I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 50's. Without meds I have to spend an enormous amount of energy managing my cognitive state. Imagine you had to spend 60% of your time creatively managing yourself into a mental state where you can do something meaningful with the remaining 40%. And I've been practicing meditation for 30 years, I'm very active, I've adapted my lifestyle around my needs.

All that work doesn't even come close to the benefit I get from Vyvanse. I get effortless self control, and all that time back.

I figured out I had ADHD by observing my (very intelligent) daughter in kindergarten--she was the obvious behavioural outlier. All the other kids were mostly attending to the teacher, my daughter was attending to everything else. We didn't medicate her until Grade 4, when she started to think she was dumb. Meds changed everything for her, allowed her to develop a better self-concept (and winning the academic prize that year). She's off meds right now, struggling a bit, but a least she knows she's not dumb. That's huge.

Here's my thinking: stimulants are relatively safe. They aren't particularly addictive. Yes, they suck, there are tradeoffs. But if they don't work out, you can stop. You can stop whenever you want.

But once a kid has internalized "I'm dumb" or "I'm a loser" it is very hard to undo. That can stay with them for life.