> All this is to say that medication can help when you need to feel normal, but it can't replace the skills you should have been developing.
Exactly. These articles about ADHD and dopamine are often misinterpreted by people who assume that ADHD is a purely chemical imbalance with only chemical solutions.
It's similar to the situation with depression, where decades of misleading ads and pop-neuroscience articles led people to believe that depression == serotonin. Most people are coming around to the idea that the "chemical imbalance" narrative has done more harm than good in the realm of depression treatment, but the idea that ADHD == dopamine and that ADHD is a pure chemical imbalance is still common online.
These studies should be interpreted as a snapshot of the brain's function in the disordered state, but they shouldn't be interpreted as an inherent property of the person's brain. For example, patients suffering from depression will show certain patterns of serotonin activity during depressive episodes that will change following remission, even if the patient doesn't take medication. The brain isn't a unchanging machine that only operates in a single, fixed way.
You said it best: Medication can't replace the skills that one should be developing. Many people take medication as a gateway to develop those skills and go on to do quite well in life. Unfortunately, some people assume the medication lets them off the hook for learning those important skills. They tend to struggle years down the road when they've built a tolerance to the motivating and stimulating effects of the medications (the attention-enhancing effects tend to be more robust against tolerance, but the euphoric/motivating/stimulating effects will dwindle over time).
>Many people take medication as a gateway to develop those skills and go on to do quite well in life.
This is important. When I went on anti-depressants (for pure-o OCD), my intent was to get some breathing room and learn to manage my symptoms better.
I've definitely been able to do that, but it's lead to a few cases of thinking 'hey, I should be able to stop taking these now', which have all gone poorly for me. I think I'm better able to cope now if I don't have access to medication, but I won't be stopping again any time soon, it's too risky for me.
Exactly. These articles about ADHD and dopamine are often misinterpreted by people who assume that ADHD is a purely chemical imbalance with only chemical solutions.
It's similar to the situation with depression, where decades of misleading ads and pop-neuroscience articles led people to believe that depression == serotonin. Most people are coming around to the idea that the "chemical imbalance" narrative has done more harm than good in the realm of depression treatment, but the idea that ADHD == dopamine and that ADHD is a pure chemical imbalance is still common online.
These studies should be interpreted as a snapshot of the brain's function in the disordered state, but they shouldn't be interpreted as an inherent property of the person's brain. For example, patients suffering from depression will show certain patterns of serotonin activity during depressive episodes that will change following remission, even if the patient doesn't take medication. The brain isn't a unchanging machine that only operates in a single, fixed way.
You said it best: Medication can't replace the skills that one should be developing. Many people take medication as a gateway to develop those skills and go on to do quite well in life. Unfortunately, some people assume the medication lets them off the hook for learning those important skills. They tend to struggle years down the road when they've built a tolerance to the motivating and stimulating effects of the medications (the attention-enhancing effects tend to be more robust against tolerance, but the euphoric/motivating/stimulating effects will dwindle over time).