adhd here. bad enough to not graduate from high school on time. I have been medicated for a decade now and I dream of finally having built my systems around life up to the degree that I feel good about discontinuing them. It's not good for you to be on stimulants every day like I am. If your flavor of adhd is mild and the functional impairment you have doesn't literally ruin your life, consider working your way up the theraputic ladder from therapy with an ADHD specialized therapist, starting meds only if necessary. Consider your goals wrt your brain stuff and measure your results against that. Don't get on the meds unless you have to.
> bad enough to not graduate from high school on time.
This is a good example of how wide the ADHD spectrum can be. From my perspective, I’d actually call this mild, not because it is, but because I never finished high school at all. My parents bought into stigma and refused meds against medical advice, and the fallout ruined both my childhood and much of my adult life.
I get you're aiming for a cautious take, but I’d urge anyone reading this to think hard before following it. If you do have more than mild ADHD, this kind of “avoid meds” advice can be genuinely harmful, it’s the kind of thinking that keeps people suffering for years when they don’t have to.
As an adult, I refused meds while my life continued to fall apart. Convinced by stigma and those that constantly shouted "MEDICATION BAD." So as my life spiraled ever downwards, I increased the rate at which I beat my self up telling myself constantly I just needed more willpower, better systems, or the right therapist and it would all change. Spoiler alert: none of it worked without the baseline support stimulants gave me and refusing to medicate was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. It did such a degree of damage to my life it's not even possible to begin to describe it.
Stimulants aren’t inherently dangerous when used properly. What is dangerous is untreated or mistreated ADHD and the damage it causes, to you the individual and those around you. The therapeutic ladder should start with what works, framing meds as a “last resort” is unhelpful and rooted in stigma, not reality.
If you think you have ADHD, get off the internet and see a real doctor. Work with them to figure out what actually helps you without assumption or expectation and don’t let other people’s experiences or stigma decide your treatment for you.
I largely agree with you. I do think that for the people with ADHD who graduated college and got advanced degrees, who held down jobs in industry for years before getting an inkling they had ADHD - they should indeed use the theraputic ladder, starting with therapy first.
I don't say that because I think medication is inherently evil, but because I believe the therapy actually worked quite well in my case. If other people can get the step change in their quality of life for the cost of relatively short term, and avoid a lifetime of medication, why would they not? I want people to consider this option.
And yes, see a real doctor - and not one who, like mine, heard my story and said "OK you've probably got it, here's a prescription for adderall".
Edit to add: I feel you wrt to the parental stigma. It burned me as well. My parents took me to some lab visit where they hooked me up to an EEG and made me press buttons when lights went on. Weirdly enough, the novel situation was quite stimulating for me, and I was given a clear negative diagnosis. Any time the topic came up again after that I was shut down. Took until my 20s to get any help for it, and another 5 years to seek therapy, which has been great.
