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The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

bbc.com

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Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#261

Post by bobobob420 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #212
bobobob420 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

big plus one to this. recommend mouth tape + humidifier

I would worry about getting a blocked up nose during the night, and having my mouth taped shut, means not getting enough oxygen. Is that an issue?

no the tapes are usually pretty light and have different designs versus a giant rectangular over your mouth. the ones I use actually have a small rectangular hole in the middle. some have cross shape designs. another big thing that helps for me is sleeping on the floor.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#262

Post by reagan83 »

marketerinland wrote: post #77
RationPhantoms wrote: post #53

This article feels like it was written for my brother. He's been fired, sequentially, 4 times in roles of progressively narrower scope/salary. From project manager (80k+) at a large NYC-BASED structured-cabling company to a billing coordinator position ( It makes me want to put my head into a pillow and scream because he's an intelligent, sociable and kind person but his mind just sits so juxtaposed from what these c…

Hey. Sorry to hear this. I have also been fired a bunch of times, and people describe interacting with me in the exact same way as you just described it. Your brother is consistently going for the wrong kind of job, from the sound of it. Operations jobs. I eventually succeeded when I switched to work that is more strategic and creative. I got really into language learning, blogging, website building, and then just fo…

This is the first comment I’ve favorited on HN in almost 15 years. I know too many people that deserve the hope you describe. Thank you.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#263

Post by spritefs »

imperialdrive wrote: post #254
spritefs wrote: post #79

Imho this whole ADHD/adderall thing is just the pharma industry peddling medication and shilling super hard. I wouldn't be surprised if pharma dollars somehow influenced this BBC article getting published If some people like paying an additional tax to the pharmaceutical industry, good for them. For me personally, I'd rather jump off a cliff then support it Before someone gets shitty with me for "denying their experi…

I feel you in a sense that I have attention disorder. I tried the meds once and they are freakin amazing. I know what my mind is capable of on them now (2x-10x) but I'm also truly in love with my mind/body/soul as-is and won't cheat on them.

yeah I also tried them once out of curiosity. I don't think I have an attention disorder, so it might've affected me differently than others, but adderall made me like super focused on everything

I'd imagine if I did it more often, I'd be a more productive programmer. At the same time, idk what the health risks are for that and I'm already a bit of a hypochondriac as it is... so I probably wouldn't risk liver damage or whatever is associated with long term use

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#264

Post by alwillis »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #100
whatshisface wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twin and family studies reveal that it is genetic but don't reveal how genes cause it or which ones are involved.

How can those studies prove it is genetic if there is no quantitative way to diagnose it? If you could do a blood test or brain scan and make a diagnosis on physical data then sure, but until then it's all just conjecture

> How can those studies prove it is genetic if there is no quantitative way to diagnose it? If you could do a blood test or brain scan and make a diagnosis on physical data then sure, but until then it's all just conjecture

It's quite arrogant to suggest that an ADHD diagnosis is speculative or some kind of guess. It's thinking like this that causes people to not seek help or talk openly with family, friends and co-workers if they've been diagnosed with ADHD.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who can make a diagnosis based on clinically accepted criteria of what constitutes ADHD and other mental health and neurological issues. There are lots of mental health conditions and disorders that don't have a blood test or brain scan that "proves" someone has that condition.

Brain scans do show differences between people with and without ADHD, but most of the time, you aren't going to get a $5000 brain scan (or whatever it might cost even if insurance pays for it) to diagnose something that's been in the medical literature for over 100 years when it can be diagnosed more conventionally and at less cost.

Turns out brain scans aren't 100% accurate and there are trade-offs [1]:

Brain imaging scans may be appealing because they appear to offer a firm diagnosis. However, these tests are still new in regards to their use in ADHD, and they have many limitations. These tests are also expensive and can potentially expose children to radiation.

Currently, brain scans are more useful for research purposes than for making clinical diagnoses.

ADHD isn't just one thing; there are subtypes where certain symptoms are more prominent than others.

Because the heritability of ADHD is 74% [2], I wouldn't be surprised that one day we'll have a genetic test that can help diagnose ADHD but we aren't there yet.

[1]: https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/brain-scans#limitatio...

[2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactiv...

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#265

Post by cableshaft »

wincy wrote: post #186
brazzledazzle wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds somewhat like depression/anxiety paired along with ADHD. In adult ADHD they can often be very intertwined because by the time you've reached adulthood you have a history of impulsive decisions or bad time management to regret. Or perhaps it's just a symptom of ADHD combined with aging. I don't know about you but "hyperfocus" seemed to come much easier when I was younger which I associate with being less a…

I am not depressed and experience the exact same weekend malaise of the person you’re responding to described. I found an exceptional game last weekend that I played through. I laughed, I cried, it was fantastic. I spent a lot of my free time on it, and beat it. This weekend I was just a little disappointed I couldn’t wipe my brain and play that game again. I don’t think that’s depression, it’s just being unwilling t…

Do you like digital card games at all? Try Inscryption, it's fantastic (as far as I've gotten anyway, it's also quite difficult). I like it better than Slay the Spire personally, which it definitely took inspiration from, and ran with it.

It's also a game you probably should go into not knowing hardly anything about it ahead of time. I've already accidentally spoiled myself on a few things looking for help getting past a couple parts that I wish I didn't know about ahead of time.

