Huge thanks for all you great minds who answered this! I got many helpful tips which I'll definetely start experimenting with while waiting for my diagnosis. Once more: thank you!
Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#52Badly! Some days I have to write off as a loss, I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and cant control my attention. Other days I have great focus and creativity where my mind considers a million options at ever step of cognition. Adderall has not really helped in reducing procrastinating, but it does work well as a kindle when I try to manually trigger hyperfocus.
Wow. This is literally my life. Though, I feel like the frequency of "waking up on the wrong side of bed" has been increasing every year. Never tried medication.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never looked into his political beliefs, and I don't care for it either. He has been a massive help for me in managing my symptoms, and helping me see how my brain works, and why I keep falling on my head in certain areas. I also think it's important to mention, Barkley has a very large emotional stake in his research, his brother had ADHD, and he died in a car accident. I won't try to guess the influence of t…
> I have never looked into his political beliefs, and I don't care for it either. He has been a massive help for me in managing my symptoms, and helping me see how my brain works, and why I keep falling on my head in certain areas. Absolutely! I don't really care that he has these views either, I was just surprised. > I won't try to guess the influence of this incident on Barkley, but I can only think that Barkley "h…
One impression I've gotten from Barkley is he's used to interacting with people who do not believe in ADHD, or underestimate the conditions effect on individuals and their lives. His talks often revolve around acknowledging the seriousness of ADHD and how the symptoms are not a result of moral / intentional failures but cognitive defects
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#54the most helpful thing youll do is getting that diagnosis and finding the medication that suits you which was a game changer for me (initially i tried methylphenidate (ritalin) but it was a little too "up and down" for me, it seemed to tail off before my next dose was due but i then switched to lisdexamphetamine (Elvanse/Vyvanse) which has proven incredibly effective) before this i generally got through by having mul…
> lisdexamphetamine Out of curiosity, for those who use ADHD/ADD medications like this, do you get insomnia as a side effect and, if so, how do you deal with it? The one time I was prescribed this type of medication, I was still terribly unfocused during the day because I was barely getting any sleep even after lowering the dosage considerably.
Melatonin can help the nights you're struggling to fall asleep, but personally Ritalin made a huge difference because of the short half life
When I was on Adderall I found it very helpful to take the medication after a large early lunch (hopefully 11am or earlier)
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
"(initially i tried methylphenidate (ritalin) but it was a little too "up and down" for me, it seemed to tail off before my next dose was due but i then switched to lisdexamphetamine (Elvanse/Vyvanse) which has proven incredibly effective)" As an example of how Your Mileage May Vary, methylphenidate works well for me, but Vyvanse made my porn viewing skyrocket.
Agreed Adderall (and to a lesser extent Ritalin) turns me into a raging nympho but also made certain parts not work (pretty crappy biological joke if you ask me), due to the fact that Adderall is a blend of both left and right amphetamines. The left amphetamines stimulate the peripheral nervous system which is why some may experience sexual side effects like impotence as well as more cardiovascular side effects. As w…
Yeah, tried Strattera and it kind of messed up the, um, timing, of my funtimes plumbing. Vyvanse did a bit of that as well.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#56I practice ruthless minimalism in everything. Having zero irrelevant things in my world leaves little room for distraction.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#57I'm 39 was diagnosed w/ ADD last year -- best things that work are Vyvanse 50mg, get decent sleep, and exercise.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mention this ad hominem so you can extrapolate beliefs that may be completely fabricated.
Why do you try to read my mind? It violates the laws of physics and I explicitly wrote why I mentioned his political views. I don't think he has the views I extrapolated, which is why I wonder why he has the ones he says he has.
I did not read your mind. I summarized your actions. I never assumed intent or motivation. You are the one who did those things. Projection.
Perhaps that assumption you made that you apparently don't believe was a completely made up figment of your imagination, which is what my comment illustrates.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#59I don't have ADHD, but I used to struggle with time management due to other issues and I found that todo lists are a big help.
I actually don't use fancy software, just a .ODT with a bulleted list of projects, then smaller bulleted lists of tasks for the project (with another level of indentation for when I work on the task itself).
Helps get over the "gulf of execution" to start something or feeling like you're spinning your wheels and reassure yourself "it's ok you're not 'done' - you've done a lot to move towards being 'done'"
Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?
#60To everyone talking about medication in this thread: I have always had ADHD but was intelligent enough to get by through my schooling with bad study habits. I "got away" with it so to speak, with cramming at the last minute and being able to retain lots of information while my peers had to put more dedication into it. It seemed up front like a solution but in reality I was only cheating myself. Once I got out into re…
There are a large number of different medications that have very different side-effects and effectiveness for different people. If Vyvanse doesn't work for you, talk about what "not working" means to you with your doctor; a good doctor can use that data to inform the decision about what other medications to try.
Personally I've been on adderall for the better part of 20 years. I went through a bunch of different meds after getting a diagnosis and I regularly try other medicaitons (once a year or so) to see if other medications may work better (your body changes over time as does your tolerances).
If you can get by without medication then that's great. For those of us that can't, there is a large number of options.
This video series taught me a lot about my own condition: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBixSjmbc8eFl6UX5_wW...