#please dont turn this post into neurology and psychopharmacology discourse lmao
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mypoisonedvine · 4 years ago
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I don't know how to break this to you but I think you just have ADHD.. I mean if you haven't already been diagnosed, you say Adderall doesn't give you a high- the way it would for neurotypical people. And it makes you more productive and better at focusing which is part of the reason why most ADHD people take Adderall is so that we can get basic stuff in our lives done that we lack the energy and motivation to do otherwise. You might just have a dopamine deficiency caused by ADHD and that's why Adderall doesn't work to make you "high" the way it would for a non-neurodivergent person
you've definitely got a point and I've also considered this before, but I don't have a significant number of add/adhd symptoms. (I have some sort of neurological weirdness which I've been avoiding diagnosing for mostly legal reasons, but my experience as someone who literally observed students and recommended them for testing for things like this leads me to think I don't have adhd.) my only real 'symptoms' are that adderall works for me and that sometimes I really relate to those humorous posts on here about 'adhd/neurodivergent things' and neither of those are dsm-v criteria haha.
the thing is, neurotypical people don't necessarily get a high from adderall either, none of the ones I know who use it would describe it that way. it's not a party drug, it's a study drug, because in general, adderall takes people at whatever level of attention they're at and moves them up the scale for a while. it has very similar effects on people with and without an adhd diagnosis, but for the former it's more of a luxury amount of attention while for the latter it's a vital and standard amount needed to get through life in a society that evolves much faster than human brains do. this is because it's a cns stimulant and people with add/adhd have the same central nervous system that everybody else does.
this psychiatrist blogger has a great article about this and sadly it is one more drop in the bucket of evidence that adderall is generally pretty cool and gatekeeping it with add/adhd diagnoses is probably not worth the effort and also shockingly arbitrary.
as for me, specifically, my performance on less-than-legally attained adderall is pretty comparable to my unmediated self on a good day. my record for writing, for example (since I took the adderall tonight to write more) is about 10k in one day and that was sober; I haven't beaten it on adderall because I haven't tried and also the effects wear off faster than it takes to get that much down. that to me is a sign that I don't 'need' adderall because it doesn't take me past my known capabilities unmedicated, it just guarantees a 'good day'.
sooo moral of the story, I appreciate you thinking of me and reaching out, I'm glad that you shared a bit of your experience and perspective, and I'm using your ask as an excuse to ramble about neurology because I'm still just feeling the effects of low-dose amphetamines enough to be willing to write down all my unnecessary thoughts on this.
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