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A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

nytimes.com

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Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#131

Post by nathannecro »

rayalez wrote: post #64

It's weird and frustrating that people label many abnormalities as "diseases". When I read a list of ADHD symptoms I keep asking myself - how is that a bad thing? Being bored doing unenjoyable tasks, hating homework, "Not seem to listen when spoken to",Struggle to follow instructions,Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight, Have trouble sitting still during school and homework, Be const…

I am clinically diagnosed with having ADHD.

Some of the symptoms you name sound like they're picked up from a list of symptoms for diagnosing children with ADHD:

Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight, Have trouble sitting still during school and homework.

As a 20-something, relatively successful (founded and sold a company, work as an engineering consult for various companies, back in school getting my prereqs for medicine) male, I certainly am not playing with anything and everything in sight, nor do I dash around.

However, I do have a tendency to carry around something for my hands to play with -- a pen, squishy ball, my own fingers -- because they get restless. I also sometimes feel like I have a huge amount of excited energy balled up inside of me which I need to get out. I normally remedy this by exercising or running up and down a set of stairs a few times. One might say that my symptoms are adult versions of the childhood symptoms you point out.

As other people have mentioned, depression something that is often comorbid with ADHD. I personally have been severely depressed -- so much so that it caused "distress" (real-life problems) for an extended period of time. I became so tense, bored, disheartened, stressed-out by doing something I really loved. Depression followed. I won't say much else; if you'd like to understand this a bit more, let me know, and I'll spend some more time with a reply.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#132

Post by adhd_anon »

ajolly wrote: post #127
adhd_anon wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. So, I pay like $60 - $70 per month per person. I found highly detail oriented, responsible and non judgmental individuals via elance.com, guru.com, taskrabbit (before it changed its model.) I hired two people. All they have to do it ping me on Skype/Gmail and ping me every hour for a few hours from Mon - Sat. Once in the morning and 3 to 4 times in the evening. It just takes them a few seconds. That's it. They…

This seems very valuable. Would you be willing to share your hiring process, exactly what you asked of your assistants, ect?

I created a profile in the above mentioned sites and posted the job requirements. I mentioned that I was very disorganized and needed help to keep me on track. All I needed was someone who would check in on me every hour on Skype/SMS for a few hours every day. Basically, they would enquire about my progress and how far I have come in the last 1 hour on a particular task.

As soon as you post the job, you get responses within 30 mins. Now, most applicants won't even care to modify their prebuilt response templates or even read the requirements properly. These are easy to weed out. Now, the single most important characteristic of the person you hire is that they should care about your success. You don't want someone who just goes through the motions. You want someone who is assertive and will be your help mate.

After that I made a list of 4 to 5 most important things I wanted to achieve in my life. (Source: Think and Grow Rich) Then made a list of things I wanted to achieve in the next 10 years. 5 years. 1 year and 6 months. I emailed these lists. Then, I made daily, weekly, monthly actionable plans to propel me towards my goals.

This will give them ( and you ) a rough picture of what it is that you are trying to do. The thing is that you can ignore a software reminder but it is difficult to ignore a reminder from another person.

At the end of the day, I get an email report listing all the tasks that I did and those I skipped.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#133

Post by bntly »

schalab wrote: post #80
ahknight wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar story here: early age, 0 or 100, high tests and little completion. The difference is I've been programming for most of my life (I'm not exaggerating; I started at 7y). It's likely because I started so young that I find that's my hyper focus outlet, though I still find that every time I try to learn Java it feels so painful I break something and run away (though I know C, C++, Obj-C, Swift, Python, PHP, Perl,…

The article insinuates that the core problem is the higher base line of stimulus required for motivation. How does Adderall fix this? Do you feel mundane repetitive tasks are more rewarding now? What about tasks that would feel great even without the medication? Do they overload your circuits then? Am curious as to how the drug manifests itself in your day to day routine.

I take dexedrine (and not adderall) and was just recently diagnosed at 33. BUT..

I don't have to fight to learn. For the first time in my life i have a thought ( " I need to finish my homework. ") i walk over get my homework out and finish it in a single session. Before i would think about doing homework, put it off for hours, finally get frustrated enough with myself that i can force myself to do it, make tea and check my phone, have tea and sit down about an hour later then i had planned do ten minutes of work, lose interest, fight myself, get frustrated, and have to walk away with really only having done 10 minutes of work.

This last example applied to hobbies, work, watching TV, relaxing, to everything. i highly regret waiting but am now quite a bit happier.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#134

Post by binarysolo »

adhd_anon wrote: post #106
mfisher87 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I hired people overseas who follow up on everything I do. Can you expand on this one?

