[bgilroy26]

>I bet if you knew your house would burn down if you didn't do "normal" things you would have done them no problem

Getting yourself to do things in a boring situation that you might only do in an exciting situation is a big challenge in ADHD management

If everything was a "house on fire" level emergency, many ADHDers would get more done but would eventually collapse from running around on adrenaline for days

These problems are not easily solved

[suggestion]

The point is it's obviously a problem of perspective. Things are not important because they aren't considered important. If the stakes are higher they are elevated in importance and more demanding of attention.

To pretend that humans are hedonic beasts incapable of cognitive adaption is ridiculous. We do not operate purely on impulse save for pharmaceutical intervention. We can force ourselves to give things more or less importance regardless of the actual stakes.

[autoexec]

Exciting and even emergency situations don't cure ADHD or allow people with ADHD to magically function "normally" (or even effectively enough to avoid serious harm to themselves/others). The amount of importance a person with ADHD attributes to a task doesn't tell you if they'll be able to complete it as well as they would if they were being treated with medication or even if they will be able to complete it at all.

People with ADHD cannot all just "force themselves" to function. Novelty, excitement and interest can help, some of the time, but the rest of the time it's disaster. Depending on severity, the result of not getting the treatment they need can often include things like an inability to keep a job, homelessness, prison sentences, and accidents/injury. Those kinds of outcomes are pretty damn important to avoid, extremely stressful (exciting) to experience or be in imminent danger of, and certainly more than enough to motivate people to do the best that they can, but some percentage of people will never be able to avoid those outcomes by trying to will themselves into "cognitive adaption".

Others may be able to stave off the absolute worst outcomes without medication, but only through exhaustive efforts that prevent them from accomplishing the things they want in life. Why should someone constantly and needlessly push themselves to their absolute limit just to accomplish what comes easily for most people? For what? Bragging rights about how they reshaped their brains by sheer force of will? If medication for a mental condition can make people's lives better they should be free to take it.

To whatever extent you've been able to function without medication, that's great. Don't assume that what worked for you is applicable to everyone else, or even to most other people.

[rini17]

You are forgetting what people did before psych meds were available. Almost everyone treated themselves with alcohol and tobacco. Coffee is up there, too. There is cognitive adaptation, not denying it, but only up to a point.

[elcritch]

And living, or rather surviving, on adrenaline fueled high stakes brinkmanship sucks. Especially if that's just to enable doing simple chores.

[bgilroy26]

The situation you're describing is circular. Perspective taking and prioritization are executive functioning skills and executive functioning skills are precisely what are lacking in a person who has ADHD