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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

#271

Post by Sugimot0 »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #217
thebigspacefuck wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get neuropsych testing and how does it differ from the normal testing for ADHD? I have been diagnosed multiple times but I always wonder if I really have it. I was on medication for a while but stopped taking it.

My GP referred me to a local neuropsych-testing doctor, because I was concerned about my memory. The memory issues were probably some combo of poor sleep / stress / aging. But the testing did reveal massive ADHD as well as (probable) mild Asperger syndrome. Interestingly, this was after I'd already earned my PhD. It's a little sad to think how much better my career might have gone, and how much faster I could have fi…

At least you got a PHD lol. I only found out I had ADHD recently, years after I dropped out and learned to code on my own. All throughout my life I had been ahead of my classes because I love learning, but I hated pointless exercises. I'd ace every test and then fail to turn in busy-work. I was ashamed of turning in unfinished stuff, or just plain didn't touch it.

I really used to beat myself up over the whole "wasted potential" feeling I'd get. Especially so after my teachers were fifty-fifty "you have great potential, apply yourself" and "you're a jackass, you won't amount to anything".

I always wonder how things could have been different. If I might've got into some irl engineering instead of software, or just advanced in my career faster, etc.

My biggest hope is that my sporadic deep dives into different subjects will eventually lead to a good idea to invest in, or some oss i can get sponsored to save me from the despair of competing/comparing against my neurotypical peers with degrees.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#272

Post by 331c8c71 »

astrange wrote: post #230
nvarsj wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an adult ADHD diagnosis on the NHS is very hard and time consuming. Most people in the UK get a private diagnosis - there are many online websites now that will diagnose you completely over zoom in 1 hour. In the US it's even easier. There is a profit motive in the US to get people onto lifetime medication, and many websites for online diagnosis and delivery. If you have private insurance, it's easy - just se…

> Over the long term, you will suffer some side effects - worse sleep, tolerance builds up, and your ADHD symptoms will likely get much worse if you stop medication. Nothing like this should happen. They will improve your sleep and your symptoms will get better over time without medication. If you get tolerance, take magnesium and NAC.

> They will improve your sleep

Stims? Definitely not in the long term IMO - I am fully with the parent comment here.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#273

Post by Zanfa »

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.

Didn’t seem to have any significant effect on focus/hyperfocus for me, maybe slightly reduced irritability, but definitely added migraines with aura. Still have them occasionally, even after being off for over a month now.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#274

Post by 4qz »

More garbage to convince healthy people they should ruin their brains to make money for their boss and big pharma. ADHD is trending now, and it’s probably the least legitimate, most artificial and socially constructed mental illness I have ever encountered

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#275

Post by sensanaty »

I don't have a particularly bad form of ADHD, thankfully, but I can still feel the struggles I'm reading in this thread to my core.

My biggest killer is meetings. Especially the boring, pointless kinds that have nothing to do with my actual work (like the one I'm sitting in right now where they collected everyone in the product team to ~look forward to 2023 and what your role in all that is!~ (please shoot me)) that drag on for what feels like eternity, slowly sucking away any and all excitement about the day out of my life.

It transports me back to primary school, where you were stuck in a room with no escape for a large chunk of your day. If I had absolute power, the one thing I'd do for those like me with ADHD would be to make meetings over 10 minutes illegal and punishable by a Ludovico Technique style torture method, let's see how they like it!

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#276

Post by rrobukef »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #196
rrobukef wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't. Society forces everybody to interact socially. In a society where everybody is expected to date anybody, forcing somebody to date is still abhorrent.

> Society forces everybody to interact socially. No, the premise you require in order for me to be wrong is that society forces this on everyone, but I live with a woman who has crippling anxiety to the point of being on disability for it and I can tell you that's emphatically untrue. Even SSI related meetings happen over the phone because of her disability. Those with ADHD have many challenges that other people don'…

The analogy with sexuality and gender bothered me. It is a sore point and fragile. The solution for them is (foremost) equality, the solution for people with disabilities is egality.

Yes, society changed to help people as much as possible. With changes your living-mate can interact with society as well as possible. Sure, the missing thumbs are disabling, but somebody insisting on hand-written instead of typed notes is an asshole. At some point, people who ignore a disability or disorder because of general ignorance or worse are the problem.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#277

Post by eternityforest »

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…

What is his actual performance issue? Is it the kind of thing that can be fixed by stopping trying to do things yourself?

I used to be in the habit of trying to do things manually, trying to remember things without google assistant, navigating without GPS, not buying "Unnecessary" things like smarthome devices.

My first line of fixing mistakes was... nothing. I just assumed I would get better at things I do every day over time and no longer make the mistakes. Until I realized I would make a new type of mistake for the first time, then make it again the next day.

It almost seems like when I practice things the wrong action gets reinforced just as much as the correct action and I sometimes actively get worse with practice unless I'm carefully watching every step so there are no errors.

Now the fridge has a sensor so I don't leave it open, and I assume that the future doesn't exist, only computers are capable of remembering something at a future date.

I doubt I'll ever be able to do the stuff that really matters, the things that can't be done with plans and gadgets, like driving or useful levels of math, but onsite maintenance engineering is not a problem for me.

Then again, I'm pretty sure I have dyspraxia, not ADHD, I don't get distracted easily or have multiple thoughts running at once or anything like that.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#278

Post by nvarsj »

verall wrote: post #220
nvarsj wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an adult ADHD diagnosis on the NHS is very hard and time consuming. Most people in the UK get a private diagnosis - there are many online websites now that will diagnose you completely over zoom in 1 hour. In the US it's even easier. There is a profit motive in the US to get people onto lifetime medication, and many websites for online diagnosis and delivery. If you have private insurance, it's easy - just se…

The shortage with demand outstripping supply is completely synthetic, because the DEA limits how much amphetamine (and other schedule 2 drugs) may be produced/sold each year and it is completely independent of the US population or the rate that the drugs are prescribed. It is a wholly synthetic limitation of supply.

Interesting - I guess it still implies demand has increased though, assuming supply is fixed?

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#279

Post by astrange »

331c8c71 wrote: post #272
astrange wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over the long term, you will suffer some side effects - worse sleep, tolerance builds up, and your ADHD symptoms will likely get much worse if you stop medication. Nothing like this should happen. They will improve your sleep and your symptoms will get better over time without medication. If you get tolerance, take magnesium and NAC.

> They will improve your sleep Stims? Definitely not in the long term IMO - I am fully with the parent comment here.

If you have ADHD your sleep is already bad. They help by tiring you out properly once they wear off. Just don't take them too late in the day.

Re: The silent struggles of workers with ADHD

#280

Post by adastra22 »

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……

> a non-negligible portion of people on an otherwise perfectly working Vyvanse dosage seem to need a mild-moderate sleep aid towards the end of the day. & where you may think that just indicates a lowering of the dosage, that is mostly wrong & ruins the “otherwise perfectly working” aspect.

I’m in this category. But thankfully 0.5mg melatonin is all it takes to get a good night sleep, and that seems safe enough even as a habit.

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