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How I Run a Company with ADHD

andrewaskins.com

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Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#461

Post by ryanobjc »

Geimfari wrote: post #373
ryanobjc wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick question, and this is really for everyone else out there and although directed at you, it isn’t really about you. How do you KNOW that adhd is “overdiagnosed?” Are you a clinical psychiatrist? Or a clinical researcher? Probably not. You just saw some article written by a person who doesn’t specialize in the area. Who doesn’t have access to the full data, nor have any exposure to what’s REALLY going on out there…

ADHD is both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/17/joint-over-and-underdi...

Sorry I don’t accept this as a legitimate reference.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#462

Post by c0vfefe »

thecatspaw wrote: post #250
dingaling wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can’t even stand the thought of a task, class, or activity I’m not interested But who is? This is one of the problems in modern society, the concept that if you're not interested in something then you can skip it and find a medical excuse. No-one ( generalising ) likes doing tax returns or washing dishes, but you need to look beyond the immediate discomfort to the longer-term benefits. That is self-discipline, not…

> but you need to look beyond the immediate discomfort to the longer-term benefits. That is self-discipline, not some magical superpower. And that is _exactly_ what someone with ADHD struggles with. Long term consequences be damned, I want something that excites me and gives me a benefit _now_.

A real hard problem here is distinguishing between a lack of discipline and ADHD. Maybe that's kind of unknowable.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#464

Post by brandonhorst »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #444
firecall wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADHD. There are other serious neurological issues connected to ADHD. It's a very misunderstood disorder with a broad spectrum of identifiable symptoms that could indicate ADHD. If you are heavily medicating with caffeine, then that can be a signal. I was using Pseudoephedrine and caffeine to self medicate and stabilise my moods and behaviours. That was before I got prescribed Ritalin. But as the article says,…

> If you are heavily medicating with caffeine, then that can be a signal. I was using Pseudoephedrine and caffeine to self medicate and stabilise my moods and behaviours. That was before I got prescribed Ritalin. Does tea count? I dislike coffee; I only drink some when I absolutely need to stay awake (caffeine in energy drinks is another thing, this I like). But ever since I was a kid, I've been drinking ridiculous a…

It is the exact same thing. The first cup of black tea brewed from given leaves has about half as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#465

Post by asteli »

nerdbaggy wrote: post #90
firecall wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADHD. There are other serious neurological issues connected to ADHD. It's a very misunderstood disorder with a broad spectrum of identifiable symptoms that could indicate ADHD. If you are heavily medicating with caffeine, then that can be a signal. I was using Pseudoephedrine and caffeine to self medicate and stabilise my moods and behaviours. That was before I got prescribed Ritalin. But as the article says,…

RSD is a nightmare for me. Something I always have to work on

I had no idea it was a thing. I thought I had ADHD-PI with a side of anxiety, but I’m blown away to find that RSD has a super strong link to ADHD.

I think it’s treatable. Anecdote: I knocked doors for the Hillary campaign in Denver in 2016 at the request of a friend. While this initially terrified me, something changed over the week I was there.

I found that when I went home, my social anxiety was damn near nonexistent. I’d inadvertently done exposure therapy for rejection, and goddamn it felt great. It wore off eventually, but I’m still trying to get back there, now that I know where “there” is.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#466

Post by _1100 »

beat wrote: post #422
ycombinete wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps I should write about how I run(?) a family with ADD? It would make for a lot of laughs and a some sad stuff. Given how poignantly you expressed my own experience of living with ADHD Primarily Inattentive (what you called ADD above), and as someone on the cusp of becoming a father, I would appreciate this more than I can express.

As a random suggestion from someone who did manage to not get his children killed despite ADD... look into bullet journaling as an organizational system for parenting duties. Ignore the endless art-project nonsense on the internet, read the book, and focus on using it for task management and scheduling. As an adult with ADD, it was a miraculous new perspective on tracking all the things I used to fail to do. I so, so…

I strongly second the use of a bullet journal.

I can't count the number of times while talking to my psychologist, in the middle of a breakdown thinking "If only there were a system that I could offload all of the dumb things I can't remember to do..."

...and then laughing my way out of the room because my wife told me weeks earlier that she wishes I were using my journal. She notices that I'm happier when I use it, she is much happier because she doesn't have to ask me to do something 4 times...

