Blog Post #3: Do I take Stimulants/ADHD medications?

~ T

Read time: 2 minutes

TLDR:

  • I don’t take ADHD medications because when they wear off, I tend to feel very anxious
  • Daily habits decrease ADHD symptoms: early sleep, breaks, meditation and healthy eating

Do I take ADHD Medications?

The short answer is no I don’t. Why? It isn’t because I don’t think they work or they’re harmful. They’re actually great medications, but it just didn’t work for my brain.

What do ADHD medications do to the brain?

As a quick aside, I am a pharmacist, but I like to keep things simple so let’s think of a beehive. The bees are the thoughts and the hive controls how many thoughts come out at once. Average person has a few bees outside buzzing around. For us, there may be many many more bees buzzing around the hive looking for attention.

When we have ADHD medication, it’s like the entrance in and out of the hive has gotten smaller. Only one bee can fit out at once. One bee we can deal with. Capture it, let it fly away, let it…be.

Okay jokes aside. After the ADHD medications wear off, the opening of the hive gets bigger again and more bees can fly around. For me though, after the medication wears off, it’s like someone smashed the hive.

I get bees flying everywhere and they’re angry. Too many bees flying around make me feel anxious so thus, I don’t use medication. This also applies to coffee and tea. No caffeine for me. So sad though…I love the taste of green tea. (Even decaf can affect me at times…). Sometimes I take a sip to savour the flavour, but that’s it.

Now warranted this was a time when I had just received my ADHD diagnosis at 27 and I was going through a very stressful program so anxiety was already high. Perhaps in the future I’ll try them again, but for now, my daily habits do nicely :).

What are my daily habits which help ADHD?

Below are the ones which I find are MOST helpful to me

  • Healthy eating – lots of fruit and vegetables, water over coffee/tea/juice, low amounts of preserved, take out foods which are high in cheaper oils and salt
  • Daily meditation – in the morning and throughout the day if needed
  • Regular breaks while working – it’s hard to sustain concentration >30 minutes. I’d recommend a visual timer set to 25 minute intervals with 5 minute breaks
  • Sleep – early is better for me. Even if my brain is busy, laying down will rest the body and focusing on my breath will calm down the mind

Wishing you well,
Tracy

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