Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane?

#91

Post by echlebek » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

Hi, I used to take adderal for ADD when I was in my early 20s.

40 mg/day is a LOT... who put you on that dose? I was taking 10-20 mg/day and it usually left me feeling totally zonked. (I'm about 200 lbs) Taking 40 mg was a sure-fire way to spend the day grinding my teeth and babbling frantically.

I definitely experienced paranoia, and tended to fixate on things outside my sphere of influence, which lead to feelings of helplessness and despair. At the time I thought I was seeing things more clearly.

After a while I realized that while adderal was effective at improving performance in rote tasks, it messed pretty severely with abstract reasoning. I ditched it cold turkey one day and never went back. Surprisingly there were no withdrawal effects. After stopping its use, my grades in university level math and computer science improved dramatically.

I now believe that psychiatrists are wrong about prescribing adderal for ADD, and that adderal is not a safe or effective long-term treatment. Frankly, I think the whole field is either in denial, or corrupted by financial incentives.

Some people will tell you that you need someone to objectively evaluate your mental state, but I don't believe such an analysis is truly possible. Best-case, you'll get an educated guess and some good advice. Worst-case, someone will try to prescribe you even more drugs. So before you do that, quit taking speed, and exercise regularly. You might be surprised by how much better you feel.

Re: Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane?

#92

Post by skwaugh » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 10:39 PM UTC

Yo man. Sorry to hear about your situation. I have been previously prescribed a high dose of Adderall. For the first 3 -4 months it was incredible.

Slowly, but surely, however, it started having negative side effects, namely anxiety and paranoia. My symptoms and resulting behaviors weren't as extreme as yours, but I could definitely feel the crazies coming on sometimes. That being said, don't listen to the people on here telling you that you are schizophrenic.

After getting a 2nd and 3rd opinion from other doctors, and reading some stuff on Pubmed, I realized that my dose was very high. I resolved to just ditch the Adderall and never return to my psychiatrist.

I'd be happy to talk more about this with you if you want. I am a 23-year-old male software engineer and have spent a lot of time trying to find healthy/ier alternatives to adderall. Drop me a line at [redacted].

Re: Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane?

#93

Post by dreamdu5t » Mon, Oct 12, 2015, 11:59 PM UTC

"I take a bunch of speed every day and I think people are spying on me, am I insane?"

YES. But its probably just the drugs. Quit taking speed.

Re: Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane?

#94

Post by tayloryeow » Tue, Oct 13, 2015, 4:36 AM UTC

Almost this exact thing happened to me during this summer (2015). It ended up that I was experiencing a stress related break.

I was so incredibly convinced at the time that someone was intercepting my calls and playing back snippets to me. It was terrible. My mom drove from another country to take care of me. My brother came in. I made an embarrassment of myself on my social media. I freaked the fuck out of my roommates and all the friends I had at university.

I was on vyvanse and aderoll like drug at the time for adhd. It seems these things may have been related.

All I can say now is. Put the phone away. Post everywhere that you're sick and going to be out for a few. Take a nap. If you can't nap try and burn the energy off somehow. Then sleep.

And remember that while it really hurts the ego, everyone around you just wants to see you feeling like yourself. Hack or not.

If its a hack you can trace it after you're feeling more like yourself. If not then ohwell. You got weird for a bit. It happens. Life's weird.

I wish you the best! Good luck.

If its a hack

Re: Ask HN: How can you tell if you are insane?

#95

Post by allworknoplay » Wed, Oct 14, 2015, 4:31 AM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #90

allworknoplay wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absurd. Qualified psychiatrists are the only way to diagnose and deal with an actual mental illness, and the only way to be sure you're not having a break or don't have a problem if you don't. Always helpful? Sure, nothing's always helpful. Doing nothing when OP thinks he's "going crazy" is a terrible strategy.

No, what you said is absurd. You're feeble straw man argument is pathetic. Nowhere did I state the person should do nothing. Mental illness of the kind that is described here can be dealt with in other ways such as living with a trusted family member, focus on sleep hours, or stop taking Adderall if it isn't prescribed.

Dude, his trusted family members are telling him to see a doctor. It's not a straw man, it's the only way he's actually going to resolve his question. I agree it's likely he should stop taking the adderall, especially if it's not prescribed, although doing that suddenly can also have serious consequences. A doctor is the best way to answer these questions.