ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#81

Post by stuntkite » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:01 PM UTC

vonseel wrote: post #47

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 sti…

Hah. I really liked parts and skipped and scrolled more than a few. It looks a lot like some very helpful reddit posts I've made in the past.

I sent the article to my girlfriend though and she'll read all of it and ask me questions about it so I can cleverly get a proxy summary. ADHD Lifehack!

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#82

Post by hopia » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:03 PM UTC

ctruzzi wrote: post #70

rustybelt wrote: post #51

Thousands of words and no mention of diet. I was diagnosed ADHD in 5th grade, tried just about every medication out there, and never landed on a workable long-term solution until I modified my diet. Medication always had mixed results. Many allowed me to focus and better control impulses, but the emotional crash at the end of the day was too much. Others caused insomnia or palpitations. Cutting sugar and limiting car…

I was diagnosed with ADHD around the 3rd grade (2 separate psychiatrists diagnosed me) and have never heard about diets as working above all others. Are there any studies or information about this route or is it perhaps changing your eating behavior allowed you to do those same things with other parts of your life?

There are some studies about certain nutrients being beneficial in the treatment of ADHD.

For example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23495677

This particular study found that phospholipid improves ADHD symptoms in children (4-14 yo).

There's some ongoing research about the neurotransmitters related to ADHD: https://psychcentral.com/lib/neurotransmitters-involved-in-a...

However, I don't know if any comprehensive studies have been conducted about the effects of diet to ADHD, it could be tricky to study that.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#83

Post by sibeliuss » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:03 PM UTC

verst wrote: post #78

I'm 34 and I am finally meeting a psychiatrist soon for what I suspect has been ADHD all along. I do not suffer from depression or anxiety (to my knowledge). I have a perfectly healthy lifestyle - I run 5 days a week, about 40 miles total, eat healthily and sleep well. During my runs (which physically feel painful) I have few moments of clarity in my head. Other than running though my mind has a thousand thoughts all…

Before going down a road that involves powerful stimulants that have a high likelihood of abuse or misuse -- the danger is that they're fun, and one develops a tolerance, just like other similar illegal drugs -- it might be worthwhile to investigate a mediation practice, or other exercises to improve your attention. If you're already high functioning its likely not as bad as it seems.

From experience: First thing to go with the stimulants is healthy sleep; it's often hard to sleep on amphetamines. But in the morning, because you've got a script, you can take a pill and not worry about it (but the body remembers). Next thing to go is healthy eating; you simply don't need to eat when under the influence, or you do -- but you forget. Soon, those things combined could have the potential to turn a high functioning and healthy life into quite the opposite. But in the beginning -- especially if you've never experimented with stimulants recreationally -- you'll feel better than you ever have. Stimulants are euphoric. It's a trap, it wears off. Side-effects are likely. I've said it in a previous comment, but it's profound and interesting until it's not, and once the stimulants are gone a dark depression is very possible.

Attention is like a muscle, but also -- attention isn't everything. It could also be ones attitude towards these things.

Be skeptical -- understand that there might be blind spots in your thinking about your problems.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#84

Post by omgwtfbyobbq » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:05 PM UTC

mdthrowaway wrote: post #64

omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're misinterpreting my post based on some of the other responses. I will update it to unambiguously state that people taking stimulants for ADHD should continue to take them, just like I have continued to.

I'm not misinterpreting your post. You diagnosed the author with Segawa's based on your experiences by pointing out you wouldn't be surprised if he "had something similar". He does not, with certainty. You're also warning folks that the only consistently successful treatments we have for this (much, much more common) hyperactivity disorder are associated with unlikely neurological outcomes. Sure, an 8x increase sound…

If you have any specific edits you want me to make, please post them and I will include them.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#85

Post by qzx_pierri » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:05 PM UTC

ranman wrote: post #60

40acres wrote: post #9

I was diagnosed in 2019 after a long series of conversations with a therapist following a work disaster that nearly cost me my job. Getting diagnosed was like finding the missing piece of the puzzle regarding my life. My schooling history suddenly made sense, the poor financial decisions, etc. everything became clear. The biggest thing I realized is how tightening feedback loops is the key to my productivity, I gravi…

