Can't do it without meds...

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Okay, so try to stay with me. I've been taking ADHD meds for many years (a little longer than a decade). Ever since late childhood (11-ish). And it's helped. With everything - memory, organization, time management, etc. But there's a certain point when you think meds are just a crutch; with enough CBT you should be able to use coping skills and mindfulness to control ADHD. So for the last couple months, I haven't taken meds. At first I thought I was doong great, but now it's apparent that things are getting out of hand. Tasks like pay bills that arrive for me don't get paid - they get a pile all to themselves. And sometimes I forget important appointments, even though I write them down in plain sight. And lots more stuff that I don't have the patience to post, but I think you guys get the idea. I just feel... defective. Incapable. Angry. Ashamed that at my age, I still need meds (when others with ADHD I know are medication-free and seem to be doing well enough). That I'm too slow. Anyone on WP ever been in this situation, or a similar one? How did you handle these feelings?

Everything is so hectic and overwhelming without meds. I'm amazed I've managed to keep my head above water for the past couple months without resorting to things like alcohol.

Well I am typically a regular cannabis user.....but as of late supply is low to non-existant and if anything I have noticed my symptoms are all way more apparent, so I am still of the belief cannabis calms my symptoms. I have a credit card so I was able to get alcohol but I obviously have to pay the bill that created with money I don't have yet and am not even entirely sure I can get. Drinking more as an alternative just makes me feel like crap except for the period of time in which I am drunk.

I have a prescription a doctor gave me for anxiety, but its an anti-histamine so it has disassociative effects...the sedative effects do not make up for the unpleasantness of that particular effect. Even so I might have to take some if I want to sleep tonight. So yeah in a sense I can kind understand what you mean.......but my situation is different then someone on ADHD meds they've had prescribed going without them, just similar in that without a drug to calm my symptoms it seems hopeless it seems, if I don't have cannabis I am much more willing to use worse things more often.

I'm on a bunch of meds myself. Lessee..... there's Wellbutrin, which does.... something, Lamictal, which does..... something else (as you can tell, I know a great deal about this sort of thing), Allegra to control my allergies, Cyclobenzaprine to control my pain level (back and neck problems), and Tramadol to further control the pain when the Cyclo isnt enough. The Cyclobenzaprine also had the side effect of getting rid of my insomnia.

It's a total pain to take the blasted things all the time, but.... I dont really see it as a BAD thing. I'm a practical person, and I dont like allowing problems to drag out; the meds either remove or control various problems, so I dont see any issue with them beyond the annoying bit of remembering to take them.


If they help you, and your doctor thinks it's a good idea, you should continue to take them. It's not like it says anything bad about you as a person. LOTS of people take meds constantly for all sorts of reasons.

I don't really care for the anti-depressant/psychotic (Risperdal) I take, but what's worse - that, or jumping off a bridge?

Thanks for the replies. I think I might take them again. Got important things to do, and I'd rather not f**k up.

Please don't be ashamed of needing meds. Just like you wouldn't be ashamed of using a hammer to pound in a nail or using a car to travel five hundred kilometers, you shouldn't be ashamed of using medication to nudge your ADHD-related brain glitches back into place. We humans are tool-users. Medication is a tool like any other. If you need it, you need it. Not only does it make it easier to stay organized, it also makes it easier to learn more about staying organized. Maybe in the future you'll be able to reduce your dose; but for now, there are worse things than swallowing a few pills, and I'd bet that you prefer that to the chaos you fall into without them.

Callista speaks good words.

I take olanzapine and amisulpride for schizophrenia and sometimes I wish I could stop my meds (either due to side-effects or fed up with taking them), but from past experience of ending up being forced into hospital by the police against my will when I've been very ill and not helped by meds, I will never stop my meds.