There is no substitute for medication. For me a life without medication is a life of hating myself for not being able to do trivial things.
I tried all of those things you mentioned for over a decade and was often driven to tears trying to do simple things. I never did assignments for courses etc, causing some of my grades to stay bad even though I did great on the tests since tests kicks up your adrenaline making it easier to focus. Not because I didn't care about the grades but because I simply couldn't do the assignments. Then I got medication and suddenly everything in college and later work just became trivial. I stay on the lowest dosage and that is still enough for me to stay at normal levels of focus where I can program for a few hours a day when I need to do it to keep my job and earn money.
So, since medication has been so life changing for me I really hate when people say that you can manage ADHD symptoms just with lifestyle changes. Maybe in some cases, but many people absolutely need medication and discouraging such people from receiving it will ruin lives.
I tried all of those things you mentioned for over a decade and was often driven to tears trying to do simple things. I never did assignments for courses etc, causing some of my grades to stay bad even though I did great on the tests since tests kicks up your adrenaline making it easier to focus. Not because I didn't care about the grades but because I simply couldn't do the assignments. Then I got medication and suddenly everything in college and later work just became trivial. I stay on the lowest dosage and that is still enough for me to stay at normal levels of focus where I can program for a few hours a day when I need to do it to keep my job and earn money.
So, since medication has been so life changing for me I really hate when people say that you can manage ADHD symptoms just with lifestyle changes. Maybe in some cases, but many people absolutely need medication and discouraging such people from receiving it will ruin lives.