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Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

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Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#41

Post by xyzzy4747 »

lgleason wrote: post #36
xyzzy4747 wrote: post #13

I don't think the problem is that you can't focus - the problem is that the reward isn't high enough. I know your post isn't money-related, but let me digress. What is the point of fixing your procrastination? What goal are you really trying to achieve? If you can't pay attention in project meetings, so what? It's not like you'll get a $100,000 bonus for doing so. If there was a $10 million gold bar in the bottom of…

That is not how ADHD works. A person with untreated ADHD will not improve much even with incentives like this without treatment. The problem is that when it is untreated the executive part of the brain is not firing correctly because of a chemical imbalance. The meds help to fix that.

I'm not really sure about that. I used to have a full-time job out of college where sometimes I'd spend 30 minutes working per week. Serious, serious procrastination. Got panic attacks about it too. It took lots of introspection but eventually settled on "do one thing per day" for a while, i.e. the Seinfeld method, then eventually after a few years started job hopping.

I was also actually diagnosed with bipolar - around the same time as the bad procrastination - but I stopped taking my meds a decade ago (against the wishes of my doctor) and I'm basically fine now.

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#42

Post by phaedrus »

whalesalad wrote: post #34

Do we all have ADHD or are stimulants just good? Seriously. Pretty soon all of us will be on legal meth and we sit back and go "hey this is fun I get this from my doctor it's good" and yet as a society we judge meth, crack and cocaine addicts. Nearly anyone will respond well to a stimulant.

The difference is a person with ADHD will be calmed by a stimulant rather than amped up by it. The ADHD brain can't focus because it doesn't produce enough dopamine to reward the neural circuits for maintaining focus. So there's this paradoxical effect where something that in typical brains would lead to hyperactivity leads to calmness and clarity in an ADHD brain. It's qualitatively different.

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#43

Post by arthurcolle »

falcolas wrote: post #25
mirekrusin wrote: post #17

Be careful. 1 month is not enough to make a judgement. I hope it'll work for you long term and not create any side effects. I'm worried for you in terms of medication you mentioned. As an extreme example taking cocaine/amphetamines for 1 month would probably make you best dad ever, best coworker and best husband straight away - but would fuck you up totally longer term.

> I'm worried for you in terms of medication you mentioned Pure FUD. ADHD meds, taken in prescribed doses, have been proven in studies to not have negative impacts on either your cardiovascular system or your brain.

Amphetamines are still neurotoxic

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#44

Post by weakfish »

whalesalad wrote: post #34

Do we all have ADHD or are stimulants just good? Seriously. Pretty soon all of us will be on legal meth and we sit back and go "hey this is fun I get this from my doctor it's good" and yet as a society we judge meth, crack and cocaine addicts. Nearly anyone will respond well to a stimulant.

This is patently false and also misleading as comparing adderall to meth is like comparing dynamite to a nuclear bomb

Edit: parent replied snidely to me, then deleted the comment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#45

Post by sokoloff »

If you think you may have mild ADHD and have desires to become a pilot, you are probably better off going without a diagnosis. You won't be able to fly if you're on any medication for ADHD and will have hoops to jump through if you have a history of diagnosed ADHD even if you're not taking medication for it. (If you have severe ADHD, becoming a pilot is probably contra-indicated anyway.)

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#46

Post by whalesalad »

phaedrus wrote: post #42
whalesalad wrote: post #34

Do we all have ADHD or are stimulants just good? Seriously. Pretty soon all of us will be on legal meth and we sit back and go "hey this is fun I get this from my doctor it's good" and yet as a society we judge meth, crack and cocaine addicts. Nearly anyone will respond well to a stimulant.

The difference is a person with ADHD will be calmed by a stimulant rather than amped up by it. The ADHD brain can't focus because it doesn't produce enough dopamine to reward the neural circuits for maintaining focus. So there's this paradoxical effect where something that in typical brains would lead to hyperactivity leads to calmness and clarity in an ADHD brain. It's qualitatively different.

this is the classical DSM-V answer you hear thrown around but honestly times are changing, our understanding of this disorder is changing, and I do not think that is unequivocally true.

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#47

Post by [deleted] »

weakfish wrote: post #44
whalesalad wrote: post #34

Do we all have ADHD or are stimulants just good? Seriously. Pretty soon all of us will be on legal meth and we sit back and go "hey this is fun I get this from my doctor it's good" and yet as a society we judge meth, crack and cocaine addicts. Nearly anyone will respond well to a stimulant.

This is patently false and also misleading as comparing adderall to meth is like comparing dynamite to a nuclear bomb Edit: parent replied snidely to me, then deleted the comment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#48

Post by green-eclipse »

Not ADHD, but some similar symptoms for me. I could not focus on anything at work. Massive procrastination. It was just brutally painful to try to finish things I was working on.

Long story short: the culprit was sleep apnea. After a sleep test, I got a CPAP machine. After a bit of time to adjust to the equipment, it made a profound change to my life.

The next year or so was perhaps the most productive of my life. My boss & coworkers remarked it was like I was a different person.

Good quality sleep is important, it turns out!

(Side note: I dropped into REM sleep before my CPAP machine, with lively dreams and stuff. So I didn't really think I had apnea. My faulty mindset of apnea was that you basically couldn't dream at all. But once I had the CPAP machine, my dreams turned into unreal, epic sagas, as my brain started to repair and catch up on all the REM sleep it had missed over the years. My dreams are no longer so crazy, but that first 3-4 months was really interesting)

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#49

Post by pc86 »

bvanderveen wrote: post #22

A tautology: Adderall improves everyone’s ADHD symptoms! ADHD is just what life feels like when you’re not on speed. Cut down on pot and booze, move your body, avoid stressors, and take control of your things in your life. Don’t rationalize/medicalize your way into a permanent cognitive disability. You’re in control!

I think it's very likely ADHD is mis/overdiagnosed, but I'm not a physician so I can't be sure.

What I can be sure of is that many people do have a debilitating condition, and these medications help them live a normal life. This "ADHD is fake you're in control just snap out of it" bullshit is offense and idiotic.

Re: Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

#50

Post by sgeisenh »

dragontamer wrote: post #30
falcolas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm worried for you in terms of medication you mentioned Pure FUD. ADHD meds, taken in prescribed doses, have been proven in studies to not have negative impacts on either your cardiovascular system or your brain.

I'm generally trusting of pharma studies. But a bout with Zyrtec has convinced me that psychological effects aren't always well studied, even for common drugs. I'm convinced that prolonged use of Zyrtec makes me angrier for example. I've experimented with my allergies, and when I'm off Zyrtec, I'm sniffling and sneezing all the time... But generally happier and healthier from a mental perspective. Every medication yo…

Fatigue is a common side effect of Zyrtec (and other antihistamines). From purely anecdotal evidence, I think most people have to experiment with allergy medication to find one that works best for them. I know that I'm dysfunctional when taking Zyrtec but Claritin doesn't bother me at all.
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