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Comment by kstrauser

I wish I could go back in time and drill this into my own head. I evolved a large set of coping mechanisms that let me get by alright without medicines. I was putting food on the table and a roof over our heads. Still, it took a phenomenal amount of mental effort just to get started with critical things. I'd have all my tax receipts scanned in and organize and just needed to make an appointment to send it all to my accountant, but I'd sit on that until the last minute. I knew it needed to be done. There was no reason not to do it. I wanted to do it. I was ready to do it. And yet, I couldn't freaking do it.

It was the equivalent of running a marathon carrying an 80 pound backback. Yeah, with enough work you can do it, but you're not going to be setting any records.

Stimulant meds have been lifechanging for me. I'm not magically doing more than I was before. Those coping mechanisms took me pretty far. It's that I'm doing it all without delaying them until they became emergencies, which is what it use to take before I could even get started. My life is so much easier and less stressful now.

I took that backpack off and how I can run the same race as everyone else. And you know what? When you've been practicing your whole life with an extra weight on your back, and you take it off, sometimes it's surprising how fast you can go.

In before "of course it's easy, you're on meth!" Yeah, that sounds reasonable if you know nothing about ADHD. I've talked about this here before, but Aderrall has no noticeable stimulant effect for me at all. I feel a good cup of coffee much more than my daily meds, which is to say, not a lot. It doesn't give me extra energy or alertness or anything else. It just tells my brain, hey, did you know you're allowed to get started on things before they become emergencies?

parent kstrauser 1 year ago

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