[kls]

I would second this having hard fast rules works, but for me, meds where the real night and day difference. It's literally like someone flips a switch in my brain when I am on, or off ADHD medication. I get so single task focused off the meds, but on the meds I can completely break in my mind and accomplish the 2 minute task that has needed to get done for a week now.

[james_s_tayler]

Are the meds effective long-term? I'm kinda terrified of the idea of being able to just turn normal on, but then one day having to turn it off.

[kls]

I have been on them for several years, had to go up in dose in the first 6 months but after that they have worked ever since. I take an obscure and old ADHD medicine called Desoxen and my dosage is 15 MG twice a day, it has been the same dose for over 4 years, Desoxen had less side effects for me than some of the other meds like Adderall.

Also if you do have ADHD, that is exactly what it is like, turning normal on. It's like a switch and ADHD meds are one of the few mental health meds that have an extremely high success rate. That's the thing, you know with the first dose. If you have it, you take the meds and you are basically like wow, this is what normal feels like. If you don't have it, then I guess you get a little high and speed out, or so I have been told, it does not have that effect on me.

I resisted the diagnoses and taking meds for years before I decided to give it a try. I really regret that I did not listen to the doctors sooner. I wasted a lot of years locked in the ADHD trap and denial.

[ponko]

I also resisted getting diagnosed as I did not want to rely on "drugs" and I figured that I was just lazy or unmotivated. Eventually my coping methods like drinking tons of coffee just did not help at all and I took the plunge.

It really is an issue of denial. I realized instantly the first time I took Adderall that I should not have waited so long. It is kind of frustrating to look back and realize how many of my issues, especially in school, can be attributed to unmanaged ADD. I wish someone would have advised me to get help 15 years ago, but oh well.

For anyone reading this, I highly encourage getting checked out if you have ADD symptoms and are not depressed (depression can look like ADD). I just want to note that dependence was my main hangup, but it has not been an issue- I regularly go a few days at a time with no meds on weekends or vacations and I don't have any negative symptoms or cravings.

https://www.verywellmind.com/adhd-symptoms-4157281

[kls]

Funny enough those of us with ADD/ADHD don't have a high dependancy profile for stimulants we just don't get the euphoria that others describe from using them. Now I have never abused mine I am sure you can get there if you take enough. It just does not have the same effect on us as it does normal people who already have enough dopamine in their brain.

Funny story, I used to work for a nutritional supplement company and we would pull some all nighters, we where all young and liked what we did. We published a magazine and I was in charge of the web assets as well as the enterprise systems. Anyways, I was done one night and just could not go anymore and the CEO says here take this and I was like, what is it? and he says oh it's Ephedrine so I took it, and finished work at about 11-12 PM went home completely clear headed and started doing projects that I had been putting off for months. This lasted for 8 hours, I was like this is really weird, I have taken Ephedrine before and it never did that. I would get a little clarity but nothing like that. So anyways I go back into work the following Monday and I say to him, dude what did you give me that was not Ephedrine. So he rifles thru his desk and I hear an oh shit, I am so sorry dude. I was like sorry about what, and he said I accidentally grabbed my bottle of Fen-Phen and gave you one of those. Anyways the point of the story is I should have realized then and there that the medicines helps but I was still in denial. Mainly due to my ability to easily hyper-focus so I can be really productive at one thing.

[james_s_tayler]

Really appreciate the reply.

A couple of months ago I came across this article / HN thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22129777

I walked away from it with this notion that it all sounded a little too familiar. But it was just a curiosity in the back of my mind. I wasn't really brave enough to take a proper look. Then during lockdown working remotely the difference became quite visible to me. I started to do a bunch of research and read about others experience/description. Penny after penny after penny started to drop. Still dropping tbh. I always knew I was a little different. I always thought to myself "if only I knew the name of whatever this is then I could get my wife to understand why I just can't seem to do the damn dishes". I booked an appointment to get a proper Dx but still have to wait a few weeks. I'm fine with diagnosis, but the meds I'm still not sure about.

Again, really appreciate the data point. Glad to hear it has such a positive effect on you.

