As a person who is in their 1st week of medication, that is a HUGE relief. Thank you.
I have a lot more to comment here but have a quiz (engineering undergrad) to do rn..lol. But I gotta say your description of you experience is the most comprehensive thing I was ever able to relate to. I found a lot of people on r/ADHD articulating individual feelings/experiences that I felt but was not able to talk about, but yours just covered a lot more base with me personally.
> anything from CSS to soldering and unable to sleep for the rush of ideas.
That hit hard XD.
> would be better titled "Attention Difference Disorder"
Yes, a lot of people are don't like that it was named mostly based on the symptoms most annoying to the people around the person ADHD with. Many people suggest something along the lines of "Executive Function Dysregulation" to remove the "hyper" part that many people don't suffer from and include emotional-dysregulation in the symptoms.
Ok enough. time to go.
1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take them to do tasks to progress your life. ADHD doesn't prevent you from having fun, and having fun with stimulants is what makes them addictive.
2. Take regular breaks from the medication. You wont get much done the first day or two after, so don't plan on doing anything except stay at home and procrastinate those days since your inattentive symptoms will be worse than usual.
3. Sometimes try to do tasks without medication. Having worse focus helps in some way since it means you must master a topic much more before you can complete the task. My guess is that many of the PRO's of ADHD comes from this, since it means instead of just completing a task and moving on you have been forced to master the subject way more than other people with similar grades/achievements. Think of two people with similar grades, one worked hard and did lots of practice problems while the other was lazy and never worked. Who do you think understands things better? What do you think happens if the lazy guy suddenly puts in the effort? That is what happens with ADHD medication.
I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapted for modern office work and bureaucracy, and having vacations where you can go back to your simple carefree self is very valuable.
Edit: For example, when I was a kid I spent most of my time at home playing with toys during weekends. I don't see why that would be a bad life for a kid. When they get older to 8-10 they can get around on their own so no need to baby sit them any longer, at least if you live in an European city.
As for parenthood its not just about bringing your kids places. They want to play, they need to eat, they need diaper changes. Kids are a ton of work I love every minute of it, but man is it difficult.
“Playtime” is a tool used to prepare the child for the next lesson.
Even non-ADHD people should be doing that. I rarely take medication on the weekends and if I do, it is strictly only one day.
The other day I allow my brain to do whatever it wants; play video games, lay in bed, work, it's free to tell me what to do. It's relaxing.
"Medicine holidays." They're a necessary part of ADHD treatment to deal with tolerance and to ensure you still need the medication at your current dose. After you take a few days off (I do one weekend a month and one week a year) try taking a smaller dose.
Everyone's tolerance and needs can change drastically over time. If you stay at the same dose forever without breaks you'll have no concept of if the medication is still working for you - much like your 3rd point. I took 40mg/day in my 20s, down to 30mg a year ago, and now up to 35mg/day in covid times.
As others have said, this is definitely something you must discuss with your personal brain care specialist first.
What others have not suggested, and again this is something I have been able to arrange in conjunction with my shrink, is medication switching. Since each has slightly different benefits, I use a different medication on a workday than at the weekend or holiday/social time.
In this regard I've been fortunate to have access to a healthcare system, and specialists, that respect the individual and aren't reflexively invoking a) cookie-cutter solutions, or b) contrived histrionics about substances with abuse potential. The only raised eyebrow came from my pharmacist: "You're on both of these?" "Yes, but on different days, not together." "No worries".
NB: I'm hesitant to specify which medications, because individual responses vary dramatically, and advice gleaned from one person's experience may be exactly wrong for another.
On the other hand, you may forget to take your medication, that can really be a problem. The rule of thumb is, if you forgot if you took it, it's because you forgot to take it.
What's more, holidays from either (inadvertent or otherwise) have not provoke the catastrophic withdrawal sometimes described, for me it's more of a reversion to type.
And at the risk of labouring the point, this all comes with a whopping YMMV notice. In particular, I am not reliant on self-assessment; I am privileged enough to have access to both psychiatric and familial help that is willing, able, and qualified, to provide external observation.
I can't and won't speak to your experience or your medical advice, but from my experience this is advice I would strongly advise considering your own experience before taking. My experience is that if I miss a dose I'll find myself, hours later, with my brain catastrophically grinding gears and in tears from a panic attack. This isn't from addiction, this is because I've actually adjusted to having a brain chemistry that isn't broken. I was just as much a wreck before I was medicated, I just didn't know and had a lot of really unhealthy self-medication techniques.
I'm well near the highest dose on my medication (Vyvanse) and I still have many of the pros and cons of ADHD. I don't need to play chicken with my brain chemicals to exercise the unique heaven and hell that's in there.
I'm not sure this is universally necessary. When my pre-adolescent son forgets to take his medication in the morning it's immediately obvious, so it's clearly still having pronounced effect. He's been on the same dosage of the medication continuously for five years.
I was hesitant to take any medication. I was concerned it would make me anxious or similar.
Instead, my anxiety was greatly reduced. I had the thought, “is this what normal should feel like?” I don’t like the idea of being dependent on any one tool, but I’ll use a tool if it helps.
I've seen this a lot.
A lot of parents were in complete denial about their children having ADHD, and the rampant diagnosing of ADHD at a point in time. Turns out a lot of children actually had it, and it is not the most compatible with the environment they are in and will be in.
All things did happen: rampant diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and parents in denials. But none of that means any particular child didn't have ADHD.
I've brought this reality up to other parents repeating the same things.
this. all of this. yes. :)
I'm an extremely light sleeper and always had a very hard time falling asleep, so my guess is that concerta quiets down my brain enough that the chronic lack of sleep catches up on me.
It doesn't make me any more awake/less tired than I normally would be, and I can lie down and kind of zone out, but I never completely drift off. Pseudo-meditation is the closest I can get to sleeping when I'm on Concerta.
* The (largely mental) hyperactivity is controllable, that is, I retain my creative ideas generation and interest in new things, but I am no longer governed by it, and
* The rarely discussed hyperfocus behaviour (which I frankly regard as a superpower) is more easily snapped out of.
To the uninformed, the most paradoxical outcome is that I can take a powerful stimulant medication, lie down in bed, and fall asleep easily, when normally I'd be staring at the ceiling pondering anything from CSS to soldering and unable to sleep for the rush of ideas.
This response to medication is not diagnostic, but it is indicative that the medication I have is correct. Moreover it allows me to both retain the two traits that have made me a successful systems maker, but permits a less chaotic engagement with the neurotypical-oriented processes of modern human society, so for example I renew my passport before it expires.
I self-medicated with a variety of over-the-counter substances for decades, including nicotine, sugar, and coffee. I am super grateful for the medication since I have now dropped the nicotine and sugar.
My psychiatrist believes the condition is a) misnamed, and would be better titled "Attention Difference Disorder", and b) points out that the twin traits of rapid ideas switching and hyperfocus are only a problem in some aspects of engagement with modern society and that in an pre-agrarian society they'd be excellent traits for a hunter.