ctrl-f "exercise" shows nothing. its helpful for me- basketball particularly because its so fast paced its kind of add in its own way.
ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
331–340 of 453 posts
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's interesting to hear about ADHD causing mood swings/anger/irritability and the stimulants doing away with them. Is that a common trait of the illness? I only noticed that after I started taking stimulants my temper became a lot more short. It's to the point that I have to be really cognizant of it lest I inadvertently snap at someone due to some biological response (really not good as a leader in an organizatio…
So I'm not a researcher, just a sufferer, but my understanding is that yes, emotional regulation issues are common with ADHD. Attention-deficit is kind of a misnomer; a lot of doctors now think "executive functioning disorder" would be a better name. Executive functioning is sort of the layer that sits on top of our underlying systems - whether they be behavioral or emotional - and allows us some level of conscious a…
I get impossibly bad social anxiety from stimulants and can’t use them
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#333I’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…
> Unless it happens to magically coincide with their hyper-focus topic of the moment! It's funny. People with ADHD suffer from attention deficit but at the same time they display hyperattention when they encounter a subject they like. I've experienced it as well: once I start programming I have no problem doing it for 12 hours straight. I've found this trait in many ADHD patients. There's usually something that reall…
Attention Deficit isn't an inability to focus, it's an inability to exert executive control over focus. When there's nothing interesting going on this manifests as wandering attention. When there's something interesting going on this manifests as a crippling inability to process background events like appointments and bedtime.
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#334ADHD 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 arbit…
> 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.
Unscientific personal observation, but I wonder if TV has a role in this. Didn't kids start watching a lot of TV around that time?
Also, I feel kids in poor countries with no TV (not that there's much of that left now) have little to no ADHD.
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I admit I'm biased because I started taking ADHD meds and then had a manic/psychotic episode, that involved me getting involuntarily committed to a psych ward and burning all my career bridges, and also got diagnosed with heart failure, and I attribute a huge chunk of the blame to the ADHD meds. Both my psychiatrists and cardiologists insisted I needed even more meds or things would get worse, but instead I jus…
Stimulants have the adverse effect of harming the mitochondria/metabolism. Most conditions improve when the metabolism is normalized. B-vitamins are pro-metabolic. Sometimes doctors do good work. My girlfriend's doctors eventually figured out that she is a poor methylator, and can't convert folic acid into folate (Vitamin B-9). She therefore absolutely requires a dietary source of Folate, instead of the folic acid th…
Do you have any insight into how, exactly, those doctors figured that out? What kind of specialists?
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#336I was somewhat recently diagnosed with ADD and the diagnosis has truly changed my life. I, for the first time, in roughly 12 years of writing software professionally, am able finish a project enough to open source it-- and I am days away from being able to do so. It feels insanely good. Like something I've only dreamed of as silly as that is, and I don't even care if folks use it (it's not that good), but it's the fa…
I sometimes wonder how much gaming, and stimulating websites like youtube, reddit play a roll in actually creating ADHD. It's kind of a chicken or the egg situation, do people have ADHD and because they have ADHD they are more susceptible to gaming addiction? or do they become addicted to these sites/games which then creates ADHD type symptoms. Not saying ADHD isn't an actual thing, but I've noticed a reoccurring the…
ADHD is complex and can involve multiple causes. To date, all of the major ones fall in the realm of neurology and genetics (biological causation) with no evidence that social factors alone can account for the condition.
People ADHD are definitely more likely to overindulge when it comes to gaming/internet usage (hyperfocusing). The reason is because it's stimulating. Sites like reddit is an endless influx of information.
Since I have ADHD it's a struggle to do anything that is boring. Sure most people can relate to that but the difference here is that my school/work/relationships have suffered greatly because of that and the other ADHD symptoms.
Some people who say they have ADHD probably don't but are suffering from something else (stress, depression, anxiety, etc.). It's a disorder that's over diagnosed because avoiding to do boring things, losing focus, and/or hyperactivity is pretty common (especially among youth).
Kids who are obsessed with gaming/internet usage might develop bad habits and behavioral issues but not necessarily something permanent. I seriously doubt it can cause ADHD. Traumatic brain injury would make more sense.
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
" Lanham, Md. (Jan. 8, 2019)— The message is clear. Treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with the related health risks it poses, has the possibility of adding an average of nine to 13 years to the lifespan of children and adults diagnosed with ADHD. This is the implication of a cutting-edge research study conducted by Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D., who evaluated the connection between ADHD…
I feel like you're now arguing in bad faith. Medicine for heart health does not change your behavior significantly. ADHD medication does. That's the distinction I'm trying to make.
> Medicine for heart health does not change your behavior significantly.
