It is my understanding that stims have two effects:

They work a bit like a recreational stim in that they make you alert, awake (or calm, with some types of ADHD) and euphoric. This effect can very much help with symptoms, e. g. in a euphoric state, it’s easy to get on a task. This effect fades over time, very much like caffeine or a recreational stimulant drug.

But they also regulate noradrenaline and dopamine in the prefrontal cortex in other ways which may not directly lead to a heightened state nor effect the vegetative system, but help with many ADHD symptoms. This effect does not fade, possibly not even a little bit!

For the patient, it’s hard to distinguish, and a patient may even “mistake” the “recreational high” for all it does, but it’s actually kind of a side effect. I believe that this is where the notion of “needing a break” comes from.

The docs & society kind of wants us only to have the 2nd therapeutic effect anyway, and they only grudgingly tolerate that we might also get the high for a while, because we are not supposed to have good things.

My hope is that with the end of Windows 10 coming up, laptops with 7th generation CPUs will become really cheap, such as ThinkPad P51 and P71. They are a decent budget choice < 1k USD/EUR already, but might drop way under 500 with top specs.

It’s not like they are useless, but the market for Linux users should be satiated quickly once a selling panic sets in.

For most use cases, including backend development, they’ll be good enough for many years to come. tbh, I’m still happy with my i5-2500 from 2011 and 16 GB RAM, and that is with local DB, application server, IDE and everything running locally.

I had the same experience. It felt like: This can’t be legal!

Still does a bit after almost a year, but to a lesser degree.

Anyway, I suspect that this effect will fade, and that it’s more like a side effect anyway, not the intended therapeutic effect. Although these might be hard to completely separate; the line is blurry.

I still have many symptoms, but two major things are completely fixed: Getting on a task just by thinking it, and sharp focus.

Already done, and it was found to be a side effect of the medication. Not a problem unmedicated.

Much of it sounds the same as me. I’m just 9 months ahead.

The effect of HOW it helps is a bit different for me, though.

I believe that especially initially, it gives a certain euphoria, similar to recreational stims like speed. And many patients feel like that is how it helps only, and that it stops working after a while. But what it is supposed to do, to regulate noradrenaline and dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, keeps working even after years - or so I’ve been told.

I think more focus should be put on how falling asleep was a primary symptom before. I can think of a couple of reasons: Comorbidity with something like narcolepsy, not enough sleep, or actual ADD symptom from sensory overload leading to tiredness or something. It will be hard to figure out whether Elvanse helps by keeping you awake, or if there is more to it. If it’s the former, I believe it’ll slowly fade over the next 6 months like high dose caffeine.

I did have the same problem before, but I realised I need naps. I have to work from home, because without my noon nap, things are bad. Often, I don’t even realise I need a nap; I just get cranky like a baby. My thoughts end up in a bad place, everything sucks and is wrong. It’s really a must for me. And I actually used to fall asleep at meetings or at my desk, no matter how bad it looked.

And I noticed that especially on Elvanse, I can’t trust myself. I lie down and close my eyes when I SHOULD feel tired based on what I did, not when I actually feel tired. Stims make it much harder to feel tiredness, exhaustion or hunger, but it’s super important to act as if I would feel it. This advice (from my doc) that was the biggest extra boost I got after getting the meds.

Oddly enough, I did use Modafinil, which is used against narcolepsy but also happens to work against ADHD, before I could get my hands on the good stuff.

So long story short, not sure if your situation is exactly the same, or very different. Chances are, I didn’t quite figure out mine yet either.

At this point, even Microsoft wants them to stop using it, but they are stubborn and try to keep it running until they turn off the lights the hard way.

With the “wonderful” tooling at work, we use Skype for Business. Naturally, that is not the primary place to send around code and configs, but a 1-liner or 2-liner happens.

You can’t believe the nonsense it does when you try to copy & paste it. Spaces get turned into non-breaking spaces etc. Looks completely normal when pasted directly into vim on a console, but will give “odd” error messages.

Nice one! I currently have to use Windows with putty as a desktop system for a client. And it’s all very low-tech, so I have to check logs and do config on each node of a cluster separately, rather than using Logstash/Grafana and domain mode.

Pretty neat low-tech hack that MTPutty has: Enter a command that is sent to all open windows. Shouldn’t be needed when things are set up properly most of the time, but I’ll put it out there as a feature suggestion anyway.

I actually just quit caffeine entirely so I could fill up more of the good stuff from the doc before reaching that “jitter” threshold.

Clearly written. When someone tries to explain something to me, it’s always useless. I can follow pretty complex instructions, but they have to start from the start, and they never do.

