[tjridesbikes]

Anecdata, but I've been on methylphenidate (Concerta) since age 7, and holy cow has it impacted my life in an insanely positive way. 21 years later, I'm still on Concerta, but excelling in my career, spending meaningful time with friends, family, and hobbies, and generally pretty happy with myself. When I tried dropping the meds in college, my life basically fell apart in a matter of months. My then-girlfriend now-wife almost broke up with me, I started failing classes, I lost contact with friends, and really struggled to feel alive. The Concerta doesn't fix my ADHD, but wow does it make it manageable. Thankfully, I had a supportive and invested family, understanding friends, and support structures all around me. I'm so glad my parents put me on meds instead of making me struggle throughout my childhood due to an outdated believe that "drugging kids bad". I owe my life and success to this drug, and while it doesn't work perfectly for everyone diagnosed with ADHD, it works so well for me that you'd have to pry my prescription from my cold, dead hands.

[danShumway]

> The Concerta doesn't fix my ADHD, but wow does it make it manageable.

Methylphenidate affects me in fairly subtle ways and I'm constantly wondering whether it's actually working or if it's a placebo effect. However, my general experience when I look at the tracking data I collect in my own life mirrors this sentiment.

Methylphenidate doesn't get rid of my distractability or make it easy for me to focus whenever I want, but it does help with my executive dysfunction just enough that I can now set timers more reliably, I can now use calendars more effectively. It's not that the medication made the problem go away, but it seems to have helped enough that it "unlocked" a bunch of additional coping strategies that I had never been able to access in the past no matter how much I tried.

Definitely not for everyone, but also that's what a psychiatrist is for -- to help you experiment with different medications to see if there is one that will help, and to monitor you to see what the side effects are and what the long-term effects are, and to figure out and advise you on what your risk factors are. For some people it can be life-changing.

I think a lot of people see this as a question of medication vs therapy, but for a lot of people with ADHD the two parts work together -- the medication makes the therapy more effective and more productive.

[sph]

Same. I've had a low-grade depression for all my adult life, which has worsened in the past 5 years.

I got diagnosed with ADHD 5 months ago, started medication 2 months ago, and last week I told my therapist I'm pretty sure my life-long depression is in remission. There's a definite feeling that my life is now in a slight upwards trajectory, even on the worst of days.

Life tends to become pretty sad when you have no control over your executive function and action.

[FollowingTheDao]

Why is it so strange that an amphetamine would get rid of depression?

[billjings]

I did the same thing as you. I wasn't on Concerta for as long; I started on Ritalin in 3rd grade, and switched to Concerta my senior year of high school. I dropped all meds in college.

I actually tried TWICE to drop my meds. Each time my life fell apart, as you described.

The second time, however, I did not interpret my life falling apart the way you did: instead of interpreting it as validation of the medication's effectiveness, I interpreted it as a withdrawal period. So the second time I quit, I expected going into it that the process of adapting to life without medication would probably last at least 2-3 years.

I can't say what would've happened had I taken your path and not mine. But fifteen years in, I have no regrets. I still don't do what I'm told, but I'm productive and happy and useful. I've found my own way, and it's been a good way.

[sph]

I have said this many times already: the downside of medicating children is that they never have a chance of learning how dysfunctional ADHD is. Then they blame the medication because they find they can't function without it. No shit, that's why you were taking it.

I have been diagnosed in my 30s and when I stop medication, my life returns to the same exact shit it's been for 30 years. It feels like falling apart, because that's how it was for three decades for me.

That said, I'm happy you found a path without needing the medication. One of the positive aspects of ADHD medication is that you actually learn to function without them, because it gives you the mental energy and fortitude to build healthy habits that can help keeping you ticking along even without the boost of increased dopamine.

[johnnymorgan]

Love this post, can't say exactly why but it resonates with me.

Cheers and kudos!

[stainablesteel]

What worries me more for lifetime-use like this are epigenetic effects (generational-level adaptations to DNA via methylation) that will be felt by anyone inheriting the outcome of their parents behavior.

Epigenetic mechanisms are what turn pigs into boars when released into the wild. In humans, if someone undergoes drastic starvation in their childhood, their children will often be fat. Their bodies hold onto fat more readily because it essentially expects to undergo a similar level of starvation. Evolutionarily, people who's epigenetics could benefit their children in this way were selected for via easier survival.

There are no studies, due to a lack of understanding in the past, of the effects of lifetime use on future generations. It could, potentially, be a positive effect - or none at all.

But that's optimistic for biological mechanisms imo, I'm remaining a pessimist and preferring the route of non-lifetime medication. If someone else wants to test this on their life and family, I would be happy to read about it.

[Deritio]

Good for you not needing meds...

[scyzoryk_xyz]

Opposite here - only have been taking medication for several years and growing up had one of those parents fearful of “drugging” but eager to punish and berate for crappy performance.

I’ve only just finally started actually fulfilling my potential and reading your comment fills me with the regret that things were not different for me…

[_the_inflator]

Can confirm. Concerta gave me the impression that there is simply no distraction, only nothing to do with your focus time. Impressed me.

[slingnow]

Have you considered that you're an outlier and that policy and approaches shouldn't be based on your outcome?

It's clear you're an evangelist for this approach, but your complete dismissal of people who have issues with drugging children doesn't add anything to the discussion.

[danShumway]

> Have you considered that you're an outlier and that policy and approaches shouldn't be based on your outcome?

I don't think it's reasonable for OP to advocate for policy that would materially make their life worse. I'm not sure what you expect their response to be, but it's not going to be, "medication doesn't work for everyone? Great, I'll just go back to being miserable then so no one accidentally takes it unnecessarily."

Prescription medication is something you should work out with a doctor/psychiatrist who monitors your behavior and figures out whether the approach is right for you. But even if methylphenidate only worked for even just 10% of the people who have ADHD -- those people should have access to it. And the rest of the people don't need to take it, that's something their psychiatrist/doctor can work out with them.

> complete dismissal of people who have issues with drugging children

It bothers me that people read "hey, medication worked for me and didn't give me depression" as "literally everybody and their dog should be on this." I don't think that OP is the person here who's dismissing or generalizing.

[freemint]

How many mg at what body weight did you settle on?