Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

blog.plover.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 359 posts

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#51

Post by xattt »

chrischen wrote: post #39
FollowingTheDao wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. The clinical diagnosis for a mental illness is that it impacts your life in a negative way. His attention deficit does not impact his life in a negative way, therefore it’s not a disorder. The author frankly does not know what he’s talking about. And, clinically, he does not have ADHD. I have a mood disorder (NPSLE). I am on permanent d…

> If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. I’m not sure this is correct. If someone is managing their ADHD it doesn’t mean they don’t have it.

Unfortunately, it seems that “affected” is being taken at face value in the parent comment, and the nuances of the presence of the disorder are being ignored.

Yes, many individuals with ADHD can cope without medication and may go on to live good-enough lives that might be the envy of others. However, there may be a lot of potential being left on the table staying untreated.

So to say that someone clearly doesn’t have ADHD because they don’t have a rep of reckless driving tickets because of impulsivity lapses is a bit of a slap in the face for many who still do, but developed compensation strategies to some extent.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#52

Post by lghh »

freemint wrote: post #9

Medicated AD(H)D of Hacker News, did your medication (please specify) influence your personality? If so how?

I started adderall a few weeks ago after a vary recent diagnoses at 30 years old. It affected my personality in the sense that my wife claims that I now seem interested in what she has to say, I no longer get angry at the smallest things, I have patience with my son, and I don't get so overwhelmed that I regularly want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Otherwise, I'm the same me. Just functioning and less pissed off or annoyed all the time.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#53

Post by hatware »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #29
GavinMcG wrote: post #16

The author really does not do a great job, here, at least in saying something sensible as a response to DeBoer's piece. The core premise seems to be that: > I find it so very irritating that there is no term for my so-called ⸢attention deficit disorder⸣ that does not have the word “disorder” baked into it. I know what a disorder is, and this isn't one. But the author then argues against a strawman: > Why does any dev…

If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. The clinical diagnosis for a mental illness is that it impacts your life in a negative way. His attention deficit does not impact his life in a negative way, therefore it’s not a disorder. The author frankly does not know what he’s talking about. And, clinically, he does not have ADHD. I have a mood disorder (NPSLE). I am on permanent d…

Sound like you're gatekeeping a disorder without understanding it.

FWIW, the author definitely has ADD/ADHD based on their descriptions.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#54

Post by girvo »

djur wrote: post #34
GavinMcG wrote: post #16

The author really does not do a great job, here, at least in saying something sensible as a response to DeBoer's piece. The core premise seems to be that: > I find it so very irritating that there is no term for my so-called ⸢attention deficit disorder⸣ that does not have the word “disorder” baked into it. I know what a disorder is, and this isn't one. But the author then argues against a strawman: > Why does any dev…

The "neurodiversity" viewpoint here is that what we call "ADHD" is part of the natural variation in how human brains work, and that it's a category error to think of it as a malfunction to be repaired, but rather as a difference to be accommodated. That accommodation may or may not be via medication and therapy, but that shouldn't necessarily mean that the underlying neurological state is a diseased one. A good analo…

> and people don't tend to talk about it as one does a medical condition

While I basically entirely agree with your comment, my partner (who is an optometrist here in Australia) would often point out to me that myopia is a big risk factor for retinal degeneration and detachment, open angle glaucoma, and cataracts at a young age. So while we definitely shouldn't treat mild myopia (like I, and likely you have) as some horrific medical condition, she also gets a bit frustrated by general practitioners and retail optoms who don't treat a lot of the eye diseases she handles with the gravity some of them actually should bear.

Anyway this is a massive tangent, just was something interesting I wanted to share!

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#55

Post by lghh »

orangepurple wrote: post #15
freemint wrote: post #9

Medicated AD(H)D of Hacker News, did your medication (please specify) influence your personality? If so how?

Daily 20 hour water (& salt) fasting reduced my desire to jump between tasks. Less scatter-brained too. My thoughts stay on rails longer. Didn't change my diet much; I don't eat many refined foods or carbs other than occasional bread. Years ago in college I was prescribed Adderall but it didn't make me focus more. It made me compulsively clean my apartment, masturbate, tweak out, and occasionally be extremely paranoi…

On the other hand, starting adderall was the best personal decision I have ever made.

I am less angry, less impulsive, more deliberate, more attentive, more kind, and more patient.

Your reaction sounds like the reaction of someone without ADHD. I'm not claiming that's the case. I know everyone has different reactions to medications and you should do what's best for you. That said, starting adderall literally changed my life.

