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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#81
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about ADHD though, not someone looking to just pull some all-nighters or cram on a Sunday night. When I realized there was a low dose medication that could basically cure me of ADHD (thus cure me of underperformance, procrastinating my ambitions, low professional self-esteem), the choice was obvious. Know what also does harm? Underperformance, procrastinating my ambitions, low professional self-esteem.…

Stimulant addictions are one of the most common functional addictions. I don't think most people would consider someone servicing an active physical dependency to have a "perfect bill of health", even if you are totally free from disease.

Mental disease is a disease too. The options are either to have ADHD, which is a potentially very destructive disease, or to have a low-grade dependency on stimulants with few side-effects that can be severed in a week or two.

Of course, many medications that aren't psychotropic fit the bill. Corticosteroids, for a common example, lead to physical dependency too. Most medications lead to some kind of physical dependency after prolonged use, it's just sometimes of very low grade.

The second option is much better from any pathological point of view.

To note, perfect health doesn't exist. We're all broken in some way :)

Re: Me and ADHD

#82

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

This is a super-edge-case but if you happen to want to be a pilot (either small planes all the way up to airlines), the FAA considers ADHD and other attention-deficit conditions to be disqualifying. If you're taking medication for ADHD or similar conditions and want to be a pilot, you're dead in the water until you get off them and can show that you don't have some kind of attention difficulty. FYI!

Re: Me and ADHD

#83

Am I the only one who feels a bit discredited when someone blames their ADHD for their shortcomings? To me, all the ADHD symptoms listed in this article sounds like nothing more but normal human traits. Also, author hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD, and the tips can be helpful to everyone.

They are human traits when they are relatively easy to overcome, not easy at all with ADHD.

Re: Me and ADHD

#84

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

> I thought everybody felt that way.

Does it incur any impact on your life? Was it a thought or a challenge?

Re: Me and ADHD

#85

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

Do your motivation problems keep recurring, causing real problems at work/school, at home or in your personal relationships in a way that is beyond your control and that has persisted for more than six months?

If you answer yes to this, I would recommend talking to a professional. No one can diagnose you online (with the exception of professionals offering remote sessions).

Re: Me and ADHD

#86

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

This is a super-edge-case but if you happen to want to be a pilot (either small planes all the way up to airlines), the FAA considers ADHD and other attention-deficit conditions to be disqualifying. If you're taking medication for ADHD or similar conditions and want to be a pilot, you're dead in the water until you get off them and can show that you don't have some kind of attention difficulty. FYI!

Personally, as a person with ADHD, I am fine with that restriction.

Re: Me and ADHD

#87

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

“Depression, isn’t that a fancy word for just feeling ‘bummed out?’”

But seriously, a lot of conditions are just universal human experiences that are severe enough to impact your daily life. We all get depressed, but we all don’t have depression

Re: Me and ADHD

#88

Am I the only one who feels a bit discredited when someone blames their ADHD for their shortcomings? To me, all the ADHD symptoms listed in this article sounds like nothing more but normal human traits. Also, author hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD, and the tips can be helpful to everyone.

I have been diagnosed with ADHD and to me it really has been great getting treatment. I think it's unfair to blame everything on ADHD and not take responsibility for anything but for me where I think it's different from someone who doesn't have it is that I was unable to pay attention during lectures for example. Like I really wanted to and the information was still interesting but I still couldn't get myself to pay attention and that caused a lot of anxiety and severely effected my self esteem since I was blaming myself and saying "well you just didn't try hard enough" and things like that. Like most things, ADHD is a spectrum so there is likely a lot of it that goes undiagnosed. A lot of the symptoms are pretty normal human traits but I think how much those traits are present is the big thing.

Re: Me and ADHD

#89

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out ther…

There are, of course, levels. For me the difference is between spending 15 hours non-stop programming, or spending two months unable to open a ticket because it's menial, being unable to start important schoolwork that is too menial until 1h before the due date, and so on.

I've been like this since I remember, and I really can't do anything to fix it. It has a large negative effect on my life. But of course, it's not just that, for example often I literally cannot pay attention to a direct interlocutor, or can't keep myself focused during final exams.

Re: Me and ADHD

#90
post #52

Anybody else here thinks their ADHD influences some hoarding tendencies or fear-of-missing-out? I am basically a tab-opening machine. Whenever I come across any link that I feel might be helpful in some point in the future, I open it in the background knowing full well that I don't have time to look at it soon. Thank god for TheGreatSuspender, and SessionBuddy extentions.

> TheGreatSuspender

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25846504

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