Sure. So, I pay like $60 - $70 per month per person. I found highly detail oriented, responsible and non judgmental individuals via elance.com, guru.com, taskrabbit (before it changed its model.) I hired two people. All they have to do it ping me on Skype/Gmail and ping me every hour for a few hours from Mon - Sat. Once in the morning and 3 to 4 times in the evening. It just takes them a few seconds. That's it. They…

Ditto on advice: I'm in the same boat and I have a virtual assistant check with me daily to make sure I'm on target as well. I noticed I'm fairly socially accountable to others (but have a severe disrespect for personal timelines) so the way to make it work for me is to basically somehow involve another person checkling in on all the priorities I make.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#135

Post by Swannie »

jvdh wrote: post #72

I have only experienced ADHD second hand, my partner has been diagnosed with it years ago, and a good friend of mine as well. I recognise the "coping mechanisms" with alcohol, and the frustration of getting mundane things done. The article suggests that the intense concentration or "hyperfocus" they have when they find something interesting can be used to their advantage. Both my partner and friend have gotten into o…

Yes. Paperwork, taxes, expenses, etc. sigh.

No amount of structure can remove the fact that they are inherently extremely unrewarding, and even staring out the window offers more rewards. The stick just doesn't seem to work for my ADD inclined mind - never has.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#136

Post by Swannie »

heurist wrote: post #24

So how do you do this in software? Consulting? Startup? I'm a couple years into my first software development job out of school and barely get through the moderate amount of work that's assigned to me right now. I'm afraid of switching to another development job where more would be expected of me (consulting! startups!). Without having these problems under control I may not be reliable despite my talent. Over the las…

Hah. Sounds very familiar. Get yourself in a customer facing role ASAP. This was the advice given to me by a director of product management, who went on to be the GM of our division, and now CEO of a well regarded UK startup.

I switched to delivery consulting after almost 4 years of product dev, and wished I'd done it sooner. There are so many more things to concern yourself with than straight dev work, that your AD(H)D can be a massive advantage.

On the other hand, you will need to teach yourself how to "cut corners" that is antithetical to a software engineering/product maintaining programmer. It's not actually cutting corners, but making calls about when the deliverable should be in the customer's hands with some known design flaws, vs. stuck in beta whilst you wrestle with the extendability.

Now, after a number of years in customer facing roles, technically leading $1M+ programs, I'm thinking about the move to product management. Looking back, I'd have been a crappy junior PM if I'd jumped straight across.

I've seen people with ADD thrive in the "technical marketing", "demo developer", "internal system's engineer" roles, as they are constantly solving different problems, often with little to no requirement to get it right, document it, or look after their hacks. It does require strong (technical) communication skills, though.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#137

Post by ohyes »

adhdthrowawy wrote: post #117
ohyes wrote: post #99

I've never been diagnosed but I'm bored all of the time. I'm almost 30. I've been fairly successful in jobs where I'm learning new stuff all the time. Is it possible I'm ADD? Edit: I got bored halfway through the article.

Do you find routines to be near impossible to establish / follow (eating breakfast, waking up within the same two hour period, taking a shower, etc.)? Are you unable to remember anything without a constantly visible list / alerting system? Do certain irrelavant noises cause you to instantly lose all concentration? Do you have a tendency to forget to pay bills for months while racking up several hundred or thousand do…

Yes, this is basically all descriptive of me :( the relationships thing hits the nail on the head and has been a recurring problem.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#138

Post by heurist »

Swannie wrote: post #136
heurist wrote: post #24

So how do you do this in software? Consulting? Startup? I'm a couple years into my first software development job out of school and barely get through the moderate amount of work that's assigned to me right now. I'm afraid of switching to another development job where more would be expected of me (consulting! startups!). Without having these problems under control I may not be reliable despite my talent. Over the las…

Hah. Sounds very familiar. Get yourself in a customer facing role ASAP. This was the advice given to me by a director of product management, who went on to be the GM of our division, and now CEO of a well regarded UK startup. I switched to delivery consulting after almost 4 years of product dev, and wished I'd done it sooner. There are so many more things to concern yourself with than straight dev work, that your AD(…

Thank you for your advice. Those are the roles I feel drawn to so it's nice to hear some validation of those tendencies :) I'll keep an eye out for them.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#139

Post by kpennell »

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #123
guiambros wrote: post #6

It's sad that the article didn't even mention exercise as a potential treatment for ADHD. The OP implies that kids will simply "grow out" of ADHD, drugs, or changing the environment may be enough. While these are valid solutions, exercise may be equally or even more effective. John J. Ratey, one of the pioneers of ADHD [1], recently wrote the excellent Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain [2…

as someone who was diagnosed adhd but am probably not any longer, i think basketball is a perfect solution. the game requires constant improvisation, which is a like crack to most novelty seekers. and then you get the second benefit (the intense physical work out) as a bonus, which maybe helps you grow out of adhd.

Racquetball and mountain biking are what do it for me.

Re: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.?

#140

Post by kpennell »

guiambros wrote: post #6

It's sad that the article didn't even mention exercise as a potential treatment for ADHD. The OP implies that kids will simply "grow out" of ADHD, drugs, or changing the environment may be enough. While these are valid solutions, exercise may be equally or even more effective. John J. Ratey, one of the pioneers of ADHD [1], recently wrote the excellent Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain [2…

Thanks for linking to this book. I'm realizing how much better I can think after I've gotten exercise (I have ADD) and I'm interested to read 30% of this book ;)
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