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The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

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Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#231

Post by intelVISA »

s5300 wrote: post #224
tecleandor wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a bad experience with Strattera too, and now I'm on Vyvanse, which is an amphetamine but not the worst. I'm still on a low dose but not bad. I'm feeling some improvements and thinking about some specialized therapy.

Vyvanse is just DextroAmphetamine once processed in your body - AKA Speed in terms of slang drug usage. AFAIK, it’s just that no matter what the dosage, the drug dispenses itself/processes in your body based on a few factors, & is always that amount being continuously released over time. I guess if you’re arguing (I know you are not, I am just putting unsolicited info out) in terms of what amphetamines are the worst……

Been a while since I looked but d-amp lacks the l isomer found in traditional, racemic amphetamine salts which is responsible for some of the negative physical effects. Interesting note re: desoxyn I wonder what the Rx rate of it is...

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#232

Post by seba_dos1 »

bcoughlan wrote: post #99
k__ wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went in an ADHD rabbit hole a week ago. I never considered my self suffering from it, my quirks were individual parts of my character! But now I highly suspect I have it. I lose focus all the time. For example, Going from doing laundry, to gathering dishes, and bringing out trash without finishing one of them. Or I can't read long articles with topics that are important for me but don't tickle one of my interests.…

> Or I can't read long articles with topics that are important for me but don't tickle one of my interests. Can't concentrate on boring things - surely that's normal? It feels like they're casting the ADHD net wider and wider and from reading the internet I'm starting to question whether my behavior fits into the ADHD category. And part of me wants it to so that I have a label that explains and excuses me. But how do…

> But how do you separate it

It's easy - most people can just decide that they're going to do the work they need to do even if they loath it. They won't be happy, but they'll do it. They may even actually be happy if they're compensated enough.

Other people cry into their pillow hating themselves because they can't manage to do simple things they have to do just because they aren't interesting enough, even though they try hard and may wreck their lives by not doing them.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#233

Post by 0x457 »

d--b wrote: post #49

Can people stop a second with ADHD-as-a-disease? It’s the society that’s sick!! Prevalence in the US is 10% of the general population. Many of whom have active social lives and high paying jobs. Those people play the game they have been told to play. Corporate bullshit, boring tasks, endless meetings, and then they complain to their doctors they don’t feel like it fits. Something’s afoot. and the doctors say: “right…

hmm, hard disagree. Even if I had no obligations to society I would run myself into depression with my ADHD: it's damn hard to get constant new sources of dopamine.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#234

Post by seba_dos1 »

alwillis wrote: post #168
bcoughlan wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or I can't read long articles with topics that are important for me but don't tickle one of my interests. Can't concentrate on boring things - surely that's normal? It feels like they're casting the ADHD net wider and wider and from reading the internet I'm starting to question whether my behavior fits into the ADHD category. And part of me wants it to so that I have a label that explains and excuses me. But how do…

> Can't concentrate on boring things - surely that's normal? Neurotypical people can get stuff done even if it's of no interest to them or if they find it boring because it has to get done regardless. I've certainly had the experience of assigning something to an intern or trainee that's super boring and they just knock it out, even though they could care less about the subject of task itself. People with ADHD have l…

> Pulling an all-nighter to get that report done doesn't scale

It not only doesn't scale - you develop a resistance. Because you managed to pull it off with that all-nighter, next time you won't leave it for the last 12 hours, but the last 8 hours instead. If you still manage to do it, then next time you won't be able to get to it until it's 6 hours till the deadline. And at some point you start to fail. At the beginning it's not a big deal, as you were always delivering and everybody fails sometimes - but that only makes you even more resistant and eventually, it becomes the norm. You fail hard.

Of course this is simplified a lot - it's not "next time", it may happen over the course of several years, get better and worse periodically, etc. But that's the trend anyway.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#235

Post by jstarfish »

thethethethe wrote: post #148
treeman79 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommendations? I took one that you take at night. It slightly improved my focus during day. But would leave me sleepy all day. Even with taking it before bed.

Wellbutrin worked wonders for me. Works immediately, similar to amphetamines and is easy to obtain legitimately.

A counterpoint from my own experience:

For me it was like rediscovering caffeine for the first time, which lasted about six months altogether. Then the positive effects waned and it became a self-inflicted case of acid reflux.

Would never describe it as being similar to amphetamines. The most praise I can give it is as "an antidepressant that kinda sorta works."

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#236

Post by hello_newman »

treeman79 wrote: post #114
EdwardDiego wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are non-amphetamine medications available now that might work for your brother, and cognitive-behavioural therapy can really help too.

Any recommendations? I took one that you take at night. It slightly improved my focus during day. But would leave me sleepy all day. Even with taking it before bed.