[kls]

Funny you mentioned the dishes, because that is one of those really simple tasks that I would ignore to focus on whatever I was focused on. Now I do the dishes to take a break, almost subconsciously. Any cleaning used to require it's own dedicated block of time (usually Saturday) on the meds cleaning is just something I do to take a break and regroup. For me and my ADHD without meds hyper-focus was easy (If I am interested in what I want to focus on) but breaking out of that hyper-focus was like killing my dog.

It's not all rainbows and unicorns though so make sure you do your own research. Sometimes the meds can cause insomnia, dental health is a real issue with amphetamine based drugs (this is due to them causing dry mouth) you have to drink lots of water to offset it and dental hygiene is of the utmost importance, the dental effects can be avoided but it required steadfast attention. Finally there are some cardiovascular risks, which while they should not be overstated they should not be ignored either.

On not being sure of the meds, my advice would be try one dose, then decide if it is right for you or not. There is no ramp up time, like depression or bi-polar meds, you will know how effective they are going to be and if they are right for you with a single dose. As well there are different strategies for using ADHD meds, some people take them daily, some people only take them when they get down in the weeds and need to pull themselves out the choice is yours with how you manage it.

[james_s_tayler]

> breaking out of that hyper-focus was like killing my dog

That's such good way to describe it for those who just don't experience it.

It's like if you had just reached the decision logically to turn off life support for someone you love. It's not like you just straight away walk over and switch it off. There's this awful reluctance that you have to go through first.

Medication sounds like quite a mixed bag, but I'm feeling somewhat more willing to give it a try.

[ponko]

Something that helped me -even if you get diagnosed and get a RX, you have no obligation to take those meds and can stop at any time. At first I was so wary that I was only taking one dose a week. Might be worth a shot, as the improvement to quality of life can be dramatic.

[ponko]

> ... you have to drink lots of water

That's a fact! One of the weird things about Adderall at least is that you no longer have any physical needs. You don't get thirsty and that's a good way to end the day with a killer dehydration headache.

I suspect that some of the cardiovascular risk can be minimized by making sure you are not taking a dosage that is too high for you. Your heart should not be racing at all with the right dose.

[kls]

I don't want to minimize it, but the cardiovascular risks are minimal if you don't have a serious underlining condition. They increase BP a little over what caffeine does and less than Nicotine does.

The lack of cravings is a weird side-effect. I love to eat but when I take my meds I could care less. Especially Desoxyn, it's like Adderall x 100 in the don't care if I eat department. Adderall did have one really weird side effect for me and was the reason I looked into other meds and that is it increased my sexual urges quite a bit. Really to an unhealthy level. I have read that it has that effect on certain people and that it comes from the levo-amphetamines and their targeting the PNS more than the CNS.

[Reelin]

Just FYI, Desoxyn is literally a trade name for methamphetamine (so much for obscure). Also if that surprised you at all, Adderall is (more or less) the same thing minus a single carbon from the end.

Amazing the difference in outcomes when it's purchased from a reliable source and consumed in moderation! (This also applies to the so called "opioid crisis", but I'll save that rant for another time.)

[kls]

Yes obscure might not have been the best fit. But it is a really old treatment for ADHD and is not used much now days. A lot of that has to do with patents and no pharmaceutical companies pushing it. Others have to do with the fact that it is pharmaceutical methamphetamine.

It's a little much to go over in text, but this guy:

https://youtu.be/TCPxPI_q8C8

gives a really good overview of the differences in the chemicals. He does not go into methamphetamine (Desoxyn) but I did a lot of research on it as well when I was looking to find the most effective treatment for myself. Having taken Desoxyn, Adderall and Dexedrine, I find half the dose of Desoxyn equals a similar dose of Adderall so 15mg = 30mg, with a lot less of the physical side effects (methamphetamine crosses the blood-brain barrier easier and has an affinity for the CNS over the PNS). To me Desoxyn and Dexedrine are similar but Dexedrine required a slightly higher dose, and did not create quite the clearheaded-ness that Desoxyn does.