiety relieved by amphetamines. This is false. Pretty much all people will experience a higher level of focus, calmer(less racing thoughts) on amphetamines.

eyelidlessness 5y ago
I have a hard time reading this “correction” as intended in good faith, you would have to have misread every aspect of what you’re responding to. But I’ll respond in good faith because it’s important to me that people are not misled on this, intentionally or otherwise. First of all, I did not mean ‘no one who isn’t(crazy)’, I meant no one who is not chemically imbalanced such that they will benefit from an amphetamine prescription. Second of all, none of my comment had anything to do with the benefits for focus or racing thoughts. When I mentioned feeling calmed and anxiety relief, those were speaking to the same benefit for ADHD patients. Amphetamines are stimulants. Heightened energy and anxiety are generally their most common side effects, just as with caffeine. People with ADHD typically (but not always) experience the opposite effect, at least up to their optimal dosage. More to the point, and I hope this will help clarify the overall scope of my comment: ADHD—despite the name, reputation, and many diagnostic criteria—is far more than either a deficit of attention or hyperactivity. When I say my diagnosis and treatment saved my life, I mean from the effects of traumatically crippling anxiety. I had never even wondered if I had the stereotypical ADHD symptoms. I had to work with my psychiatrists to translate the diagnostic criteria into relevant experiences with intense sensory overload, hyperfocus/hyperfixation, anxiety and depression, social problems. If it weren’t for me making the connection to sensory overload, I never would have even had the conversation with a doctor in the first place. I’d be trying—and likely failing—to find the right combination of SSRI and benzo. This is a very common story for a lot of people diagnosed with ADHD as adults, mine just happened to be fairly extreme because I was drinking myself to death to self medicate the anxiety. Which… self medicating is another common outcome for undiagnosed adults. Anyway. All of that is to say, you’re not wrong that amphetamines tend to have a similar effect on focus for most people, at least to a point. But lacking “focus” in that productivity sense is really more of a clue than a primary symptom of ADHD. This misunderstanding is mostly rooted in the diagnostic criteria being oriented around adult descriptions of children’s behavior. Not the actual patient’s experience in their own words. If you ask people diagnosed as adults, or even children who haven’t internally stigmatized their own experiences, what ADHD is like… it often more closely lines up with a lot of experiences expressed by a lot of people with autism. And it’s not that trouble focusing is a complete red herring, it’s that why we have trouble focusing isn’t a part of the discussion. So yeah. People abuse Adderall to focus. Common trope, no argument here. Those people abusing it, unless they’re unaware they’re undiagnosed, generally feel like they’ve taken an upper. Because they have! People with ADHD often feel the opposite even at an optimal dose, and generally should expect to be able to sleep while it’s still active and noticeably effective. Many of us even get sleepy especially on lower doses. I spent months while I was stepping up in dosage where I would need a nap about an hour after taking my morning meds. That is not how people react without the chemical imbalance Adderall treats.
- to1y 5y ago
  - eyelidlessness 5y ago
    Wow. You’re really just an asshole. Fuck directly off please. Edit for the benefit of people who are not assholes and may want to know about how ADHD treatment works chemically: > I don't think adderall or any amphetamine is a permanent working solution for adhd. It just works. It's the same as taking painkillers for pain. Is the source of the pain gone? No. Will it work forever? No. Does it work? Somewhat. This is all correct in my experience. If the person commenting had left it there I would have emphatically agreed and moved on. Probably with quite a bit more to say supporting this. I’m happy to fill more in later if anyone wants. > Will a person with ADHD have more focus? Yes, just like any other person will. This is both questionably true and intentionally ignoring what it’s responding to in obvious bad faith. For what it’s worth, my ability to focus on amphetamines is roughly the same as it was before I ever got diagnosed. For reasons that are true in the first quote I agreed with emphatically. > It's not a permanent solution. On this I just wholeheartedly agree. No notes at all. Treating ADHD is maintenance, not a cure. I don’t even know that I’d want a cure. > On the topic of drug seeking behaviour, that's exactly what your post sounds like. You're instantly defensive, you begin arguing points that it seems only exist in your mind, anything to protect and validate "your next dose. I’m sorry to tell anyone seeking information about ADHD diagnosis or treatment, but you’re inevitably going to encounter people who think this way no matter what your experience. If you feel like their description of your reaction doesn’t match your reality, it very probably doesn’t. People are understandably biased about amphetamines, and probably see confirmations of their concerns where they don’t realize it’s not true. > The problem is discipline and focus is HARD.. amphetamines make it easy. It's scary to admit it, but once you tell yourself it's hard it will become easier. This is just common ADHD dismissal. It’s completely ignoring actual ADHD experiences and challenges. It’s completely disregarding symptoms as expressed by actual people with ADHD. And it’s entirely focused on “focus”, which has nothing to do with what I described in any of my responses. I’m posting this in hopes anyone who might have a similar background to mine might not be dissuaded by this kind of ignorant judgment.

