I think the big distinction, and what TFA is getting at, is ADHD actually is more like a true neurodiverty than a disorder. The dysfunction largely manifests due to the constraints in the modern world. I love making things but I hate "adulting" - bills, paperwork, keeping 9 million small things in order. Were I living in a hunter-gatherer or early agrarian society, things would be different.
I'm able to offset bad prioritization skills by being really good at breadth-first search and having a huge knowledge base from curiosity driven rabbit holes when I should be doing my "real" work. It feels much more balanced than depression, which just sucks the life out of me and reduces all aspects of quality of life across the board.
I also think it's irrelevant that in some perfect (historical) society ADD would be perfectly suited, because I don't live in that society. I live in the modern one and I want to be a productive part of it.
How did you know you hit the mark when you found it?
I have been trying for the greater part of a decade, and I think there are only two possible explanations at this point:
1. I am one of the x% of people that medications do not work /as well/ for.
2. I have too high of expectations of the effects of the medications.
Doctors have been no help, and I do not mean that in an arrogant way. But when I ask, "how do I know if the medication and dosage is optimal?" They act like I am asking if P = NP.
I still haven't repaired a few things in my life that still cause me significant stress (happy to go in-depth if you email, see bio), but I really had no idea what the medication would do until I tried it.
For me; it quietened my (extremely vocal) inner critic and therefore lowered my anxiety, and it slowed down the rapid bounce-around of my thoughts, particularly in situations where I wasn't deeply stimulated (eg I outlasted my kid playing ball for the first time ever because I stayed interested and wasn't just counting down the minutes until I could say 'okay that's enough'). And that's it.
But that means I can actually start to do the hard work of building the right habits to put some important bits of my life back on track, particularly when they'd been built wrong and have to be torn down.
> I feel like it helps me to get to Everest base camp, but I still have to climb the damn mountain.
I feel like I can climb the mountain most days, but I can't get to the base camp to get started. I've actually considered if there is something else lurking in the shadows like Sleep Apnea or something else? I just know I have an odd issue where no matter when I take the meds, they do not work until around 1:00/2:00 in the afternoon. I have no idea why -- maybe I need to build a base level for them to start working? Doctors think it's highly unusual, but seem to offer little to no advice past that point.
> I’ve found that medication will get you to a baseline ability to function
I will say, it does wonders for my physical hyperactive symptoms, but it does tend to make me talk faster (I've always talked fast to begin with) and I tend to want to talk more/longer. It's nice to not have to pace and bounce around all the time.
Still, I have noticed I tend to feel a bit more impatient in someways -- like I doubt I could sit down and just read a book. I'd still get bored or distracted and feel compelled to do something more stimulating as my mind tends to feel a bit overclocked.
> If you aren’t already familiar with the work of Russell Barkley
I am familiar with him. I do respect the work he has done, but I also have some qualms with him. I feel like he tends to overemphasis the effects of medication, and it feels kind of odd coming from him since according to his Wiki, "He has been a paid consultant, for pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, McNeil, Janssen-Orth, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Shire, Takeda pharmaceuticals, and Theravance."
I do appreciate his research and opinions, and I think he means well, but just because he is the leading researcher in the field does not mean he cannot be incorrect about some things.
I still do this even while medicated. Except, it can actually worse because I can focus on distractions longer than I normally would have pre-medication.
It's not really a brag, but I'd rather be medicated and keep a routine than lose the things that make me different as a knowledge worker. I'm a more lateral thinker than my peers, and that comes in super handy, for example.
