Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My ADHD founder toolbox

hypatia.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 413 posts

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#71

Post by PragmaticPulp »

terribleperson wrote: post #66
yc-kraln wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was diagnosed when I was six, and, like you, I dropped all meds at 17. Recently (as in, this year) through a combination of therapy and introspection, I realized that while indeed I was able to have a successful life, career, relationships without the medication, and that, yes, my coping mechanisms were satisfactory, I was punching myself in the face for no reason Last month I saw a psychiatrist and got a prescript…

While meds can definitely help, one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications.

> one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications.

Agree. It's important to remind people that the effects of the first few weeks aren't like the effects for the next 10-50 years.

It's especially concerning when people say the meds give them "more energy to do things" because that's more of a side effect that goes away after a while. The focus-enhancing effect is separate from the energizing/euphoric side effect that people experience in the first few weeks.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#72

Post by eyelidlessness »

terribleperson wrote: post #66
yc-kraln wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was diagnosed when I was six, and, like you, I dropped all meds at 17. Recently (as in, this year) through a combination of therapy and introspection, I realized that while indeed I was able to have a successful life, career, relationships without the medication, and that, yes, my coping mechanisms were satisfactory, I was punching myself in the face for no reason Last month I saw a psychiatrist and got a prescript…

While meds can definitely help, one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications.

I knew day one. Three years have continuously confirmed what I knew day one. I wish I hadn’t been so afraid of meds that would help me.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#74

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

californical wrote: post #68
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #51

I diagnosed when I was like... 8 years old. From then to 17 I was on various meds, finally gave them all up. So for about 22 years I've coped with ADHD without meds. I am a Staff Engineer and make a good living, respected in my field. Regardless of anything else, I think the key thing to remember about ADHD is that you do not need to be a high-performing human being, at all, in life. You will forget things and get di…

Yeah I went through something similar, but recently started trying meds again. Not to take every day hopefully, but only in periods where I feel especially affected and want to be more productive. I feel it’s the best of both worlds, but will see how it goes and if I stick with ‘em. I think it’s good to experiment and figure out what works for you. I’m generally opposed to relying on drugs for things like this unless…

I agree. I hope I didn't come off as anti-med; just wanted to share that we can be OK either way. Do what works for you, try different things, but be OK with however you end up, even if it's not as productive as you'd like.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#75

Post by eyelidlessness »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #71
terribleperson wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While meds can definitely help, one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications.

> one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications. Agree. It's important to remind people that the effects of the first few weeks aren't like the effects for the next 10-50 years. It's especially concerning when people say the meds give them "more energy to do things" because that's more of a side effect that goes away after a while. The fo…

I’ve never experienced more energy to do things nor euphoria from my stimulant meds. They make me less anxious and allow me to muster executive function that I struggle with otherwise. Not because I’m more focused or productive or whatever else people ascribe to the drug, because I’m less overwhelmed by the world that’s loud and fast and bright and complicated and dangerous. My brain and the world around me are quieter and more reasonable.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#76

Post by danem »

resonious wrote: post #61
ReaLNero wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you stop taking meds? Curious what would be your reasons against it.

I'm not GP but I also stopped taking meds (actually recently for me, and I'm 27). I'm sure GP's reason is different. My reason was that I had realized that a lot of my old ADHD symptoms were actually still happening. I was still procrastinating, still getting stressed when forced to focus on stuff I don't care about, still forgetting stuff. As an experiment, I decided to keep lowering my dose to see what happens. I k…

I'm curious... Are these not things virtually everyone struggles with to some degree? There are no end to time management books and people who wish they would spend less time on their phones/playing video games/etc.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#77

Post by TeMPOraL »

terribleperson wrote: post #66
yc-kraln wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was diagnosed when I was six, and, like you, I dropped all meds at 17. Recently (as in, this year) through a combination of therapy and introspection, I realized that while indeed I was able to have a successful life, career, relationships without the medication, and that, yes, my coping mechanisms were satisfactory, I was punching myself in the face for no reason Last month I saw a psychiatrist and got a prescript…

While meds can definitely help, one month in is way too early to know if the change is long-term positive. This is especially true with stimulant medications.

> This is especially true with stimulant medications.

Hard to see how this is "especially true" with stimulants, given they're the rare case of psychiatric meds you can get on and off safely at any time, and the bulk of the effects appear in hours to days after starting the treatment (and disappear just as fast after cessation). Contrast with e.g. depression treatment, where it takes a month or more before it's clear if the drug even works on you, and which of the bad side effects have a chance of eventually going away.

"Long-term positive" is impossible to know in individual, non-statistical sense, whether it's about stimulant medication, SSRIs, moving to another city, marrying, or starting a family - any of those is going to have cascading impacts on your entire life, and even if you think they're positive after a month/year, who knows, maybe few weeks from now you'll think they were negative. That (otherwise stupid) "Farmer's Son" story has a point here.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#78

Post by steve_adams_86 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #64
bitexploder wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

Agreed with you and responders here. I want to add, there's also change in life circumstances aspect to it. Like, it's nice if you can use hyperfocus to do great things, that on the net outweigh the inability to handle "normal life" things like paying bills on time. Then you marry and start a family and at some point wake up realizing this new life is perfectly structured to prevent you from using the positive aspect…

This is exactly it. The person who resents me most for my disability is my wife. I don’t blame her, and I do my best to reign in my disability, but it’s not possible for me to function the way she wishes I could.

I put everything I’ve got into a) making sure I don’t get fired because I earn about 4x more than her, b) pour all the energy I can into my kids because I see how fast they’re growing up, and by that point, I’ve already disappointed her too much to repair things.

I’ve tried countless strategies to get around this, but the unfortunate truth is that I’m a nice person yet an awful partner. I have serious limitations that I wish I was aware of before I “trapped” her in this.

Rule one of ADHD: you probably lack a lot of self awareness and it can be genuinely awful for people you live with.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#79

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

thesausageking wrote: post #54
nyanpasu64 wrote: post #3

I tried signing up for Inflow, but noped out when it asked to fill out survey questions and supply an email address.

Same. It's like it was designed specifically to make it hard for ADHDers to sign up. Little information about the service or what I'm signing up for or what it costs, the "get started" button opens a new tab on a different site, etc. I bookmarked it with the intention to go back. However, I know realistically I won't.

It's a weirdly designed funnel. I somehow ended up going through part of it twice (second time in the app). I have email scolding me for attempting to sign up with an address that already had an account.

Not the craziest designed-by-marketing thing I've seen, but up there. But hey, it's not like I'm looking to them for UX advice.

Post reply on HN