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ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

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Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#41

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

pgt wrote: post #26
omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #16

For anyone diagnosed with ADHD, taking stimulants is associated with 8+x increase of being diagnosed with a basal ganglia and cerebellum disease later in life. I believe this is NOT causative, but is instead a correlation between other diseases associated with Dopamine production and ADHD. I take and have continued to take stimulants for ADHD. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0207-5 In my family's case, we…

Thanks for this! Any news on increasing the risk of Alzheimer's by taking dopaminergic drugs?

There's no direct link I've read about. From personal experience, having DRD increases the risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which happened to my grandma about 20 years ago, but that's just because some of the symptoms are very general, and it's especially hard to tease out with co-morbid conditions that may have some overlap.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#42

Post by d--b »

This is interesting, because I definitely have been a non-believer. This article makes it real.

It does seem to me that ADHD is over-diagnosed for kids, especially since the condition as described in the article really looks like what a small child seem to experience (the inability to focus, the constant distraction, etc.). And because it is much less rare to see someone in their 20s saying they have ADHD than to see some parent saying their kid has it. It is convenient for a parent to think that their kid has ADHD to explain why the kid is "late".

Here the problem really is about "lateness". Children grow up at different paces, and if a 6-year-old boy behaves like an "average" 4-year-old, people will think he has ADHD, while his brain might just need more time to develop.

There are kids who finish high school before hitting 10. Do we diagnose them with anything? Like Attention Surplus Disorder? No, because it doesn't seem to induce any trouble.

The ADHD as described in the article sounds like a nightmare to be honest, and I really wish scientists find some way to help these people.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#43

Post by dx87 »

pottertheotter wrote: post #5
corporate_shi11 wrote: post #3

I think there's an important distinction between hyperactive thought and hyperactive outward activity. Most people associate ADHD with the latter when it's really more about the former, as this essay describes well.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s because of this. I don't habe hyperactice activity so never thought I could have ADHD. And since I can't see how someone else's brain works, I didn't realize things with me were not normal. It was quite exciting to realize that a lot of things I struggled with could he explained.

Same for me, got diagnosed in my late 20s after I told my doctor that I was having serious trouble reading and holding conversations. People always thought I was antisocial because I didn't talk much, but it was because I couldn't focus enough to keep up with a conversation.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#44

Post by colechristensen »

bnjms wrote: post #13
vslira wrote: post #2

About getting treatment: it's extremely irritating that some people judge using Ritalin is somehow morally wrong. Yes, I get that "lifestyle changes" could help, but I don't want to change my lifestyle. Imagine if there was a pill to reduce risk of cardiac arrest, with some increased risk of something relatively minor. Can you imagine the uproar if cardiologists denied prescribing the pill, instead forcing people to…

> Yes, I get that "lifestyle changes" could help No. Just don't entertain this idea. You can go 20 years since the first time someone told you you may be ADHD or depressed with subsequent diagnoses. Then tell yourself it's all in behavior no one needs drugs. But twenty years on you'll still find yourself in the same cyclical patterns of periodic depression or chronic inability to select your attention to a task. "Lif…

Very true.

There are about a dozen factors with a positive correlation with each other, but they are not links in a causal chain. One does not simply "fix" them, they all have feedback on one another.

The knowledge of how they are related helps, but does not fix.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#45

Post by CuriousCosmic »

easton_s wrote: post #17

I was told by my doctor that since I have a successful career as a software engineer I do not have ADHD. I'm still fighting to get a prescription. What he doesn't understand how my coping mechanisms are probably more unhealthy then the drug. I have allocate recreation time to work, use a lot of caffeine, and sleep deprivation to overcome my ADHD. Sleep deprivation is probably the strongest tool to combat ADHD but as…

Other than your experience with your doctor, what you described is near perfect recreation of my experience prior to getting medication. Afterwards those coping mechanisms nigh complete disappeared almost overnight.

Keep pushing to at least get a trial run with the medication and seeing if it helps you. Also if your doctor is seriously ignoring your concerns, consider looking for a better doctor. People often place way too much confidence in their doctors and stick with crappy doctors who don't make efforts to resolve their patients concerns.

Best of luck finding something that helps you get away from those coping mechanisms.

Note: This post is a little rambly since I am typing this up while doing something else but I felt the need to comment.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#46

Post by whalesalad »

gnicholas wrote: post #6

For anyone with ADHD who finds this long article difficult to read, I'd suggest reading it with the BeeLine Reader browser extension (I'm the founder, and anyone who wants a free 1-month pass can email me via my profile). It makes walls of text and long articles in general easier to stick with, and is fairly popular in the ADHD community. This article works best in Clean Mode, which also reformats the text into a col…

For those on macOS/Safari - cmd + shift + R will transform an article into reader mode: https://i.imgur.com/4uLyDQA.png

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#47

Post by vonseel »

I’m 31 and have ADHD (diagnosed in my teens) and I’m pretty sure NOBODY with ADHD is going to have the wherewithal to read this entire article! Unless it happens to magically coincide with their hyper-focus topic of the moment!

In all seriousness, I skimmed parts of the article and kept scrolling and it just kept going and going and going... like the Energizer bunny. I guess the author found a doctor to prescribe stimulants; they do make it easy to write long rants.

I can identify with some of his analogies, not all. The forgetfulness, standing at desk with power supply / getting “stuck”, lots of that sounds familiar. Some of the stuff he talks about is behavioral though and if it can be called lazy, it probably is at least partially lazy. I could never file TPS reports everyday, but I can do it occasionally. My brain’s capable of it. I just don’t like doing boring things. And yeah, I probably wouldn’t last if I had to do boring things everyday for a job. But the article makes it sound like he’s actually not capable of doing a boring thing.

The more interesting parts of ADHD are the stuff that is lesser-known and often overlooked, like mood swings and anger/irritability issues. Ironically stimulants pretty much cured lifelong mood issues for me. I used to blow up on people all the time; now I’m easygoing.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#48

Post by munk-a »

omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #16

For anyone diagnosed with ADHD, taking stimulants is associated with 8+x increase of being diagnosed with a basal ganglia and cerebellum disease later in life. I believe this is NOT causative, but is instead a correlation between other diseases associated with Dopamine production and ADHD. I take and have continued to take stimulants for ADHD. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0207-5 In my family's case, we…

This has always been quite concerning to me as I've had a worsening essential tremor that was slight in my early twenties but is quite observable now that I'm in my thirties. The confounding effect that really hurts me here is that my father has had a benign essential tremor for his whole life - so there's a constant see-saw internally and with medical practitioners about whether my tremor is something to be concerned about or not.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#49

Post by devwastaken »

vslira wrote: post #2

About getting treatment: it's extremely irritating that some people judge using Ritalin is somehow morally wrong. Yes, I get that "lifestyle changes" could help, but I don't want to change my lifestyle. Imagine if there was a pill to reduce risk of cardiac arrest, with some increased risk of something relatively minor. Can you imagine the uproar if cardiologists denied prescribing the pill, instead forcing people to…

Ritalin based drugs are all that works for me. It's not even a choice, it's that I don't function how I need to without it.
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