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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#351

Post by taneq »

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…

> At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology?

At the point where it causes a significant and ongoing problem in your personal or professional life.

"Lost track of time and wasted half an hour on HN" - Not a pathology.

"Wasted half a week on HN and was unable to stop even though you really, truly wanted to get your work done?" - Maybe pathology.

"Did that most weeks for months on end." - See a doctor.

Re: Me and ADHD

#352

Post by nullsense »

core-questions wrote: post #239
madamelic wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My only regret is I didn't know sooner. Yep! Always scored 90th percentile in standardized tests (how? no clue.), curious, the lot... just couldn't care about homework or listening in class. I struggled through 5.5 years of college then years later snapped out of the mindset of "just having to try harder". My parents knew... they had me diagnosed as a kid, but were scared off of stimulants by their church. I try not…

I'm a parent who's scared about my child's potential need for this. We're just entering the diagnosis pipeline now. I'd like to give you an opportunity to convince me that I shouldn't be resisting that sort of thing, which is my (admittedly somewhat unfounded) reaction.

Although I feel like my childhood was OK, I dropped out of highschool and from the age of 17 to age 27 I worked a _total_ of 1 year split across 5 different jobs.

If you're worried about the effect medication might have, I understand, I'm a parent and I'm 99% sure my boy has it as he's exactly like me. I would implore you to consider the abject danger that untreated ADHD presents to its sufferers. Shorter life span by on average 12 years. It's a much worse diagnosis than people realise. The transition into adulthood took me a decade. It was rough. Really, really rough. I only got diagnosed last year at 32. Medication or not, what you should endeavour to do is monitor if it goes into remission in early adulthood for them or not, and keep them educated on the topic so they can understand how/why they experience life the way they do. I'm not medicated myself at the moment (because thus far I haven't responded to it) but being aware of it has made a big, big difference.

Re: Me and ADHD

#354

Post by nullsense »

aidenn0 wrote: post #65
novok wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or sleep deprivation...

People who are sleep deprived will actually have many of the symptoms of ADHD; poor subjective sense of time, difficulty focusing, &c.

To make matters worse ADHDers often have terrible sleep quality due to not being able to get to bed on time because there's almost always something more interesting.

Re: Me and ADHD

#355

Post by rubicon33 »

treeman79 wrote: post #336
rubicon33 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woh... Sorry to hear that. How does a small stroke manifest?

Entire Right side goes numb, weak and icy cold. Lose the ability to write by hand. Vision goes double. Thinking becomes very difficult. Lose balance, Various levels of confusion. A bad One made me mostly forget my kids for a couple of months. It’s kind of between a TIA and a full stroke. I used to Get TIAs a lot, but ignored them as they lasted under 30 seconds. Now they are much worse. Blood thinner mostly Prevent.…

I'm really sorry to hear that you deal with that. A reminder for the rest of us to remember how lucky we are.

Re: Me and ADHD

#356

Post by onethought »

username90 wrote: post #269
neutronicus wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other thing your are not that well adapted for is parenthood (lots of getting shit together and going someplace on a schedule) and that is harder to take a break from

Do you really need to do that on a weekend though?

Anecdote from Asian lifestyle: Weekends are usually busier than weekdays with kids. Weekdays are school and study. Weekends are extracurricular sports, tutors, music, etc.

“Playtime” is a tool used to prepare the child for the next lesson.

Re: Me and ADHD

#357

Post by coolspot »

zwkrt wrote: post #147

I have undiagnosed ADD. I know partially because I observe my own behavior, but also because once at a party I took adderall and while everyone else frantically danced themselves into a heavy sweat, I was compelled to go into the kitchen and do all the dishes and reorganize my closet. I don’t like how stimulants make me feel, even though I know they might make it easier to fit into society. It is probably hard to des…

> My jaw is clenched.

You might be overdosing or particular drug is not for you - try another one.

Re: Me and ADHD

#358

Post by LeonB »

beaugunderson wrote: post #290
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #93

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 tolera…

I see this repeated often and I've never been able to find a source for it. I do not believe stimulant medications affect people with ADHD and without ADHD differently. > Stimulant drugs do improve the ability (even without ADHD) to focus and pay attention. One function, which is reliably improved by stimulant medications, is sustained attention, or vigilance. Stimulants improve sustained, focused attention, but “sel…

> I do not believe stimulant medications affect people with ADHD and without ADHD differently.

Then why do you think stimulant medications were ever approved for adhd treatment?

Of course they were work differently for people with and without adhd. For people without adhd the stimulant medications do not treat the adhd. If you try to sort of isolate out that part of it... what are you expecting to find?

Re: Me and ADHD

#359

Post by SpicyP »

With all these comments about stimulants, I think it's important to note that 25-50% of people with ADHD also have a sleep disorder (often not diagnosed). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6299464/

I have ADHD and have found that being on a strict sleep schedule and really making good sleep a focal point has helped maybe more than taking a stimulant

Re: Me and ADHD

#360

Post by emteycz »

username90 wrote: post #257
sizzle wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you struggle because you never learned proper habits growing up due to inattentive type ADD, then you need to relearn these life skills and the stim meds give you the ability to focus on bettering yourself. Therapy provides a professionally guided framework for teaching you these life skills faster than on your own.

My experience is the opposite, my ADD forced me to learn way better habits than everyone else just to do everyday tasks.

Mine makes me unable to focus even on cleaning teeth...
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