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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#261

Post by neutronicus »

username90 wrote: post #253
sizzle wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking breaks simply isn't possible for many, like the withdrawals translates to sleeping 16 hours a day and not having an iota of energy to do everyday activities. It is a vicious cycle the deeper you get into taking stims and feeling normal baseline response by finding your therapeutic dose, why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'?

> why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'? I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapt…

The other thing your are not that well adapted for is parenthood (lots of getting shit together and going someplace on a schedule) and that is harder to take a break from

Re: Me and ADHD

#262

Post by madamelic »

username90 wrote: post #253
sizzle wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking breaks simply isn't possible for many, like the withdrawals translates to sleeping 16 hours a day and not having an iota of energy to do everyday activities. It is a vicious cycle the deeper you get into taking stims and feeling normal baseline response by finding your therapeutic dose, why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'?

> why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'? I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapt…

> I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important.

Even non-ADHD people should be doing that. I rarely take medication on the weekends and if I do, it is strictly only one day.

The other day I allow my brain to do whatever it wants; play video games, lay in bed, work, it's free to tell me what to do. It's relaxing.

Re: Me and ADHD

#263

Post by wikibob »

nicoburns wrote: post #259
Diederich wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADHD, and I've been treating it with meds for over 15 years now. > dosage should not make you feel "high" -- if anything it's almost the opposite Even when I was young and fit, many years before I started taking any meds, my blood pressure and pulse rate were consistently on the high side. I've always had what could be called somewhat of a 'jittery' or 'high strung' personality. In my 30s, I started taking a l…

> A 9 hour day at work would not leave me drained. I'd come home from work and immediately nap for an hour before waking up with enough mental energy to go about the rest of my evening. Isn't that normal? That's certainly been my experience of work over the last decade. And I haven't even been working 9 hour days (more like 7.5 on average).

Not normal.

Try one of these:

donefirst.com

helloahead.com

Re: Me and ADHD

#264

Post by slaymaker1907 »

username90 wrote: post #256
sizzle wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fear is developing alzheimers or parkinsons disease messing with these dopamine receptors for decades, are we screwing ourselves over long term? I fear developing early onset dementia too. I saw there was a study that linked neurodegenerative disease to long term dopamine stimulants. Can anyone break down the neuroscience for me and any meta-analyses studies on ADHD amph stims effect on early onset neurodegenerati…

Looks like they actually protects against Parkinson's. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20089748v... I found no relationships with Alzheimer's. The only big negative found seems to be blood pressure, but you can manage that just by keeping your weight in check and exercising regularly. I take medication and my blood pressure is at normal levels, I go for regular checkups.

Thank you for the link. When I started seeing my current doctor, they tried scare mongering by claiming stimulants can cause Parkinsons. There is a study to back this up [1,2], but I was skeptical of it since they didn't seem to control for the fact that someone with ADHD but not on stimulants could either have less intense ADHD or perhaps have some other confounding condition.

The study authors actually mention:

"The association of ADHD patients prescribed psychostimulants with higher risk of diseases of the basal ganglia and cerebellum may reflect a more severe ADHD phenotype rather than a direct association between prescribed stimulant use and basal ganglia or cerebellum disorders."[2]

It's somewhat encouraging to see that this seems to be true and increased chance of Parkinson's is likely due to the severity of ADHD and not due to medication which helps people with ADHD be functional.

[1]: https://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/2018/09/adhd-... [2]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30209407/

Re: Me and ADHD

#265

Post by schneidmaster »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #187
schneidmaster wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee consumption was actually one of the questions that I was asked when my therapist first suspected that I had ADHD. I used to drink 5+ cups per day (especially workdays) while feeling fairly little effect from it. I'm now on medication which works an order of magnitude better for managing my symptoms, and I rarely drink more than 1 cup of coffee per day. It's also worth noting that ADHD often comes with other me…

What's the comparative stimulant power between black tea and coffee? I've been toying with the notion that I may be having an undiagnosed ADHD for a while now (I've noticed that about 70% of the stuff in any ADHD thread on HN, like this here, tends to reflect my life or at least resonate with me...). I became more confident of that when, at one point recently, I realized - hey, I'm drinking some 10+ cups of black tea…

Google tells me that coffee has about twice as much caffeine as black tea (depending on the blend) so your 10+ cups of tea are probably similar to my previous 5+ cups of coffee. Obviously I'm not a doctor and I can't diagnose anyone over the internet, but if you're drinking that much and it doesn't have you wired or give you trouble sleeping then you might consider talking with your doctor about ADHD.

