Ask HN: Has anyone managed to deal with their ADHD without medication?

Yes for many years until the pandemic and permanent work-from-home started. I hadn't realized just how much my productivity relied on the structure of the office environment and other people around me working until it was taken away from me.

Our office has re-opened now but it's on a voluntary basis so whenever I go in it's a ghost-town and it doesn't help much.

I've found it impossible, unless structure is imposed externally, like going to the office and a series of rituals and routines designed to save time during the day.

This is the way I rolled for years with hybrid WFH, as I used the days at home to focus on the tasks agreed on, and went back to the office for weekly meetings or when I needed advice.

It's been really hard with permanent WFH, even on medication: if you start delivering late it will mean less autonomy in the future as the managers take notice, but in contrast to a person to person situation where you can get back to deliver quickly after some small talk, here it may involve a call during your next performance review.

Yes.

I’m not sure that I’m as effective as I was with medicine, but I’m fairly successful by most standards. Am I as accomplished as I would be if I had stayed medicated? Who knows.

Structure helps me tremendously. To-do lists, dedicated study/work locations, pomodoro technique all help. My performance increased quite a bit when I found a field I loved as well!

What have you tried so far?

Yeah, but I forgot how.

How does it manifest? Is it just poor memory or is it an inability to get anything done?

If just poor memory, then maybe something like Bullet Journal could help.

Yoga, meditation, and time limits on your addictive apps