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Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
41–50 of 109 posts
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#42I was diagnosed 15ish years ago when I was 26. I tried medication and absolutely hated it. It changed who I was. Medication is a crutch. If you're completely crippled and you need it, then you should use it temporarily. But be very very careful developing dependence on it and using it instead of doing the work to deal with your behavior. What worked for me instead of medication: - Get on a sleep and wake schedule tha…
I hate to downvote your comment because you have some really good advice in here, but unfortunately this:
> I tried medication and absolutely hated it. It changed who I was. Medication is a crutch.
Is absolutely misleading. Just because medication didn't work for you doesn't mean it's a crutch to be avoided by everyone.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#43I have been through hell becoming a new dad, thinking that my mind was broken, and I would end up making the same mistakes as my own father because of our common traits due to ADD. I tried all kinds of medication, started doing therapy, had sleep deprivation and started being extremely anxious.
What I learned coming out of it is that I am not broken. ADHD is not a condition, it is simply the way my brain was designed. All that medication could not do what I wanted it to do which is make the ADHD disappear. That's not going to happen. It's just that the majority of people have non-ADHD brains and we are therefore expected to be the same.
Think of it like being left-handed. It used to be that kids in school were punished for being left-handed until they became "right-handed". Turns out they were never right-handed in the first place, they were just forced to be. When that practice stopped, suddenly numbers of left-handed people in the world went up and stabilized around 10%. These people are not broken, but if all of the tools, scissors, cars, and everything they interact with were designed only for right-handed people, they would feel broken.
The truth is a lot of what makes us "different" as ADHD people is also a strength. Creativity, great ability to recognize patterns, to think outside of the box, are all really great assets. Even some of our faults are simply there because our brain was designed to do that. For example, when you leave the house and forget the trash for a 100th time, it's not that you stupidly forgot the trash that was right in front of you. It's because your mind is really good at focusing on what's truly important to you, and the trash was automatically discarded from your thoughts so you could do that.
There was a study where they had "neurotypical" and ADHD/Autistic people picking berries in a field and they found that ADHD/Autistic people were consistently able to pick more berries because they did not spend as much time on a single bush as neurotypical people [https://www.sciencealert.com/adhd-traits-may-have-evolved-to...]. This study suggests that ADHD might have been promoted by evolution, and not a "disorder" like we may think.
To conclude for my issues as a new dad, I have found that my own father's shortcomings are not due to his ADHD, but rather an overall lack of empathy and some unrelated mental issues he has to deal with. I have found it much easier now to accept my ADHD as a part of me instead of a disorder and have moved on from it to work on other aspects of my personality. Since then, I have found that even my shortcomings due to ADHD have been less severe because I understand and accept that they happen and give myself tools to work around them instead.
Hope this can help you with your journey!
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#44You don't "develop late-onset ADHD" - you either have ADHD or you don't, it's a genetic condition (one of your parents had it). You have to fit the DMS criteria of having childhood symptoms, and they will want to speak to relatives and friends who can confirm this. Burnout can cause AuDHD traits but you don't catch anything - likely taking time to recover will be better than trying medication - for a start you have t…
> You have to fit the DMS criteria of having childhood symptoms, and they will want to speak to relatives and friends who can confirm this.
I've often wondered why no teacher ever said anything to my parents about me possibly having ADHD. I think because in the classes I was interested in I was a star student and my teachers loved me, and in the others I was an absolutely hopeless case and my teachers didn't care to bother.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#45You don't "develop late-onset ADHD" - you either have ADHD or you don't, it's a genetic condition (one of your parents had it). You have to fit the DMS criteria of having childhood symptoms, and they will want to speak to relatives and friends who can confirm this. Burnout can cause AuDHD traits but you don't catch anything - likely taking time to recover will be better than trying medication - for a start you have t…
While that may be correct for actual ADHD, thyroid conditions can mimic a lot of the same problems faced by those with ADHD (or at least ADHD-PI), as in attention dysregulation, brain fog, memory issues, tiredness, and so on. Hypothyroidism, for instance, advances slowly and one might not be diagnosed until well into adulthood. It would not be surprising if many people diagnosed with ADHD actually have a thyroid problem, especially if their medication gradually becomes less effective.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#46Was diagnosed as a child. I take no medication. Instead I adopted the role of “hunter” (as opposed to “farmer”), as described by Thom Hartmann in his ADHD books. Which means I don’t sign up for “farmer”-like tasks and delegate them instead.
My fundamental tool for staying on track with the work I do sign up with, pen and paper. It started with pencil and paper and the pencils of many varieties picked up from various bargain stores. The variety of colors and designs was what drove me to keep lists. But over years that evolved to a specially curated set of blue, red and green pens. I keep a book next to my dominant hand on my desk. Short term tasks are written in blue. Crossed out in red upon completion. This is a gamification strategy that gives me a little endorphine hit when I do it. On days where focusing seems difficult, I use the green pen to put a bullet point like some kind of human instruction pointer to indicate what I’m working on. Everything revolves around looking at the book. If there is an issue/inquiry for a teammate, it also gets written down.
