I really relate with this. It took extraordinary measures for me to get where I can work efficiently without Adderall. Adderall turned me into such a different person that my wife started to be scared of me. Just interrupting me from work was a landmine, I was so mean. The doctor just said “be nicer” when I asked him about Adderall and anger issues. I’m a fun and easygoing person and it was like that part of me would get snuffed out and I’d become a robot on Adderall. I feel like it let me become a programmer. I locked myself in a home office for three months 10 hours a day learning to program, working on a demo project, and got my first professional position. The Adderall definitely enabled this singlemindedness.

To reorient myself in a way that I can concentrate on work without Adderall, I sold my TV, my VR, and my $700 graphics card. I unsubscribed from Netflix, deleted Facebook, and got rid of Twitter. I don’t listen to music as background noise, or in the car. I’ve gone on a ketogenic diet with no MSG (so no cheap meats like sausages). I try to sit without looking at my phone when I’m waiting for five or ten minutes somewhere. The whole idea was to “reset” my brain to a lower level of overall stimuli, and largely it has worked. I feel better and can work harder than I did on Adderall, because I can work in the evenings without having a total breakdown, because taking Adderall after 5pm was always a disaster, I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I’d have really weird thoughts as I went to sleep.

I’m really glad I did all this as it made me realize what’s really important in my life, family and to a smaller extent friends, and the time with them is much more meaningful now. I can actually concentrate on what someone is saying to me. Maybe moreso, I actually care.