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Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

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Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#91

Post by BaculumMeumEst »

semi wrote: post #88
BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you also avoid caffeine?

No, but I should. I suspect it does not really helps me focus, it just makes me feel alert and gives me a buzz. It is the last addiction in life that I have not been able to shake.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#92

Post by theoriginaldave »

I've struggled with ADHD my whole life. And based on my behavior, you'd think it was obvious. I have the inattentive flavor. When I'm "locked-in" on a task or subject, I can focus on it completely, and be completely inattentive to the rest of the world: the house might be on fire, but I've only got one more piece of code to finish.

Also, if I did manage to interrupt my fugue, it was almost impossible to finish the task: for a fossil collection that was half of my natural science semester grade, I spent a weekend walking a creek and limestone quarry and collected 500 fossils, twice the required, but after going home, I never sorted and labeled them, even though I knew what they were when I collected them. I ended up failing the class because of lack of 1 hour of cataloging.

This continued through the rest of school. I entered university with 29 credits due to testing (I can ace any test), but dropped out after two semesters because projects and self-study just didn't happen.

I got lucky in a job as a troubleshooter. Fly into a factory with a software problem, work 18 hour days to find and fix it, and leave a hero. Great for the career, but I would lose a fortune, because I would wait so long to do expense reports and pay credit cards.

This type of ignoring things that you desperately need to do, in lieu of the current easy to focus things is one of the major diagnostic distinctions between being lazy or unmotivated, and ADHD.

I was formally diagnosed with ADHD at age 42, and prescribed Adderall. And it was like shining a light on the world.

I'm 53 now and still taking Adderall.

There was definitely an Adderall honeymoon, but the lasting effects are also apparent.

I now 100% pay my bills on time, I maintain my car on schedule, I keep the house clean. My credit score went from about 500 (poor) to about 800 (excellent).

I still accrue debt and then have to work to pay it off, and lose money on interest, when had I planned I could have just paid cash.

And I'm still constantly harassed (good naturedly) by my Managers to do expense reports (they know I have an issue and accept it and are willing to work with me).

Probably with the right coaching, methods and strict oversight I could have done all these things without drugs, but I would have hated it.

I think the drugs improve my quality of life, and reduce the stress in my life immeasurably (I could probably measure it by stop using them for a year, but I'm not gonna!)

So I think the test needs to be:

1. Does ignoring the things you need to do make you miserable and feel like a failure?

2. Is your quality of life suffering?

3. Do you lose jobs,Relationships, because of these failures?

4. Does it prevent you from doing the things that would make you happy in life?

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#93

Post by dpig_ »

organsnyder wrote: post #17

The best thing for my ADHD has been finding the right professionals to help me diagnose and manage it. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but I get the suspicion that you (or certainly others reading this thread) will take this information to try to self-treat. I've never heard of "late-onset" ADHD. Late-diagnosed, absolutely (I was diagnosed while I was in university), but to my knowledge there are no identifie…

You can develop it later in life from head injuries.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#94

Post by munbun »

kjellsbells wrote: post #67
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think it became really obvious to me when I would require a ton of discipline to do assignments around making applications, but doing something like configuring linux from scratch was so personally interesting to me I could stay up nights and days without any external stimulation. >I found that medication (Methylphendiate 20mg) have definitely helped me focus, but the direction of what I'm focusing doesn't always…

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the line between ADHD and interest/geekery in the scenario you outlined above? I imagine most of the HN readership could spend hours on something they love, and struggle to engage as deeply with many or most of the tasks that are required of them at work. But ADHD would not be the diagnosis for most people. Just boredom. What tips the experience over the line?

ADHD trends towards the extremes.

A hyper-fixation session feels closer to how people describe addiction than I’d like to admit.

When unmedicated, I can easily find myself diving down the rabbit hole for 12-14 hours straight, working on interesting but unimportant tasks.

You forget about any concept of time. You feel hunger but can’t pull yourself away to eat lunch or dinner. Daily goals are forgotten. You only stop when your body literally forces you.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#95

Post by user68858788 »

I have ADHD and perhaps undiagnosed autism. It’s severely affected my ability to build software, but lends itself well to supporting other teams in larger companies. I usually lose interest in my work within a few years. This leads to a lot of procrastination and a backlog of work that I just cannot force myself to do.

I am prescribed Vyvanse. It helps but regularly gives me heart palpitations and insomnia. I can’t drink coffee while using it. This causes me to only use it when I’m fairly behind in work.

I can’t really say I overcame ADHD, but I’ve managed to hold a few jobs long enough to reach financial stability.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#96

Post by tanepiper »

evoloution wrote: post #24
tanepiper wrote: post #2

You 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…

What tanepiper is saying is mostly correct, especially the part that late-onset ADHD is not really a thing. Genetic condition is kind of an inaccurate statement, though, in my experience as a psychiatrist-scientist. You can liberally say that ADHD is ~75% [1] heritable (based on twin studies) which is pretty high. However, data suggest that even though DSM requires a binary definition of the disorder, in truth it is…

Thank you for a very good answer and you are right, it's not clear cut - as I've got older I identify more AuDHD now, have a relatively higher IQ and if wasn't for my wife (also AuDHD) suggesting we get diagnosed years ago I would have continued the "fly below the radar" - which usually means jumping jobs every two years.

Knowing the diagnosis, with medication, I have much better coping strategies for life now - but at the moment my sink is still full of dishes and there's probably a load of laundry that finished washing 2 days ago still in the machine.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#97

Post by tanepiper »

Spooky23 wrote: post #11
tanepiper wrote: post #2

You 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…

It’s often not diagnosed or diagnosed as another problem and is difficult to diagnose later. I have a friend who discovered that ADHD was the root of a bunch of issues. They had developed some coping strategies organically that were contributing to other issues. Diagnosis and therapy made a dramatic improvement in their life.

Yep - being diagnosed and knowing helped a lot - I got through life pretty well until 33, but possibly moving country also helped in needing to go through it as things I got away with at home were less so here.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#98

Post by tanepiper »

mrangle wrote: post #31
bradhe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict that over prescription of ADHD medication in the US is going to viewed as a massive public health misstep in 40 years.

Acknowledging that this is a pedantic correction: I think that there will be an acknowledgement of over diagnosis of ADHD. First line treatments are what they are. But also that, in tandem, there will be acknowledgement of under diagnosis of Type 1 Autism. Precisely because it is so diagnostically evasive "and can mimic ADHD". However, the correction that I'd make of the quoted phrase is that, likely, inattentive ADH…

Why did they use a creepy AI generated child for the hero image?

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#99

Post by atlas_hugged »

gaetgu wrote: post #70
kjellsbells wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the line between ADHD and interest/geekery in the scenario you outlined above? I imagine most of the HN readership could spend hours on something they love, and struggle to engage as deeply with many or most of the tasks that are required of them at work. But ADHD would not be the diagnosis for most people. Just boredom. What tips the experience over the line?

I’ll speak personally, I don’t know how other people experience ADHD, but I don’t just get “bored,” I have a crippling and anxiety inducing inability to do something. I REALLY want to do it, but I just, can’t? Like I physically can’t get up or walk over and do it, even though I know I have to and I even want to. It really is a motivation problem, I have a strong desire to do it but I just… can’t?

Yup, this is exactly the right description.

Re: Ask HN: Discuss ADHD and your use of medication

#100

Post by tailspin2019 »

threecheese wrote: post #49

Diagnosed 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,…

Thanks for sharing this, it resonated with me and also provided a bit of hope as I go through a similar journey.
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