A Discussion on ADHD and Cannabis

[AJS]

I was formally diagnosed back in may at the age of 30

How does it feel being diagnosed, much of a difference for you?

I find that getting high actually makes my symptoms worse and kinda neutralizes the meds affects to a degree

Specifically since getting started on Vyvanse?, or you're realizing the entire time it was making it worse?

Curious if it's now the excess dopamine causing worsening symptoms.

 

[Sour Dream]

How does it feel being diagnosed, much of a difference for you?


Specifically since getting started on Vyvanse?, or you're realizing the entire time it was making it worse?

Curious if it's now the excess dopamine causing worsening symptoms.

I’ve noticed it way before when I was still getting high earlier in the day on work days but it became super obvious on the meds cuz they make that much of a difference.


Outside of the meds being diagnosed gives you a sense of relief to know what’s going on finally for sure but mourning once you realize if this happened much earlier so much could have been different

 

[XpeeN]

Diagnosed without meds. I feel like sativa's helping with my sympthoms. It helps me with motivation, thinking, and generally feeling a bit more normal I guess ^^

 

[Marcus]

Do the meds really help some of you folks?

I was diagnosed 4 years ago at 46. I had been on a waiting list to see a specialist for 18 months, that came and passed and I was told there was an additional 12 month wait when I called to see how I was progressing along the queue.
In the meantime, I moved from England to Wales so told the new doctor about my situation and I was told I'd have to go through the whole diagnosis process again! ... Erm, no thanks.

I'm pondering going to a private cannabis clinic as some of those can diagnose ADHD too (in one appointment).

 

[Sour Dream]

Do the meds really help some of you folks?

I was diagnosed 4 years ago at 46. I had been on a waiting list to see a specialist for 18 months, that came and passed and I was told there was an additional 12 month wait when I called to see how I was progressing along the queue.
In the meantime, I moved from England to Wales so told the new doctor about my situation and I was told I'd have to go through the whole diagnosis process again! ... Erm, no thanks.

I'm pondering going to a private cannabis clinic as some of those can diagnose ADHD too (in one appointment).

Yea I’ve been on Vyvanse and once you find the right dose it’s a massive game changer imo and it has less side effects, lasts 10-12 hours

 

[scoobindedoob]

Modern day hemp farmers have been producing THCv, CBG and CBDv dominate strains that are worth looking into.

Any recommendations?

 

[Grass Yes]

Any recommendations?

There are a few threads around the site with recommendations. This is a popular one:

Mail Order CBD

I ordered some hemp CBD flower from a Cali seller Troy was pimping and I'm wondering if it'd make sense to start a thread to share our experiences and recommendations. My order hasn't shipped yet. This is just a new thing and I figured we could navigate it together. I'm definitely looking...

fuckcombustion.com

 

[AJS]

Something interesting I experience every day.

Whenever I'm doing a task, especially something that I think I'm good at or knowledgeable about, there is constantly a voice in my head questioning everything I'm doing, and I have to explain to it the entire time why I'm correct. It's a constant argument of someone who is skeptical, and me having to convince them.

At first this voice was someone that I knew, and felt like I was constantly having to argue with them in my head about everything I was doing.

I realized this person no longer questioned how I did things as they used to, and it felt unfair that I was still depicting them as that argumentative person. I managed to eliminate their voice over the years by constantly reminding myself they aren't like that.

While I managed to remove their voice, I still had the questions in my head, and it made me realize it's most likely a trauma response to doing things differently my entire life and constantly being critiqued and told to do it their way. I just originally gave it the voice of someone I knew, but it's the voice of everyone.

Did you know that according to psychiatrist William Dodson, by age 12, children with ADHD receive 20,000 more negative messages from adults and friends than those who don't have ADHD.

I'm trying to recognize the questions as soon as they come in and shut them down without having to explain myself.
I'm slowly getting there. I don't doubt myself, but I still hear the doubts of others.

Let kids be themselves and figure out the world their way.

 

[Cheesequake]

According to the man who "created" ADHD said it is a fictitious disease. Created to make the medical industry billions of dollars by selling children pharmaceutical meth.



Not a fan of snopes, but if there was any way at all they could say this was false they would have, yet they have the claim listed as mostly true while trying to say it isn't.

Dr. Leon Eisenberg: ADHD Is a 'Fictitious Disease'?

