I was diagnosed with ADHD and started on medication at 12, but not really told anything about what it meant for me or how to deal with it, and when I was 18 -literally when my parents dropped me off at college- was told I was autistic
Edit: don't forget to upvote posts here so they're more visible and people can find the community!
How have the pills effected you? I'm on the fence about getting some.
My personal experience since starting on methylphenidate in October and moving on to lisdexamfetamine. Let me preface by saying medication is not a cure all, there's a lot of things to work on still -
I put things away that I notice are out of place now. When it's time to walk the dog, I don't have an excuse ready or put up a fight. I'm on my phone less when something else is at hand, like watching a movie. I keep and maintain closer contact with friends and reached out to old ones to positive effect. I'm not overwhelmed by lights and people being out in public (that would sometimes happen so badly my brain would shut down, I basically stopped seeing and the world became completely unfocused, on a complete autopilot [I think this might be a form of what is called dissociation]. I stay on the phone with my family for more than five minutes and give more than perfunctory answers.
I don't get any euphoria from it, and it doesn't keep me up for days like I expected (if anything, I sleep better or at least with better consistency). Appetite is like it's not there, slight sexual wonkiness (not fully bad, but something) with an increase in libido, definitely more headaches, and the need to keep a lot more hydrated which is annoying and then accompanying bathroom trips.
TL:DR: I wish I had known way sooner and been medicated
Hm. I think my ADHD is quite low on the spectrum, and maybe meds would be overkill. And fuck, I could not deal with more libido right now. Lockdown has me down bad.
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What the other comrade said is good advice and bupropion in particular I can vouch for (further up in this thread). There are also alternative things that can be supplemented to possibly help with aspects: caffeine+l-theanine which is definitely better than caffeine alone, the taurine found in energy drinks is possibly effective in ADHD (but avoid the sugary ones), modafinil (under prescription from a doctor) which has some alternative benefits if amphetamines aren't well tolerated.
Also if the ADHD is low (but still causing issues) in low doses meds feel like virtually nothing to me, if I wasn't looking for a difference I wouldn't notice one. The Vyvanse that I'm on starts at 10 MG and goes all the way up to 70, I'm just starting to get some improvements at around 50 mg a day but my ADHD is pretty severe evidently. If it is ADHD (not that there's any reason to discount that but there is always the possibility symptoms are an overlap of other comorbidities), a low dose like 10 mg could provide enough benefit without notable side effects, and is worth exploring under administration with a doctor.
You should make a post asking about that if you're comfortable doing so! :D
I'm sure you're not alone in your shoes here
For starters, I'm on dexmethylphenidate (Focalin) and I haven't tried any other meds, so I'm not familiar with the effects of other meds.
In terms of positives, I've been on them for around 3 years at this point, and while they don't feel as effective as the first week I was on them, I'm still able to function orders of magnitude better when I've taken my meds. That said, it's not so much that I notice how much better I am when on the meds, it's more so that I notice how much worse I function when I haven't taken any meds.
In terms of negatives/side effects, one major problem I've run into is that consuming sugar and/or caffeine while the effects of the meds are still there causes me to become very anxious/restless, and it's made me keenly aware of just how much sugar/caffeine can be in the food I eat, so I've had to try and change my eating habits for when I'm on meds.
Another problem I've had is back before Covid moved everything online, I had to commute to school every day, and my meds would usually start wearing off around the same time as my commute home. The stress from the day + the stress from commuting + the effects wearing off left me in a depressed/tired state by the time I get home which was fairly exhausting, though it usually didn't last for too long. Obviously this hasn't been much of a problem since my university switched to online classes, but the effects of the meds wearing off can still put me in a somewhat tired state.
Blood circulation can be another potential problem (for my meds at least). My hands and feet seem to have naturally bad blood circulation, and sometimes it seems like the meds make that problem (temporarily) worse mainly in terms of making my hands and feet feel colder than usual, though that seems to be the extent of the problems for me. Circulation problems while on meds can cause much more serious symptoms than what I experience and can potentially be deadly, so if you have blood circulation issues and/or heart issues, then I'd definitely tell that to a doctor when discussing meds.
Edit: When consuming sugar/caffeine on meds, timing is fairly important. My meds last around 4 hours, and if I have sugar/caffeine in the last hour when the effects are wearing off, it usually isn't an issue. Having sugar or caffeine at the same time I take my meds really fuckin sucks though and can leave me in that anxious/restless state for an hour or two.
Edit 2: Also since you're on the fence about them, consider this. If you feel like you can function without them, then it doesn't really matter. However, personally I probably would've dropped out of university at this point if I didn't get medicated because it's incredibly hard for me to function unmedicated, so if you think you need meds in order to function then you should absolutely get them. It might take a while to figure out the exact dosage or type of med that works, and there's probably going to be some annoying or uncomfortable side effect no matter what you use, but the trade off is absolutely worth it.
It's hard to tell whether I function well or not. It does seem like I'll drop out of uni, but not because I'll be forced out. I'm on straight A's and find it all pretty easy. Rather I just find all of it so fucking tedious and I can't concentrate on any of the lectures at all. There's no point in me being there because I learn the information I need for an assignment in a day and then dump it once the assignment is done. Going into huge debt all the while.
Those side effects sound horrible to me lol.
Yeah, though tbh I don't know if I'm underselling them or overselling them. On the one hand the side effects can really suck when they happen. Reading back through my comment made me realize just how bad some of them are lol, and especially how bad they sound to someone who hasn't had 3 years to get used to them. But on the other hand they can be managed or avoided with relatively small changes to my behavior (ex: staying at school a bit later, having some food and studying while the meds wear off, and then finally commuting home once I can no longer focus on studying will avoid the depressed/tired state, and also helps me academically), and even when I do get the side effects I listed, they've never been so bad that I considered stopping with the meds, so for me at least the trade off is more than acceptable.