Tell HN: If you have trouble focusing on projects/meetings, see a psychatrist

A tautology:

Adderall improves everyone’s ADHD symptoms! ADHD is just what life feels like when you’re not on speed.

Cut down on pot and booze, move your body, avoid stressors, and take control of your things in your life. Don’t rationalize/medicalize your way into a permanent cognitive disability. You’re in control!

I got on meds for ADHD and they objectively didn’t help that much. I also felt like my pulse and emotions were greatly elevated in confrontational situations to an uncomfortable extent (though caffiene was involved). The other aspect was that it was almost $300/month for a prescription. In social situations they did help a bit. Any impact on productivity was minor.

I’d also say right after the meds kicked in I would do something like get on hacker news and write a long post about how everyone should get their ADHD checked and how life changing meds are. That always felt like the meds talking to me.

Not that anyone shouldn’t try it. I’m glad I did, even though I decided it wasn’t for me, because otherwise I would be wondering how much better I would be on meds. Now I know for me it’s not much better.

I did the same two years ago and it's been transformative. There are people who will tell you that medication isn't a complete solution, or that it's not the best one. They're not wrong, but telling someone who is drowning that they just need to learn how to swim isn't doing them any favors. I was 40 when I was diagnosed, and understanding the implications of that diagnosis has made my life much better. My first couple weeks of medication made me far more aware of the people around me, which was totally unexpected. I wrote down that it was like putting on snow shoes, or adding a block warmer to your car. Obviously those metaphors won't mean much to people who didn't grow up in a cold climate, but the crux is that easy things are much harder than they are for other people. The weird part is that because you're so used to easy things being hard, hard things aren't that much harder, and when you're warmed up you perform as well or better than your peers. But soon everything cools off, and making a sandwich is a grueling decision again.

One thing that eventually pushed me towards trying medication is that I realized I had already been self medicating with coffee. Sometimes when people say "they aren't a person until they've had coffee", that might be true. The problem is that coffee lasts an hour or so and makes you jittery and hungry, while Adder-all lasts 4 ~ 8 hours and mildly suppresses your appetite(s). They're not wrong: sleep, exercise, diet, being social, etc also improve your emotional state, but when making a sandwich seems impossible, the first step might be to stop drowning.

I'm generally trusting of pharma studies. But a bout with Zyrtec has convinced me that psychological effects aren't always well studied, even for common drugs.

I'm convinced that prolonged use of Zyrtec makes me angrier for example. I've experimented with my allergies, and when I'm off Zyrtec, I'm sniffling and sneezing all the time... But generally happier and healthier from a mental perspective.

Every medication you take, especially with prolonged use, should be considered an experiment IMO. Even if the studies are show safety and efficacy... there are plenty of other side effects that could diminish quality of life.

Allegra doesn't have this problem for me, so I just switched to that.