this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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ADHD
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Thank you for your thoughtful response and funnily enough it makes me think of surfing.
The hardest part to surfing by far is dropping in on the wave, it is a dynamic motion that is unlike what happens once you get to a standing position and have fully caught the wave. You have to experience it as a reactive process that you fling yourself into and if you have ever watched surfing videos it is obvious it can easily go haywire if just a couple of motions are off or are timed incorrectly. If surfers only judged waves by how they felt initially to catch and not what riding the wave actually felt like after would that make sense?
Yet this is how we treat ADHD people beginning drugs. Catching a wave is inherently a moment of chaos that has to be framed in that way, but why do we frame beginning an ADHD drug and adjusting dosages like it could be something you could schedule like a timetable of train arrivals? Everything is stilted about ADHD treatment including medication and the sloshing wavelike nature of adjusting to a new drug makes a rigid attempt at navigating it almost feel meaningless sometimes. Maybe it will work maybe it won't but can I even know if I am am even gathering data about what works and what doesn't given how unresponsive and rigid the methods available to me are?
Well said! I love your metaphor! Surfing is an interesting way to describe the process, and they do bear similarities! Also for both, I suppose, it's crucial to "read" the environment and weather correctly - or the physical and mental circumstances. If you are already used to it things probably go a lot smoother than if you have to learn it while doing.
I don't know what would be an equivalent in surfing, but something I've also learned the hard way is that the stimulants can also help focus on those unpleasant side-effects or get stuck on thoughts etc, especially when learning to navigate the effects of the drug - like when you are bicycling and there's an icy road ahead: staring at the road, thinking about losing control and crashing instead of looking forward will most likely end up in you crashing (that's me at least 😹).