I am not a doctor, but Modafinil is great. Similar effects to that of Adderall/Ritalin (increased focus, elevated mood, etc) but no major comedown or withdrawal type symptoms.

Can get with a prescription or found easily online. Would highly recommend it.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#237

Post by waterhouse »

JackMcMack wrote: post #194
mitchdoogle wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is strong evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ And of course, there is the issue of drug-seeking - for increased concentration and focus, for fun, or some other reason. And many doctors suspect patients of drug-seeking. Symptoms can easily be faked and are difficult to spot. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/ https://healthland.time.com/201…

1) That "ADHD is overdiagnosed" metastudy is frequently referenced, but always for the wrong reasons: "Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable. Misdiagnosis (when a child is incorrectly labeled with an ADHD diagnosis instead of an alternative condition) and false-positive diagnosis (when a subsequent clinical…

> Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable.

... So if, let's say, the existing treatments for some disease are bad and often make the problem worse, then the people designing this terminology consider the problem to be "the disease is diagnosed too often" rather than "doctors treat this disease badly"? And the solution to be "avoid diagnosing this" instead of "change the way doctors treat or don't treat it once it's diagnosed"? I mean, that's what the term seems to imply.

Wiki agrees with you... and with me:

> Overdiagnosis occurs when a disease is diagnosed correctly, but the diagnosis is irrelevant. A correct diagnosis may be irrelevant because treatment for the disease is not available, not needed, or not wanted. Some people contend that the term "overdiagnosis" is inappropriate, and that "overtreatment" is more representative of the phenomenon.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#238

Post by phil21 »

swozey wrote: post #150
ravenstine wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a lot of ADHD people become programmers because software can compliment the countless fleeting interests we have. That said, programming as a career is still more challenging to us because non-ADHD programmers are more likely to succeed with numerous responsibilities and more complex and boring tasks. The more an ADHD programmer advances, the fewer of his immediate peers will have ADHD. This is one of the r…

My problem with programming (of which I've been trying to really do decent at for years but failing) + ADHD is my memory is absolutely trash. I'll spend a week or two working on an app and then put it down for a month and it takes me a day just to get rolling with it again because I basically learn/work by brute forcing things to work as opposed to remembering concepts that would make it work without having to do so.…

Ha, this is basically me. I've written a few (small) apps/tools over the course of my career, but every time they have been extreme focus events where I had to re-learn the language from the ground up. I remember concepts (e.g. I know I need a for loop here), but not the exact syntax of how to write them, for example. I cannot force myself to do this - I have to have a direct immediate interest in getting that specific tool done and it typically happens on accident.

Ops I think can be great for this personality type. But it really depends on the exact ops job, and the person in question. Some ops jobs are more flexible than others, and I think flexibility is really what matters the most. I was an extremely productive sysadmin when I did that as my dayjob, but if you asked me to show up during any block of 8 contiguous hours we were going to have a bad time. If I could randomly show up at 3am to hack out that task I just remembered it was a great fit, since you'd get far more work out of me overall.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#239

Post by seba_dos1 »

trophycase wrote: post #74
ryandvm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, most ADHD is really just a case of "I have limited willpower for extremely boring shit." Give me something interesting to do and I can work on it non-stop for 12 hours. The problem is that most jobs and almost all schooling is flat out incompatible with being an easily distractible person. I think it's just a phenotype that doesn't work well in the traditional professional environment. And yes, Adde…

I also think there is a common problem that people are addicted to stimulation and novelty. As soon as something doesn't give that dopamine hit of being new or interesting, something else has to be found to replace it. I think this addiction is very common in society today and manifests in internet and device addiction

I don't know any proper data, but judging from my own experience I'd bet that many ADHD people disable things like notifications and often use devices more consciously than others.

My phone works almost in a pull-only manner - not many things are allowed to cause push notifications there. I can't imagine being able to get through my life with so many things constantly begging for my attention. I have to use ad-blockers and disable JS by default to browse the Web and keep some sanity. Neurotypicals don't seem to mind.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#240

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

adynaton wrote: post #137
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Just write a list, how hard is that?" 1. Remember to keep a list 2. Remember to update the list 3. Remember to check the list 4. Start a new list because I can't remember if / why I care about anything on the old list (Personally, I've never started a list but I can imagine how it would go.)

I feel personally attacked by this comment. I've tried to used every single type of note taking software (even the second brain types) and I've failed because I always forget to use it.

I have a dozen draft emails in Markdown format:

  * Christmas / birthday ideas
  * House TODO
  * Project ideas
  * Car maintenance
&c

I'm always writing emails, and I notice that I've got things in my drafts folder, so it reminds me to keep it updated.

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