I would consult a physician though instead of eating less bread if you really do feel that you might suffer from a mental disability. Bread might help, but professional insight will certainly help more.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#56

Post by symlinkk »

lghh wrote: post #50
jrapdx3 wrote: post #41

ADHD is a common condition in adults, estimated to be around 3-5% of the population. It's very frequently comorbid with other behavioral disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. But even "pure" ADHD can be quite disadvantageous. People with ADHD are much less likely to finish school, have trouble staying employed, more likely to be divorced, have greater health care utilization…

I am 30. I got diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago and I started treatment (adderall and lifestyle changes). Growing up, ADHD was my biggest enemy in life and I didn't even realize it. Once I began treatment, the change was almost overnight. I know I'm just one data point in a sea of data points, but I really just want to add that I'm on the other end of the parent comment and getting diagnosed, other than my marria…

I mean, anyone benefits from Adderall whether you have ADHD or not. How are you so sure you really have it?

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#57

Post by FollowingTheDao »

hatware wrote: post #53
FollowingTheDao wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. The clinical diagnosis for a mental illness is that it impacts your life in a negative way. His attention deficit does not impact his life in a negative way, therefore it’s not a disorder. The author frankly does not know what he’s talking about. And, clinically, he does not have ADHD. I have a mood disorder (NPSLE). I am on permanent d…

Sound like you're gatekeeping a disorder without understanding it. FWIW, the author definitely has ADD/ADHD based on their descriptions.

And it sounds like you’re diagnosing someone based off a blog post.

By the way, don’t tell someone who is disabled and was hospitalized several times with a mood disorder that they’re gatekeeping a disorder. I can assure you, I know more than you do about mental illness, It’s genetics, and its environmental factors.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#58

Post by adepressedthrow »

> But what if the Devil came and offered to cure my depression, and the price was my right arm? That question is easy. I would say “sounds great, but what's the catch?” Depression is not something with upsides and downsides. It is a terrible illness, the blight of my life, the worst thing that has ever happened to me. It is neither an adorable character trait nor an annoyance to be managed with medical treatment. It is a severe chronic illness, one that is often fatal. In a good year it is kept in check by medical treatment but it is always lurking in the background and might reappear any morning. It is the Joker: perhaps today he is locked away in Arkham, but I am not safe, I am never safe, I am always wondering if this is the day he will escape and show up at my door to maim or kill me.

As a constant sufferer who's been dealing with a debilitating case for over a year now, I love the way the author framed depression. It perfectly describes my fear that if I ever get "better", it's only a local maxima, and I will never be freed of this curse. It's laughable to even think, given how I can suffer from day to day, but I'm honestly afraid of finding something that improves my condition, because of the unknown of how depression might still be lurking in the shadows. I still try (often not very hard), but that fear is there nonetheless.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#59

Post by thequux »

I have ADD. Not ADHD; I'm almost never hyperactive. I do, however, hyperfocus on anything and everything, to the point that it's caused severe problems to my career, relationships, and personal life. I'm nearly always hyperfocused on something, and I rarely have control over what that is. I'll forget to eat, sleep, talk to people, or really do anything else for several days at a time when it gets bad. Fortunately, over the years I've learned techniques to solve some of the problems, like having somebody to hold me accountable. Even so, it remains my biggest challenge.

However, it's also one of my greatest strengths. When my brain decides to attack a problem, I'm astonishingly productive. Over the last couple of weeks, I've been hyperfocused on implementing a motion control system for a side project. As a result, I've designed a CoreXY platform, designed a control board for it, learned how to use ngspice to tune the power-up circuit, learned how to use Sympy, used it to derive closed-form solutions for jerk-controlled motion, and found a way to implement that solution in which the motion control interrupt takes a grand total of 70 cycles on Cortex M0. And this is just my spare time outside of work, where I had a completely different set of hyperfocii, and similar productivity.

So, I completely agree with the author that if somebody were to offer me a megadollar in exchange for getting rid of my ADD, I'd have to think very hard about that indeed.

Re: Mental illness, attention deficit disorder, and suffering

#60

Post by FollowingTheDao »

xattt wrote: post #51
chrischen wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the authors life is not being impacted by his ADHD then he does not have ADHD. I’m not sure this is correct. If someone is managing their ADHD it doesn’t mean they don’t have it.

Unfortunately, it seems that “affected” is being taken at face value in the parent comment, and the nuances of the presence of the disorder are being ignored. Yes, many individuals with ADHD can cope without medication and may go on to live good-enough lives that might be the envy of others. However, there may be a lot of potential being left on the table staying untreated. So to say that someone clearly doesn’t have…

I did not say he never had ADHD. I’m saying he does not have it now. Do you understand the significance of that difference?
Post reply on HN