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Wellness Wednesday for May 22, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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In the spirit of trying more things re: my problem with wandering attention and all that, I got my hands on something labelled "Concerta 18 mg".

Doesn't seem to do much for the problem with attention, however it does make me feel slightly more energetic as I've just drunk a liter of energy drink, but way 'smoother'. Also somewhat nervous and as If I had a constant weight pressing on my chest from outside. The nervousness ramps up, reaches a peak cca 6 hours after taking it and then passes.

Still not sure what to do with my tendency to delay doing things I don't like doing -bills that aren't on auto pay, cleaning that's not agreed upon, home improvement I need to do.

I keep putting it off and only do it right before the deadline, or even slightly after it.

The primary treatment for ADHD is stimulants (and Concerta is one). Most people get some form of benefit from stimulants, if this wasn't the case Coffee wouldn't be as popular (or uhhh Meth, which is what Adderall basically is).

It is however, very common for people to think they have ADHD (and even get diagnosed with it) when that is not the case. Other things can cause problems with attention, focus, and so on - depression, anxiety, medical illness, personality disorders. Most notably perhaps is simple modernity. Sitting in an office focusing on boring shit all day is not what our bodies and brains are designed to do.

If you don't have ADHD, taking a stimulant will likely give some form of performance boost but how helpful it is, is going to be deeply variable and may pass diminishing returns very quickly.

People with "real" ADHD are going to have a very different experience with stimulants most of the time.

That's not to say the above is 100% guaranteed, but it's good short hand. Plenty of people will pop a Vyvanse while studying for a tough exam and get some benefit out of it, but the way the medication is meant to address ADHD symptoms does not apply to people with "normal" brains, which may not be intuitive.

Yep. I got prescribed vyvanse (the slow release stuff) and that too a small-ish? dose (20mg)..... and the difference was life changing.

The first day, I cried simply because I could stop speaking, an elementary school level skill that I'd never developed.

My working memory didnt get flooded with surrounding distractions. Instead I could listen, and maintain a response in my head for the right moment.

I can do work now !! Thats instead of sitting at the table hoping 'attention comes', which inevitably didnt happen till 11pm at night.

Every person close to me has noticed a difference.

1 year in, I havent noticed any side effects. I am careful enough not to take it on meeting days or holidays. So vacation serves as a good refresh.

To be fair, i lived most my life without the meds, and have managed to be moderately successful by abusing sleep and and being in a cycle of constant exploit-burnout-vacation. So maybe my lack of dependence is a result of knowing how to be normal when not on it.