Whenever someone gets an ADHD diagnosis, the topic that comes next is often medication. For many, this is scary.

Will I have side effects? Will meds take away my personality? Will I lose my spark? Will I be dependent or addicted to it? Many of these questions are valid and tackle issues that many practitioners often forget to mention or openly talk about. The most common experience is leaving the doctor's office with a prescription, and with many of these doubts unaddressed. It makes the experience of trying ADHD medication an incredibly stressful endeavor for many people.

So here are some of the basics. ADHD medication works in about 80% of individuals. Some will experience mild side effects such as dry mouth, loss of appetite, and very few may have severe side effects like palpitations or severe anxiety. But what about the long-term effects of ADHD medication? The ones nobody talks about?

A recent literature review analysed the findings of several long-lasting studies on ADHD, evaluating more than 300,000 patients worldwide. They found that ADHD medication acts beyond the clinical scope, and doesn't just decrease ADHD symptoms, but impacts real-life outcomes such as the likelihood of criminality,........

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