Rumor: Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the 'father' of ADHD, said just before his death that ADHD 'is a prime example of a fictitious disease.'

www.snopes.com

 

[AJS]

if there was any way at all they could say this was false they would have

The claim is "did he say this".
The claim isn't if ADHD is real.


You can call it whatever you want, and you can say it was popularized for whatever reason you want. You can say the diagnosis criteria was too lenient.
This was also in the 60s, and the diagnosis criteria for every illness listed is constantly reevaluated and changed. His words are no longer applicable.

At the end of the day, dopamine deficiencies and reward center issues are very easily seen in the brain, and are replicated repeatedly.

Science isn't fictitious. Readable bran scans are not fictitious.

Don't appreciate the gaslighting. Kinda fucked up to just say
"yikes, looks like it's true boys".

Not sure if I somehow misread your intent, but seems if you applied a little bit of critical thinking, you could have figured this one out yourself.

What were you trying to achieve by discrediting the many people on this thread, and the thousands upon thousands of people outside of it?

ADHD would be fictitious .. if the world revolved around us instead of us around the world.
ADHD in an ADHD world would be the norm.

 

[Cheesequake]

The claim is "did he say this".
The claim isn't if ADHD is real.


You can call it whatever you want, and you can say it was popularized for whatever reason you want. You can say the diagnosis criteria was too lenient.
This was also in the 60s, and the diagnosis criteria for every illness listed is constantly reevaluated and changed. His words are no longer applicable.

At the end of the day, dopamine deficiencies and reward center issues are very easily seen in the brain, and are replicated repeatedly.

Science isn't fictitious. Readable bran scans are not fictitious.

Don't appreciate the gaslighting. Kinda fucked up to just say
"yikes, looks like it's true boys".

Not sure if I somehow misread your intent, but seems if you applied a little bit of critical thinking, you could have figured this one out yourself.

What were you trying to achieve by discrediting the many people on this thread, and the thousands upon thousands of people outside of it?

Just found it interesting that the man who literally came up with the idea of ADHD said it's fake. Read into it all you want and put whatever words you want to in my mouth. Fine by me . The medical industry definitely wouldn't lie and they FOR SURE have your best interest in mind! Carry on!

 

[AJS]

Just found it interesting that the man who literally came up with the idea of ADHD said it's fake. Read into it all you want and put whatever words you want to in my mouth. Fine by me . The medical industry definitely wouldn't lie and they FOR SURE have you best interest in mind! Carry on!

How the medical industry abuses something is irrelevant.

Is cancer fake because the medical industry milks it for profit?

Kindly piss right out of this thread, absolutely disappointed in you.

 

[Cheesequake]

Is cancer fake because the medical industry milks it for profit?

I dunno, did the guy who discovered it eventually admit it was fake close to his death?

 

[AJS]

I dunno, did the guy who discovered it eventually admit it was fake close to his death?

Look man. You clearly already had an agenda before you came here and you're for some reason upset at the idea of people having an "excuse" about being lazy or whatever you think this is. I'm sure you have your reasons.

Let me try to break it down in a way, that veers away from ADHD, and hopefully makes it simple enough for you to understand.

There are people who are in Group A. Group A people react a certain way to stimuli and how the reward center sees tasks.

There are people who are in Group B. Group B are people who react differently to stimuli, dopamine, the reward center, etc than what is traditionally seen.
This is shown through science, and repeated testing, across massive sample size and case studies.

Group B people like to come together to share tips.

And for some reason that upsets you?

I think you need to dig a little deeper to find out why.

Do you not like the idea of "excuses"?
Do you somehow feel like this group thinks they're special and that upsets you?
Do you think people should just pick themselves up by their bootstraps and keep going regardless of struggles without connecting with others?
Are you projecting some childhood issues you had with your dad?

You can be honest with us

 

[Timps27]

I dunno, did the guy who discovered it eventually admit it was fake close to his death?

Because all publicly available data clearly demonstrates to us that mental acuity is at its zenith nearest one’s death bed?

Your exhaustive, cogent research on this topic has swayed me greatly.

 

[popitup]

Anyway... hopefully back onto the childhood discussion.

For everything adults did to try and help (most helpful being those who taught me coping and organizational skills), the risks and differences were never really explained to me. There were a lot of private talks with doctors and teachers concerning, but not including me. I'm not trying to blame adults here, but it took me decades to realize that I missed something very important early on in my diagnosis and path to finding peace.

The adults were too busy pussyfooting around the reality of the situation. I was too busy being a teenager who already had the answers, and like Einstein above, I thought I was diagnosed with something fake, and doctors were peddling drugs onto me.

