3 ms·

I can relate. Various friends took them and I never bothered. They looked like crackheads and it scared me. I was recently diagnosed with severe ADHD by severa

I can relate. Various friends took them and I never bothered. They looked like crackheads and it scared me. I was recently diagnosed with severe ADHD by several doctors (something I've been treating as anxiety/depression for my whole life), and was prescribed lisdexamfetamine. It makes me super calm and my thoughts organized. When I'm tired, I feel tired. If I'm sleepy, I'm sleepy. My productivity isn't insane, it's just more stable and predictable now. I wish I had been diagnosed many decades ago.

cmcaleer 3y ago
This is almost exactly my experience. I sat on my diagnosis for a number of years thinking it was wrong and 'this is just me', not really fully understanding the benefits I was giving up by foregoing meds. After starting I really just didn't need my anxiety meds anymore. Turns out being able to keep your shit together makes you less anxious. Who knew! Paranoia about the cardiac side effects have led me in to caring a lot about my overall cardiac health, which has meant that I've largely countered side negative effects with the obsession over HIIT and less medication overall. Giving up alcohol has been kind of sad but I'm getting to the age where hangovers are starting to get brutal so maybe it's for the best. It's also been nice to keep certain aspects of ADHD that I like, like my hyperfocus on certain subjects. I wish I could tell teenage me to investigate this sooner.
- gtirloni 3y ago
  > After starting I really just didn't need my anxiety meds anymore Exactly. I'm currently slowly going off antidepressants.
paulocal 3y ago
Same story here, just with modafinil. All the signs were there since as far back as I was 7 years old. I've been able to control my focus so much better which seems to make me less tired. When I sit to get work done and inevitably get distracted, I can recover instead of go down a spiral of unproductiveness. I'm also better at prioritizing my focus on the things that are important, such as a must-have feature for launch, rather than a nice-to-have that I just enjoy working on more. And surprisingly, I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life so far on a pill designed to keep you awake. Who knew?
- gtirloni 3y ago
  > And surprisingly, I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life so far on a pill designed to keep you awake. Who knew It's my experience as well. I used to wake up really tired. I still get the same hours of sleep but I wake up feeling... normal? which is an improvement. Very unintuitive.
  - novok 3y ago
    It might be because the come down effect on the medication can make you 'extra' tired and help you fall asleep.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Yeah I feel like I sleep great at night w/ modafinil. To be clear: I can't sleep well at all for about 8-12 hours following a dose. It has killed my ability to take a lunchtime nap. But as long as I don't take it after noon, I get great sleep at night. I fall right to sleep in minutes. Plenty of dreams as well, which suggests to me I'm getting in some good REM sleep.
JohnBooty 3y ago
First: congrats on the progress! That sounds great! I've been thinking about moving in the opposite direction, actually. ADHD meds like lisdexamfetamine/adderall have been moderately helpful. But I am starting to think that I might do better treating this from an anxiety/depression angle. ADHD is so comingled with anxiety for me that I can't tell them apart. When I'm falling behind on tasks I get anxiety, which is the literal worst thing for my ADHD, so that exacerbates the ADHD, which increases the anxiety. I'm curious (if you're open to sharing) if you're still treating the anxiety/depression side of things?

cmcaleer 3y ago

This is almost exactly my experience. I sat on my diagnosis for a number of years thinking it was wrong and 'this is just me', not really fully understanding the benefits I was giving up by foregoing meds. After starting I really just didn't need my anxiety meds anymore. Turns out being able to keep your shit together makes you less anxious. Who knew! Paranoia about the cardiac side effects have led me in to caring a lot about my overall cardiac health, which has meant that I've largely countered side negative effects with the obsession over HIIT and less medication overall. Giving up alcohol has been kind of sad but I'm getting to the age where hangovers are starting to get brutal so maybe it's for the best. It's also been nice to keep certain aspects of ADHD that I like, like my hyperfocus on certain subjects. I wish I could tell teenage me to investigate this sooner.

gtirloni 3y ago
> After starting I really just didn't need my anxiety meds anymore Exactly. I'm currently slowly going off antidepressants.

paulocal 3y ago

Same story here, just with modafinil. All the signs were there since as far back as I was 7 years old. I've been able to control my focus so much better which seems to make me less tired. When I sit to get work done and inevitably get distracted, I can recover instead of go down a spiral of unproductiveness. I'm also better at prioritizing my focus on the things that are important, such as a must-have feature for launch, rather than a nice-to-have that I just enjoy working on more. And surprisingly, I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life so far on a pill designed to keep you awake. Who knew?

gtirloni 3y ago
> And surprisingly, I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life so far on a pill designed to keep you awake. Who knew It's my experience as well. I used to wake up really tired. I still get the same hours of sleep but I wake up feeling... normal? which is an improvement. Very unintuitive.
- novok 3y ago
  It might be because the come down effect on the medication can make you 'extra' tired and help you fall asleep.
JohnBooty 3y ago
Yeah I feel like I sleep great at night w/ modafinil. To be clear: I can't sleep well at all for about 8-12 hours following a dose. It has killed my ability to take a lunchtime nap. But as long as I don't take it after noon, I get great sleep at night. I fall right to sleep in minutes. Plenty of dreams as well, which suggests to me I'm getting in some good REM sleep.

JohnBooty 3y ago

First: congrats on the progress! That sounds great! I've been thinking about moving in the opposite direction, actually. ADHD meds like lisdexamfetamine/adderall have been moderately helpful. But I am starting to think that I might do better treating this from an anxiety/depression angle. ADHD is so comingled with anxiety for me that I can't tell them apart. When I'm falling behind on tasks I get anxiety, which is the literal worst thing for my ADHD, so that exacerbates the ADHD, which increases the anxiety. I'm curious (if you're open to sharing) if you're still treating the anxiety/depression side of things?