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ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

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Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#61

Post by lfowles »

fasteo wrote: post #21
tokenadult wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would my kid have any problem living in a simpler society (hunter-gatherer group) ? Definitively not. I know some children like that. Children who cannot keep quiet while hunting would not fare well in a hunter-gatherer society. Indeed, young members of a hunting party who move around too much and make too much noise are in danger of being eaten themselves by larger predator animals. I'm not sure that there has ever…

If I imagine my kid hunting, I see him quiet, hyper-focused, fully committed to get the beast down.

The thing about ADHD is that you really don't get to pick what you hyperfocus on. Some days you may be focused on getting that beast, other days you may find an interesting termite mound that grabs your attention while on the hunt.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#62

Post by lfowles »

sathackr wrote: post #38
greys0ul wrote: post #4

I think this is an excellent way to help some kids cope with adhd, but I definitely don't think it'd work universally. Reading this made me think back on my own struggle with adhd. A few years ago I was diagnosed with adhd at the age of 23, and god damn do I wish it happened a decade sooner, but my parents were the type that didn't believe in that kind of stuff, so I was just lazy. It's stuck with me to this day even…

I'm probably in the same boat. I see myself as a firefighter, things don't get my attention until their burning down, then I perform miracles to save them. Every few months my utility bills don't get paid until they turn it off. Personal relationships degrade until the point they are about to fall apart, then a blast of attention brings them back to normal. I'm a disorganized mess but when the right moment hits, I ca…

The common thing I see on /r/adhd is that medication can be useful as a crutch while you develop good habits. Going off of medication does bring you back to the old norm, but you've got some good coping methods built up by that point.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#63

Post by sathackr »

greys0ul wrote: post #60
sathackr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting nearly simul-post. Same here, I scored 1250 on the SAT, 31 on the ACT, and in the top 99th percentile on the CPT. Literature/Comprehension has always been my weakness "Read the passage below, then select what you think best describes the point the author is trying to make" -- they all look like right answers. Took 18 credit-hours per semester of courses on scholarship, right out of high school, failed all…

I almost didn't post my original comment as it seemed off topic, but responses like this make me glad I did. It's good to realize I'm not alone in it. 2170/1400 on the sat, 35 on the act, not sure what the cpt is, and anything anything writing/literature related killed me. I passed my senior english class with a 59.5, literally as low as possible without failing. I have a total of ~2 years of credits on my ECE BS, bu…

I had the exact same grade in English IV - barely scraping by with a D. If I had failed that I would have been another year in school.

CPT "College Placement Test" was required by the local community college even though I had taken the SAT and ACT.

It was not a timed test at the time, it was multiple choice, and I was allowed to use a simple calculator. Might not have known all the right answers, but I knew how to figure out which one was the wrong one. I think I spent 6 hours on it. I by far scored the best on it out of all of them.

I used to be in network security for a financial institution, but I wear a few hats now. I'm a certified tower climber and senior network engineer(That makes the article even more relevant, half of the time I'm designing networks, the other half of the time I'm getting sunburnt, hanging off a 500ft tall piece of steel with a fiber cable dangling under me and a laptop on my back.) I have a good Cisco background, MCITP(the new, now old MCSE) and can take apart and fix nearly anything.

Thanks for your story. It would probably give away your main handle to disclose, but I'm curious why you wouldn't want to post it under that one.

edit: fixed typo

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#64

Post by sathackr »

falcolas wrote: post #30
fasteo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I imagine my kid hunting, I see him quiet, hyper-focused, fully committed to get the beast down.

If I imagine myself hunting, I can't. I see myself too focused on creating the perfect spear (and never achieving it because I "squirrel" off onto another spear building tangent) to actually bother myself with the act of hunting. Not to mention, one of the common symptoms of ADHD is bumping into objects when walking around. I can't imagine that going well on a hunting trip.

But once you got to the point of near starvation, assuming you were still physically capable, I bet you would become an excellent hunter. Until your appetite is satiated. Then it's off to lizard chasing in the middle of building your shelter.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#65

Post by panglott »

lfowles wrote: post #61
fasteo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I imagine my kid hunting, I see him quiet, hyper-focused, fully committed to get the beast down.