Re: Me and ADHD

#266

Post by treeman79 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #223
username90 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Contrary to what is often repeated online, it’s best to take the medication continuously rather than skipping days. I don't like being on stimulants though. When I'm on stimulants I can't just let my thoughts wander and do whatever feels right at the moment, and I really like that part. If I don't have work to do I greatly prefer not being on them. The only time I feel the need to abuse them is when I am over burde…

As always, the only real answer is to consult with your doctor. Taking breaks from medication isn't a terrible idea, especially if you hate it. The real problem is the people who associate taking the pill with getting work done, to the point that they forget how to accomplish anything without first reaching for the medication. The key is to break that connection before it becomes a craving for medication. > I don't l…

started Guanfacine Recently.

Helps focus. Zero boost to energy.

It’s kind of like when it’s really late at night and your mind quiets and you get into the zone for a couple hours.

Re: Me and ADHD

#267

Post by Igelau »

> Easily distracted by noise (hypersensitive to external sounds like birds, cars, construction, etc.)

I suffer from misophonia in a way that is similar to this. There are certain high, mid-high sounds that cause a painfully disorienting "touch" sensation for me, along with the usual suspects like chewing. I hear sonic animal repellents that most people out of their teen years don't.

> Noise cancellation headphones to eliminate distracting sounds

I was skeptical about these in the past. I received a pair as a Christmas present and they've been literally life-changing, especially in COVID World with the kids at home. They're Bose and probably cost more than I would spend on myself, but they are priceless to me now.

Re: Me and ADHD

#268

Post by throwawaydhd »

throwaway289283 wrote: post #224
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #93

A lot of comments here are warning about the addictive properties of stimulant medications. For folks without ADHD, you should know that stimulants, like Ritalin and Adderall, do not usually cause the same response as in non-ADHD people. I've spoken with many people on stimulants, and none of them enjoy taking the medication, beyond what it has done to improve their lives. Furthermore, most ADHD people develop tolera…

> For folks without ADHD, you should know that stimulants, like Ritalin and Adderall, do not usually cause the same response as in non-ADHD people. I can confirm; I have ADHD and this even applies to stronger stimulants like cocaine. Cocaine doesn't do much for me, so I never understood why my friends were always bouncing off the walls while I was just chilling, like "what's the big deal with this drug". I didn't get…

Same here. In fact, when the psychiatrist was taking history in my initial screening, when I mentioned I'd taken cocaine but been disappointed with its lack of euphoric effect despite my friends enjoying it (it just made my face numb), she said that sort of previous reaction to stimulants was common in her ADHD diagnosed patients.

When I started on Vyvanse after diagnosis, the biggest effect I noticed at first was that my mind just felt quite calm compared to usual. No high or anything like that, just .. not as many uncontrollable thoughts rushing around my mind like they usually do.

Re: Me and ADHD

#269

Post by username90 »

neutronicus wrote: post #261
username90 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why would you want to feel acute withdrawal symptoms and get nothing done on med 'vacation days'? I like that though, just chilling for a day or two, do what you feel like and not what feels important. If your life doesn't give you the opportunity to do that I'd suggest try to get more flexibility, you don't need to be super attentive and productive every day. ADHD isn't a disease, it just means you are badly adapt…

The other thing your are not that well adapted for is parenthood (lots of getting shit together and going someplace on a schedule) and that is harder to take a break from

Do you really need to do that on a weekend though?

Re: Me and ADHD

#270

Post by Igelau »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #7

Not surprised at all that caffeine helps. ADHD is, bar none, the mental health diagnosis most amenable to medication. Specifically, stimulant therapy. There's no principled distinction between self-medicating and prescriptions here, other than various legal risks, costs, and side effect profiles. Caffeine is particularly poorly suited to this due to adaptation and anxiety, but it's certainly something , especially if…

I unknowingly self-medicated with ludicrous amounts of coffee before my diagnosis, but my tolerance got way too high.

After that, realizing that my preferred decongestant was not only helping my cold symptoms, but also allowing me to pay attention when people were talking and complete plans in a "this seems like that thing other people are really good at, but I'm not" kind of way... that was a major tell.

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