this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
452 points (98.3% liked)
People Twitter
6996 readers
2285 users here now
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Is this for real? It would make sense why my adhd feels like it is getting worse as I age. I quit speed, then smoking, then caffeinated drinks.
Yes. All stimulants treat the symptoms of ADHD. You were self-medicating that whole time, although your results were way worse than you would get with a controlled dosage of a time-release stimulant like Adderall. If you don't want to go back to stimulants, even under a medical setting, regular exercise will help regulate your symptoms (I personally like 30 to 40 minutes of cardio 3 to 4 times a week).
I knew the caffeine and speed was self medicating. But I did not realize about the nicotine.
I hike 8-9km a day over about 2 hours.
Do you drink any coffees or teas? I don’t really touch caffeinated sodas these days, but I believe coffee and tea with caffeine are great since the caffeine is a stimulant which can help with focusing. The most important thing is consuming caffeine in moderation and at the right time, I believe. Drinking coffee only really helps in the first hour or so of waking up for instance or before a twenty minute nap.
I feel that Healthline does a pretty decent job of weighing the pros and cons.
No. I on occasion drink iced tea, but that is like one a month at the most. I used to drink chai daily, but switched to a variety that uses chicory instead of black tea.
I vape. It is helpful. I've quit a couple times,and it's correlated with suicidal thoughts. (I hesitate to claim it is casual, but definitely correlated.)
Stimulants help with ADHD symptoms. Adderall is chemically similar to speed.
Why do you suspect the link is connected to your ADHD? Could the suicidal thoughts not just stem from nicotine withdrawal?
To widen the anecdotal data set, I have ADHD and have been using nicotine since I was 16 (29 now). I quit for ~8 months a few years back by making my own vape juice and tapering my nicotine dose down over a period of several months. I never experienced withdrawal symptoms, but my mental health tanked on lower doses and it got even worse when I was completely off nicotine. I was way more irritable, impatient, scatterbrained, and depressed. It was not fun
Nicotine is a mild simulant, yes. All of those things are frequently used by people to "self-medicate", but the downsides are obviously pretty steep.
Wait whats the downside to caffeinated drinks?
I believe there are downsides only if you are drinking too much caffeine or if it is in conflict with one of your medications or existing health conditions, afaik.
Healthline weighs the pros and very few cons of caffeine.
Oh ok. Phew.
And most self medication options are pretty bad at the medicating part.
I was under the impression nicotine was on a similar risk profile to caffeine. Are you referring to the tobacco plant in general?
Nicotine in pretty much any amount is cardiotoxic, caffeine (in moderate amounts) is pretty much neutral afaik. They both may or may not be carcinogens depending on the study. Thats pretty much it I think
this is my impression as well regarding nicotine. however, i have noticed people are not interested in examining that and continue to conflate nicotine with cigarettes (high risk) and vaping (misconstrued risk).
i also believe many view a nicotine addiction through a sort of moral lens they don't apply so readily to caffeine.