A few harsh realities, some answers I was looking for led back to the diagnoses I hadn't taken seriously.

 

[Stu]

I dunno, did the guy who discovered it eventually admit it was fake close to his death?

From the snopes article you linked:

However, when one allows for the vagaries of translation from German to English and reads the statement in context, it's clear that Dr. Eisenberg wasn't asserting that ADHD isn't a real disorder, but rather that he thought the influence of genetic predispositions for ADHD (rather than social/environmental risk factors) were vastly overestimated:

Unless you have something other than "its fake" to offer to this discussion, please refrain from posting further in this thread.

Thank you.

 

[AJS]

For everything adults did to try and help (most helpful being those who taught me coping and organizational skills), the risks and differences were never really explained to me. There were a lot of private talks with doctors and teachers concerning, but not including me. I'm not trying to blame adults here, but it took me decades to realize that I missed something very important early on in my diagnosis and path to finding peace.

It's definitely feels like a double edged sword.

When people wanted to help, it never felt like it was the correct help and could just make me feel worse.

I had maybe 2 teachers in high school who could just sort of tell something was with me, and they just treated me in a way that really worked and got me to want to work harder.

I don't even know how to ask for help with it, as the struggles sometimes just feel so arbitrary. Like I know I need something that's missing but no idea what. And when it's not obvious, the whole imposter syndrome from what you've heard from past Einsteins doesn't help.

I usually didn't communicate it much, as I had never really gotten any relief or understanding when I mentioned I was ADHD, but I still gave it a try.
My supervisor at this on-campus cook job would always rush me in ways that just wouldn't work. And one day I told her I was ADHD and that I sometimes struggle with certain tasks. She had so much sympathy and told me that if I ever felt overwhelmed, I could do any task that I wanted that would help me to calm down before I came back out to help.

She was a pretty aggressive supervisor and I never expected that sort of response, and that's a feeling of relief I'll never forget.

It doesn't take much, but it does need to be "right".
I have a lot of sympathy for non-ADHD people failing when they try to help. It's not easy on them either.

..I hope you've been feeling at peace! or at least on the right path for it.

 

[DeadRabb1t]

Great thread. I was a Ritalin kid in the 70s and was formally diagnosed. I was always in trouble.

I had never thought a lot about self medicating with cannabis for ADHD, but have been chatting with my neighbor about it lately and see a lot of parallels between he and I.

I have been a daily user since 16. I definitely self medicate for depression. My friend once described cannabis as "The cure for lonliness". What he meant was that when you are alone and maybe bored, as many neurodivergent people may find themselves, Cannabis makes doing stuff alone much more interesting. For me, it also helps lessen the existential lonliness that comes with always feeling different and feeling "on the outside looking in" at all these normal people.

I, like many, find Cannabis very energizing. My 80 year old mom will take a puff and then go crazy cleaning the house. Many people with ADHD that I have talked to have a similar experience.

I think the biggest logistical problem that my ADHD creates for me is disorganization. I'm messy and unorganized, I don't write anything down, i cant remember peoples names or important dates.

But, in a way, I see my ADHD as a gift. I have used my ability to hyperfocus to accomplish some amazing things in cycling, skiing and ski mountaineering (the runners high didn't hurt). And I owe my business success and my place in this community to hyperfocus. The key for me has been trying to focus on something positive.

I honestly don't know how this would have been if I wasn't using Cannabis. Would I have been as motivated? More?

While on the waiting list for assessment in my early 40's you made a post on Instagram about custom orders and the pressure and stress they caused you and why

To say it hit home was an understatement and I was diagnosed not too long after that tbh at age 43

I want to say thank you because that post has made me aware of how I did that in my previous work/life and given me the confidence not to do that for my new one

Anyhow, for me time release methalwhatsitsname (ritlan / concerta) has been world changing as I can now actually get out of bed in the morning as my executive function was spannered

I use mine along with my weed prescription and have made sure that both my psychiatrist and pain clinic are fully aware of the other and both seem "happy"

It still amazes me how easy it now is to actually like do stuff

Like the mental battle is easier somehow

 

[VapingYogi]

I was formally diagnosed this year. I was self medicating with Coffee and Cannabis almost my whole life (14), now its Dex and Cannabis - I always find it interesting different doctors opinions on ADHD and Cannabis and Ritalin and Cannabis... my pain team are annoying regarding it but my shrink is supportive.