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

Reverse engineering my ADHD test

nullpt.rs

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 247 posts

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#201

Post by robby_w_g »

Swizec wrote: post #182
Nevermark wrote: post #144

The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. Thanks friends. I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to mi…

> The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. As someone with peer reviewed ADHD but not official diagnosis, what are friends gonna do about it? They can tell you, you're always late and it's annoying but that's about it. At some point it becomes just…

> I feel like a diagnosis in my 20's would've been useful. Now it's like I got me my coping strategies and they work pretty well. If I do or don't have ADHD doesn't really change anything.

This is what I told myself before I started taking medication around age 30. But ultimately my coping strategies felt flimsy, and I felt like my life could fall apart at any second.

Getting medicated and getting therapy has improved my life and evened out my emotional state an incredible amount. I still feel like me, just with a bit more stability and consistency.

I don’t think it’s ever too late to start medication. If you think there’s a benefit to it, it’s worth trying out.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#202

Post by thomastjeffery »

gulugawa wrote: post #153
Nevermark wrote: post #144

The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. Thanks friends. I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to mi…

Some friends I've known for over a decade clearly have ADHD, and I'm not going to tell them unprompted. I feel like it is very disrespectful, especially when the conversation is about something completely different. Also, I'm not a medical professional, and it is possible that their ADHD-like symptoms are caused by something else. That being said, if they ask if I think they have ADHD, or any other form of neurodiver…

Then tell them about ADHD. The main problem is that most people have no idea what it is, or how effective treatment can be. ADHD is one of the most poorly named and broadly misunderstood conditions ever.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#203

Post by tccole »

wccrawford wrote: post #149
Nevermark wrote: post #144

The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. Thanks friends. I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to mi…

Don't be too mad at your friends. People are not receptive to being told they're odd. And as much as they might say "we knew", they didn't really . They might have suspected, but they cannot diagnose you. Many things are very clear in hindsight that weren't actually clear at the time.

I call this the “this boy ain’t right” diagnosis

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#204

Post by tccole »

hirvi74 wrote: post #176
wao0uuno wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A psychiatrist told me that people with ADHD perform better under extreme pressure and chaos. No idea if that's true. Personally I don't even think of ADHD as a deficiency. It's just a trait that is not compatible with modern society and workplace.

There might be a correlation, but I doubt causation. I would argue people with ADHD, like myself, tend to end up in situations where extreme pressure and chaos is more common. Thus, we have more exposure than the average person. I imagine it can be a trainable trait in many people.

Yeah, I think this is the key point. I am better at handling chaos because I grew up around chaos (my mom has adhd and so do I) so I am much better at handling things falling apart.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#205

Post by jon-wood »

alexfoo wrote: post #135

I sat a similar test at the start of my ADHD diagnosis (in the UK for reference). The one I did (QbCheck) was a similar setup but you were presented with shapes on the screen, either a square or a circle, and either blue or red. All you had to do was press the spacebar when the shape on the screen was the same shape and colour as the previous one. No sound distracitons (or maybe I just had the volume muted.) You also…

The first time I went for a diagnosis I was made to sit the same QbCheck test, which was then used as the entire justification for why I couldn't possibly have ADHD despite every other aspect saying I did. Apparently 30 years of having to sit at a computer and do a task in order to eat and pay rent means that I can sit down for 20 minutes and do a task at a computer.

I'm still quite bitter about this because it then took me another two years to work up the motivation to go get retested (this time somewhere that doesn't use snake oil), followed by an additional year to work up the motivation to sort out coordinating with my GP to get on meds. That's three years I could have been a functioning human being.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#206

Post by jaggederest »

msteffen wrote: post #122
msteffen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy, which (at least for me) has focused dually on adhd management strategies that can be very helpful (including, in particular, enhancing relevant social skills related to setting expectations and boundaries) and on identifying and modifying negative self-image issues and counterproductive learned behaviors (e.g. various forms of self-directed hostility that attempt to assert control over a neurophysiological i…

lol, we’re all writing the same thing. I’ll give you one example, because I particularly liked it. My therapist always talks about separating people from problems, and I never had any idea wtf he was talking about. And then he gave me this exercise where he was like, “let’s construct a narrative where this person’s eccentric personality makes them really good at something specific. Where would you expect a person lik…

I had to come back and comment because your "misunderstood genius" really resonated with me.

