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Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

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Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#151

Post by [deleted] »

Analemma_ wrote: post #136
xocyabencl wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports is a zero-sum game. Productive labor is not. The mathematician Paul Erdos used amphetamines to make many major breakthroughs. This was a great benefit for society, regardless of whether he perhaps took a professorship that some less productive mathematician would otherwise have obtained.

Promotions, and the salary/opportunity increases that come with them, absolutely are a zero-sum game. I’m a little baffled that anyone could think otherwise, actually.

[deleted]

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#152

Post by tedchs »

zschuessler wrote: post #51

If anyone here reading this needs the motivation or gentle reminder: you might not need Adderall anymore. I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years. I recently gave it up, but it was hard to realize that it was time. It might be time for you, too. The thing holding me back was fear. Fear I wasn't enough, that I couldn't be efficient. That I would get fired from my high position. Or even if I could m…

I started taking Adderall recently and so far, I've had the inverse experience socially. It's made it much easier for me to meaningfully engage with people. By gaining control over my focus, I can now overlook "the little things", and I'm no longer compelled to "chase dopamine".

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#153

Post by jasonlotito »

textor wrote: post #70
jasonlotito wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually have ADHD? > I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years No, you don't. At least not from how you are describing your use. You don't take this medication to get ahead. You take this medication to get to an even playing field. To get some control over your life. So yes, if you are abusing drugs, don't. That's generally good advice. Don't abuse drugs.

Life is not a playing field full of fun and games, even though you could frame it in terms of game theory. People want to be successful, not to evaluate their "innate" performance against other people. Moral justification for doping is unimportant, because it's arbitrary. In reality, however many competing actors make me miserably insecure by their superiority, whatever is their percentile relative to the general sam…

I did.

Doesn't change what I said, nor should it. The OP was potentially offering dangerous advice. I see all too often people suggesting things about ADHD, medication and drugs that are dangerous. Speak with a medical professional.

If you are taking drugs you have not been prescribed, see a doctor.

As for your "want to be successful" argument, that's a fallacy. You are causing more harm by abusing drugs to get ahead than you realize.

Read the article? No, go see a doctor.

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#154

Post by jasonlotito »

zschuessler wrote: post #64
jasonlotito wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually have ADHD? > I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years No, you don't. At least not from how you are describing your use. You don't take this medication to get ahead. You take this medication to get to an even playing field. To get some control over your life. So yes, if you are abusing drugs, don't. That's generally good advice. Don't abuse drugs.

I apologize my wording made it appear I was abusing drugs, I don't condone that. In fact I'm the opposite: I microdosed Adderall. 5mg a day for the longest time, then bumped up to 10mg. My doctors over the years pushed me to take more but I always said no. Instead I would take breaks and let tolerance die down before resuming. I first got a prescription when I found I would rather spend 2-3 hours of my work day stari…

Thanks. It wasn't clear in your comment. Working with your doctor is the right way. Your original comment made it seem to me that you weren't.

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#155

Post by emodendroket »

xocyabencl wrote: post #134
emodendroket wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a pretty limited set of fields of endeavor where you could make this argument without it being ridiculous on its face.

While many industries have an element of zero-sum competition, that's not the default. Whether you're designing a car, doing a surgery, giving a haircut, cooking a hamburger, etc. you are giving something of value to your customers.

Even assuming (optimistically) that an exceptionally good hair stylist could somehow... uh, I don't know, be so good that they can hire more stylists? Assuming there's space?... it's pretty rare to have, say, multiple heads of the same department.

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#156

Post by [deleted] »

tedchs wrote: post #152
zschuessler wrote: post #51

If anyone here reading this needs the motivation or gentle reminder: you might not need Adderall anymore. I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years. I recently gave it up, but it was hard to realize that it was time. It might be time for you, too. The thing holding me back was fear. Fear I wasn't enough, that I couldn't be efficient. That I would get fired from my high position. Or even if I could m…

I started taking Adderall recently and so far, I've had the inverse experience socially. It's made it much easier for me to meaningfully engage with people. By gaining control over my focus, I can now overlook "the little things", and I'm no longer compelled to "chase dopamine".