I feel like I’m good at that, rooting the conversation on a common understanding when I’m doing the explaining, but not sure anyone else needs this.

lol, nice! Well, it is a bit sus, because when something is food, you don’t have to stress so hard that “This is Food! Totally!”. It has a theoretically ideal mix of macro nutrients, like the perfectly healthy meal would, but it’s just a drink (or bar). Is it perfectly healthy? Who knows. But it’s probably better than the average pizza / fast food / fuel station sandwich.

That’s nice, I want to get there! Currently, I’m stuck with engineered staple foods as a fallback. Jimmy Joy, This is Food, etc.

It is a lifesaver, though. Especially before getting treatment, I cancelled wonderful ideas to do outside with the excuse that this would require portable food which would be too hard to make. Now it’s just one grab.

On stims, the hard bars don’t work anymore as my digestion is already way too hard now. But “This is Food” drinks work great when I have 0 appetite but need a whole meal worth of calories. It’s the easiest thing to jug down when you really really don’t want to eat but have to.

As for my other vice, binge eating when the meds wear off: I just prepare some raw carrots, peppers, cucumbers etc. and set them up at the desk. Usually, they disappear into my mouth without putting any thought into it.

Did you get diagnosed recently? It’s now very hard to find a therapist or psychiatrist for treatment with a “Kassensitz”, even when already diagnosed. For diagnostic, it was truly hopeless; however, I should be able to switch to a psychiatrist within 6 months and a therapist within 9 months when I really try. 5 or 10 years ago, it was much easier. With a therapist, people wait many months, and if it turns out to be a bad fit, the wait starts all over.

The many contradicting experiences are just chance, I think. For example for my kid, I did ONE single call and got an appointment for ADHD diagnostic within 4 months. But I am fully aware that this is was very lucky. For his occupational therapy, I did about 10 calls, until I found one who is just opening a new practice, which was also very lucky. Paid 0 out of pocket for very good treatment. If you say it can get better than that, you are lying.

My own experience was the other extreme so far, but you are right that it is absolutely possible to get it paid for on insurance IF already diagnosed.

Nice! My GP listens, takes time and does the extra mile for me. Despite my crappy insurance that pays him very little for it.

But sometimes I blame him for not catching the ADD earlier. He prescribed me benzos as early as 2009 when things were repeatedly getting “too much” in every job or relationship after a couple of months. On the other hand, when he finally did refer me to a psychiatrist, he didn’t catch it either.

It isn’t always instant-relief, but helps a lot in the long run: Have time to think without being blasted by media. A walk, run or biking without music, any workout without music (or video; for me working only in an outside workout park or my home, not a gym with all the noise and people), work in the garden, simple work like painting a wall, again, without music.

Dr. K also strongly advises this, and it works for me, but I understand that understimulation can be hard for some. He says that it also helps with poor dreams and nightmares, as the brain gets a chance to process stuff. If we don’t let it, it gets its chance anyway - at night. And it will take it, leading to poor sleep with additional problems and possibly increased ADHD symptoms the next day.

For me, it actually started working a couple of years ago. E. g. cleaning the apartment feels overwhelming, but when I ask myself “What CAN you do?” - “I can put ONE piece of garbage into the bin.” it works.

But I understand that different things work for different people. For my child, this method does not work as well, for others not at all.

It’s 17% of income, capped at 1.1k, including nursing care insurance. So it sounds like you need to make good money, before you even reach the 1.1k. But the problem is that you can’t write off a lot here. E. g. I pay for my own meds, doctor and therapy entirely out of pocked, since I can’t get appointments in my insurance network, which is an additional 600 per month. And that is not a write-off, so it doesn’t reduce taxes or the 1.1k insurance. Also, you can get unlucky with other things. I have a child, but they said there was a formal error with the city-run daycare receipt, so they counted daycare costs at 0 for calculating taxes.

So what I expect is that they move heaven and hell to make the 40 cent pill for my son available, even on a health ministry level.

I have this trick in meetings when they suddenly go: AddLemmus, what are your thoughts on that?

I just revert my last mental steps before they jumped the shark, and say: “Actually, I was still thinking about [topic 10 minutes ago], which requires more attention. Especially …”

And it works! They think I’m thorough and thoughtful, the one who catches the important details that would have been overlooked otherwise.

Got to make a stash over time. But I get it; it’s not exactly the kind of thing we excel at.

Germany here, and I just learned that for the past month, my kid did actually not do so great at school, after his meds (Medikinet removed) were unavailable and he got a generic one with a completely different extended-release profile. Decided by pharmacist against doctor’s orders. Can’t believe it! Health insurance is EUR/USD 1100 per month here, and you’re not allowed to quit. Least I can expect is that he gets the 40 cents / day meds that help, after waiting a year to get diagnosed and treated!

thanks, sounds like XLPE, then! Big glass pieces were shipped with it.