I have a problem with your "OP does not need ADD drugs" comment.

How do you know? ADHD is a real condition. You wouldn't tell someone with bipolar that they don't need anti-depression medication and instead just need to "stop being depressed".

You clearly don't know how hard it is to push through daily even with medication. Please be more empathetic regarding mental conditions you personally don't experience.

> but there are methods to overcome this dis-ease.

No, no there are not. The ADHD brain does not produce the dopamine they need to allow the neurons to transmit information properly. Medicines address this in a way that no amount of meditation or Yoga or fru-fru dieting can.

> Just to offer an alternative view on this condition, from someone who has suffered with this for the better part of my life and finally realized how to cope with it. It requires work, yes, but all good things in life do.

I'm glad your ADHD was mild enough that coping mechanisms were enough. Never assume that this is the case for everyone, just because it's the case for you.

The difference is pretty major - for someone who does not have ADHD, the medications make them high. For someone with ADHD, it just makes the brain work the way it should in the first place. It doesn't make us hyper, it doesn't make us high, it doesn't give us boundless reserves of energy.

What it does do is let us think about things in the future in a way which impacts what we do today. It lets us connect intention to action, which is really hard without it. It lets us concentrate for more than a few moments at a time.

> get people addicted

The clinical dose for Adderal is typically in the 10-90 mg per day range; addicitive levels are around 350 mg per day. Stop spreading FUD.

I understand your defensive reaction, and I in no means try to undermine your condition, but OF COURSE there are natural means to handle this. What do you mean, this is something completely new in the human condition ? You don't think in the whole time humans have evolved that we haven't had this kind of condition already in some form ? That this conditions has become true only in the past 50 years or so, in one generation of humans ?

Or is it maybe because we are fed the idea that we _need_ to be focused, that we need to become some kind of robots that can focus and do mind numbing work just because some one tells us so?

We can agree to disagree, if you feel I'm spreading fud think about whose world view you are defending, yours or those who have come up with the idea that we should be medicated for this condition..

And with addiction I mean psychological addiction, where somebody thinks they need the medication to focus.

And of course, if you are on medication, your first reaction is to defend and attack against those who say otherwise, as it is helping you. If so, good for you, but I am only speaking for this info because there are children as young as 6 who are being medicated, for goddamn no good reason but just because they cannot focus at school and take orders properly, which is to be honest just goddamn stupid.

People have different ways to think and to act, and those who are diagnosed with ADHD/ADD are specialists, and they can act very well without any medication when the environment recognizes this and let's out their creativity in the way which is best for them,and not force them to the same mold as everyone else!

> You don't think in the whole time humans have evolved that we haven't had this kind of condition already in some form

Of course we have. Know how we, as humans, dealt with people with mental disabilities (those who survived natural selection) in the past? A combination of "Man up", and sanitariums. We told them, "Stop being <pick a mental condition here>, or we'll throw you in a hole from which you'll never escape, and we can stop worrying about it."

These two methods "worked" for a lot of mental conditions we just now have names, diagnoses, and cures for.

> Or is it maybe because we are fed the idea that we _need_ to be focused

If you think that the only problem with having ADHD is the lack of focus, you don't know what ADHD is. I recommend watching the following video to see what the true problems encountered by those with ADHD are.

http://youtu.be/SCAGc-rkIfo

> those who have come up with the idea that we should be medicated for this condition

Like those who have received medication, and are suddenly able to think like everyone else is capable of? The medication is not a crutch, it's not a magical focus pill, it's not a "i can focus better because I have more energy"... it's a bridge between "can't" and "can".

It doesn't make you focus, it makes you capable of focusing. It doesn't make you not procrastinate, it lets you actually consider the consequences which are separated from the action by a time period greater than 30 minutes. It doesn't expand your memory, it makes you capable of accessing items in your memory.

People without ADHD don't understand that the medications don't act like speed for someone with ADHD. Let me repeat that. If you have ADHD, you're not getting the speed-like effects from these drugs.

If I had to come up with an example people without ADHD might understand, it would be like going from the mental state of being constantly inebriated to stone-cold sober.

> children as young as 6 who are being medicated, for goddamn no good reason but just because they cannot focus at school and take orders properly

This is FUD. Children are not put on Ritalin or Adderal just for being hyper, or for being children. The kids who are being put on these drugs are unable to operate and complete school otherwise. They can't just "Man Up" and learn discipline; it's physically impossible. Coping mechanisms can only get you so far.

It's estimated that 5% of people have ADHD. Let me re-phrase that: 5% of the human population has a neurological condition which prevents their brains from functioning normally, at a level which is considered detrimental to their life. Only ~4% of children are on these drugs. That means that we're not overmedicating children for ADHD, we're undermedicating them. Adults? About 1.5% are medicated. The rest suffer through the symptoms, unable to live up to their potential.

> those who are diagnosed with ADHD/ADD are specialists

This is a terrible, terrible lie being spread by people who want to feel special, and who don't want to admit that they actually have a disability. This denial isn't even limited to mental disorders (though due to the lack of physical symptoms, regular society tends to re-enforce the "you have an ability, not a disability" mentality).

Let's address the "specialist" notion popularized by that Ted Talk, specifically. Do you want to know what an ADHD "specialist" would look like in a hunting society?

They would be dead, because:

    - they couldn't think ahead to stockpile meat for the winter.
    - they didn't maintain their spear.
    - they forgot to bring water with them on the hunt.
    - they pissed off someone bigger and stronger than themselves due to an unnaturally strong emotional outburst.
    - of infections from clumsily walking down a path and scraping against rocks all the time.

Not a very effective specialist, eh?

I agree. I wasn't like this before. Now I have no more backbone, no discipline.

Maybe you've overdone it a bit and lost track of what originally got you into all of this. If you scatter yourself and chase every shiny thing your core motivation gets kind of burnt out but you don't notice it for a while because all those more superficial obsessive drives keep going once the main engine has run out of gas. Perhaps take it easier for a while until you feel a deep urge to do a particular project.

I got like this after many years of study. So much to learn, I turned everywhere at once and learned many things. After several years I ended up feeling lost - this forest was infinitely deep and infinitely broad, and I didn't know where in it I wanted to go. Though I still had personal identifications that said "this is what you do, you're good at this" and the superficial curiosity to keep learning new things, the deep sense of direction was gone.

The only thing I've found that lets it regrow is to give yourself a break, do something different with your life for a bit. When a deep motivation grows, the shiny things won't distract you from it. When they do distract you that's a sign that your deeper drive has withered somewhat. You can't force it to regrow; you have to wait for it to do that on its own.

Consider this: you mentioned a history of depression. Depression doesn't have to be at the level of a major depression to affect your functioning. And moderate chronic depression will certainly affect your focus. I hope I'm wrong, but you should really go and talk to a good psychiatrist/psychologist and see what kind of help you can get and whatever else you might be dealing with. And don't imagine that it means that you're fucked up in some kind of way: last year 13% of Canadians sought services of mental health professionals. That doesn't include those that aren't getting help for their conditions.

Now is as good of a time to start developing this. All you have to do is just stick with a single task and complete it. Then do this over and over again and it will turn into a habit.