You could draw a parallel with GLP-1 agonists: people like to grandstand about how you shouldn't need it and how it's somehow cheating. As if it's not addressing a condition that people are suffering from right now, today.

The stigma also seems to accidentally admit that things like executive function and food noise aren't equally distributed, thus some people could benefit from intervention.

For example, if you've never been fat or you never binge eat or you've never procrastinated 15min of homework until 2am despite, then you're missing the irony when your solution for people who deal with these things is to try harder and to jump through hoops that you don't need to.

Behavioral therapy is only needed to make people feel better about taking amphetamines. It takes only a very cursory review of published reputable papers to realize there's nothing behavioral therapy can do to improve ADHD because as Russell Barkley says ADHD is a disability of doing, not knowing what to do.

Therapy, and most of all, understanding how our brains work make all the difference in the world.

It's like realizing that the reason you've been getting stuck in the mud is not that you're a bad driver.

It's just that people who don't are driving 4x4 trucks, and you've had a Nissan Z series sports car.

Turns out, farms and off-road are simply not the right environment for your vehicle, and when that environment has some accomodations, like the paved surface of a highway or a race track, you're literally running circles around people in the most common vehicles.

One profound effect of taking Adderall was feeling the clarity to understand that difference, and seeing the road instead of the endless mud fields in front of me.

It does help to get things done, but around 30% of ADHD'ers aren't responsive to it.

Understanding that you're getting stuck because your brain wasn't meant for that kind of driving, however, is universally useful.

That's why I made that ADHD wiki [1], and keep posting links to it.

It's an compilation of information that has helped me tremendously to understand the above; and I know this resource was helpful to others too in their journeys.

My perspective is that of a late-diagnosed adult who's been completely unaware of what ADHD is, and thought that they can't possibly have an attention deficit because to get anything done, they have to hyperfocus on it.

Again, learning that hyperfocus is a symptom of ADHD and understanding how it works)l had a profound impact. And medication helped with that too: it's easier to not get stuck hyperfocused on the wrong thing with Adderall.

Getting Adderall was like spraying WD-40 into rusty steering components. The immediate effect is that I can go where I want to go to, not the random direction my vehicle happens to face.

The long-term effect though was understanding what makes it difficult to steer, and how to maintain it better.

And even if I don't have power steering all the time like everyone else, I'm still better off with that experience.

My point here that it's never about medication VERSUS therapy and knowledge.

Medication is not an alternative, it's a BOOSTER.

When it works, it's just dropping the difficulty from Nightmare to Medium/Hard. It doesn't play the game for you.

The said, I'm very much happy the Nightmare mode days are behind me, and I'm very sad that the only reason I've been living my life that way is stigma and lack of information.

When I took Adderall, I unexpectedly had to grieve the future I'll never get to have after being held back by all the pain I've been needlessly subjected to over the preceding three decades.

That grief, too, is a common experience in ADHD late-diagnosed adults.

Thank you for sharing that link, and contributing to the discussion and awareness <3

[1] https://romankogan.net/adhd

I could second every word of what you just said (as you already know after reading that page, of course).

Just wanted to reiterate it for anyone who's reading this thread.

I read your piece. Your title is clickbait, and you know it.

>The author of this piece—which I am—is reporting on Huxley’s MIT talk.

Thank you for joining this discussion.

> You are welcome to either actually read my piece

That's condescending; I have read your piece, and am responding directly to it.

Consider avoiding using this tone.

>He [Huxley] predicted a drug [Adderall] that improves mental efficiency/focus

Thank you for re-iterating the erroneous point in your article that I'm calling out and objecting to.

As an ADHD person and communicator who's being prescribed this drug, I want to bring your attention to a very simple fact:

Adderall is NOT a drug that "improves mental efficiency".

That's not what it does, and that's not what it's for. ADHD folks aren't being prescribed it because we are mentally deficient.

And it's not helping us with focus either. It's helping us overcome Executive Dysfunction.

We can focus harder than people without ADHD as it is; see:

https://romankogan.net/adhd#Hyperfocus

Adderall doesn't make us focus more, it helps us direct our focus to the right thing.

