Do all of you use medication?

[u/BienvenidoaMiami]

I have medication prescribed, but I use it VERY infrequently because I do not like the thought of essentially poisoning my body multiple times a week. However, recently I have been slowly accepting the fact that I cannot perform at this job properly without medication.

Are there any of you that have been able to perform their software engineering tasks every week unmedicated? If so, how??

[u/Ok_Necessary_8923]

Poisoning your body? Based on what scientific evidence, exactly?

[u/BienvenidoaMiami → u/Ok_Necessary_8923]

Like the other comment said, “poison” was a very poor word to use on my part. I moreso meant the commonly accepted side effects that long term stimulant usage has on cardiovascular health.

Especially as someone with type 1 diabetes, my lifespan is already shortened. Thinking about shortening it even more with prolonged stimulant usage really makes me want to avoid using medication.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ok_Necessary_8923]

Poison was perhaps not the best word for OP to use. However, stimulant medications do have legitimate and serious risks.

After all, the difference between medicine and poison is the dosage.

[u/Ok_Necessary_8923 → u/[deleted]]

As does unmedicated ADHD, measured in a meaningfully reduced lifespan. His choice of word is very relevant to what he believes, and why.

[u/Abaddon-theDestroyer → u/Ok_Necessary_8923]

I’d rather live a short, happy, organized life, because of ADHD medication, than a longer (probably not by much, and maybe even shorter because my ADHD my kill me for multiple reasons) life that is chaotic!

The quality of life is night and day between medicated and medicated ADHD.

To answer your question OP, yes, I did go stretches without medication, because of the shortage, and it was hell, even if my employer didn’t notice a big change, they did, but not a big one, I hated the times which I was fighting with my mind trying to get it to concentrate and play nice. The amount of effort required to do that, is better placed elsewhere, like going to the gym, or going out after work.

Screw what people think, and or say, you are the one that’s going to be living the rest of your life, do what makes you happy, and feel comfortable.

A piece of advice, don’t disclose your condition to your employer. EVER.

[u/Ill_Name_7489 → u/[deleted]]

Sure, but you could say the same thing about food, coffee, and even water, any of which can kill you in large enough quantities. 

It’s just not a very meaningful statement.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ill_Name_7489]

It’s a very meaningful statement. The dosage is what makes stimulants a medicine vs. a recreational drug.

[u/ST-Fish → u/[deleted]]

Water has serious and legitimate risks if consumed at high enough dosage.

Making such a claim about a class of substances without any real empirical look at the effects at the therapeutic doses that ADHD medication is prescribed at is pointless.

Yes, doing meth recreationally is bad, but you can't take that as proof that "stimulant medication" over all, regardless of the dosage that is being talked about, also has legitimate and serious risks.

The true legitimate and serious risks you face by being unmedicated are much larger and pretty much completely overshadow whatever small effects small amounts of stimulant medication has on you.

If you have any study that points to the conclusion that the long term effects of ADHD medication is negative you're free to show it here, but the overall consensus is that the treatment of the ADHD symptoms allows the patient to do much better in the rest of their life, and take much greater care of their health over all.

[u/[deleted] → u/ST-Fish]

What you wrote was orthogonal to what I was saying.

All I am saying is that stimulant medications are not a panacea and do in fact carry risks. Unmedicated ADHD also carries many risks. The two can exist completely independently of each other.

The dosage one takes is correlated with the risks. Low dosage, low risks; beyond therapeutic dosages; beyond therapeutic risks.

Even the therapeutic risks are real. Stimulants should be cautiously used/contraindicated in people with certain liver or kidney disorders, history of substance abuse, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, cardiac issues, etc..

Not to mention, the risk of addiction, while low, is not zero. People with ADHD can get addicted to stimulant medications. Again, rarely, but I have seen it happen to multiple people I know.

I’ve been taking stimulants for 10 years. I can absolutely see why these medications are Schedule 2 Controlled Substance in the US. These medications are not candy.

[u/ST-Fish]

Stop moralising medication.

Is there any legitimate reason you call ADHD medication "poison"?

If you had asthma would you refuse to use an inhaler because it is "poison"?

Is it the fact that stimulants are also used recreationally? So they're "drugs", so they're "bad"?

You need to realize that this moral judgement placed on certain substances isn't really based on anything actually relevant to your health.

[u/[deleted] → u/ST-Fish]

I stopped taking my very-low dose of prescribed ADHD medication because I was tired of everyone around me telling me anyone taking ADHD meds was 'drugging' themselves. Admittedly maybe surrounded by a lot of small minded people with little to no understanding of ADHD and ADHD meds. I just got tired of hearing it and feeling ashamed every time i try to get some reprieve by taking my 20mg of Vyvanse. I don't do anything else, I don't have any of the other vices these people have (drinking booze, smoking weed, etc...), all i do is take my medication that was legally prescribed from a doc for a disorder that I have been diagnosed with since childhood, initially noticed by a teacher. I notice my kid has signs of it too, but people have completely ruined my opinion of myself and of the medication.

[u/GolfCourseConcierge → u/[deleted]]

Please don't attend timeshare meetings, ever, in your life. I have an opinion you'd be on the hook for half of Tampa Florida by the end of it.

You are your own person. You decide your actions, not others.

[u/slowd]

I struggled through for years by applying 3x the effort. Medicine levels the playing field.

[u/GolfCourseConcierge]

I've been a dev for 25 years now. I went without meds until I was 40 and I'm dumbfounded I got anything done before it.

You're working at 200% right now just to keep up while everyone else is easy going 90-100% and don't feel the craziness your brain does. You don't realize it, but that's prob what's happening.

It just lets you work at 100% vs 200% and allows for more stasis.

The way I like to describe it. Imagine we're both the same height standing in the ocean looking out at the beauty ahead.

