My struggle with ADHD (exhaustion, mental health and much more) + how meds have helped me

Rare serious post: For everyone who WANTS SO BAD to make their dreams happen but just cannot physically make themselves do the work, this is for you.

If you feel alone - If you feel like no matter what you do it doesn’t work.

If you know what to do (hell knows I’ve told you exactly what to do hundreds of times at this point!) but you CAN’T MAKE YOURSELF DO THE THING…

This article is for you.

It’s a rare serious article!

Please read carefully and let me know if you recognise similar symptoms in yourself.

Not using ChatGPT aside (which I’ll get to later), I think undiagnosed ADHD might be THE reason most of us aren’t hitting our goals, even though we are very motivated to do it/make sacrifices etc.

I could talk a lot about ADHD, and my experience with it, but the long and short of it is: The meds have changed my life.

So without further ado, here is my experiences with ADHD meds:

Before Ritalin/Vivanse, I would:

• Sleep in late

• Browse on phone for around 30-60 mins in bed while waking up

• Slow to get started

• Need to take nap, sometimes just 2 hours after sleeping 8 hours

• Browse on phone for ANOTHER 30-60 mins in bed while waking up from nap

• Browse web pointlessly

• Run out of energy quickly

• Lose focus

• Browse social media lots

• Feeling negative and a little anxious about what I'm working on

  …All of the above led to unnecessary procrastination, logging off from work around 10.30pm, staying up very late for no reason, generally not feeling “happy”

  …So how did I achieve so much? Simple: I sacrified the rest of my life: no friends, not really dating, spending every minute on work.
  

  I may have been working at say 50% of my capacity, but by doing it 12-16 hours a day (for 8+ years) I did well.

  It’s not much of a life I was living though.

  In summer 2021 I saught out professional help.
  
  I’ll get into that process in another post, but here’s the BIG AMAZING CHANGE that happened.

After taking Concerta (and later/now) Vivanse:

• Wake up earlier (need less sleep, 7 hours is fine, was doing 9-10 before

• Get out of bed quicker

• Get to work quicker

• Work longer without break (8+ hours in a row many days!)

• More courage to do big things & take risks/Do things I'm scared of

• ZERO naps in daytime for the first year of taking meds (I napped every day for YEARS before these adhd meds)

• Work longer into the evening (often all the way to bedtime, though I add a 30 minute cooldown most days)

• Go to bed earlier easier - don't feel the "need" to stay up late (My theory is staying up late is a symptom of depression)

• Also...lost 6kg in 6 months on first 6 months of Ritalin...I wasn’t chubby, but it helped give me energy to work out/standing desk which gave me a sic pack and better cheekbones (you don’t overeat o ADHD meds- overeating is a symptom of stress- I have WAY LESS stress on meds)

• Note: No effect on sleep, but again one of the main issues with ADHD is it causes chronic fatigue. Also with a higher spirit there are cascading effects: I have energy to be at my standing desk all day.

• I prefer to GRIND when I take meds but if I wanted to work out lots I'd have hella energy.

• Also going out (socially) on Vivanse you are very very happy, social, and attract people like a magnet, it's pretty insane.

Side effects: (none on Ritalin, though I wasn't on highest dose)

• On vivanse, Armpits sweat (you *will* need a shower before you go out

• I already grinded my jaw in my sleep pre-meds, but this continued

• You’ll build tolerance so having a day off them every week is good to keep that to a minimum - You’ll know tolerance is building when your old symptoms come back (see below)

Other tactics: Ritalin failed as my tolerance kept building.

I tried to get around this by having "off" days where I didn't take it - If you have an off day (or 2 days!) then take adhd meds they hit HARD and u can do SO MUCH WORK.

Problem being on the "off days" I couldn't get much done, and I built a tolerance.

I'm on the highest dose of Vivanse now (70mg) which used to be able to do me for around 12 hours constant work, easy. A little less recently, but had a lot of work stuff on, pretty frantic.

Potential dangers: There are many, many horror stories about (bestselling adhd medication) Adderall.

There are very few credible common horror stories that I could find for both Ritalin and Vyvanse.

Adderall is literally methampethamine salts (speed).

Vivanse and Ritalin (and many others) have a few molecules different which make a big difference.

Other disclaimers:

I have little side effects partly as my baseline is pretty healthy, no drugs/alcohol for many years, in shape, healthy diet, good sleep etc.

All of my issues appear to be tied up in ADHD.

The above I wrote as I know people will comment:

• “You just need to sleep more”

• “You just need to exercise more”

A strong point is “You’re just exhausted as you work so much- without that you’d have less symptoms” true, when I watch TV all day, I get far less symptoms, but I have big dreams.

I’d rather push myself now and relax long. (Hence my plan to retire in one year using ChatGPT - more on that later in this article)

As for exercise…

I ran 4km every other day to see if exercise would help before I tried meds - nope - still needed a nap when I got in and had issues focusing/getting everything done 🤦🏻‍♂️. 

A crazy thing about chronic fatigue is exercise does not make it better, it can make u feel *worse*.

Likewise rest does not help.

If sleep restored me I would have no problems as I slept so much.

If I take Vyvanse a few days in a row I can get 7 hours sleep and be energised as hell.

After a few days off Vivanse I sleep 12 hours and am very slow getting deep work done.

I recognise the dangers of flippantly recommending psych meds, but I can barely think of anything I've ever done that has the effect of being diagnosed with ADHD and trying these.

It fixed more things than I thought was possible.

Lame disclaimer: Do your own research! But yah, I stan adhd meds!

If you have any questions about how to get diagnosed and prescribed ADHD meds in UK or USA, comment or reply to this email.

Now, to tie this all into something that you can execute on right away.

If ADHD meds made you successful, everyone who took them would get everything they wanted to get done.

Firstly, Adderall IS powering America - students, silicon valley engineers who build the apps on your phone, celebrities - the people we look up to most, are on it (or Vyvanse or Ritalin), and they are winning (Source: Speaking to the most successful people I know, and these people revealing it themselves)

That aside

*IT WON’T MATTER HOW PRODUCTIVE YOU ARE IF YOU’RE WORKING ON THE WRONG THING, OR IF YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO FINISH IT*

Hence, the “secret”, if there is one, is to be productive (which ADHD meds may help with), plus using ChatGPT to do the work and help you get clients.

When people have said to me “Your ChatGPT mastermind sounds good, but there are a lot of courses I can buy to learn how to use it”

They’re not wrong

BUT

The key with my course?

It’s a live course, personally run by me.

The content is tailored to the people in the group (small group, less than 20 people)

I’m around if you need questions.

I’m around to guide you on WHAT TO ASK CHATGPT so you get useful results.

You’ve probably been reading this Substack a while, or following me a while.

This might be my last ever Mastermind.

Three months that could change everything for you.

If you want the last place, the first mastermind session is this Thursday.

A quick summary of my mastermind (best for mobile): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WyKVW5_SJSB9SFAQGmOGy9KTs2FJcFaO/view?usp=sharing

Here’s the in-depth version (recommended) (open on desktop): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IC_p-aOrww4LKAdcxLI1yMO8rkzC_A9k/view?usp=sharing

If it looks good and you want me to mentor you, sign up to guarantee your place!

If you have any questions on ADHD also, reply to this email or comment below.

Thank you for reading!

Hope to see one of you on the Mastermind!

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