This part of your argument is decidedly false. It's been an open secret for decades among public performers of several stripes (actors, public speakers, musicians, etc.) that beta blockers can prevent stage fright [1]. More recently, there have been multiple studies suggesting a link between statin use and increased irritability and aggression [2] [3]. Basically, the distinction between "psychoactive" and "non-psychoactive" drugs is more about the reasons people take them than it is about the drugs themselves. To a first approximation, there's no such thing as an objectively "non-psychoactive" drug.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/arts/mixed-reviews-for-a-...
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unless it happens to magically coincide with their hyper-focus topic of the moment! It's funny. People with ADHD suffer from attention deficit but at the same time they display hyperattention when they encounter a subject they like. I've experienced it as well: once I start programming I have no problem doing it for 12 hours straight. I've found this trait in many ADHD patients. There's usually something that reall…
I have a pet theory that it's much easier for ADHD people to enter Flow state. But also that Flow state is often a bad way to write code. One, virtually everyone has a tremendous case of Sunk Cost Fallacy around things done in Flow state. If someone spent 10 hours in a week working on code that you say is badly conceived in a code review, you'll get pushback and grumbling. Argue with someone who did the PR in a singl…
>Two, writing code for other people requires empathy. Rumination. Flow state is considerably absent of both of those. So the problems and gotchas you know about ahead of time get handled, but anything you find along the way is very likely to get ignored. The quantity of your code goes way, way up, the quality goes considerably in the other direction.
Yeah, I thought "flow" required extremely low resistance in the task (i.e., someone sewing, playing an instrument, or playing a relatively simple game competently and with no interruption of confusion, frustration, or distraction).
I wish I could code like that. xD Constant typing to an ambient soundtrack. Instead, it's a minefield of "uh wait I have to Google this thing", "uh, what should happen here?", "oh no, an error with a complicated message I probably also have to Google".
And I can only carry on the rubber ducking to competently deal with those with a FULL MARSHALLING of my mental resources, which seems too strenuous for "flow" and is exhausting after a few hours.
But if you're sewing, you're just sewing.
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have any specific edits you want me to make, please post them and I will include them.
My answer to that question will come across snarky or "the medical profession appealing to authority," I'm afraid, because I'd like to see your remarks entirely removed as medically harmful. Your purpose is clear from your other, more to the point remark: if only it had been for a random HN commenter who's never been to medical school speculating about two entirely unrelated diseases based on the presence of a common…
I'm happy to modify the portions of my post you think are medically harmful. I could be wrong, and I've been wrong before. But at the same time you could be wrong, and I think you are relying a bit much on appeals to authority. Just my opinion of course. I also wouldn't sell yourself short about making contributions to other fields. If you're wrong, you're wrong, but let someone else tell you that. I had to dig around and look real hard to even begin to figure out what was going on with my grandmother and ultimately my family. I was wrong a few times along the way, but we were able to figure it out.
My guess is that DRD is under diagnosed because of reduced or low penetrance in some cases. As far as I can tell, for the majority of our lives, no single person in my immediate family would fit the diagnoses, but as a family, we apparently do, especially if someone knows where to look and what to look for. I suspect my extended family on my grandma's side has it as well, but I doubt any family with it would be diagnosed unless they happened to have someone who presented with it in an obvious way.
The urgency you're detecting in my posts is because in my experience, 10+ doctors and 4 neurologists missed it and/or mistook it for other diseases. It was especially hazardous for my grandmother because they were insisting on doing the medical version of taking her out back and shooting her even though their treatment of her in medical and custodial care settings was causing the very symptoms they claimed were due to other disorders. And yes, I do not want someone else to go through that, especially since having other relatives who also respond to carbo/levo seems to be critical in helping establish a diagnosis when there isn't someone in the family who presents in a typical way.
If you want, I can modify my post, but like I said before, I strongly suspect the presentation of ADHD with other characteristics, which are admittedly not symptoms of either disorder, increases the odds that someone has DRD or some other neurological disorder that's also contributing to the presentation of their ADHD.
If you have some compelling evidence that there is no interaction between DRD or similar and ADHD, I'm happy to see it, but from personal experience that is not the case.
Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hate to break it to you, but the OP's edited comment is far less harmful than yours. It has been significantly, damned near whole cloth, edited in several ways since I said something, so I'd ask a little consideration that I'm coming from a good place. I'm not asking for anyone to avoid discussing Segawa's; I'm specifically responding to the speculation, across multiple comments, that the common element of dopamine…
Appreciate the comment and was unaware that it had been edited after your second comment. I won't be diagnosing myself off of Wikipedia, next to no one in my family has the symptoms that I do so I doubt it's something like Segawa's. I appreciate the apology and hope my reply didn't come off as too aggressive. Part of my tone comes from personal experience: doctors stating that I don't have a condition because it woul…
It was edited after their second comment, but they are exaggerating how much it was edited.
I added the first italicized sentence after their first comment, and after their second comment added the second italicized sentence and modified two other non-italicized sentences. I think... I may have just modified one non-italicized sentence after their second comment.