this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
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ADHD
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Labeling something as an Addiction requires compulsive use of a substance that is harmful to your health, your relationships, or your ability to function in society.
People with ADHD taking their medications as prescribed meet none of those defining characteristics.
It's still an addictive medication. Having ADHD doesn't change that. I have ADHD and amphetamine medication, and had a meth addiction in the past.
A lot of medications come with an increased risk of substance abuse, that is totally different than claiming someone has an addiction.
Your original claim was similar to saying everyone who has ever drank a soda has an addiction to caffeine.
It does moderate it to a significant degree, especially when used as prescribed. The whole reason people with ADHD do better on stimulants is because they either lack dopamine or cannot transport it efficiently. Stimulants increase the amount of dopamine to normal level everyone else experiences. Meaning instead of getting a euphoric high, they just feel normal.
That's definitely not the same as a doctor prescribing medication...... You were self medicating and probably overdoing it to the point where you were overloading dopamine pathways, making it just as likely to get addicted as anyone else. However, I bet it took you more meth than a person without ADHD to get the same high.
Don't project your personal baggage onto everyone else.
"Your original claim was similar to saying everyone who has ever drank a soda has an addiction to caffeine."
Please point to where I said that.
Someone said: "It’s addictive to non-ADHD people." I replied: "Nah. It’s addictive to everyone in the same way."
Seems fairly simple.
It's not though......
Some people will be more susceptible than others, just like with any drug. Overall people with ADHD will not be as susceptible to people who do not have ADHD.
Claiming it is addictive to everyone in the same way is the same as saying everyone is just as susceptible to addiction as anyone else. If that were true everyone would be an addict.
The only other way to interpret this is that you are simply claiming the drug utilizes the same pharmacological pathways in everyone......which would be idiotically redundant.
People with ADHD can become addicted to and abuse stimulants just like anyone else. It's both dangerous and stupid to try to claim otherwise.
None claimed people with ADHD are immune to becoming addicted to stimulants. Just that they are less likely too compared to others when they are treated with the correct dose of stimulants. You smoking meth and a person taking medication prescribed by a physician are not the same scenarios. Stop projecting your issues with substance abuse on others.
While it's true that stimulant medication still has addiction risk for people with ADHD, the addiction risk is dramatically lower than the NT population(for ADHD stimulant medication specifically, NOT addictive substances in general). Recommendations for people with SUD/ADHD suggest concurrent treatment of both, including stimulant medication due to the big reduction of relapse risk when medicated versus unmedicated. Obviously there's caution on a case-by-case basis when using stimulant medication with concurrent treatment of SUD, but the sheer effectiveness of stimulant medication on the reduction of ADHD symptoms can be worth the risk.
No, it isn't. And saying things like this can be harmful because you're telling people that their medication poses less addiction risk to them than it does to others. It doesn't. The medication is just as addictive whether a person does or does not have adhd.
I don't know what to tell you, what I'm saying is coming from actual relevant research on this very topic.
Stimulant medication does indeed reduce substance abuse risk: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9097465/
Stimulant medication use from childhood shows reduction in substance abuse risk: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.12164
ADHD leaves you with a deficit of dopamine in some form or fashion, usually associated with structural inadequacy in parts of the brain. The dopaminergic affect is usually going to be one of the bigger factors in addictive behavior, and the dopaminergic affect works differently in people with ADHD versus a Neurotypical. For the NT, they will usually have a euphoric experience as a result of the dopaminergic release, whereas someone with ADHD is much less likely to experience this euphoric affect. Hence, the lower risk of addiction.
Sure, the risk isn't zero. And boy are them college kids abusing the shit out of stimulant medication right now regardless of ADHD diagnosis. But the consensus is that prescribed stimulant medication is low risk versus the consensus of high addiction risk for the general population.
Congratulations, you have the ability to Google terms and grab links to things that you think support your point. I'm very proud of you.
Your first link posits that low dose stimulant medications may decrease odds of substance abuse disorder, however it flat out shows that untreated ADHD carries an increased risk of substance abuse including abuse of stimulants.