[deleted]

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#157

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #141
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Hence, that's why OP read your post as "try not having ADD", because you're literally suggesting solutions that presume that they not have ADHD in the first place. To be fair, the article does make the point pretty strongly that it is very hard to separate ADHD from natural variations of attention, concentration etc: But “ability to concentrate” is a normally distributed trait, like IQ. We draw a line at some poin…

>To take the example of height again, just because someone is short doesn't mean they won't look taller with high heels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbMv0UkAswI&feature=youtu.be...

That's a funny video, but what am I expected to get from it?

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#158

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

zschuessler wrote: post #51

If anyone here reading this needs the motivation or gentle reminder: you might not need Adderall anymore. I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years. I recently gave it up, but it was hard to realize that it was time. It might be time for you, too. The thing holding me back was fear. Fear I wasn't enough, that I couldn't be efficient. That I would get fired from my high position. Or even if I could m…

I'll be honest, but I find it very hard to believe that amphetamines can really enhance your cognitive skills. I'm talking from second-hand experience only, but it's pretty clear to me that they can have the effect of making you feel like you're smarter, faster, leaner, better- but this feeling is just a side effect of taking the drug, and does not reflect a real improvement.

I can believe that the drugs can help some people get over some psychological hurdles that are keeping them from delivering a piece of work, but I'm really not sure why the work itself would end up any better than if it was done while sober. Given that a big effect of apmhetamines is to make you stay up all night, for weeks on end, in other words causing sleep deprivation, I find it very likely that the end result is in fact much worse than the baseline.

Personally, the only magic drug that I've found really helps me do better and more is getting enough sleep and doing so regularly, for many weeks. Even if it means having fewer waking hours for work during the day, it doesn't matter, because I can pull twice the work (and twice the quality of it) when I'm well-rested than I do when I'm tired and haven't been sleeping well.

So, taking a drug that completely screws your sleep patterns and just makes you forget how tired you are, sounds like a recipe for destroying the quality of your work, to me. And I think those studies the article quotes, the ones that haven't found any cognitive enhancement from Aderall (to healthy individuals and ADHD sufferers alike) are basically justifying my hunch.

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#159

Post by fragmede »

CydeWeys wrote: post #92
chimeracoder wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The point of a to-do list (or reminder in Google Calendar) is that it's constantly staring at you until you actually complete it. It sounds like you're using one-off calendar entries. I'm not suggesting that "try not having ADD", just suggesting you use mechanisms to remind you to do stuff that are persistent and thus work. No offense, but from what you're saying, it's pretty clear you don't understand how ADHD wor…

How does a persistent in-your-face reminder that does not go away until completed fail? I suppose severe procrastination or complete lack of willpower would do it, but are these not different from ADHD?

Easy, just close the browser tab and never use calendar or keep ever again.

Rational? Far from it. Functional? Nope.

That's why it's a disease but we have medication to treat it.

It's like trying to tell someone that walking is easy, just put one foot in front of the other - to someone with no legs. Unfortunately it's harder to see missing legs for mental diseases.

Re: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted to Know

#160

Post by goldenkey »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #158
zschuessler wrote: post #51

If anyone here reading this needs the motivation or gentle reminder: you might not need Adderall anymore. I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years. I recently gave it up, but it was hard to realize that it was time. It might be time for you, too. The thing holding me back was fear. Fear I wasn't enough, that I couldn't be efficient. That I would get fired from my high position. Or even if I could m…

I'll be honest, but I find it very hard to believe that amphetamines can really enhance your cognitive skills. I'm talking from second-hand experience only, but it's pretty clear to me that they can have the effect of making you feel like you're smarter, faster, leaner, better- but this feeling is just a side effect of taking the drug, and does not reflect a real improvement. I can believe that the drugs can help som…

They definitely increase energy levels. A person can stay up for days on them. They are an unwise and partial substitute for sleep but a substitute nonetheless. Like you mention, a large part of what they do is change intrinsic motivation, not intelligence. When you feel "charged" with energy, it is hard to oppose doing intellectual work. Amphetamines are pure energy. And intellect loves pure energy...so does physical work. But its not for free. Amphetamines decrease circulation..they caused Peyronies Disease for me..and I used to take them all the time in college with no issues. Age always brings the true nature of bad habits to bear.
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