ADHD

Initial thoughts:

Fuck, I hope this works, because I’m falling apart. I had just gotten fired from a job I liked because I wasn’t able to stay focused on my work when we went remote for COVID, and my grades were suffering. I was nervous about my anxiety increasing, but I decided it was worth it because so many other things were falling through the cracks and I was out of ideas.

Experience:

My first thoughts were holy shit, is this how normal people have been living this whole time? (No, the euphoric effect goes away after a few days on it, ime.) It immensely helped me focus though, mostly by closing the executive function gap of “oh, I should do X” to “and now I am doing X”. And as long as I don’t drink too much caffeine, my anxiety actually improved, because I know I’m much less likely to be dropping the ball or forgetting something someone is counting on me for.

The biggest downside for me is the withdrawal. There have been a few times I was expecting a refill to come through, and it didn’t, and the withdrawals fucking suck. There hasn’t been a shortage in a while though, so that’s been good. The other, more frequent, downside is forgetting to eat. Meds never really helped me lose weight much, but if I manage to make it to 3-4 without eating because my meds are working, I feel like shit. So I have to remind myself to eat at least a little during the day so I don’t crash

On the whole, 9/10. There are some aspects I don’t love (including some doctors looking at me sideways like I’m a drug seeker), but it’s absolutely changed my life, having the right diagnosis and medication. I’m so much better at managing all the minutiae of life, and it helps me actually follow through on my hobbies and other interests that would get ignored more in the past.