If it was anything like drug addiction then it'd go back to normal after some time - but the normal of people with ADHD is different.
Your brain adapts by creating more dopamine transporters...meaning you need more dopamine for same effect. This happens in an effort to maintain homeostasis. There is no free dopamine unfortunately...what goes up must come down. The brain's homeostasis system is hard-wired.
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.1...
> but the normal of people with ADHD is different.
This is probably the biggest misunderstanding people have.
They are told that their brain doesn't produce as much dopamine as a normal brain, which is why they can take the meds and normal people cannot.
But this is not the case. Each brain produces the right amount for itself, and if you dope it with more, then it will counteract this, and you will build tolerance.
There is no evidence about the dopamine theory of ADHD. It's total conjecture with a couple of papers here and there. There are no biomarkers or imaging for diagnosing ADHD.
The end result is you are going to end up morphing people's brains to the point that they need to take the meds to attain their original state.
But whatever, no one seems to care, too much money to be made.
Up until I got diagnosed and medicated. First I had therapies, nothing. Then I had non-stimulant medication - worked but I had terrible side effects. Now I'm on methylphenidate and everything works like clockwork now.
Frankly I don't care about the theory behind it. It turned my life around and that's all I need to know.
I wouldn't trade the creativity and hyperfocus for anything. I feel I am on a journey and the one trick is to figure out how to beat this thing. But I am desperately struggling to get things done versus endless ideation/dreaming.
So I am very curious as to what you tried and why it didn't work. And of course, I hope there is something you didn't try that will work for me.
I have such a delicate balance at the moment and I cannot afford to disrupt it with meds, and could not afford to have med tolerance build after a few years leading me worse than when I started. EVERYONE tells me I should just take meds. The pressure is high. But I never will.
You have an extremely stubborn, single-minded response to this subject, as evidenced by your posting history. I don't expect this will budge -- but someone ought to outright say it:
The painful truth for you may be that medication is what would help you.
The testimony of people with your same condition is overwhelmingly "this medication helps me", if you refuse outright to ever try it then you are wilfully opting into struggling and suffering. It does not seem like anything you've tried so far has worked.
The ultimate irony in this comment thread is listening to someone say "I tried so many things for years and years, but eventually medication helped" and you skip right over what worked because you want to try the list of things that failed.