> There is no judgment against the substance

There is misinformation that contributes to the judgement being formed, as well as a false dichotomy with "non-pharmacological" approaches being an alternative.

I hope you could understand the objection someone can raise to the discussion of "non-pharmacological" ALTERNATIVES to painkillers, antihistamines, or antibiotics, or chemotherapy.

The point isn't that non-pharmacological approaches (or meds) are bad, it's that the discussion should be about how these approaches should be used IN CONCERT (WHEN the meds help).

>but a call for additional approaches to enhance a person.

For God's sake, please read the link I've shared about Adderall specifically:

https://romankogan.net/adhd#Medication

Adderall is not a drug that "enhances a person".

People when ADHD aren't in need of "enhancement".

On that note: to really understand what Adderall is (and what my objection is about), you need to understand what it's for.

I've put together a resource specifically to help people understand that:

https://romankogan.net/adhd

I hope that you will take advantage of it. It's about 100 pages when printed out, so I would suggest you start with the links on Hyperfocus and Medication, and come back here to reflect.

Looking forward to hearing from you what you've learned about Adderall and ADHD after reading the comments in this discusson as well as the links.

Thank you <3

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.

>Adderall is a stimulant with the effects Huxley predicted.

That's exactly my point: it is NOT.

Not for the people Adderall is prescribed to and was developed for.

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

>I don't believe this is specifically about ADHD.

There's nothing to believe in here.

Adderall is a drug that's specifically about ADHD. It's a stimulant that helps people with ADHD overcome executive dysfunction:

https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Executive%20Dysfunction

You can't talk about Adderall without talking about ADHD just like you can't talk about allergy pills without talking about allergies, or talk about eyeglasses without talking about myopia.

> It also happens to treat ADHD

NO. Please reconsider sharing this sentiment.

Adderall is a drug for treating ADHD that also happens to be abused by people thinking it'll have the "effects Huxley predicted" (enhancing thinking efficiency).

It does not; that's the reason why it's a controlled substance. When abused, it will wreck your brain.

As an analogy: glasses make people with myopia see better, but wearing glasses without prescription is a very bad idea.

>I believe it's being used here in the former capacity.

I understand this, and it's a misconception I'm trying to dispel.

With evidence and scientific understanding, mind you, and not just with vibes about thinking what Adderall is.

Speaking of which, I forgot to take it, which means I'm about to have my breakfast at 5PM because I couldn't bring myself to do the eating task earlier.

This is what Adderall is for.

>The title is perhaps a bit unfortunate.

The title is repeated verbatim in the article, whose author has kindly replied in this thread and re-stated it twice (as did you), as if I weren't directly addressing the fallacious point that the author employed to attract attention to Huxley's lecture (which doesn't need such advertising in the first place).

It's not the title that's a bit unfortunate.

It's the mention of Adderall, and the myth that it's a "brain-enhancing" drug.

If it were, it'd be given to everyone already, and perhaps there'd be fewer people spreading vibe-based falsities in post titles, but I digress.

The point is:

==============

Adderall does NOT enhance mental efficiency, as Huxley's fantasized drug would.

Adderall HELPS people with ADHD overcome EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION.

That's what it's for. That's what it DOES.

If you take it for ANYTHING ELSE, you will NOT get the intended result, and you will likely FUCK YOURSELF UP.

Spreading the MISCONCEPTION that Adderall is a "brain-enhancing” drug (as the author opined in the comments here) drives the ABUSE of this medication, which HARMS people and makes ADHD harder to obtain for people who NEED it to function.

========

I hope I've succeeded in bringing your attention to this issue.

If this hasn't changed your point of view, please let me know what else I can elaborate on.

Thank you <3

Thanks for writing this comment and raising awareness!

Rejection sensitivity is neurodivergent trait that's not exclusive to ADHD, but the way it manifests with ADHD can be truly life-derailing.

Learning about it helped me a lot to deal with it (in particular, externalizing that emotion as a trait and not what me is).

I wrote about it too in that wiki. Here's my experience with rejection sensitivity in the ADHD context:

https://romankogan.net/adhd/#Rejection%20Sensitivity

I'd argue that it is nonsense to treat symptoms instead of the cause (of an issue) , but actually doing just that is quite intellectual when a bunch of money stands to be made