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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

#51

Post by carapace »

A friend of mine who's a neuroscientist likes to say, "Psychiatry is not a branch of medicine." He means it in a constructive way, the implied follow on is "that would be good though, and we should strive to do that."

My point is, there are lots and lots of different kinds of therapy, and lots and lots of variation in therapists. If you are having problems seek help please! You're not in this alone and it's important to take care of yourself. My advice is to try several different therapists until you find one that helps you.

OP got lucky, the psychiatrist they met didn't try to have them committed or anything gnarly like that, and it sounds like they got good results from the weekly therapy with a psychologist and some medicine.

You might not be so lucky.

Start with diet. Most of us are making ourselves sick by eating some kind of crap.

Check physical things: are you getting enough sleep? Too much light or noise at night can act like slow poison. Or you might have sleep apnea!?

Is your house next to a freeway or an airport? Some chemical source?

Does your spouse or child or neighbor drive you crazy? Your commute is too long?

Next, try mechanical interventions: massage, Rolfing, etc.

If it's not food, environmental, or something in your muscles or bones, then maybe just maybe you might need therapy of some kind.

Scientifically, we are no better off than witch doctors and fortune tellers. Psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors, which is strange when you think about it, because they don't use any of that training in the practice of psychiatry.("Psychiatry is not a branch of medicine." is "funny" because it's true.)

(E.g. When you go to a psychiatrist they do not draw blood. There's no point because there's no tests they can run on your blood to know what's wrong with you "psychiatricaly" (because that's a word that means "Western-flavored voodoo".))

So, to sum up, if you got problems get some help. But beware of psychiatrists because they are even more crazy than most therapists and they often have leverage with hospitals and police to do really messed up violations of your human rights if they get the idea that you have "demons in your blood" (demons with names like "Schizophrenia" and "Bipolar". They can conjure with these names to put you in jail for days or longer even if you have committed no crime or criminal acts.)

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

#52

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

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.

I don't think the way you've phrased it can possibly be true. I would assume whether you have ADHD or not an amphetamine is going to raise your heart rate.

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

#53

Post by fein »

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.

HN doesn't seem to like to be told to stop taking heavy drugs.

I agree with you. These things seem to be handed out like candy to whoever says the right things to a shrink. I think every single one of my neighbors has an addy script from willy wonka internet docs.

When I was a kid, my parents were told to put me on meds as I didn't want to participate in school activities that I didn't find interesting. They smartly ignored that advice.

I played with pharmaceutical stimulants in college and they are absolutely amazing, which is why I don't touch them any more. It's not a thing I would ever want to become reliant on.

And I still have problems doing things I don't find interesting, which is also known as a normal state of existence.

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

#54

Post by ynniv »

falcolas wrote: post #29
ynniv wrote: post #26

I did the same two years ago and it's been transformative. There are people who will tell you that medication isn't a complete solution, or that it's not the best one. They're not wrong, but telling someone who is drowning that they just need to learn how to swim isn't doing them any favors. I was 40 when I was diagnosed, and understanding the implications of that diagnosis has made my life much better. My first coup…

> I had already been self medicating with coffee Very much this. The nice thing about stimulant medication is it provides more of the ADHD brain regulation with a lower impact on your body (jitters, increased heartrate, etc).

You do need to lay off the coffee for a bit though. At first I stopped altogether, then went back to some decaf, now I'm back to drinking some regular, but always careful about how much.

Also, decongestant medication, though Adder-all is a mild decongestant so I don't use separate decongestants very often.

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

#55

Post by mid-kid »

bmitc wrote: post #32
thebigspacefuck wrote: post #24

I got on meds for ADHD and they objectively didn’t help that much. I also felt like my pulse and emotions were greatly elevated in confrontational situations to an uncomfortable extent (though caffiene was involved). The other aspect was that it was almost $300/month for a prescription. In social situations they did help a bit. Any impact on productivity was minor. I’d also say right after the meds kicked in I would…

Is it possible that you don't have ADHD? I am not an expert, but it is my understanding that the medications affect those with and without ADHD totally differently. In reponse to the original post, I don't think psychiatrists are really the ones who should be diagnosing ADHD. It is again my understanding that neuropsychologists should be the ones administering the tests and diagnosis, where psychiatrists will then ma…

Not all medicine, and especially not adhd meds, have the same effect on everyone.

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

#56

Post by friedman23 »

I had the same experience. Recently got put on vyvanse and have been on it for 2 months now. My life has changed over night. I used to struggle to wake up to the extent I needed to keep the window open at night and set multiple alarms. All the coping strategies and social pressure I had when working from the office disappeared due to WFH and I could not get myself to do anything.

It's hard to describe to people what it's like to not be able to do something you actually want to do. Every night before bed I'd tell myself, "tomorrow, I'm going to get out of bed and get ready for the day in 30 minutes" and I would constantly fail at this simple thing. I would stay in bed for 2 hours awake wanting to go and do things but it was just so hard.

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

#57

Post by friedman23 »

thebigspacefuck wrote: post #24

I got on meds for ADHD and they objectively didn’t help that much. I also felt like my pulse and emotions were greatly elevated in confrontational situations to an uncomfortable extent (though caffiene was involved). The other aspect was that it was almost $300/month for a prescription. In social situations they did help a bit. Any impact on productivity was minor. I’d also say right after the meds kicked in I would…

Vyvanse was life changing for me. For all psychoactive medications your mileage may vary.

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

#58

Post by thebigspacefuck »

falcolas wrote: post #39
thebigspacefuck wrote: post #24

I got on meds for ADHD and they objectively didn’t help that much. I also felt like my pulse and emotions were greatly elevated in confrontational situations to an uncomfortable extent (though caffiene was involved). The other aspect was that it was almost $300/month for a prescription. In social situations they did help a bit. Any impact on productivity was minor. I’d also say right after the meds kicked in I would…

Did you work with your Psychiatrist to try different meds? There's a lot of different types, including some that are not stimulants. I had 3 different types that didn't work for me until I settled on an extended release dose of an aderall derivative.

I tried Vyvanse, Focalin, and Clonidine. Vyvanse seemed to work the best. I was offered the chance to try Methamphetamine but didn’t due to social stigma.

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

#59

Post by waqf »

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)_/¯

Read this and see whether you think the same: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/know-your-amphetamines

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

#60

Post by friedman23 »

ynniv wrote: post #26

I did the same two years ago and it's been transformative. There are people who will tell you that medication isn't a complete solution, or that it's not the best one. They're not wrong, but telling someone who is drowning that they just need to learn how to swim isn't doing them any favors. I was 40 when I was diagnosed, and understanding the implications of that diagnosis has made my life much better. My first coup…

My "coping strategy" if you could call it that, was extreme procrastination and putting myself under extreme stress to the point where if I wanted to accomplish anything I needed to procrastinate to the point where I needed to pull multiple all nighters in a row.

I've lost hair and I've gained significant weight from the stress. Adhd medication has probably added years to my life. I can actually proactively accomplish things for the first time in 30 years of living.

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