The Good, Bad and Ugly of ADHD Medication

does my adhd medication stop my creativity um i don't think so actually i think in fact the opposite might be true i think i might be a little bit too dependent on my adhd medication to fuel my creativity i'll explain [Music] i've always considered myself to be a creative person um and when i found out i had adhd i kind of attributed the creative part of myself to adhd and i also attributed my inability to be able to focus throughout the day also to my adhd and those two things combined are not great how can i be creative if i can't sit down and focus and create and so i felt like all the times that i had been creative in the past was kind of like catching lightning in a bottle it didn't happen super often but when it did i was able to hyper focus be really creative with it and get done whatever i had set out to do and so before getting medicated i kind of thought that medication would at least solve my focusing problem but i was kind of worried that it would just turn me into a robot of sorts if i didn't know better i'd say he was a robot because one of the great things about adhd is your thoughts are going so many different places all the time and you have so many of them and so like i said i attributed my adhd with all of that scatterness and all of those great ideas coming every once in a while i thought that if i were to take a medication that just made me focus that all those ideas wouldn't be coming the same way i thought that it would limit me so i've been on adderall for a little over two months now and i can definitely say it doesn't stop my creativity if anything it helps those lightning in a bottle moments happen more regularly if i were to sum up what medication personally does for me it puts my chaotic mind into one room so i can just sit down and focus i've heard people say it doesn't give a motivation i've heard other people say it might help a little bit here and there for some reason i feel like i am a little more motivated when i'm on adderall um maybe because it's just giving me room to be able to focus on something and so so i get that rewarding experience of sitting down and actually doing what i've been telling myself i'm gonna do so it creates momentum in that way but overall it just helps me knock one thing off the list at a time and so there's been a lot of times within the last two months that some of my best ideas for videos and for other projects happen when i'm not on adderall when my mind is just wandering and i'm thinking about things around me or what's going on in my life and i make sure to write those thoughts down and i make sure to put those things on paper so when i am on adderall i can sit down and actually get to work on those things and that's not to say that those same experiences don't happen when i am on adderall because when i am in my office sitting down to work on a project i do feel this surge of energy to be able to expound on whatever my idea is because my mind isn't going so many different places i can be more creative with one specific idea instead of when i'm off adderall i can still be creative but a lot of times i'll have an idea but i'm not really able to go too deep into it because another idea will come and then i get excited about another thing and another thing and another thing it helps me in the best creative way possible for when i do have a good idea i can actually put work into it the only problem with everything that i just said is that it's a lie i'm just kidding but it's not all peaches and cream i definitely have some problems with the medication and the effects that it has on me [Music] am i significantly more productive now that i'm on medication yes is that how it is every day no do i feel anxious at the end of the day when the medication wears off no yes maybe that's a hard one to answer to be honest the main thing that i've noticed with my medication specifically adderall is at the end of the day a lot of the times i feel this weird layer of anxiety and a lot of times when i'm anxious it's because i'm thinking about a certain thing or i'm stressed about something coming up or any of those kind of things but with this case i could be thinking about nothing and just still have that layer of anxiety and to be honest it really sucks and it's uncomfortable especially after having a day where i feel like i'm getting so much done and i feel like i'm on such a high the way that adderall works is it delivers more dopamine to the brain because with people who have adhd we kind of get stuck in the middle when the dopamine is coming it moves to us a lot slower it helps speed up the process of that and creates more dopamine for us so we can feel excited about ordinary things the way that most people will do and that's how we're able to focus but when that dopamine wears off and you go back to normal it's kind of like dropping off of a cliff a little bit where you kind of have a dip of feeling a little anxious or feeling depressed a little bit and so knowing this i've been trying to find different ways to combat that so i don't just finish my workday sit on the couch and feel miserable so a couple of the things that i've been trying out is playing tennis walking around outside working out and i would say the most effective one for me uh is being around people and i don't fully really know why that is but for me i've noticed if i put myself in situations where i'm not thinking about the way i'm feeling i know that sounds kind of weird but if i'm not thinking about the way i'm feeling it doesn't feel like there's anything wrong at all [Music] and that kind of leads me to the lit and i it i was gonna all get that in one take and that leads me to the main question that i think a lot of people have and is it is adhd medication worth taking and to try and be as honest as i can i really don't think there is a right answer for that um because my experience has been different from other people that i've talked to that are on medication as well i've tried two different kinds of adderall so far i might have the wrong terms here but one of them is a long lasting one and what that does is it's one pill that you take in the beginning of the day and it kind of drags out the effects of adderall throughout the rest of the day and the other type i think is called a quick release one and it has more of an immediate effect on your body the drop off of it also happens a lot more suddenly too and so the idea with those ones is if you are taking it at the beginning of the day you'll most likely take it again once or twice depending on how long you need it for but yeah i think i'm kind of in between um trying to figure out which one works best on my body and trying to figure out how many milligrams are right for me and then also what kind of medication has the least amount of side effects but obviously the real question with that is do the positives outweigh the negatives for me personally yes they do outweigh the negatives a because the anxiety is something that i'm trying to learn how to get better and better how to cope with it at the end of the day and different ways to make it feel less strong but to go back to i would just say that overall i just really enjoy being productive i like walking to my office knowing exactly what i'm gonna get done and doing it and i know i've said that a million times i've said that in past videos but if i'm gonna continue to go forward with the same kind of confidence and if i'm going to be able to deliver on the same kind of promises to myself and to clients medication is kind of a necessary thing for me right now now i don't want to play light on the negative effects that medication really does have as i've been more open about me using adderall and being on adhd medication i've had a lot of people reach out to me sharing their experiences and a lot of them have been really negative and a lot of them adderall or whatever medication they're on isn't the best choice for them and then also if i'm being completely honest in those experiences when i am feeling anxious at the end of the day after it's been a long day and it's getting dark outside i have nothing left to do i have this layer of anxiety it's really hard to feel happy and it's really hard to feel optimistic about oh my pizza rolls are done hey google stop okay sorry i know this has nothing to do with anything i'm talking about but look how good these turned out isn't that great okay okay okay okay it legitimately can be pretty depressing sometimes and feeling like it's hard to connect with my wife mia too which really sucks because at the end of the day you want to be able to relax and be with the people that you love and feel like you can leave your work day behind and so i mentioned all those things because i really am just trying to be as honest as i can for people who are looking to get medicated for their adhd just so you can see the full picture of it and who knows my hope for it is the longer that i'm on it hopefully those side effects will lessen or i'll continue to find better ways to approach the effects that it has on me and if that's my experience then then i will again continue to share that as i continue to learn and figure this thing out overall i hope this answers any questions that you might have about it especially if you're sitting on the fence of getting medicated or you're wondering what other people's experiences are like before you try it out um yeah i hope this is helpful it's definitely worth looking into if you're thinking about it um do a little bit of research with it if you can try it out see what your experience is see what flavors you like so i hope you guys enjoyed the video i hope it was helpful and i'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: Ty Pierson

Views: 105,249

Keywords: medication, ADHD, Happiness, joy, vlog, adderal

Id: h5ZB367o9dA

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021