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Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

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Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#41

Post by anoncake »

schwurb wrote: post #34
anoncake wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russel Barkley Some of his claims are questionable. AFAIR he claims that: - ADHD has no advantages - ADHD has a negative effect on working memory - ADHD has no negative effect on intelligence Since working memory is a factor in intelligence, one of these statements must be false. His political views are also interesting. > Barkley is a right-wing libertarian. He deeply believes in "Limited government, individual ri…

> Since working memory is a factor in intelligence, one of these statements must be false. That is quite easy to reconcile: "ADHD has no negative effect on intelligence, when accounting for the impaired working memory". It is something you do all the time in psychology, you observe effects in presence or absence of other effects. Psychologists are smart enough to ask questions like "Now that we know that ADHD impairs…

I know how science works and I'd never claim that psychologists are stupid. But being smart does not mean you can't make stupid errors or just not use your intelligence for psychological reasons.

Since Barkley lost his brother because of ADHD, I don't think it's impossible that he actually means that it impairs working memory, has no advantages, and does not impair intelligence. Not because he's too stupid to see the contradiction but because he doesn't want to.

Then again, it would be quite a coincidence that whatever advantages ADHD has exactly cancel out the working memory issues. I just expected an academic to use precise language (there's nothing wrong with simplifying, but to me, this does not look simplified but wrong.)

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#42

Post by 40acres »

Badly! 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.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#43

Post by kls »

schwurb wrote: post #38

Excellent advice here! I add two more: * Check out the pomodorro technique. It forces my to break tasks down into even smaller chunks that usual and give me a rush of dopamine when I finish those. * I try to stay away from systems and languages that are not responsive enough. I need to see results fast and am willing to take quite a pay cut just so that I don't get bored waiting for a job to be done. So no big enterp…

Before I was diagnosed, I was most productive on green field development project where I could do the big picture stuff but had other detail oriented members on the team who could paint in the details. As well as when I was out freelancing on 6-mo or less engagements.

Looking back that makes sense to me. Start-up culture was a natural fit for me when I was younger so the ADD masked itself as I was productive in that culture.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#44

Post by rootbear »

plantel wrote: post #26

To 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…

I was on Vyvanse for a while and found it somewhat helpful, but it was causing me to grind my teeth and that was an unacceptable side effect. Sadly, I haven't found an effective substitute so far. I need to try exercise, I currently don't get much and I know it's helpful. Meditation is also an option.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#45

Post by ThrowawayP »

gaspoweredcat wrote: post #2

the 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.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#47

Post by kls »

kls wrote: post #22
jonhendry18 wrote: post #3

Earlier 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…

Just one correction to my above post (it's too late to edit) PNS is parasympathetic nervous system not peripheral nervous system.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#48

Post by sidcool »

Medication is one way, but not very sustainable. Do take the medicines your doctor prescribes, but also plan with your healthcare professionals to taper off the dosage. For longer term, therapy, counselling, meditation, exercise & diet are better suited. It depends a lot on the severity of the symptoms though.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#49

Post by kls »

ThrowawayP wrote: post #45
gaspoweredcat wrote: post #2

the 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.

I never take my medication after 1PM, I get up early and take my first dose and then take my second dose around 12-1. Every once in a while I will get insomnia and for that I generally just take a half of one of my anti-anxiety pills or take a small dose of over the counter zzzquil. The insomnia is worse in the beginning at some points, now days I can be right in the peak of my dose and if I choose to, I can take a nap.

Re: Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope?

#50

Post by xtajv »

Meds + organization to make sure that I'm never "going down a rabbit hole":

* Take notes furiously in meetings. Don't try to organize the information as you go. Just get down as much info as you can. Take 10-15 minutes after each meeting to decipher your notes and pull out the key takeaways & action items.

* Keep a written debugging log. You see [weird behavior], so you want to check logs? Write the weird behavior down first. See recurring errors in the logs? Write down the error and traceID so you can find it later. Don't assume that you will "just remember" - you can't, and you won't.

* Use a whiteboard for planning tasks of any size. Make a rough plan of the commits you'd like to have at the end of the day. If the plan changes, go back and update your whiteboard. Make sure you know why you're doing whatever you're doing.

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