The thing about ADHD is that you really don't get to pick what you hyperfocus on. Some days you may be focused on getting that beast, other days you may find an interesting termite mound that grabs your attention while on the hunt.

Termites are an excellent food source.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#66

Post by panglott »

Isn't it normal to have difficulty focusing on things that are really boring?

ADHD diagnosis rates are several times higher in the US than in other developed countries, and orders of scale higher than in low-diagnosis countries (such as France). The biggest risk factors for an ADHD diagnoses include things like "being male" and "being in the youngest quartile of your kindergarten class". That's an amazing thing to pathologize. In the US, the drive to perform well on standardized tests has gotten to such an extreme that kindergarteners are expected to have literacy performance that was expected of 1st-graders a generation ago, and children are expected to come to kindergarten with the alphabet knowledge that they would have learned in kindergarten a generation ago. Meanwhile, the amount of time young children have spent at recess has declined hugely in the last 30 years, with very many schools having no recess at all.

Isn't there a margin where this is a disorder because of the interaction between an individual and their environment, where the environment is the problem?

Some amount of ADHD-spectrum behavior might should be considered within the range of normal child development, which is being pathologized by a system that doesn't give young children (especially slightly younger boys) enough exercise. The main treatment for ADHD is lifelong amphetamine use, and nobody can say whether this treatment prevents children from developing coping mechanisms that they would otherwise normally develop before adulthood.

If something as simple as more exercise can marginally reduce ADHD diagnosis or medication rates, that would be a huge advance.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#67

Post by crystalclaw »

derefr wrote: post #17
chris_wot wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADD (I can't stand the H in ADHD - I'm not hyperactive) and I can spend hours and hours in front of a computer programming. I can also spend a hell of a lot of time doing laps of the pool for some reason. I always find it ironic that it is my intense concentration that undoes me, the attention is ripping my mind away from the task I'm doing. Everything else seems to be a distraction, and that is intensely irri…

I've spent enough time with psychiatrists that I just rattle off "I have ADHD Inattentive Type" to avoid riling feathers.

It took me a bit to realize that there was an issue with ADD vs ADHD inattentive, and I pissed off a few people before I started doing this.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#68

Post by eric_h »

SpaceCadetJones wrote: post #20
tokenadult wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would my kid have any problem living in a simpler society (hunter-gatherer group) ? Definitively not. I know some children like that. Children who cannot keep quiet while hunting would not fare well in a hunter-gatherer society. Indeed, young members of a hunting party who move around too much and make too much noise are in danger of being eaten themselves by larger predator animals. I'm not sure that there has ever…

The thing with ADHD is that the difficulty to maintain attention is often highly situational. As someone diagnosed I personally have a lot of trouble focusing on a lot, but when it comes to something like juggling or playing counter-strike it's pretty remarkable how well I suddenly tune everything out and get extremely engaged. Probably more so than a "neurotypical" person and their preferred activities. I'm also gen…

Agreed. I've been a big fan of billiards for 20 years and I think a part of the reason is that playing well basically requires very short bursts of absolute focus, something that I'm good at. Pool is hands down the only game I can play for 14 hours straight and not get bored/tired of playing at all.

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#69

Post by sathackr »

greys0ul wrote: post #46
fdanconia wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your coping methods?

My main one is a notebook that never leaves my side. If I have a thought, impulse or idea that isn't what I'm currently doing, I quickly write it down, usually with a flowchart kinda sketch and then go back to what I was doing. I give myself a maximum of about 15 seconds for this. Once I finish what I was originally doing I look in the notebook and pick the next thing to do. The other big one is 3 goals a day. Every…

I've shunned mechanisms like this for fear I would become dependent on them, and then really in trouble if I were to lose the notebook, which, unless it was permanently attached to my body, would be quite likely.

Having 'the cloud' has started to help me. It's something I know I can't lose, so I'm slowly allowing myself to become dependent on it (things like calendar, short notes, and keeping track of receipts). And by the cloud, I mean google drive, emails to self, etc..

Re: ADHD Is Fuel for Adventure

#70

Post by sathackr »

It's unfortunate that this type of therapy is out of reach for the majority of kids. Not many parents have $50,000/yr of disposable income to send their child.

I know of a child right now that something positive like this may be the deciding factor between a productive life or a life behind bars, but the cost is at least 50% of his parents combined income, so he will not have that option.

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