I’ll give you my experience.

I’ve always been a bright student, but I never studied. Things just made immediately sense to me or they didn’t, and I didn’t get too worked up if they didn’t because I had the ability to BS extremely well.

So, I developed no study skills. Through high school and undergrad, I got by without ever studying or listening in class. I’d pop open the textbook before a test, skim it, and either get an A or take an L.

I took the LSAT without studying at all. I scored well.

I got accepted into law school, snap back to reality, ope there goes gravity. Turns out you have to at least read in law school to keep up with your classmates. However, I literally didn’t know how to study and couldn’t make myself anyway. I escaped my first year with stellar grades for someone who never studied.

The following year, though, I got my ass kicked. Grades plummeted. 2L is a bitch.

Now, I had been seeing a therapist for a year by that time for major social anxiety and a small bout of what I thought was depression. She hadn’t told me she had any idea that I might have ADHD until I told her what was happening my second year.

She said, “So, we’ve been doing this for a year, and I had suspicions after a month of knowing you. I think I can safely diagnose you with ADHD now.”

I said, “Fuck that. That’s not even real.” (I grew up in the South, where we didn’t believe in that.)

Following this diagnosis, the therapist and I battled for the second semester of my second year of law school, all the while my potential to get good grades plummeted like an anchor in the ocean. In fact, I lost a mini textbook I absolutely needed for Evidence law inside of a textbook for another class solely because I never opened the other book to read it. I was lost.

As finals came closer, I sat down and reflected on what my therapist said. I didn’t like the idea of taking drugs because my parents were burnout druggie losers, but maybe I did have an actual mental issue.

The day before my first final, I agreed to go on medication. I took my first adderall that day. The final was going to be for secured transactions, a class in which I was literally known as “Mr. Not Prepared.” I had never read the book or case law.

That night, I read the textbook cover to cover. I took the final the next day and got a B+. I don’t know if you know anything about law school finals, but that’s a significant achievement.

The next semester, I took adderall consistently and got all A’s. I became more social, better at work, and everything felt right. The only downside is that adderall stymies the shit out of my creative writing side. But yes, the diagnosis changed everything.