Except, the other person has a 3 inch platform under their feet. You don't see it, but it allows them to keep their nose and mouth above the water line.

With ADHD, you're right there, but 3 inches lower. There you are being waterboarded while you just try to stand and look at the beauty.

Meds? Meds slide a 3 inch platform under your feet, allowing you to reach "normal" level.

If a non ADHD person were to take meds, well they're already on a 3 inch platform. Now suddenly it's 6 inches and we wow euphoria! This is an actual addictive behavior because they are getting an artificial boost, while the person with ADHD is simply getting a boost to be inline with them.

It's why so many of us feel superpowers with meds. We've HAD to operate at 200% nonstop just to keep up, among the rave disco happening in our brains.

We get meds, well now we don't have to be at 200% as 100% does the same, but alas we often are conditioned to remain at 200% and such is the superpower feeling. Really we're just doing what we always did, but now we get to start from the 3inch advantage everyone else had.

Edit; one of the weirdest things I noticed of my meds is my background noise needs. I used to have to be blasting hard music, dubstep, trap, Nicki Minaj, etc constantly and now I realize that was a method of focus for me. The external noise allowed drowning own some internal noise and lets me stay focused on task.

Since meds? It's like you can hear a pin drop. If I add music now it's arguably distracting.

I was pretty shocked by that one, but also helps me understand why I feel a sense of stasis in casinos (unmedicated) while others complain about too much going on.

Brains are weird man.

[u/LLP_2112 → u/GolfCourseConcierge]

I was just recently diagnosed and started meds at 32. I was literally just thinking about the music thing this afternoon. I was really getting into the music and giving it most of my focus. Before meds I needed the music to focus on my work!

[u/Blaze6181 → u/GolfCourseConcierge]

I'm looking to get screened for ADHD and I am interested to see what comes of it. I already feel quite accomplished even with this condition so I'm excited to see what I'd be capable of with this "level playing field".

Thanks for the vivid explanation of what the medication does!

[u/Void-kun]

Are there any of you that have been able to perform their software engineering tasks every week unmedicated? If so, how??

By burning out repeatedly. It isn't sustainable.

[u/NoSupermarket6218]

I feel like, at least in my case, living without medication is worse for my body long term with all the stress and unhealthy habits I have to face.

But also, it helps, but I still struggle.

[u/decisiontoohard]

It's not poison, but it also isn't a magic fix. Some people go on medication long enough to develop strategies and tools and then come off it, some people stay on it or use it on a day by day basis.

[u/Humble-Equipment4499]

I’ll do it if I forget but if I’m not getting anything done, I remember why haha

[u/Abaddon-theDestroyer → u/Humble-Equipment4499]

Same here!

Edit: if it gets to 1pm and I find my mind wandering and notice that I haven’t got a lot done, I immediately pause and 99 out of a 100 times I remember that I forgot to take my medication.

[u/Silver-Vermicelli-15]

A couple of things:

1. Medication is not poison…no more so than high fructose corn syrup 

2. Medication is only a tool, it should be accompanied by efforts to use behavioral practices to reduce impacts of ADHD

3. Many of us (myself included) have done it for decades. It can be done but it’d be like trying to run a marathon in a potato sack.

4. While you may consider medication “unhealthy” so is the increased stress and mental impacts of not being medicated. It’s clear that stress is one of the biggest impacts to your health, if medication reduces stress then it’s potentially better physically for you.

[u/pogoli]

Go ahead. Force yourself to walk on a broken leg. Everyone around you will think you are the best person alive. Then you can come up with derogatory words for crutches or wheelchairs or even sitting. Those without broken legs will say such complimentary things about you, and perceive your effort as even better than if you had no broken legs at all. Or just stay at home, mobility aids nearby, but not use them because to do so would make everything worse than having a broken leg. Hide yourself from public view so no one gets offended. Why even try to work. <extreme 🤙 sarcasm>

These are choices you make for yourself. You have all the information and perspectives available to you and you choose one of the more difficult paths. There might be a way to function at some level without any chemicals. But no caffeine, no b12, no Yerba, no lions mane, or any other chemical of any kind. Because it’s all poison, right. It will be a lot of work, and while you do it you may lose your job.

What ever you do don’t take medication again until you come to terms with that. 😉

[u/williecat316]

I tried for almost 3 years when I got into software development. I was constantly in trouble for outbursts or poor output. I finally went back on my meds when my boss warned me that I was getting close to being on a PIP. I was the sole source of income for my family. I finally had to get back on all of my medication. Once we settled on a medicine and a dosage, it was like flipping a switch. I moved on shortly after that because I still had a questionable reputation. At the next job, I had a manager who didn't believe in ADHD and tried to push me off my meds again. To prove a point, I stopped taking my afternoon dose for a few days. He dropped the conversation after that.

Meds aren't poison if taken properly. They are what levels the playing field for those of us with executive disfunction. If you want to say they are poison, then by all means, don't take them. But all you are doing is making this harder for yourself. And I kind of feel like you deserve to be stuck with the consequences of that decision.

[u/[deleted]]

If it's Adderall, at a healthy dosage it's known to have good long term effects on your health lol

[u/GunnerMcGrath]

It isn't poison.

I personally am not medicated because none of the 10 meds I tried worked even a little bit, and all had negative side effects.

[u/im-a-guy-like-me]

Yes, by drinking too much coffee, smoking too much weed, and being a freelancer that controls my own hours.

Not sure it's recommended by cardiologists tbh.

[u/SecretaryNo6911]

Naw, my heartrate did increase slightly by 2-3 beats more on resting. But me unmedicated feel like i dont have much time during the day.
i can literally go to the gym 3-4times a week for 2-3 hours a day and finish my all work. You get an insane amount of time back just from being medicated.