Besides stimulants there are a lot of effective interventions for ADHD. There is good literature behind balance exercises, vigorous cardio exercise, sleep adjustment, ADHD specific therapy, and coaching. Once you're diagnosed, you have access to meds and a directive from your doctor to get therapy. Don't take the common advice and seek Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT doesn't work very well for ADHD, we tend to try to outsmart the process.
Mostly the benefit is understanding yourself and allowing a measure of grace for your challenges. It helps you calibrate your goals, and be self aware when making decisions that you may be suffering an executive function deficit, and to seek known good supports for managing impulse control challenges.
There was a time when I started taking stimulant meds, but still felt the need to finish off-topic ideas to completion. It took a lot of learning to understand that my instincts need scrutiny, and that I don't have to beat myself up for not being able to do impossible things on a regular basis.
I like myself better. I get more of the important stuff done. I can even relax from time to time. I also accept that I will always have some unique struggles and special abilities.
Interesting regarding CBT, matches my experiences. I'd also add that the CBT classes, to a guy like me, is SO FREAKING BORING. This is really hard to beat if you have poorly controlled ADHD.
CBT strategies are probably good for everyone to familiarize themselves with. You can probably use things like grounding at the very least. I found it useful. Some relaxation techniques could be valuable.
Stimulant access is becoming a massive issue these days. I think we need legislation that grants it as a right to people with ADHD or narcolepsy. I think there's even a case for legalization.
Relationships with psychs can be complicated, and the medical industry is not very kind to ADHD. eg. you can get fired by your psych and be abandoned with medication, basically for having ADHD.
People with ADHD are perceived to have behavioral problems. Those same problems can be used as an excuse not to treat you.
For me it allowed to stop blaming myself for the ADHD symptoms. I'm not lazy, I'm not failing. You can't imagine how much pressure that took off, and how much better I am doing as a consequence.
Access to medication, which is reported to work well in conjunction with targeted therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy.
For more info see the book "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" by Russel Barkley https://www.amazon.com/dp/1462546854 and the DIVA-5 test that many physicians use as part of the diagnosis process https://www.divacenter.eu (costs 10 EUR to download the PDF).
Acknowledging the problem (regardless of what one calls it) allows one to seek out solutions. If the problem has a name e.g., ADHD, one might notice a HN post about brown noise for ADHD treatment, open it and find a possible drug-free remedy that's possibly effective for them.
There is a lot of overlap in symptoms with other conditions. OCD, Autism, MDD etc.
Knowing exactly what the underlying issue is gives you the best way forward in treating effectively.
There is strong clustering for sure, but also good and recent evidence that ASD, ADHD, and ASD + ADHD (the community has adopted the term Audhd) are distinct at a genetic level. Those and related comorbidities are tied to dopamine transport, and thought to be strongly impacted by endocrine disruption. Brain scans reveal most differences in the basil ganglia and cerebellum, and then downstream dysfunction in the frontal lobe with executive function and sensory processing issues.
Extensive testing can yield pretty specific and accurate results. You won't get that from an hour one session but my testing took ~ 15 hours total. Expensive but worth it for me.
For me, lots of things I used to struggle with suddenly made sense and now I have strategies for coping with them that actually work. Whereas previously I would try various strategies and end up hating myself when they didn't work.
I used to drink far too much - that was a way for me to quiet the noise in my head - and now I'm aware (and have meds), I can drink sensibly.
I used to be late for everything - this is because I hate waiting and would rather have been late than have to kill ten minutes doing nothing. Now I know, I give myself things to do before the meeting (or whatever) starts.
I used to have a long-running internal conflict between my need to plan and control everything and my desire to "go with the flow" and take things as they come. Now I understand there are some things that I need to keep tight control over and all the rest I can just let it happen.
It's possible I would have come across these strategies without the diagnosis, but I'm in my late 40s and was only diagnosed last year. I had been failing with all the strategies I had tried and it was resulting in me hating myself and feeling inadequate that I was unable to cope with things everyone else seemed to find easy. But now I know the cause, I know where my boundaries are and what I can and can't "fix".
(As for blood pressure - mine was borderline high but it actually fell once I started taking the meds - I assume this is because I was actually more relaxed and able to cope with life).
It is only because of shit opinions like this that the stimulant medications (which many ADHD sufferers are prescribed) are still so difficult to get. Draconian laws based on racist and classist ideals by non-medical professionals created 50 years ago make these life-changing medications difficult to use uninterrupted due to the excessive amount of regulation surrounding just getting them filled at a pharmacy. These are not street drugs nor are they used recreationally, rather they are prescribed under the strict supervision of a qualified medical professional and that should be the end of any discussion.
It is very difficult in many parts of the US to get a prescription. If one is a high-functioning child of professionals, much less so. Someone who is rather dysfunctional as an adult can find it very difficult, when they are precisely the group that can benefit most.
The tendency for poor undiagnosed people to attempt to self-medicate just to feel okay is considered a factor that places them at-risk to abuse the medication in the minds of many, when medicating the ADHD would be extremely helpful to reduce self-medication in many situations.
Adult non-professionals and "losers" who have managed to get diagnosed, a huge hurdle in and of itself, often face an uphill battle to get a prescription, much of which is unnecessary and based in classism and racism.
Nope, I'm in Alabama, where I cannot get more than 30 days supply at a time, and must meet monthly with a psychiatrist in an area where almost no doctors are taking new patients, and even once you're an existing patient, appointments can be impossible to get. It can take me weeks just to get a call back from my doctor's office. Supply is regularly interrupted, and it can take weeks to get a prescription refilled.
