<story><title>Ask HN: How did an adult ADHD diagnosis help you?</title><text>My therapist wants to explore an ADHD diagnosis, run tests and dive deep. My question to you is; how did this help you or impact your life?&lt;p&gt;I am in the later half of an adventurous and successful career. I continue to grow, have a long-term stable marriage, good savings, great life. I went to my therapist to handle a lingering family issue and now we&amp;#x27;ve come up to the ADHD talk.&lt;p&gt;They want to run neurological tests, said I&amp;#x27;m &amp;#x27;twice exceptional&amp;#x27; and I see this as an expensive and time consuming diversion of my goals. I do admit that there is some validity in the idea, I do see symptoms, but how would this help me at this point in my life?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>matlin</author><text>Anyone reading this should be extremely skeptical of internet strangers recommending drugs that gave them &amp;quot;superpowers&amp;quot;, changed their life, etc. Taking these drugs will make &lt;i&gt;anyone&lt;/i&gt; feel more focused, motivated, etc because these drugs are strong stimulants that cause euphoria, focus, and bursts of energy.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, I&amp;#x27;ve seen a huge uptick in posts of the format &amp;quot;how an ADHD diagnosis changed my life&amp;quot; on Reddit, TikTok, HN, etc. Talk to your doctor about your issues and concerns but don&amp;#x27;t forget the incentives of pharma companies to push these drugs on as many people as possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jnovek</author><text>Everything you’ve said is correct, but please don’t demonize a medication that I depend on to be functional.  ADHD is a disability, there’s more nuance to this than black-and-white.&lt;p&gt;I was blown off by doctors for years when I was seeking a diagnostics because I was a successful person, but make no mistake: I was suffering. I am a textbook case.  The stigma around this disorder is pervasive and it’s extremely easy to reinforce that stigma.&lt;p&gt;Stimulant medication doesn’t give me superpowers, it improves symptoms.  I still have all the problems that come with ADHD, just... less.&lt;p&gt;Google is failing me, but a study a few years ago indicated that stimulants do not have a meaningful impact on the output of those who do not have ADHD.  People often think they do because of the euphoria effect, but the euphoria is actually a transient side effect.&lt;p&gt;Stimulants should be paired with therapy, to better understand the nature of the disorder and developer additional coping tool.&lt;p&gt;(I’ve been on stimulant medication to treat ADHD for about half a decade.  I was diagnosed well into adulthood.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How did an adult ADHD diagnosis help you?</title><text>My therapist wants to explore an ADHD diagnosis, run tests and dive deep. My question to you is; how did this help you or impact your life?&lt;p&gt;I am in the later half of an adventurous and successful career. I continue to grow, have a long-term stable marriage, good savings, great life. I went to my therapist to handle a lingering family issue and now we&amp;#x27;ve come up to the ADHD talk.&lt;p&gt;They want to run neurological tests, said I&amp;#x27;m &amp;#x27;twice exceptional&amp;#x27; and I see this as an expensive and time consuming diversion of my goals. I do admit that there is some validity in the idea, I do see symptoms, but how would this help me at this point in my life?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>matlin</author><text>Anyone reading this should be extremely skeptical of internet strangers recommending drugs that gave them &amp;quot;superpowers&amp;quot;, changed their life, etc. Taking these drugs will make &lt;i&gt;anyone&lt;/i&gt; feel more focused, motivated, etc because these drugs are strong stimulants that cause euphoria, focus, and bursts of energy.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, I&amp;#x27;ve seen a huge uptick in posts of the format &amp;quot;how an ADHD diagnosis changed my life&amp;quot; on Reddit, TikTok, HN, etc. Talk to your doctor about your issues and concerns but don&amp;#x27;t forget the incentives of pharma companies to push these drugs on as many people as possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwasquirrel</author><text>When you&amp;#x27;ve grown up with executive dysfunction and excessive difficulty regulating emotion, the &lt;i&gt;ability to choose&lt;/i&gt; to sit down and do a task that doesn&amp;#x27;t grab your attention sure FEELS like a superpower, but all it&amp;#x27;s doing is effectively medicating your condition.&lt;p&gt;The best parallel I can think of is that getting effective medication for ADHD is like getting glasses. Suddenly a part of your life that doesn&amp;#x27;t work (and maybe has never worked) is suddenly functional. People tend to be pretty excited about their glasses when they first get them, too.</text></comment>