I study computer science and any time I sit down to code, I just browse or watch Youtube. Anything but do the work. Days and even months have gone by like this where I haven't done even an hour of learning. Its tough because in order to code I need to be in front of a screen but my brain refuses to study and just looks for that dopamine hit. My grades have suffered and I feel like a constant failure.
To clarify this is not an effect of the pandemic but has been happening for the past few years.
Medicating appears to be like magic for some people, but just to deflate your expectations in my experience using stims is helpful, but still requires a set of techniques meant to avoid just getting distracted and feeling great about it. The drugs effect people differently of course, but particularly amphetamines (vyvanse, adderal) seem capable of just making you feel fantastic while doing anything in particular. I've seen them mostly associated with a burst of motivation, which I agree with but I just experience as euphoria + alertness. They felt a little too easy to abuse for my taste, I was constantly listening to techno playlists from Berlin clubs while doing work on Vyvanse, feeling fucking great, and if I fucked up on what I applied myself to while taking my pill I'd have the desire to take another pill or something to keep the energy going and try to shift it to whatever I needed to do. But I've never had big problems with motivation, I feel like I've just had problems with distraction. I can be highly motivated to do something, even things that require being more engaged than something like mindlessly scrolling the internet, but it is rarely what I need to be doing. I've met other people who have huge problems with energy or motivation in particular to do things, and it seems like those people can benefit from amphetamines more.
Methylphenidate (ritalin) on the other hand felt like it provided mental clarity, but less of the euphoria. It was easier to direct it for me, helped stop impulsive behavior, but seems there are more people who dislike ritalin because they either "don't feel anything" or it gives them worse side effects. Still hasn't solved all of my problems unfortunately. I do best on days where I just refuse to do anything that I haven't already kind of planned out for myself as acceptable tasks or rewards. When I start veering off, it is just incredibly hard to decide when to stop. Since I know when something I'm about to do is not something I should be doing, I tend to do best when I allow myself to recognize that and just pause for a second to either ask aloud or think to myself if I really want to do whatever it is right now, and that gap seems to allow the impulse time to dissipate.