To medicate or not? My personal journey
Once you get a diagnosis of ADHD, one of the first things that probably comes to mind is, should I take medication or not?
This is a topic I could write an entire book on based on my personal experience and I may just do that one day. Now more than ever there is an abundance of information and with a nationwide adderrall shortage it has made this debate all the more heated. Social media can only add to the confusion. Tik Tok is loaded with those who have had either their lives changed for the better or descriptions of how ADHD meds made them a zombie. There are experts on both sides of coin here making it all the harder to make a choice of how to manage your ADHD.
I was diagnosed at age 40 after graduating from college and having four kids.
I decided to go through with testing due to the constant feelings of how hard certain things were for me. I could do hard things. No problem. I’ve opened multiple clothing boutiques, managed a massive team, developed creative solutions that others could not. But, the simple things: getting in the shower, paying my bills, keeping my car clean, making my kids lunches for school remember appointments birthdays, were almost impossible. In other words, anything that was boring for me didn’t happen. Once I was diagnosed, my Dr. said, “well you seem to be doing just fine, so I don’t see a need for medication.” It felt very invalidating, but I took his advice and did not take medication. There are many things about my ADHD I loved: being fun, creative, and having my own unique way of thinking made me grateful for my neurodivergent status.
Flash forward to my own son getting his diagnosis at age 6.
My son’s struggles in school were massive. We made the hard decision to put him on medication. It was such a tough decision. There were so many things I loved and continue to love about my son’s ADHD. He is beyond funny, yet at times he can be highly inappropriate. On medication my son is able to do school and control some of the impulsiveness that truly could get him into trouble. He is now 20 years old with a 3.8 GPA transferring to a top school which I have no doubt his medication has helped him. My daughter’s journey with medication was slightly more challenging. Finding the right medication that didn’t affect her sleep or appetite was not easy and she is still working on discovering what works for her.
I have experienced both the many benefits and pitfalls of medication which honestly made me even conflicted to write this post but, it is truly something I am so passionate about and in traditional ADHD fashion I have spent hours and hours hyper-focusing on this topic. Just this year I decided I was ready to try a very small dose of medication to see if it helped me. I immediately saw a difference in my ability to focus, things that took me hours in the past were completely quickly. I questioned myself often am I acting like a robot? Am I still funny? There was no doubt the medication has helped me.
The conclusion I have come to is your journey on ADHD is very personal and the choice to take medication is also personal.
Here are some tips that may help you make a decision on what is right for you:
Know what you want your medication to do? Ask yourself what are the reasons you want to take medication. What are your challenges?
Find psychiatrist or neurologist that has experience with ADHD medications. Ask them to explain what the different medications do? Stimulants vs. non stimulants?
When you start taking medication ask yourself if the medication is doing what you want it do?
Be patient it can take a while to find the right dose and medication.
Make friends with your psychiatrist, my experience is many psychiatrists will just prescribe medication without checking in much. You need to advocate for yourself
If you are comfortable I found asking my family and close friends if they saw a difference in me when on medication.
Know everyone reacts differently to medication for some they have very few side effects and mostly benefits. Others find they can’t tolerate or don’t want to tolerate the side effects.
Know that medication is NOT going to solve your ADHD challenges. Medication does not “cure” ADHD and executive function challenges still remain.
Be kind to yourself.
At the end of the day medications are one thing tool in your box to help you manage your ADHD. It has been said many times “pills don’t make skills” and I truly believe that is true. I also truly believe ADHD is a a superpower and being neurodivergent often times is trying to fit into a world where others standards define us. As always my motto is “your difference is your genius.”
