About two years ago, I read a comment on here about the signs that you might have ADHD. I already knew that I had ADHD — I’d been diagnosed and treated in my late teens. However, the medication had done a number on me and after a year or so I’d dropped it completely.
I’m in my thirties now, and was stuck at home during lockdown with my then pregnant wife. I’m a working developer, but I knew my work was inconsistent. I blamed myself, and had mostly forgotten the diagnosis. Living and working in the same house as me had made my wife begin to notice just how much ADHD affected me day to day, and was starting to become frustrated with it.
Immediately after reading the comment on here, I created a doctors appointment. I ended up going back on Adderall, but when discussing dosage I asked for the lowest dose possible. 5mg. My doctor told me it was a child’s dose (not in a mean or demeaning way,) and was happy to start me there.
I’m still at 5mg. It hasn’t made living with me the easiest, for sure. But according to my wife it’s been a huge improvement. I’m so much more focused and capable. I really cannot overstate the improvement at home. My wife is less nervous about distractions and issues related to having a newborn being taken care of by a wife with ADHD.
Of course, it’s helped at work as well. I’ve been more productive than I previously thought possible. I’ve also just learned so much more and read so much more. Earlier this year, I ended up realizing that I’d like to try interviewing for the first time in years. Within a month, I’d doubled my salary. That last part is probably the least reproducible thing. But I do think I was essentially accepting a salary level I could live with because I knew I was an inconsistent employee and my employer was letting it slide.
Obviously, everyone’s body and mind are different. This isn’t meant as an unreserved ad for ADHD medication. Living with someone who could give me her perspective I’m really helped — I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it had she not been able to articulate a marked improvement within a few weeks.
Still, this single recommendation to go to the doctor and talk about ADHD was the single biggest life improvement me or my family could have ever received.
Man, does that ever resonate. I had years of just beating myself up over not being good enough before I caved and went back on my meds, and since then I have come to believe that the combination of the kinds of lateral thinking and hyperfocus that are endemic to add, with the crutch of adderall, actually grant me significant advantages that neurotypical types lack. My .emacs is my pride and joy and it does most of my work for me.
If being on adderall is a little new to you, and you're on such a low dose, might I recommend supplementing with chelated magnesium and agmatine sulfate. These are vitamins that (somehow - I knew for a little while how when I was researching them but tbh that knowledge has flown the coop since) will suppress the development of a tolerance, if taken daily alongside the adderall. One of the pitfalls of being medicated with this stuff is that you're kind of on a steady uphill slope that eventually, if you get to where I am (15mg x 3 / day) means that when you need to take a break, you become more or less an obnoxious vegetable. Don't freak out - it's a looong slope (and probably not as dire an outcome as I may have made it sound), but you can make it longer with these to help mitigate, and you'll be thanking yourself for avoiding hard crashes.
I’m in my thirties now, and was stuck at home during lockdown with my then pregnant wife. I’m a working developer, but I knew my work was inconsistent. I blamed myself, and had mostly forgotten the diagnosis. Living and working in the same house as me had made my wife begin to notice just how much ADHD affected me day to day, and was starting to become frustrated with it.
Immediately after reading the comment on here, I created a doctors appointment. I ended up going back on Adderall, but when discussing dosage I asked for the lowest dose possible. 5mg. My doctor told me it was a child’s dose (not in a mean or demeaning way,) and was happy to start me there.
I’m still at 5mg. It hasn’t made living with me the easiest, for sure. But according to my wife it’s been a huge improvement. I’m so much more focused and capable. I really cannot overstate the improvement at home. My wife is less nervous about distractions and issues related to having a newborn being taken care of by a wife with ADHD.
Of course, it’s helped at work as well. I’ve been more productive than I previously thought possible. I’ve also just learned so much more and read so much more. Earlier this year, I ended up realizing that I’d like to try interviewing for the first time in years. Within a month, I’d doubled my salary. That last part is probably the least reproducible thing. But I do think I was essentially accepting a salary level I could live with because I knew I was an inconsistent employee and my employer was letting it slide.
Obviously, everyone’s body and mind are different. This isn’t meant as an unreserved ad for ADHD medication. Living with someone who could give me her perspective I’m really helped — I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it had she not been able to articulate a marked improvement within a few weeks.
Still, this single recommendation to go to the doctor and talk about ADHD was the single biggest life improvement me or my family could have ever received.