Your second link.... derp. It's saying that when a person takes a measured dose of a medication with high potential for abuse from childhood on they're less likely to abuse that medication.
Neither of those say people with ADHD are magically immune to addiction or the addictive effects of stimulants. They're not.
"But the consensus is that prescribed stimulant medication is low risk versus the consensus of high addiction risk for the general population."
I never said otherwise. People try to portray those with ADHD as being immune to addiction, or having brains wired so very differently that stimulants effect them in entirely different ways when compared to people without adhd. That's what I'm arguing against. It isn't true, and it's a dangerous, stupid attitude to have about any addictive substance.
I really don't understand; I write words, I link studies, and I carefully word my arguments, then when you reply it's like you're replying to someone else completely. I mean, great job fighting that scarecrow and all, but I'm over here. No one is making the arguments you're attacking. Like, do you legitimately believe that it's my personal belief that people with ADHD have perfect resistance to addiction to stimulant medication? It really seems like you think I believe that and I have no idea how you could read what I've written above, where I'm even directly contradicting that position at times, and think I believe that. Like, what the fuck is your deal? Legitimately, I'm bewildered as to how we got here.
Also, why are you being such an abrasive asshole? You've been a dick to just about everyone in this thread. Like, seriously, what's going on? I post links to studies on the topic and your reply starts with accusational condescension? Who does that?
Because I'm annoyed as fuck. There really all I said was that medication is addictive to people with ADHD just as it is addictive to people who do not have ADHD and a whole train of Internet psychiatrists started jumping in trying to argue about it.
The bulk of your first paragraph is ironic when that's exactly what you did. I said addictive medications are addictive to everyone regardless, you jumped in trying to fucking debate that. I'm done. My only replied to this shit from this point on is being done through the block button. Goodbye now.
Because that statement is objectively incorrect. If it was addictive in the same way to ADHD as people without ADHD, then it wouldn't be allowed to be prescribed. The possible negative total outcomes wouldn't justify the treatment.
No, your first claim was that addictive medications were addictive in the same way. Which is incorrect. If you had said "regardless if you have ADHD or not there is still potential for addiction". Then people wouldn't be arguing with you.
The majority of the issue is that you keep fighting strawman arguments in your rebuttals and not what people are actually claiming is incorrect about your initial statement.
Something you are apparently unable to do.
Yes...... Because they tend to be self medicating and not able to do so properly, you know because they aren't doctors.
Think it out...... If people with ADHD are more likely to abuse substances, and treating it with a substance that is generally addictive to people without ADHD lowers the chance of people with ADHD to abuse substances.....what does that tell us?
Not the general public, it was specifically about children with ADHD . The study claims that Children with ADHD who are prescribed stimulants for treatment of ADHD gain long-term resilience to abusing all substances, not just stimulants.
That's a straw man argument of your own creation, no one has made that claim.
Lol, you say that two sentences later "having brains wired so very differently that stimulants effect them in entirely different ways when compared to people without adhd."
The reason a lot of people have ADHD can accurately be described as having brains wired differently. Specifically that they do not transmit dopamine efficiently compared to neuro typical people. You just don't know enough about physiology or pharmacology to understand what you are even saying.
Proof or stfu already.....
And not the anecdotal proof that has made up your mind.
Proof of what? That addictive chemicals are addictive even if a person has adhd? It's point blank stupid to think otherwise. Feel free to search online and see things saying that when used as perscribed at low doses adhd medication doesn't typically result in addiction. That isn't saying the chemical itself is somehow different, or that people with adhd are somehow immune to addiction. People with adhd can abuse stimulants just as easily as anyone else can.
No one is claiming that. They are claiming that low doses of stimulants react differently with people with ADHD than it does with neuro typical people, and that result in a lowered risk of addiction when compared to the general population.
Also not true, they can abuse stimulants, but it does typically take more stimulants than normal, and they often do not get the same levels of euphoric effects.