Have You Been Judged for Taking ADHD Medications?

Written By Cynthia Hammer, MSW

Complied from entries at r/adhd by Cynthia Hammer, MSW

  • My significant other told me not to take meds and discouraged me from pursuing treatment of any kind.

  •  I don't understand how people rationalize telling others what they should be doing about their mental health.

  •  After I told my friend I have ADHD, she told me "It is all in your head. Everyone has problems; but they don't use meds as an excuse to escape from them.” 

  • Why do people feel like life has to be done without medication?  Why do they believe it’s cheating and not fair since "everyone has problems"?

  • It's frustrating, especially when people refer to ADHD meds as nothing more than "legal meth."

  • The only reason why I ever went off my meds was that enough people made me question if I was abusing it and was too reliant on it. 

  • If anything, people are OVERLY informed about ADHD meds’ risk profile and not educated enough about the PROS of ADHD meds for managing ADHD.

  • As a society, we don’t treat mental illness the way we treat other illnesses. People are too quick to tell others they shouldn’t take medication and should do x, y, and z instead.

  • Sadly, it’s not limited to neurotypicals. I have been on the receiving end of as much judgment from others with ADHD who manage their disorder without medication.

Cynthia Hammer, MSW

Cynthia Hammer, MSW, was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD in 1992 when she was 49 years old. The following year she created the non-profit organization, ADD Resources, with a mission to educate adults and helping professionals about ADHD in adults. She ran the organization for 15 years before retiring.

During the Covid isolation she wrote a book about her life with inattentive ADHD which should be published by the end of this year. In writing the book, she was dismayed to learn that children with inattentive ADHD continue to be under-diagnosed and adults with inattentive ADHD often are incorrectly diagnosed with depression or anxiety.

She created a new non-profit in 2021, the Inattentive ADHD Coalition (www.iadhd.org), to create more awareness about inattentive ADHD and the need for early diagnosis and treatment.

https://www.iadhd.org
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