What's the game you played that you wish you could wipe your memory of and play it again?

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#266

Post by riwsky »

adhdguy wrote: post #256
marketerinland wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey. Sorry to hear this. I have also been fired a bunch of times, and people describe interacting with me in the exact same way as you just described it. Your brother is consistently going for the wrong kind of job, from the sound of it. Operations jobs. I eventually succeeded when I switched to work that is more strategic and creative. I got really into language learning, blogging, website building, and then just fo…

I think I'm like you. I'm usually the smartest guy in the room, a phenomenal problem solver and brainstormer, and a great engineer and lawyer. I'm currently doing great in a very easy and rewarding job I stumbled into, but it has a time limit. I tried stimulants years ago but it made me feel physically awful (jaw grinding, digestive problems, heart palpitations, exhaustion, etc.) and didn't actually help (I'd just ge…

> I’m usually the smartest guy in the room

Taking you at your word, here: being the smartest in the room might be making things harder for you, not easier! If you’re regularly figuring stuff out in the first five minutes of a meeting to then watch others spend 25 (or, god forbid, 55) minutes reaching the same conclusions, you’re going to end up frustrated with meetings no matter what your dopamine chemistry is.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#267

Post by josiahpeters »

riwsky wrote: post #266
adhdguy wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'm like you. I'm usually the smartest guy in the room, a phenomenal problem solver and brainstormer, and a great engineer and lawyer. I'm currently doing great in a very easy and rewarding job I stumbled into, but it has a time limit. I tried stimulants years ago but it made me feel physically awful (jaw grinding, digestive problems, heart palpitations, exhaustion, etc.) and didn't actually help (I'd just ge…

> I’m usually the smartest guy in the room Taking you at your word, here: being the smartest in the room might be making things harder for you, not easier! If you’re regularly figuring stuff out in the first five minutes of a meeting to then watch others spend 25 (or, god forbid, 55) minutes reaching the same conclusions, you’re going to end up frustrated with meetings no matter what your dopamine chemistry is.

I can relate to this. Spending the better half of the meeting catching people up to you can be exhausting sometimes.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#268

Post by tpmoney »

pwpw wrote: post #260

I wonder if the workplace has gradually become worse for ADHD workers as the number of secretaries continues to decline[0]. Anecdotally, early in my career when I had little sway, I was often tasked with scheduling meetings, taking minutes, and keeping track of various things on behalf of my boss while still having to perform my own job. I think this sort of role would have been previously handled by a secretary that…

While working say directly next to the sales team isn't the best, at least for me I thrive better in the office than I do working at home. The office provides structure, better routine, commute time (to shift mindset from "home" to "work") and other people who are also working which acts as a form of "body doubling"[1].

While the surrounding conversations can be distracting to a degree, it's significantly better than the distraction that is slack notifications. A conversation among other members of my team happening around me is something I can either tune out entirely, listen with half an ear or wind down what I'm doing and start paying attention to all based on what I hear while I'm doing something else. But slack (and other remote communication systems) require me to stop everything I'm doing and switch my attention exclusively to sorting through conversations that are or have already happened. And when someone pings me for attention in person, I can ask them to give me a moment to finish up without actually taking my attention away from what I'm doing to see who and what I'm being pinged about in the first place.

Additionally, my experience is that remote work tends to increase the likelihood of meetings being scheduled at odd hours like 10:30AM or 3PM. For whatever reason being in person people seem more likely to try and schedule at the beginning or end of a morning or afternoon block (e.g. 8AM, 11AM, 1PM or 4PM). That sort of scheduling is much better for me because something in the middle will effectively cause me to lose a bunch of time right before or right after since it takes so long to "spin up" into a task, and once there I run a high risk of me losing track of time.

Obviously MMV but the modern office seems to work well for how I experience ADHD. That said, I don't think I would have done well in say 70's era IBM offices, and did terrible at a GE office way back at the beginning of my career which was effectively a set straight out of Office Space.

[1]: https://add.org/the-body-double/

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#269

Post by treeman79 »

JoeJonathan wrote: post #203
treeman79 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vyvanse works best for me. But Causes me a lot of pain. So I only rarely take it.

Was your doctor reluctant to prescribe it for occasional use? As I understand it, providers typically expect you take ADHD meds daily. I ask because my attention issues are task-dependent, but doctors tend to view even the suggestion of occasional use as a red flag for recreational abuse.

Oddly enough I was prescribed it initially chronic fatigue syndrome and early onset dementia. Later figured out that Demtia was from autoimmune and other conditions

Later I got a proper diagnosis for adhd.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#270

Post by thethethethe »

chimeracoder wrote: post #226
thethethethe wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> is easy to obtain legitimately. Depends on the country. In Europe, it's not so easy. In the UK, the last I checked, it was contraindicated for long-term use, meaning it could be used for smoking cessation but not for long-term ADHD treatment. > similar to amphetamines Wellbutrin has a very different mechanism of action, and a different effectiveness profile. I wouldn't say it's "similar to amphetamines" in any clin…

I was just saying it is similar on the sense that it works right away and has a noticeable effect, unlike other depression meds that people take, like SSRIs which take months to kick in
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