3 ms·

I didn't know up until the last few years that I had ADHD, and had just always assumed that I was just crap at organisation and lazy. I've been through a degre

I didn't know up until the last few years that I had ADHD, and had just always assumed that I was just crap at organisation and lazy. I've been through a degree, a masters and years of work using every trick in the book to force myself to work and not get distracted. I have super detailed plans, all of my work is accountable, I write down everything I have to do. It goes on and on how I micro-manage my day just to force myself to work or do my tasks. Then I got an ADHD diagnosis, started medication and my life changed. Suddenly I can just sit down and get to work instead of fighting myself to put the phone down and close reddit. I don't get up and wander off unexpectedly, I don't feel a physical urge to walk off out of my seat and in my 30s I realised that's what normal is. I don't put off every little 5 minute task, I just do them without a second thought. Sure, I can survive without the meds, but life is so much easier not having to fight against myself for every single damn task. I also take antidpressants and I view them in the same way. The tablets don't "cure" me, but they clear my head enough so that I can make the conscious decision to improve my behaviour.

vanderZwan 3y ago
It's crazy, huh? Nobody would ever say "how dare physically disabled people rely on things like wheelchairs to be less disabled" (well, nobody I would consider worth listening to at least). Yet medication for ADHD, depression, and other mental health issues are stigmatized.
sgarland 3y ago
I assumed I wasn’t applying myself, or didn’t use the right learning style, or whatever else was being offered as a suggestion. It didn’t help that I was a kid in the early 90s, when Ritalin was getting big, and some parents (like mine) were staunchly opposed to medicating kids for supposed normal behavior. I found much later in life that the only things that consistently motivated me were a looming deadline, or severe consequences to failure. The lone exception was computer puzzles, by which I mean things like “how do I get this obscure Chinese sound card running in Gentoo,” or “how does a file actually get written to a drive? oh look blkparse…” About a year ago, I got an ADHD diagnosis for primarily inattentive type, and my life changed. There have been some tweaks here and there to medication and dosage, but the amount of focus I can now devote to tasks which previously would be monstrously difficult - like writing Jira stories - is amazing.

vanderZwan 3y ago

It's crazy, huh? Nobody would ever say "how dare physically disabled people rely on things like wheelchairs to be less disabled" (well, nobody I would consider worth listening to at least). Yet medication for ADHD, depression, and other mental health issues are stigmatized.

sgarland 3y ago

I assumed I wasn’t applying myself, or didn’t use the right learning style, or whatever else was being offered as a suggestion. It didn’t help that I was a kid in the early 90s, when Ritalin was getting big, and some parents (like mine) were staunchly opposed to medicating kids for supposed normal behavior. I found much later in life that the only things that consistently motivated me were a looming deadline, or severe consequences to failure. The lone exception was computer puzzles, by which I mean things like “how do I get this obscure Chinese sound card running in Gentoo,” or “how does a file actually get written to a drive? oh look blkparse…” About a year ago, I got an ADHD diagnosis for primarily inattentive type, and my life changed. There have been some tweaks here and there to medication and dosage, but the amount of focus I can now devote to tasks which previously would be monstrously difficult - like writing Jira stories - is amazing.