At university, I medicated heavily with “the hard stuff” - stimulant medications. These took a heavy toll on my body; I had nervous tics and twitches galore. The meds gave me enough focus to develop good study habits and after 2-3 years I ceased them.

Once I joined the workforce, I focused on doing things that I was passionate about. For me, ADHD doesn’t always mean lack of focus; I can hyper focus when I’m motivated by something. Having a job that I liked to do turned me into a low grade workaholic (too much hyper focus!) but I became successful in my career.

For the past few years, I’ve been medicating with a non stimulant that I tolerate very well. I still do what I love, at work, and Strattera helps me stay focused on doing the things that are most important to my employer and myself, but my days of being a workaholic are over.

If you are like me, then doing what you love is essential, and finding the right medication is a big help, though not strictly essential.

You could try 25mg for a month and see if it’s in the sweet spot, if the 40mg provokes side effects you dislike.

40mg is a good starting dose but you may want to go lower.

The right med depends on your brain chemistry. For some, the stimulants do wonders. For me they had horrific side effects. Strattera has been a big help, not perfect, but with no side effects other than the beneficial ones.

Everyome’s brain is different. No shame in asking to try stimulants for contrast, if your doctor is willing.

What’s your dose? I had some issues with a higher dose (40mg) and settled on 25mg as enough to mitigate my symptoms without causing insurmountable issues.

I started at 40mg some years ago; I did indeed feel superhuman, but my sleep suffered periodically and I had some other side effects – morning nausea sometimes, especially when combined with coffee.

I found ways to cope: reduce coffee intake, have some plain yogurt in the morning, as the protein seems to help buffer the stomach, medicate early in the morning (6:30am) and exercise hard after work to promote better sleep. Still, it was a drag, and too easy to miss a beat in my routine.

I had to quit taking Strattera for two years while attempting to become a pilot, but it turns out the FAA hates ADHD kids and once that fell through, I resumed at a much lower dosage of 25mg. While I don’t feel quite as capable at the lower dose, the side effects are significantly more mild and I generally don’t notice them. I still make sure to medicate no later than 7am, as a precaution, but there’s no correlation between being medicated and having poor sleep.

TL;DR stick with it for a few days and don’t hesitate to ask for a lower dose if you can’t hack it. The drug does a world of good for me, and it promotes habits that persist even when I go unmedicated for awhile (e.g. on weekends and often while on vacation).

I, too, wish to see Wet Gremlins.

I switched my Android assistant to a man’s voice; a woman’s voice serving as my digital assistant has always felt mildly sexist to me.

I switched my Android assistant to a man’s voice. A woman serving as my digital assistant has always felt mildly sexist to me.

Haven’t quit Reddit yet, but I am only posting or commenting to Lemmy and I exhaust the feed here before browsing Reddit.

I’m not highly involved in any communities there, else I’d attempt a mass migration.