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

Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 328 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#161

Post by marmetio »

zhenyakovalyov wrote: post #86
marmetio wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get equal benefits from meds and coaching, but it's relatively effortless to benefit from coaching with meds. The first time I took a stimulant, it kicked in basically immediately and suddenly nothing was difficult except coping with not having done it earlier.

are you considering any long term effects of meds? or are you using them topically? how are your cognitive effects while on meds?

There's no real long-term dependence. Going off the meds just returns me to my natural, dysfunctional self. I don't usually do that because it's disruptive without benefit.

The first type I tried happened to be right for me, so I didn't experience any negative effects. I did experiment with dose, though. Getting it right just feels like being more awake, which is how I describe the ability to choose where I hold my focus.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#163

Post by marmetio »

andybak wrote: post #153
marmetio wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's important is that it's reinforcing a bad habit.

The "bad habit" is poor impulse control and failure to control focus. That's something that is so central to ADHD that all I can ever really hope to do is mitigate it. Sometimes having 50 tabs open is a sign that I'm distracted and sometimes it's a sign up being really productive. All I can hope to do is make sure that the needle swings to the latter more often than the former and that I have a good strategy to recov…

I was coached+medicated out of doing the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#164

Post by tudorw »

vallassy wrote: post #154
nickelcitymario wrote: post #134

For me: (1) Recognize that if I'm struggling to focus, I'm probably either (a) not interested in what I'm doing or (b) have too much on my plate. (2) If I'm struggling to focus day after day, find something else to do. (3) If I have too much on my plate, insist that my employer lighten the load or, once again, find something else to do. It's not easy. Taken to its logical conclusion, I'm suggesting quitting jobs that…

>allow you to do one thing at a time Yep, this is why I chose truck driving as a job. I am looking to change out of it now after 12 years, but there's no short list of 'one thing at a time'jobs, and the ADHD has prevented me from learning programming so far. Regarding OP's question, when the tab counter on Firefox turns to infinity, I check the last ten tabs for anything really important, then take a deep breath and…

I thought that icon up there in the top right just said 99, never questioned why...

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#165

Post by paulkrush »

vallassy wrote: post #154
nickelcitymario wrote: post #134

For me: (1) Recognize that if I'm struggling to focus, I'm probably either (a) not interested in what I'm doing or (b) have too much on my plate. (2) If I'm struggling to focus day after day, find something else to do. (3) If I have too much on my plate, insist that my employer lighten the load or, once again, find something else to do. It's not easy. Taken to its logical conclusion, I'm suggesting quitting jobs that…

>allow you to do one thing at a time Yep, this is why I chose truck driving as a job. I am looking to change out of it now after 12 years, but there's no short list of 'one thing at a time'jobs, and the ADHD has prevented me from learning programming so far. Regarding OP's question, when the tab counter on Firefox turns to infinity, I check the last ten tabs for anything really important, then take a deep breath and…

Can you elaborate on this: "ADHD has prevented me from learning programming"?

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#166

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

> I love HN. I check it out basically for hours every day, for the past 5 years or so.

been there done that

> But, HN is utter hell too… it’s worse than my addiction to The Guardian.

For me it was spiegel.de ... since age of 16. I'm now in my late 30s. They helped me get a grip on it by introducing paid content. Given that I don't even like their quality of journalism that much since more than a decade. I mostly go there to annoy myself. Yeah, I guess for ADHD stricken minds that counts as entertainment.

> I see so many topics I’m interested in, so many cool projects, so I bookmark them. Then I see more and bookmark them too. There’s a never ending number of things I bookmark.

I never really got into bookmarking. I just open lots of tabs and read through them. Then I forget about it and sooner or later I close the browser. Of course I don't start new sessions where I left off for a reason.

> But the constant reality is that I will never ever be able to do all the things in my brain. It’s a severely frustrating and depressing fact I feel faced with every day. A world of highs and disappointment.

That's life. If you think about it - time and its investment is always linear for a single person while knowledge is created exponentially ... so, even if you'd live forever you couldn't get a hold on it.

> But I’m totally addicted because there’s just so much new.

And so much old!

> Anyone else with ADHD feel this way or have a healthier outlook about HN?

Well - meditation - zen meditation - breath meditation - that's what helps me. Nothing else. It's this with devotion or misery.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#167

Post by duffyjp »

Are you medicated? One of my boys has ADHD and it was life changing. When I was a kid ADD as they called it then was highly stigmatized because the meds turned you into a zombie, it's not the case anymore. Basically zero side effects other than appetite loss during lunch.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#168

Post by shiftpgdn »

nus07 wrote: post #133
jcpst wrote: post #125

The most recent thing I've done is make my phone a whole lot less distracting. I used this guide: https://whatifididnt.com/blog/iphone-dumb-phone/ I kept one of my note taking tools, voice memos, and bank apps. I still haven't reinstalled a web browser or email. It's been a little over a week. I wasn't on HN all weekend, where normally I would have been checking it throughout the day. It not being at my finger tips h…

I have to keep my phone next to me for 2FA, MFA while working. What workaround can I use to not have my phone in a different room while working?

If you have an iPhone put it into grayscale mode. I promise your screen usage will drop by half if you can keep it enabled.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#169

Post by osigurdson »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #134

For me: (1) Recognize that if I'm struggling to focus, I'm probably either (a) not interested in what I'm doing or (b) have too much on my plate. (2) If I'm struggling to focus day after day, find something else to do. (3) If I have too much on my plate, insist that my employer lighten the load or, once again, find something else to do. It's not easy. Taken to its logical conclusion, I'm suggesting quitting jobs that…

I'm convinced that multi-tasking leads to brain damage over time.
Post reply on HN