Trying to put an ADD person into a quiet, big-task-oriented, code-monkey office job (or even the normal classroom environment) can be like trying to domesticate a feral cat. ft. carpeted apartment with feeding bowls and baby talk. It’s never going to quell the urge to claw and hiss and pee all over everything. It’s a wild animal. It belongs in the wild. However, put that feral cat in an open forest where it can hunt and play and pursue it’s own goals; and it will know true happiness.

In a household environment, next to normal domestic cats, a feral cat would be like the crazy/hyperactive/idiot child. But put a feral cat in a wild environment, and it is cunning, adventurous, and productive.

For ADD and non-ADD people alike, it is natural to pursue things that stimulate your brain. But for an ADD person to pursue activities that stimulate “normal” people because he feels like that is what is expected…that’s not going to work. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. But it does have to be a factor. You can’t do normal jobs pretending like you can be OK with normal stimulation. There are plenty of jobs that are much more stimulating. Be a cop, be a soldier, be a marketing idea-man, be a top executive or a sales manager, start your own business; hell, go work on wall street – anything that is fast-paced and constantly stimulating. Or just find something you really, really love – the love and the sense of purpose itself can stimulate you.

But I understand that this course (searching for an atypically stimulating environment) is not for everybody. I understand that pharmecueticals are created to fill a real need; that there people out there who are the poster-children for deeply needing a drug like Adderall to help them with serious mental difficiencies. But these people are much fewer in number than those that are simply in the wrong environment and/or taking the popular way out with drugs.

He needs a higher dose of stimulation than most jobs provide

You mentioned that you continue to look for drug-free coping mechanisms. Again, I respect you greatly for your intentions. Drugging yourself can be a risky path. I and the readers of this site will be the first to tell you that there is a fine line between proper, healthy stimulation that lets you do the things you want, and over-stimulation that takes control of your desires and makes you over-commit to tasks. This site is mainly for people who have crossed that line. It does not take abusive doses to cross that line into overstimulation. I rarely took even as much as I was prescribed. And with completely imprecise dosage-to-patient allotments, it’s extremely rare that somebody is going to get a dose that truly stimulates them “just enough to be right”. Plus there’s the tolerance-building factor.

Even in a perfect world, where everybody had installment loans in Muncie to get regular brain scans on and off the drugs to make sure the drug was giving them “just enough” stimulation…I’m still not sure I would agree with manufactured stimulation in any but extreme cases. It’s like giving a girl a love potion to “fix” the problem that she doesn’t love the high school quarterback like she is supposed to (and like every other girl in the school does).

Part of me thinks that’s a tragedy and a violation of the way love is supposed to be found naturally

ADD can be recipe for success outside of the mold. In a cool environment, having a cool frontal lobe can be a curse. In a hot environment it can be a blessing. When you accept that you have ADD and you are not going to take drugs, then you must give up all notion of conformity and become an innovator; find that non-typical job that totally does it for you and gives your ADD brain a place to hunt and play and produce wondrous creations out of its many impulses; otherwise you will suffer terribly and always feel slighted by your chemistry instead of empowered by it.