How do you use it right? I was on stimulants as a kid and they worked but made me feel emotionally empty and suppressed my appetite and energy. I’m 28 now and I’ve started taking it again to help with work. The appetite suppression is gone but the emotional apathy remains. If you have suggestions or experiments to make the best use of these meds I’d love to hear them. I started with the lowest possible dose. Also, yo…

Stimulants are bad news bro. I was diagnosed as a kid, and my sophomore year of college as well. I also didnt get enough sleep (or low quality sleep), had a terrible diet, etc. You can avoid the grips of amphetamines with regular exercise, mindfulness meditation, keto diet, yoga, etc. It's a bit harder to maintain, but you won't have to take amphetamines.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#86

Post by remote_phone » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:05 PM UTC

ADHD is not a disease. It’s a collection of symptoms that have been arbitrarily grouped together. My son’s psychiatrist who was diagnosing my son for ADHD said that it’s psychiatry’s dirty little secret.

Back in the 60s or 70s ( I can’t remember what he said) people were starting to notice that kids were having behavioral problems, trouble focusing etc.

So what they did was collect a group of symptoms, and then arbitrarily said “if the child has 6 out of 11 of these symptoms then they have ADHD.”

The reason why they chose 6 was because if they chose 5 then too little number of children would get diagnosed, and if they chose 7, then too many children would get diagnosed. Having 6 would mean that 7-10% of kids would get diagnosed which “looked right” so they chose 7.

It’s not a real disease like other diseases, it’s a collection of symptoms. Which is why kids get misdiagnosed all the time. Anxiety can produce ADHD-like symptoms. Other things like giftedness and boredom can also fry diagnosed as ADHD.

There really are children with focus issues where medication like adderall will absolutely help. It will make kids with anxiety worse though so a misdiagnosis will ruin lives. But the origins of where ADHD came from explains why there is so many issues with ADHD disgnoses.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#87

Post by the_watcher » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:07 PM UTC

Plug for Dani Donovan, who draws comics about ADHD that I've found to be some of the best ways to illustrate what it's like: https://twitter.com/i/events/808796572716765185

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#88

Post by elamje » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:07 PM UTC

With all of these types of conversations and threads I am more curious to hear from the disciplined, focused people who seem to be the goal for what Adderiddlinvanse fixes.

I have wondered if I have ADD many times in the past. Mostly, because I was in school and being forced to do a task that I didn't enjoy, nor wanted to enjoy. When I have found things that I do genuinely enjoy, I can focus for hours and hours on end.

I am not opposed to any diagnosis or treatment, but I really have never met anyone who can truly focus on anything, at any moment for a super long amount of time. From my own experience and the conversations I have had with friends that take Adderall/etc. it seems like we have believed that there exists a significant portion of the population that has an uncanny ability to focus on tasks, both fun and boring. I certainly think there are a few people out there like this, but anecdataly, most people I know are more towards to the distractable/ADD/ADHD spectrum than the focused types.

I bring this up, because if our perception of how many people around us have this god-like ability to focus is wrong, I suspect many people will take medicine under a misconception.

Like I said, don't want to ignore the extreme cases, but genuinely would like to hear from a few people that read this and can confidently say they can do most/all tasks without breaking focus.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#89

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:08 PM UTC

RankingMember wrote: post #39

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…

I didn't know this, but I take my medication as rarely as possible because I hate the comedown, appetite suppression, and tolerance building that occurs. It sucks, but I had a feeling there was some long-term downside like this. Hopefully lessening frequency to occasional use also lessens the likelihood of what you describe.

Cannabis definitely helps the irritability and loss of appetite.

But ironically it helps me even enough as a cure on it's own. I no longer take or need stimulants.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#90

Post by smorephism » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 8:12 PM UTC

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…

For what it's worth, I took up running, changed my diet, and found that both of those in combination did effectively nothing to address my ADHD symptoms. I'm a lot healthier now than I was before I discovered I loved running, but to this day I use medication because it's the only thing I've tried that makes a meaningful difference.