by to1y 5y ago

eyelidlessness 5y ago

I have a hard time reading this “correction” as intended in good faith, you would have to have misread every aspect of what you’re responding to. But I’ll respond in good faith because it’s important to me that people are not misled on this, intentionally or otherwise. First of all, I did not mean ‘no one who isn’t(crazy)’, I meant no one who is not chemically imbalanced such that they will benefit from an amphetamine prescription. Second of all, none of my comment had anything to do with the benefits for focus or racing thoughts. When I mentioned feeling calmed and anxiety relief, those were speaking to the same benefit for ADHD patients. Amphetamines are stimulants. Heightened energy and anxiety are generally their most common side effects, just as with caffeine. People with ADHD typically (but not always) experience the opposite effect, at least up to their optimal dosage. More to the point, and I hope this will help clarify the overall scope of my comment: ADHD—despite the name, reputation, and many diagnostic criteria—is far more than either a deficit of attention or hyperactivity. When I say my diagnosis and treatment saved my life, I mean from the effects of traumatically crippling anxiety. I had never even wondered if I had the stereotypical ADHD symptoms. I had to work with my psychiatrists to translate the diagnostic criteria into relevant experiences with intense sensory overload, hyperfocus/hyperfixation, anxiety and depression, social problems. If it weren’t for me making the connection to sensory overload, I never would have even had the conversation with a doctor in the first place. I’d be trying—and likely failing—to find the right combination of SSRI and benzo. This is a very common story for a lot of people diagnosed with ADHD as adults, mine just happened to be fairly extreme because I was drinking myself to death to self medicate the anxiety. Which… self medicating is another common outcome for undiagnosed adults. Anyway. All of that is to say, you’re not wrong that amphetamines tend to have a similar effect on focus for most people, at least to a point. But lacking “focus” in that productivity sense is really more of a clue than a primary symptom of ADHD. This misunderstanding is mostly rooted in the diagnostic criteria being oriented around adult descriptions of children’s behavior. Not the actual patient’s experience in their own words. If you ask people diagnosed as adults, or even children who haven’t internally stigmatized their own experiences, what ADHD is like… it often more closely lines up with a lot of experiences expressed by a lot of people with autism. And it’s not that trouble focusing is a complete red herring, it’s that why we have trouble focusing isn’t a part of the discussion. So yeah. People abuse Adderall to focus. Common trope, no argument here. Those people abusing it, unless they’re unaware they’re undiagnosed, generally feel like they’ve taken an upper. Because they have! People with ADHD often feel the opposite even at an optimal dose, and generally should expect to be able to sleep while it’s still active and noticeably effective. Many of us even get sleepy especially on lower doses. I spent months while I was stepping up in dosage where I would need a nap about an hour after taking my morning meds. That is not how people react without the chemical imbalance Adderall treats.

to1y 5y ago
- eyelidlessness 5y ago
  Wow. You’re really just an asshole. Fuck directly off please. Edit for the benefit of people who are not assholes and may want to know about how ADHD treatment works chemically: > I don't think adderall or any amphetamine is a permanent working solution for adhd. It just works. It's the same as taking painkillers for pain. Is the source of the pain gone? No. Will it work forever? No. Does it work? Somewhat. This is all correct in my experience. If the person commenting had left it there I would have emphatically agreed and moved on. Probably with quite a bit more to say supporting this. I’m happy to fill more in later if anyone wants. > Will a person with ADHD have more focus? Yes, just like any other person will. This is both questionably true and intentionally ignoring what it’s responding to in obvious bad faith. For what it’s worth, my ability to focus on amphetamines is roughly the same as it was before I ever got diagnosed. For reasons that are true in the first quote I agreed with emphatically. > It's not a permanent solution. On this I just wholeheartedly agree. No notes at all. Treating ADHD is maintenance, not a cure. I don’t even know that I’d want a cure. > On the topic of drug seeking behaviour, that's exactly what your post sounds like. You're instantly defensive, you begin arguing points that it seems only exist in your mind, anything to protect and validate "your next dose. I’m sorry to tell anyone seeking information about ADHD diagnosis or treatment, but you’re inevitably going to encounter people who think this way no matter what your experience. If you feel like their description of your reaction doesn’t match your reality, it very probably doesn’t. People are understandably biased about amphetamines, and probably see confirmations of their concerns where they don’t realize it’s not true. > The problem is discipline and focus is HARD.. amphetamines make it easy. It's scary to admit it, but once you tell yourself it's hard it will become easier. This is just common ADHD dismissal. It’s completely ignoring actual ADHD experiences and challenges. It’s completely disregarding symptoms as expressed by actual people with ADHD. And it’s entirely focused on “focus”, which has nothing to do with what I described in any of my responses. I’m posting this in hopes anyone who might have a similar background to mine might not be dissuaded by this kind of ignorant judgment.