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129 points surprisetalk | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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alterom ◴[] No.45958585[source]
This article (and the title alone) is harmful. Adderall is not about increasing mental efficiency.

What Adderall is about is:

- helping with executive dysfunction for people who suffer from it.

- allowing people with ADHD like me to function. To do the things that everyone else does, things that we want to do and need to do, but can't do because of the way our brains are wired.

- increasing the lifespan of ADHD people who don't get help. Women with ADHD die about 9 years younger than those without ADHD [1].

- making our lives less painful, since every small task incurs pain, resulting in 3x depression rates [2] and alarmingly high suicidal ideation rates (50% of ADHD adults [3]).

Please, please, educate yourself about ADHD and medication for it before writing something like this title.

No, Aldous Huxley didn't. "predict" Adderall.

To understand more, I've put together a resource which, I hope, will be easy enough to digest. Here's my experience of getting prescribed Adderall for my ADHD:

https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Medication

If I have attention deficit and I could write it, I hope you (and the author of the text we're discussing) could spare some attention to it before talking about Adderall, amphetamines, and other stimulants prescribed for ADHD.

Thank you in advance.

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/23/nx...

[2] https://add.org/adhd-and-depression/

[3] https://crownviewpsych.com/blog/adhd-increased-risk-suicide-...

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itishappy ◴[] No.45960113[source]
The title is perhaps a bit unfortunate. I don't believe this is specifically about ADHD. Adderall is a stimulant with the effects Huxley predicted. It also happens to treat ADHD. I believe it's being used here in the former capacity.
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latentsea ◴[] No.45961138[source]
The thing is, when you have ADHD and you take stimulants you don't feel any sort of high or however it makes people with normally functioning dopamine receptors feel, you just feel normal.
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1. standardly ◴[] No.45970768[source]
Is this confirmed? Source? I've always heard this, anecdotally, but I'm skeptical of the claim. I have every ADHD symptom, and have received 3 seperate diagnoses for it.. But Aderrall straight up felt like a drug - I could literally feel the dopamine release from just doing mundane things. Is the implication that I just didn't have ADHD?
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2. alterom ◴[] No.45972287[source]
"Dopamine release from just doing mundane things" is absolutely normal, more so after a lifetime of not being able to simply Do The Thing™.

One is supposed to feel good doing "normal" things. Completing tasks should feel good.

There can be many variables at play: maybe your dosage could be lowered, maybe Adderall isn't ideal for you, or maybe you're simply adjusting to the medication the first few times you take it, and it won't feel the way afterwards.

But most importantly: yes, you're absolutely going to feel like you've got a superpower the first time you take it. The euphoria you feel from being able to simply do things the way neurotypical people can just get up and do them is very much a part of the ADHD experience.

Also, neurotypical people don't do mundane things on Adderall. That's not what makes them feel particularly good. Because for them, doing things without friction and climbing the mental wall first is the normal experience.

They don't feel happiness experiencing it for the first time in their lives when they take Adderall. They've had that ability all along.

TL; DR: you feel that dopamine release from doing mundane things on Adderall because you have ADHD.

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3. standardly ◴[] No.45984054[source]
Yes, that actually makes perfect sense :) I suppose it was just a bit stronger than I imagined. I know that chemically, it's analogous, but it felt like MDMA.