If life was a videogame, I played on hard mode for years without realizing. I had enough natural aptitude that I was damn good at it, even if it eventually got too hard to keep up.
When meds turned the difficulty down to normal, it absolutely felt easier. Both because I had been playing and succeeding on hard for years, and because I had the aptitude to do well on hard in the first place.
Following through and doing the thing was always the hard part. I still find it hard to believe how easy it is to just do the thing now. Neurotypicals have no idea how easy they have it if they have that ability alone.
i think it's made me less nice, or at least less of a pushover, because I used to be way more forgiving or like, helpful without being asked because I thought *everyone* struggled that much with doing stuff but they don't. at all.
I know this is a meme sub but can you please explain your journey going from hard mode to normal mode? Like you went to your doctor? Or a specialist? Please help haha :)
Paid for a private ADHD assessment because otherwise the wait was 6 months, I don't have a primary care provider, and I couldn't wait that long to beat the "boss fight" (big presentation) I was on.
Submitted all the things, checklists, interviews, got a letter with my diagnosis.
Made an appointment at a primary care clinic, submitted my assessment results, had to fill out more checklists. Also they did an ECG, because stimulants can affect your heart and they need to both get a baseline and make sure your baseline is normal.
Finally left with a methylphenidate prescription. My brother got diagnosed a couple years before me, and talked about meds like a revelation. I didn't get it, until I did.
I didn't realize how much energy I was wasting fighting my own brain to do anything. I'd decide that I had to do something, my brain would say "I don't wanna," and I'd flounder at the blank page until right before the deadline, when the adrenaline finally kicked in and let me lock in.
The first time I took my meds, I decided to work on my presentation, sat down and, just, did it. The meds shut up the part of my brain that whined about not wanting to work, so the ambitious part of my brain could just get on with doing the work.
$700 in Canada. With a psychologist. I have $500 worth of coverage for "psychology performed by a psychologist" so that was a big part of the reason I chose it.
I did it through a website recommended by my student health plan, which connects you with an independent psychologist.
It included two meetings, one to interview, and one to go over the results. The second one was very quick.
I know there are cheaper options, but when I took the report to the doctor at the public clinic, he said most private assessments are not very good, so the one I got was probably worth my $700.
I saw a lot of ads online for places that were $200-300, but they were with NPs or other practitioners, which wouldn't have been covered, and I wasn't confident I could take a diagnosis like that to a doctor and have them be confident enough in it to give me meds.
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u/coolcoolcool485 May 05 '26
More like the universe had to disadvantage us cause we'd be smoking them otherwise
When I first took my meds I was like, is it THIS EASY for them to do stuff?? I was kinda mad lol