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Comment by justinko | Hacker News Reader

No, “treatment” is going to consist of stimulant medication, which long-term, will decrease quality of life.

This is also just straight up FUD. ADHD is one of the few psychiatric conditions that has numerous effective medications which work reliably for a large part of the effected population.

Stimulants work for a large number of people diagnosed with ADHD with very little negative effects and are safe modulo a few exceptions for long term use.

Some individuals have negative experiences with Stimulant medications but I know from personal experience and from many friends in the ADHD community stimulants have literally been life saving for them.

They don't just reach for them because they are out to get you but they are effective for many people.

Furthermore many people who choose to forgo medication develop lifestyle and substance use issues which negative effects far out weigh low dose stimulants.

As other commenters said they are just a tool you still have to work on interventions, behavior modification, and so on.

At the end of the day in many ways ADHD is a disability (even if sometimes a super power) and you can't just delete it with a prescription.

Even if you forgo meds there are so many ways to boost your attention and quality of life and lots of research on what is effective, treatment can be much more than just medication.

It's important to build skills with stimulants that you can still use while off them. Organizing, using calendars, stuff like that.

There was a point in my life where I was unable to function in society, and the stimulants did save me. I decided to slowly ween myself off of them since, and don't have any regrets about having taken them in the first place.

If I lost 5-10 years from my lifespan from taking stimulants, I still think it was worth it. Staying realistic about them was key for me.

This is not true. Stimulant medication can form part of the treatment, for some people. But it's not the only kind of medication, and not the only kind of therapy.

Anyway, I suggest that anyone concerned seeks the advice of a doctor, not random internet posters.

>Stimulant medication can form part of the treatment, for some people.

It's usually the first thing a doctor will go for. Not strattera, bupropion, modafinil, therapy ... but adderall.

That would be because Stratteta is a second-line treatment that's less effective and has more negative side effects than Adderall, and Bupropion and Modafinil have a very weak body of evidence supporting their use for ADHD. Bupropion and Modafinil are still stimulants, you might as well give a patient a smaller dose of Adderall for the same effect.

As for therapy, it's not really a great solution for ADHD. It can certainly help, but it's not going to give you the internal drive to do boring things that you were born without. In my experience, therapists also don't know how to treat ADHD, it's not really in their wheelhouse.

> Bupropion and Modafinil are still stimulants, you might as well give a patient a smaller dose of Adderall for the same effect.

Suggesting these substances have the "same effect" makes me think you haven't tried them to know the difference. Saying low dose adderall is effectively the same as them is absurd. They aren't controlled and prone to abuse, which what you are dancing around.

Having gone down that road I completely agree with you, but some who haven't come to that realization have a pretty negative reaction to the suggestion that stims have downsides and can't be used indefinitely.

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