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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#111

Post by renewiltord »

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.

Not super related, but a friend of mine recently said "If you're the kind of person who is satisfied by a large task list, you shouldn't make todos. If you're the kind of person who hates them, you should."

It seems obvious after it being mentioned, but I noticed a useful corollary: a list of done tasks actually makes me unhappy. So I avoid todo pages where a done list is visible. Hiding done tasks (i.e. archiving done cards on Trello, deleting a row on your todo list instead of strikethrough), etc. has led me to use it better.

This isn't your problem, clearly, but just wanted to share a useful tip.

Re: Me and ADHD

#112

Post by rejectfinite »

birdyrooster wrote: post #22
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…

Seconded on L-Theanine, definitely helps if I get jitters. I usually avoid caffeine bc of this, since the adderall at a correct dose seems to work great but socially it’s hard to avoid caffeine.

L-Theanine is sadly not sold in Sweden in tablets. I have tried to find. As Tea really has a very calming effect on me.

Re: Me and ADHD

#113

Post by renewiltord »

logicslave wrote: post #62
borski wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if abused at high doses. I was recently diagnosed with ADD and the adderall XR is incredibly helpful, and at my 10mg dose on an “as needed” basis (since I don’t need productivity every day) I’m not concerned at all.

How long have you been taking it? The cracks will show years down the road, not initially.

This is not evidence-based.

Re: Me and ADHD

#114

Post by [deleted] »

sneak wrote: post #30
hombre_fatal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about ADHD though, not someone looking to just pull some all-nighters or cram on a Sunday night. When I realized there was a low dose medication that could basically cure me of ADHD (thus cure me of underperformance, procrastinating my ambitions, low professional self-esteem), the choice was obvious. Know what also does harm? Underperformance, procrastinating my ambitions, low professional self-esteem.…

Stimulant addictions are one of the most common functional addictions. I don't think most people would consider someone servicing an active physical dependency to have a "perfect bill of health", even if you are totally free from disease.

[deleted]

Re: Me and ADHD

#115

Post by rejectfinite »

madamelic wrote: post #57
krrrh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> caffeine does help from my testing, especially caffeine combined with L-Theanine. One thing that made me look into adderall was finding out I was a slow metabolizer of caffeine via 23andme, and was consuming an unhealthy level of caffeine. I did some research and determined that the health risks of low doses of adderall were smaller than those of high doses of caffeine. Scott Alexander’s review of the research on A…

>the health risks of low doses of adderall were smaller than those of high doses of caffeine. I hadn't seen that before, so thank you! I ran into this same thing accidentally, I was regularly 'overdosing' on caffeine by drinking 300 - 400mg of caffeine per day in college. The safe dosage is ~200mg for an adult if I recall, but I can only do about 100 - 125mg absolute max or my heart starts pounding. I am not sure if…

>The safe dosage is ~200mg for an adult if I recall

No? It is 400mg

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...

Re: Me and ADHD

#116

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

hi_hello wrote: post #76
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

So much. Open-ended or poorly defined projects can really spiral into attentive dysphoria for me. Productive procrastination – room cleaning and the like – is particularly appealing in that state, just to feel like I'm making progress on something.

The best manager I ever had set it up like so, he'd go:

Here's a large, open-ended problem I want you to solve this quarter. I'll secretly wait while you fix a thousand other unrelated problems that make our business better despite making no visible progress on the open-ended problem. Then I'll reframe your work to show management that the thousand other things you improved are more valuable than the open-ended problem, and get you promoted.

I miss that guy.

Re: Me and ADHD

#117

Post by renewiltord »

O_H_E wrote: post #52

Anybody else here thinks their ADHD influences some hoarding tendencies or fear-of-missing-out? I am basically a tab-opening machine. Whenever I come across any link that I feel might be helpful in some point in the future, I open it in the background knowing full well that I don't have time to look at it soon. Thank god for TheGreatSuspender, and SessionBuddy extentions.

Possible, but here's an n=1 counterexample, I have a positive diagnosis and whether on medication or off it I strongly desire fewer tabs. Sometimes I'll over-close and have to Ctrl-Shift-T.

Re: Me and ADHD

#118

Post by 0xb0565e486 »

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…

As far as I can tell, empathy goes both ways, and I think it's a bit unfair of you to call me unempathetic for simply expressing how I'm feeling.

I also don't think the examples you give are great analogues to the situation (although highly related) as I've not meet a lot of people using alcoholism, bulimia and asthma as a way to avoid everyday tasks in contrast to ADHD.

Re: Me and ADHD

#119

Post by chewxy »

Getting chemically treated for ADHD is one of the life-changing moments for me. I spent most of my teen years learning "good habits" thru counseling and all that jazz. It wasn't until I started Vyvanse that all those "good habits" that was taught to me actually made sense. All the meditation practice actually got put to good use when it comes to controlling anger.

I do wish I hadn't waited 15+ years between diagnosis and medication, because it is life changing. I can now read HN/reddit without getting sucked into a vortex of endlessness. Pomodoro actually works. And the inner chatter, they still exist. The TVs in the head are still on with all the channels going at once. But you now have a remote control with a mute key and you get to choose which channel you wanna focus on.

p/s if you're Aussie, Vyvanse is now on PBS so you no longer need to pay $100+ a month - rather it's now $6 to $40 depending on your cirumstances.

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