It's even beyond that, in my opinion. What if everyone had perfect health, physically and mentally, and had been educated to the absolutely top tier of their ability to accept? Perfect, individual tutoring? Excellent nutrition?

How much better off would the world be if we framed everything in terms of helping everyone be their best, every day, in every way? How much of the trouble in the world is the result of just... accidental awfulness, that we collectively could just choose to stop?

It makes me very sad that we live in a world where potential Nobel winners are dying of easily preventable causes, or working dead-end jobs.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#207

Post by animal531 »

wao0uuno wrote: post #162
Quarrel wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are they? Are there papers on this?

A psychiatrist told me that people with ADHD perform better under extreme pressure and chaos. No idea if that's true. Personally I don't even think of ADHD as a deficiency. It's just a trait that is not compatible with modern society and workplace.

A common meme you'll see on ADHD in online posts are about how people with it are perfectly calm during emergencies, but then when any inconsequential thing happens such as e.g. breaking a shoelace and they'll just unravel and/or take forever to deal with it.

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#208

Post by bluefirebrand »

dashdashu wrote: post #194
Swizec wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends. As someone with peer reviewed ADHD but not official diagnosis, what are friends gonna do about it? They can tell you, you're always late and it's annoying but that's about it. At some point it becomes just…

different people with ADHD have different symptoms or effects. I think yes it absolutely matters because I have always secretly been hard on myself, that I am worse than others, struggled under extreme rejection sensitivity. It matters and helps, if only to be able to be a little kinder to yourself and have the ability to decide to get help in the form of a therapist, or medication, or find strategies that worked for…

I'm ADHD and really struggle with similar things. I've been leading a really lonely life because I tend to isolate after any friction with people, assuming they don't like me anymore.

I know to people without this problem it probably sounds very childish and silly, but it's a real problem. I lack a lot of the inner social calibration of what is a big problem and what is not so I very often have social issues because I say something hurtful (unintentionally) and don't realize why it's a big problem. Then I say other stuff that other people are actually fine (or mostly fine) with but I stress out about it and agonize and isolate myself.

I also identify with being super hard on myself. For a recent example I replaced a door in my house recently. I had never done this before. I bought a power routing saw and cut the hinge mortises myself. Two of them were basically perfect, one of them was a bit jagged and it was off by 2 millimeters when I went to hang the door. I spent the next four hours pissed off at myself for fucking up the door!

After doing a franky great job for my first ever attempt at hanging a door, and never using a routing saw before. :/

That's not normal levels of self criticism

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#209

Post by bluefirebrand »

thirdtruck wrote: post #160
gulugawa wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friends I've known for over a decade clearly have ADHD, and I'm not going to tell them unprompted. I feel like it is very disrespectful, especially when the conversation is about something completely different. Also, I'm not a medical professional, and it is possible that their ADHD-like symptoms are caused by something else. That being said, if they ask if I think they have ADHD, or any other form of neurodiver…

Speaking as someone who only got our ADHD diagnosis in our late thirties and our autism spectrum diagnosis at forty fucking two, please consider just telling them. That could be years or decades of social, pharmacological, and even legal assistance that they deserve and need and aren't otherwise getting.

Also agree with this, but want to caution: Bring this up as gently as you can

Don't accuse them of being ADHD, or insist too strongly

If you do bring it up, I would say make sure to really emphasize that you don't think they need fixing. It's something that might help them overcome their own struggles, not something to make them a better person for others, you know?

Re: Reverse engineering my ADHD test

#210

Post by hackable_sand »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #140
akoboldfrying wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. How is it advantageous? 2. Assuming it really is: Why would this make it unlikely to be encoded on a single gene? As a layman, the only condition I'm aware of with this "downside but also upside" quality is sickle cell anaemia (downside is anaemia, upside is increased resistance to malaria), which is decided by a single nucleotide change on chromosome 11.

By seeking out novelty, someone could be a more effective forager or better able to spot predators/prey hiding. ADHD often comes with a high attention to detail, so there's lots of advantages that could come with that (e.g. that twig wasn't broken before, something has passed through here). Also, having different sleeping patterns can mean that the people with ADHD are likely better equipped to keep a fire burning ov…

This isn't funny
Post reply on HN