I have a second book, in which I allocate 2 pages to each project I have. This has a handwritten synopsis of the project and any large challenges the project entails. Very minimal on details. This book is the forest; it serves long term memory issues. The first book is the trees, for short term, is highly detailed and is a diary of sorts in log form. Things not completed yesterday are re-written today as a means of reinforcing my connection to the task or need.
So this is all ritualistic for me. The pens I now favor have come through years of iteration. The “trees” books are Italian-made that my wife gave me and then I went to Home Goods to stock up on them. The paper is ruled and nice to write on and a little fancy. These weigh less than my phone, so I always grab one that I use as a free form note-taking pad in meetings. The “forest” book is thicker, has a specially-designated and fillable table of contents at the beginning. The paper is not lined and has a line or graph paper template to put under the page you’re writing on.
My point here is not you have to have the same fancy pens and books I use. I have chosen things that just “feel right” to me. “Right” means something I enjoy visually and by touch. If you adopt a paper-based approach, absolutely find what works for you. I mean only to share what I have found as an example.
I occasionally go shopping for alternatives; if I one day find something I like better I will repurpose the stocks on hand of books and/or pens and ruthlessly get rid of the old and bring in the new.
Why do I go to such lengths to facilitate writing? For me, the motion and muscle activity of writing is a different way to form memories. Something written becomes more connected to me than something typed. I do use Notes on my Apple devices for certain things but these always seem very detached from me. If I remember or by random encounter a note in Notes visually, and it seems important, I then write it down.
I also use Calendar and Reminders to trigger me, mostly in a reactive way into action. Siri is literally my administrative assistant.
Oh, and my reasoning for avoiding medication: my ADHD is a gift that I do not want to squelch. Yours may be more difficult and maybe medication is your solution.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#47What you might perceive as late-onset ADHD could be the cause of not being able to keep your coping mechanisms up due to stress? In my case, social anxiety (which I'm officially diagnosed with, but not ADHD) skyrocketed after a series of family events, which resulted in not being able to focus on anything mildly difficult or anxiety inducing, as my mind quickly started wandering out of nowhere, and becoming aware, sh…
> What you might perceive as late-onset ADHD could be the cause of not being able to keep your coping mechanisms up due to stress?
In my case, taking a new job where I was responsible for everything (and couldn't delegate anything I wasn't interested in) was a key moment.
Buying a house and starting a family was another. I realized that one of my main "coping mechanisms" was to work nights and weekends to get caught up when my brain chemistry was a bit better, but that time flexibility kind of goes away when you have little kids and a house to take care of. New stressors, new sources of anxiety, more chores and work to keep on top of, less sleep, etc. That really pushed me to seek help. "My kids are out of the house from 8:30–4 and I need to be able to focus and get my work done during that time... so what's wrong with me?"
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#48If you had no life stressors or responsibilities and the ability to work on whatever you're interested in, would you have trouble focusing?
no
To me this is the difference between ADHD and just being alive and having to do things that you don't want to do sometimes. I don't mean to be dismissive, I struggle greatly with the same things you do - but I avoid trying to solve things like this through medication.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#49Diagnosed at 45, the best metaphor I’ve heard is “everyone has to carry all their marbles in a bag; adhd is like holes in your bag, or not having a bag at all”.
I’d been diagnosed in the 1980s, no treatment no info; I was a “gifted” golden boy. As an adult I immediately failed out of college (and more), found that drugs relaxed me, lived with anxiety, depression, addiction, obesity, and loneliness for 25 years. Then,
Vyvanse
It didn’t fix everything, but helped me to understand that motivation is a chemical, I’m not just lazy and worthless. One can build on this.
I’ve tried Vyvanse, Adderall, and now take Adzenys. Vyvanse was the most effective, Adderall was OK, had to move to Adzenys due to supply chain (it’s my secret, there’s no shortage of it). You should understand the pharmacology of amph, and how body stuff (like urine pH, malabsorption conditions) can affect it. You should experiment with diet, supplements, timing, hydration, and should be taking time off/titrating to reset tolerance. You should not continue to increase dosage arbitrarily, if you develop tolerance manage that within your dosage. See a cardiologist, they may want to counter it pharmaceutically. Beware of antacids and amphs.
I hope you are young. I spent a lifetime trying to catch falling marbles, and problem-solve my way into preventing it again, not realizing that I’m supposed to have a bag. I could never look beyond that problem to new opportunities, and adding new marbles to my life was out of the question. If it wasn’t for my programming hobby, I’d be in a much bigger hole than I am.
Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication
#50I'm in my 50's and just started taking 18mg Concerta/methylphenidate in the last 2 weeks.
It's still super early for me to judge. I have noticed that it's much easier for me to procrastinate and avoid work (now I have much less guilt!). But the "working periods" are better. I do seem to get more stuff done when I can actually make myself do it.