Tl;dr: Awesome
Was officially diagnosed and put on medication (MPH/Medikinet) 5 weeks ago. I work far from where I live, so I got my own one-room apartment with a cat near my workplace and at the weekends I commute home to my wife and our shared apartment. I take my meds in the morning and they last for 7 hours. So, when the meds have an effect, I’m always at my workplace, but when I come back home to my working apartment in the evening, the effect is gone and I’m unmotivated again. Or it’s the weekends and I’m at my “real” home with my wife, doing all sorts of activities.
This means, everytime I was at my “work” apartment, I was unmotivated to do anything. The apartment looked just like you would expect it after 1.5 years.
Today is my first day at my work apartment with the meds working, and suddenly, I’m cleaning like a single guy expecting to get laid. No forcing necessary, no motivating tricks. I see something I don’t like and I do it. I can prioritize and focus and it requires no effort.
Medication really turns your life around when it works. And neurotypicals will never experience how much they play on easy mode.
I used to be like this. Also, I was able to do things when the pressure got really high (like timelines or stuff). But usually, everytime I wanted to do anyhting, everytime I thought “I should do this”, I immediatly felt this strong reaction, a feeling of “no energy”, like my body telling my to conserve my energy and better not do anything.
Frankly, I cannot see how I could get addicted to those meds. This is definitely not comparable to any drug I used (I took a lot, but don’t tell my employer!). I’m still my normal self, my senses, my way of looking at the world are still the same. I simply can do things, the thought of “I want to do this” is not followed by anything. I want to do something and I just do it.
I wrote something about my side effects here: https://feddit.de/comment/2943749 For me, they are very manageable and do not really impact me.
As for dependency - well, my life is simply better with the meds. If I want to be productive and live a happy life, I simply will require medication. That’s how it is, and I have come to terms with it. The increase in quality of life is absolutely worth it.