I am Channing Tatum, AMA.

Implying that medication isn't necessary or helpful for people with ADHD just because it didn't help you or isn't necessary to you is trivializing it. It has helped countless people who actually have ADHD. The studies show that in the cases of people who have ADHD, the medication works extraordinarily well in a huge majority of cases (and not much else works much at all).

I'm sorry for your struggles as I'm sure you would be sorry for mine, but the fact that you've struggled doesn't change anything I'm saying here. Telling me about all of the accommodations you have had for so long doesn't convince me that you have ADHD, it seems to me that you have consistently been treated for a disorder and none of the treatments or medications have helped you, so you very well may not have it despite what aid you've received because of the diagnosis. If you had told people to be positive about their disorder and keep trying that would be one thing, but you made a statement suggesting that the medication isn't necessary or helpful for people with ADHD, which is a very damaging thing to say for people who have ADHD and need to be encouraged to seek out the help they require.

Your firm individual belief that you both have severe ADHD but don't need and don't benefit from medication doesn't change the facts about almost all of the cases where the medication makes a serious difference in the lives of those who have this disorder. You also say it's not a disability, but it is. Suggesting that ADHD is really just helpful energy so long as you use it correctly as your first comment did is damaging as well, because people who are suffering from the very real negative effects of this disorder don't need to be thinking that they're just weak or just have a wrong attitude.

It's pretty simple, what you're suggesting isn't helpful and could in fact be hurtful, and your belief that you have severe ADHD doesn't match up with the fact that you do so much better without the treatments or medication. This suggests that you have either been misdiagnosed and actually don't have any developmental disability or have one other than ADHD, or you have mild ADHD but have had a rare, negative reaction to the medications for some other reason. You absolutely do not have severe ADHD that keeps you from functioning properly without medication as some people do. This is objectively clear because you are functioning just fine without the medication. This whole attitude people have of Oh I'm actually really disabled but I just choose to be strong enough to power through it is illogical and harmful. It's like me saying that I'm just as addicted to heroin as a heroin addict and I'm just a stronger person who's trying harder than them not to use it every day. It doesn't do anyone any good and there's no reason to believe it's true.

So, what are your really saying? Are you suggesting that the overwhelmingly positive results seen with kids with ADHD who use medication are fabricated? Are they just taking unnecessary drugs just because you don't need the drugs? Are you really 100% sure that you need drugs to function (but have just overpowered your disorder through superior willpower) as much as the people who can't seem to function without it?

I'm not trying to attack you here by the way, but your assertions don't make any sense. I just want you to consider the possibility that you're mistaken about a few of your beliefs concerning ADHD.

/r/IAmA Thread Parent