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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#91

Post by jeffnv »

0xb0565e486 wrote: post #74

Am I the only one who feels a bit discredited when someone blames their ADHD for their shortcomings? To me, all the ADHD symptoms listed in this article sounds like nothing more but normal human traits. Also, author hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD, and the tips can be helpful to everyone.

You're not the only one that feels this way. Just like you're not the only one that probably feels like alcoholics should just learn to handle their liquor, bulimics should accept their body image, people with cardiovascular issues should just exercise more, stutterers should just stop stuttering, asthmatics should just breath better, etc. What you have is a lack of empathy and understanding for people that genuinely suffer from a condition that you don't suffer from, and yes lots of people are in the same boat as you.

Re: Me and ADHD

#92

Post by jacques_chester »

sneak wrote: post #21
madamelic wrote: post #20

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

Counter-anecdata here: meds aren't always the best option for people. Don't bias toward taking amphetamines as the parent comment instructs you to do. There are serious negative long-term effects from taking amphetamines regularly. Such advice as above is very one-size-fits-all, and in my view is thus really bad advice. > Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "literal meth" and how it will certainly kill y…

Adderall is not the only medication. Other stimulants are from different families and all of them come in a variety of formulations / dose releasing mechanisms.

There is at least one non-stimulant drug that can be prescribed (atomoxetine), but it doesn't work for a lot of people (including me).

Re: Me and ADHD

#93

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

A lot of comments here are warning about the addictive properties of stimulant medications.

For folks without ADHD, you should know that stimulants, like Ritalin and Adderall, do not usually cause the same response as in non-ADHD people. I've spoken with many people on stimulants, and none of them enjoy taking the medication, beyond what it has done to improve their lives. Furthermore, most ADHD people develop tolerance to medication over long periods of time -- eventually the drug does little-to-nothing itself. For myself, taking even high doses of a Adderall regularly produces no result -- might as well be taking sugar pills. I have to take them periodically (a few times a week at most) to get any sort of benefit.

The proper medication and dosage should not make you feel "high" -- if anything it's almost the opposite. You get some clarity, an ability to direct your focus without a thousand distractions a minute, and perhaps even a sense of time.

I let some non-ADHD friends try a low dose of Ritalin when I had switched off of it and had some left over, and they were bouncing off the fucking walls -- I would strongly not recommend taking stimulants unless medically necessary.

For people with ADHD, they can be truly life saving. For recreational use, avoid.

Re: Me and ADHD

#94

Post by delecti »

heroHACK17 wrote: post #80
athorax wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it is the "open-ended" part of a project that really ends up screwing me. If I don't have a definitive task/goal to work towards that is when I start to procrastinate

Man, I am the same way. How have you coped with this? I work in a pretty open-ended environment without a lot of processes, so you can imagine it has been a struggle for me. I have tried to create tickets for myself but I seem to also struggle with defining the "done" state.

My only strategy for that problem is to break things down as much as possible into subtasks. That helps because I'm at least more likely to get something done if there's a list of things I can weigh the terribleness of. As the GP comment said that they'd clean their apartment rather than get work done, I'll do the tasks with more clarity to procrastinate doing the tasks with more ambiguity. Eventually, doing the tasks with clarity help clear up the ambiguity in the others.

Re: Me and ADHD

#95

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

schoolornot wrote: post #26
madamelic wrote: post #20

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

I'm still not sold on the medication and prefer to follow strict routines + good diet + exercise. To me, it's obvious who is taking ADHD pills. People are almost zombie like or they space out, or even on low-doses they almost can't "keep up" in conversation or meetings. Not being drugged and finding coping mechanisms has allowed me to plow through multiple degrees and find career success, albeit at the cost of "other…

This comment strikes me as full of ignorance.

Strict routines? Good diet? Exercise???

Good luck doing any of these if you have even moderate ADHD. It's hard enough getting out of bed.

As a sibling mentions, your description of people who are "drugged" sounds more like people who have undiagnosed-ADHD and are not medicated.

The drugs don't make you drugged -- that's sorta the default state. The drugs make you functional enough to try and develop coping mechanisms in the first place.

Re: Me and ADHD

#96

Post by jacques_chester »

jeffnv wrote: post #91
0xb0565e486 wrote: post #74

Am I the only one who feels a bit discredited when someone blames their ADHD for their shortcomings? To me, all the ADHD symptoms listed in this article sounds like nothing more but normal human traits. Also, author hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD, and the tips can be helpful to everyone.

You're not the only one that feels this way. Just like you're not the only one that probably feels like alcoholics should just learn to handle their liquor, bulimics should accept their body image, people with cardiovascular issues should just exercise more, stutterers should just stop stuttering, asthmatics should just breath better, etc. What you have is a lack of empathy and understanding for people that genuinely…

You should just produce more insulin! You should just not get cancer! Deaf? Just listen harder!

Re: Me and ADHD

#97

Post by renewiltord »

commandlinefan wrote: post #75

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

The same as with anything else: when it becomes debilitating. Observe other problems that are similar:

* Everyone encounters back pain at some point. It's only an illness when acute or chronic.

* Most people have some desire for ordered patterns so lots of people will do things like avoid cracks in tiles because it is satisfying. Not a disorder until you absolutely must not step on a crack or it will cause you to need to go through some ritual.

Re: Me and ADHD

#98

Post by ZephyrBlu »

commandlinefan wrote: post #75

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

To me this makes more sense in conjunction with hyperfocus.

I find it hard to focus on things unless I'm hyperfocused, partly because I'm distracted by the thing I'm hyperfocused on.

I also tend to always be hyperfocused on one thing at a time for a while and then switch over to a new thing.

Things that I may not like or want to do kind of melt away when I'm hyperfocused on something, and feel like they're amplified when I'm not.

Re: Me and ADHD

#99

Post by cryptnotic »

sudosysgen wrote: post #89
commandlinefan wrote: post #75

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

There are, of course, levels. For me the difference is between spending 15 hours non-stop programming, or spending two months unable to open a ticket because it's menial, being unable to start important schoolwork that is too menial until 1h before the due date, and so on. I've been like this since I remember, and I really can't do anything to fix it. It has a large negative effect on my life. But of course, it's not…

If you're in university, then you're probably in a place that has resources that can help. Take advantage of them. For example, you may have access to an occupational therapist who can help you improve how you organize and schedule your work, create effective workplace, avoid distractions, etc. Medication may also help, but it works best in conjunction with active behavioral changes.

Re: Me and ADHD

#100

Post by rejectfinite »

commandlinefan wrote: post #75

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

Fuck you
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