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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#701

Post by loamaa »

maliker wrote: post #684
TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

ChatGPT coded up a simple python script to do this for me if anyone would like to test it out. Here's the script: https://gist.github.com/dpinney/a3c0b1f333ef89748fa12d057a55...

Thanks for this initial go at the blinking LED script! I went ahead and tried to add some quality-of-life features to this that I wanted. I've never used pyqt before, so I admit I had help from google and copilot figuring out methods. Anyways, here is an updated version that has a few more configurations for background color, circle color, slowdown period, graceful window resizing, and graceful shutdown.

https://gist.github.com/rzwiefel/4527d40de25a7fd5a723016fbd4...

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#702

Post by Qiaogun »

I've developed an experimental ESP32 project that simulates a heartbeat pattern. But I don't have a heart rate sensor, I used my normal resting heart rate as a basis for the simulation. The project utilizes an ESP32 to create a LED blink pattern that represents a heartbeat, starting at a faster rate and gradually slowing down to a resting rate. Here's the link to the project: https://github.com/Qiaogun/ADHD_Blink

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#703

Post by tpmoney »

mcmoor wrote: post #639
dijit wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well. 1. Self-diagnosis is not a diagnosis. 2. Things exist on a spectrum. The definition of it becoming a "disorder" is when it negatively affects your life enough. During diagnosis a psychotherapist will be tasked with identifying traits of ADHD (IE; Markers), you will not have all markers. Everyone will have some. Then those markers are investigated to discover how much they impact your quality of life. If it is a…

I still thought "X is a spectrum" is essentially the same as saying that everyone have it, which I don't think is a useful assertion. There should still be a threshold somewhere, something that of course psychology won't try to draw.

The threshold for any disorder is usually “is it causing a significant and negative impact on your ability to live a normal life”. And while there are a lot of squishy terms in that statement, it’s about the best we have. We know even less about the workings of the brain than we do about the workings of your body and anyone with a chronic and rare health issue can tell you just how little we know about the workings of the body. So these sorts of “standard normal life” and “significant impact” fuzzy phrases are our best tool.

Everyone is late sometimes, are you so chronically late that you’re losing or at risk of losing your job despite doing things that normal people would do (e.g. getting up earlier, setting alarms etc), that could be (along with other symptoms) an indication of ADHD.

Everyone is sad sometimes, even deeply so. Are you so down that the very act of getting up and making yourself food seems too much? Are you so hopeless that even doing something you love makes you feel nothing? That (along with other symptoms) might indicate you have depression.

Everyone has things that they want to have “just right”, whether it’s a well organized tool box, a clean car or a spotless mirror. Do you find yourself needing to ensure that every dish in your cabinets are sorted properly by size and weight, every day, even if it means missing that important meeting with a friend you haven’t seen in years and even though you already did this yesterday and only used two plates since then? That might (along with other symptoms) indicate that you have OCD.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#704

Post by TimTheTinker »

falcolas wrote: post #380
atcalan wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now do remembering to fill your medicine when you're off your medicine :) you need extreme executive loading to argue with insurance and RXs especially with the supply chain issues.

It always bothers me how the procedure for getting ADHD meds is the single most ADHD unfriendly procedure in existence.

That's why I use nicotine patches. I don't know how much of the benefit they deliver compared to something like Ritalin, but I do see a measurable improvement. (Including getting a major promotion)

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#705

Post by TimTheTinker »

hirvi74 wrote: post #531
gibagger wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you also have an aversion to paperwork? Seems to be "a thing". Paperwork has paralysed me ever since I've been in high school. Have gotten in trouble and paid fines over procrastinating paperwork over my whole life. I am also on the "Highly Likely", and currently on the waitlist for a clinic. The best thing I did was being open and honest with my partner, as my ADD behaviors would sometimes exasperate her. I did t…

Last year I sent a friend a package. It took me over a year to send the damn thing. Why? I just couldn't find the motivation to send it. I had all the contents packed up in a box ready to go, and I live like 0.2 mile walk away from a Post Office. Still took over a year to send it. Oh! I have another. I once drove with expired car tags for like 3 to 6 months. I already had them renewed and everything. In fact, my tag…

I totally get it and have been through exactly what you describe many times.

What finally helped me was (a) the advent of online services for nearly everything, so I can do it all in one session and not have to do multiple steps to accomplish something (or any back-and-forth phone/mail), and (b) a "just do it now" mindset. Like, when a bill comes I somehow finally have myself psyched to pay it online right away (don't ask me how I got here, I don't know. Maybe it's because I tied money handling to checking my bank balance when I get a paycheck - that's when I do most of my banking... seeing a higher balance and moving money around (and by extension, paying bills) feels exciting now to my lizard brain.) Otherwise, if I don't take care of it right away, I know it'll literally never happen.

I know that if I had been born 20 years earlier, I'd have a much worse credit score and probably be much poorer due to late fees. Online services and auto-bill-pay make such a difference.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#706

Post by TheRealHB »

chipsrafferty wrote: post #530
TheRealHB wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use any blinking LED template code that your OEM offers for your particular board (ESP32 or alike) as it will be specific for the PIN the LED is wired and libraries available, etc. Basically a function slope with a value from 150 to 60 that calls "blinks" over an hour, when at the end it turns off LED. You can make it smoother, add the heartbeat sensor, make it pulse instead of blink, that stuff will be particul…

What if I don't know what any of that means? I only know how to code, never used a "board" but I want to try this

I see, well in that case just search for ESP32 on Amazon and get one for a $5, then look for a few videos on Youtube who to program for a ESP32 board and you will probably learn as a first example something to control the board's LED. From that you will be half way, just modify and try things out ; )

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#707

Post by tsegers »

herculity275 wrote: post #116
TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

Do you have a script you could share?

Here's what I cobbled together for Arduino [1]. It ain't pretty, but it's short and it works.

[1] https://paste.sr.ht/~tsegers/53adaecd734e7159352f152ac1dcc85...

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#708

Post by floydax »

TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

This got me so intrigued that I built https://github.com/vlameiras/tranquiled in order to have similar behaviour but in the screen itself. Nothing fancy, just curious to try it out!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#709

Post by scohesc »

hirvi74 wrote: post #603
scohesc wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My doctor suggests I take Vyvanse on the weekends, 7 days a week - I feel like after taking it so long (almost a decade) I don't know who I am anymore off the pills - like I'm a different person almost? Did your doctor suggest weekend breaks, or is this something you've tried yourself and found works for you?

Every doctor I have had has recommend taking breaks if and when possible. I try to do it myself, and I think it makes a difference. The research on tolerance to medications is not well agreed upon. I am not expert, but I do not see any biological way that the human body would not gain a tolerance to some degree when constantly exposed to an exogenous substance that alters dopamine, GABA, etc.. Nicotine tolerance is r…

Thank you for your input :)

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#710

Post by corobo »

JohnBooty wrote: post #686
corobo wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give that a read, ta for the pointer. It's been on my to-read list for a long while but y'know, ADHD, haha. Bumped it up the list. In the meantime I'll give my task list a realistic "when does this really need doing, if at all" audit, nice one

The total system he prescribes is perhaps a little elaborate, in many peoples' opinions. Some people have great success with his system as described! I don't want to prejudice your thinking! But I think perhaps 10x as many people found a lot of value from the principles he describes and adopting the bits of his system that work for them. (I am one of them) I'm just mentioning that in case you start reading and think…

Oh aye no worries, I'm familiar with the pick and mix when reading self help style books

Eat the fish, spit the bones! :)

Cheers!

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