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#467

Post by barfingclouds »

ScottFree wrote: post #36

My reaction to this article has been... complex. ----- Bah! Another article about ADHD. ADHD's over diagnosed and not not as big a problem as people make it out to be. But, I'm curious all of a sudden, so I might as well read it. > For the first 19 years of my life I knew I was lazy. Yeah, I'm pretty lazy too. That's just who I am, though. I don't have ADHD... > So what, you can't stop bouncing your leg at the restau…

I think maybe the best way to tell if you fall in this category is the subjective experiences. And like many things it can be a spectrum so you can have it to some degree.

I know for me, I went to my dream college and studied exactly what I wanted to study, yet I couldn’t keep up. I went from getting mostly As in high school to eventually failing out (later to return). I was under immense psychological stress and couldn’t get myself to do basic things. I was always overwhelmed. I couldn’t and still can’t be in social situations when loud music is nearby. I’ve essentially had to reshape my life to work around this. It made me nearly non-functional.

And years later, now that I’ve built my life in a way where it works with my ADD, I can be incredibly productive and imaginative and innovative.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#468

Post by barfingclouds »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #223

Okay, I start with a disclaimer, I suspect this opinion to be unpopular on HN. Anyway, I can't help thinking that ADHD is one of those mental disorders that merely reflects some increased demands of society rather than a genuine mental disorder and that people with ADHD are just part of the natural variation of different personality types. There also seems to be a huge divide between the US and Europe, where such dis…

As someone who has ADD, I agree. I’ve been reading the biography of Leonardo DaVinci and the author mentioned if he was alive today, he would most likely have been medicated for ADHD and mood swings.

I think things like diet, food additives, busy society, and work demands make it impossible for people like us to function well.

I know for me at least, I live a pretty unconventional life so I can thrive in my own way. I’m often up very late. I’ll obsessively work on something and neglect others. I’ll be late to things. I can’t do big social environments and I definitely can not handle stuff like night clubs. I need a lot of alone time to sift through all of the data that has bombarded me. It’s taken me years to figure out. But as I craft my life to work with my oddities, I become happier, healthier, and more productive.

I think for me, a better description than mental illness is “neurodivergent.” Because if I build my life in my own unconventional way, I might be able to thrive. And then when I get put in situations that don’t work for me, I become textbook mental illness.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#469

Post by cowpewter »

charliepark wrote: post #456
cowpewter wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just diagnosed about a year ago, at age 38. I'd suspected for years, but was mired too deep in depression to do anything about it. Finally I had my depression under control, and with the help of my wife (I'm terrible at making appointments!), made an appointment to see a psychologist who specialized in ADHD. He interviewed me about my symptom history for an hour. Pro tip! Make yourself a list of all the things…

> with the help of my wife (I'm terrible at making appointments!) It's so, so helpful to have a partner who can help with actually getting an appointment set up. I found it to be one of the hardest parts of the process of getting diagnosed, and probably wouldn't have gotten through it without help from my wife.

It really is! There's so much I couldn't do without her. We both have our own mental and physical health struggles (Me: depression, ADHD, fibromylgia, and T2 diabetes, Her: Sensory Processing Disorder, anxiety, and bipolar 2), and we like to joke that between the two of us, we make up one whole neurotypical person.

When one of us is struggling, the other helps pick up the pieces. When both of us are struggling, we work together to prioritize what actually has to be done (ex: we have to acquire something for dinner tonight, but we can do the dishes tomorrow), and do the necessary things together.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#470

Post by hyperman1 »

cbsmith wrote: post #439
Mirioron wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADD is now under the umbrella of ADHD. ADHD just has 3 types:[0] 1. ADHD Predominantly Inattentive (ADHD-PI) 2. ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive (ADHD-PH?) 3. ADHD Combined (ADHD-C) ADD falls under the first one. It makes sense that you'd recognize yourself in that. They're now considered to be the same disorder, but just presenting in a different way. One of the things that's usually not discussed, but what you should…

I'll never understand how we name things. It's weird to have "Hyperactive" in the umbrella term when only two of the three categories have it as a trait.

I always have that same feeling with the mostly non-fatal term 'comorbidity'
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