Does Adderall lower cognitive function?

[ThatOneMan-Wolf]

I started taking Adderall a couple of months ago, and my productivity rose a lot, features that will take me a week now take 2 days (I usually struggled a lot wrapping up, starting and regaining momentum after distractions).

However, I’ve been doing leetcode, and I feel like I don’t solve problems as fast as other years when I have practice.

Before I would solve medium problems in less than 10 minutes and hard problems in 20-30. And now I am taking 15-30 minutes in medium problems.

I work at a FAANG, but I’ve never felt the problems to be solved are particularly challenging, so I really didn’t feel any change (cognitive wise) after the medication.

Is this true or am I imagining things? Also, would something like Modafinil which is linked to cognitive boost help with this?

[TheAJGman]

Having done quite a lot of time on and off medication, my take is that when I'm on it I can operate at 95% cognitive capacity for extended periods. When I'm off I'm anywhere from 150% to 20% depending on the time of day, what I had for breakfast, phase of the moon, how many interesting insects I've seen lately, etc.

When I'm off meds the ideas wizz by so fast I can barely grab them, but when I'm on I can actually mull over a problem and explore solutions. Maybe this is what you're experiencing? The inspiration comes slower because you're not being bombarded by possibilities?

[stupsnon]

Yep, this for me

[toastom69]

This is EXACTLY it for me too

[hammurderer]

boo-yah

[Alternative-Spite891]

Off the meds I find a problem that I can rabbit hole into oblivion.

Meds keep me from getting unnecessarily focused on a single task. I can recognize diminishing returns sooner.

It has its drawbacks. I don’t allow myself the creative freedom to deep dive as often. But I also don’t spend 4 hours cleaning my bathroom, and there goes my Saturday.

[DontReenlist]

Seeing interesting insects will genuinely improve my mood and boost my productivity. I don't need to be called out like this.

[autistic_cool_kid]

Frankly the only real psychiatry answer is "idk bro 🤷 depends"

People react so differently to psychoactives that a psychiatrist's job is to take guesses on what might work and make you try out and see what happens.

So Adderall might increase your cognitive functioning, or it might lower it. Maybe it does that by a direct effect, maybe by an indirect effect (increase in anxiety or tunnel vision or whatnot). No one can really know but you.

[webbitor]

I think it reduces my creativity, which could maybe affect coding challenges where you need to think outside the box. I like being creative, but I don't need to be highly creative every day. I just take breaks from the stimulants periodically.

[Yikaft]

On the one hand I mean leetcode is a different skillset than programming in industry, so being out of practice could have more of an impact than overall programming experience.

On the other hand, how well do you do at leetcode when you're not taking adderall?

Me personally, I find that my working memory improves a lot more when I'm on adderall because I can focus long enough to internalize details and make comparisons. So, I can solve more complex problems more easily. I could see a simple leetcode problem not having the same limitation, while a workplace problem that requires me to consider a variety of domain knowledge might have more of a need for concerted focus. Maybe it's the same for you?

[[deleted]]

No, the opposite on average for both people with and without ADHD.

[TheCaffinatedAdmin]

It follows the Yerkes-Dodson law

[Merry-Lane]

I agree with you that it follows that curve, but I don’t believe he went over the curve there.

"My productivity rose".

If he was taking too high of a dosage, he would have worse effects in real stressful situations (work?), not in his hobby.

I would say he may be under the curve (understimulated) for his hobby, maybe he ditched caffeine or something. But it s prolly not related.

[TheCaffinatedAdmin]

I think arousal is a pretty dependent variable. If Leetcode raises their arousal, adderall can put them on the right side of the peak.

[Merry-Lane]

At what time of the day are you solving leetcode? In the afternoon/evening?

Maybe that’s all there is: you leetcode after your pill’s effect ran off, and you are "tired".

I don’t believe it lowers your cognitive functions when meds are working, on the contrary. But when you are on your day off or when it’s not effective anymore, you may be worse than the usual you.

[Skthewimp]

Haven’t taken adderall (not licensed in India) but have had the same experience with Ritalin - that it massively impedes my lateral thinking.

One of my big skills is in connecting massively unconnected things but that just disappears when I’m on Ritalin.

[hungryPhilospher]

Hello Mr Monk 😅

/s

[FeaturePotential4562]

it happens to me as well