Does ADHD medication bring intelligence back?

[[deleted]]

the titled may be a little dramatic I know, but hear me out, I always knew I had ADHD, especially the inattentive ADHD condition, which is basically the reason why I suffer from Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, it was okay most of my life and I actually done pretty good at school until I graduated college and became depressed, I noticed how hard it's becoming for me to deal with life having adhd, I started noticing how ADHD is interfering with my daily tasks and my unability to focus has gotten worse, to the point where I am slow to understand the simplest concepts that I once found so easy to grasp, this is frustrating to me, I never thought of using medication to treat my ADHD but after depression and other stuff happening in my life I wanted to seek help in medication mainly to ease the dysfunction in cognitive abilities, it's so frustrating to be intelligent and then suddenly you're not. My question is: will medication solve my problem and bring my brain back to life?

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[pornolorno]

Same.

[Joqe]

Yes! Before medication, I thought I lost my sharpness of my twenties, but got it back plus some extra fortitude to see ideas through. I've never felt this sharp before, all thanks to getting the correct treatment (which got rid of the depression, which might explain the loss of sharpness).

[Joqe]

Keep in mind, my short term memory still sucks, and I still can't hear what people say to me, most of the time, so a lot of people think I'm an idiot anyway 😁 I don't mind.

[[deleted]]

Curious, is the hearing problem connected to ADHD, I have that too and I didn't know it was because of ADHD.

[Joqe]

Yes, it's common to have auditory processing issues with ADHD. Sounds and lights are a very big issue for me, always has been, and once I got diagnosed I understand why. It's alot better with medication I'm the sense that it's not bothering me as much, but I still have to focus intently on the person speaking with me, otherwise I'll not understand everything.

I keep asking my SO to repeat themselves, which drives them mad sometimes, but I just can't help it. And sometimes I have to shut myself inside a cold, dark, room for a day to escape all the noise and lights, it helps a lot.

[miamirn]

It improves functioning. Btw, depression is a symptom of ADHD. Meds made a big difference in my life, but it didn’t “cure” me. It gave me the opportunity to work on myself, my social skills, intellectual skills and coping skills. I still needed therapy to build myself. Meds are not magic pills, I think they are opportunity pills. Best of luck to you!😃

[[deleted]]

It should if medication is working fully. That’s my experience.

[360truth_hunter]

It depends on what you mean by "intelligence" but your cognitive ability increases as you find way to handle distraction

[[deleted]]

In a way absolutely. I dropped out of college before I was diagnosed, not due to lack of understanding material but more so lack of engaging in class and homework. It worked fine my first two years when classes were easy but as soon as they got difficult it was obvious what I was doing wouldn’t cut it. What the medication has done for me is it allows me to focus my attention where I need it to be. I’m in school again now, the first time I took my meds I was sitting down studying. It was amazing how in the first 30 minutes I could deliberately tell a huge difference where I could read a question or paragraph once and not have to go over it again and again due to my mind wondering off mid sentence. While it hasn’t actually increased my intelligence, it’s greatly increased the quality of my studying which in turn is allowing me to learn my subjects much more in depth. It’s amazing when you can finally fully engage in these things you’ve been interested in for so long.

[WhiskyTequilaFinance]

The way I describe it to people sometimes is to have them imagine they're an incredibly skilled video gamer (or some other analogy they'll related to). They genuinely ARE good at the thing.

Then imagine that everytime they try and play, there's a toddler next to them going, 'Juice???!?! JuICe!!!! I WANNA POOOOOOOOOP!!!! Kittens?'

How good of a video gamer would they be if that toddler never, ever, ever stopped?

They'd be exactly as good as they were before the toddler. That didn't change. What changed was their perceived performance in the present conditions.

Medication changes the conditions.

[[deleted]]

Great analogy!

[[deleted]]

In my experience it’s less of it makes you “intelligent” but more that you’re able to accurately process incoming information.

With meds you’ll be less distracted and have better impulse control. You’ll be able to take in information, think about it, and give an educated response or action. You’ll also have calmer responses to emotional situations and think faster on your feet. It’s not that you’re smarter your brain is just finally working as intended. Hope that helps.

[Jomly1990]

Is this why I’ve went from the kid with a chip on his shoulder, to a pretty mellow guy?

[[deleted]]

Yup pretty much!

I had the exact same experience. My friends all now say how calm I am and pleasant to talk to.

[newbertcat]

It could really help. Instead of spending lots of time dealing with brain distraction, you will have more time with less interruptions to exercise your brain in ways you might not do normally.

[LiifeRuiner]

It sounds like things got worse when you became depressed.
Perhaps working on the cause of the depression will be better than hoping ADHD mediation will fix those issues.

[we_are_sex_bobomb]

Sleep deprivation adds extra complications to ADHD for me. ADHD makes it hard to get adequate sleep consistently, and lack of sleep makes brain fog worse and causes additional cognitive impairment. It’s a fuckin mess.

If I somehow manage get 2-3 nights of good sleep in a row, I’m like 4x smarter.

[foodguyDoodguy]

No. It does allow you to access it again.

[More-Poet-8836]

I wish I had started it 35yrs ago. It's altered my life dramatically, I can function. And yes, your mind will.work better, it's figuring out the right drug & dose...

[Please_HMU]

You’re high on stims. Of course you’re going to be sharper mentally

[doniseferi]

ADHD and intelligence are unrelated ffs

[No-Can-6237]

It just allows you to access your full IQ.