The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends.
Thanks friends.
I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to millions of people, or still be relevant in 100 years.
And all the side quests and rabbit holes were obviously for recharging, expanding my biological-being-on-an-odd-planet situational awareness, or benefited me as self-improvement challenges. All in service of the important things.
How would tracking the day of the week, doing homework on something I could learn later if/when I ever needed it, or mowing the lawn, help me accomplish anything important?
Wasting brain space on those kinds of things would be dysfunction. I actively culled such dreck!
Now I know my self-narrative was Stockholm Syndrome coping.
But I still don't mow lawns, and if the blinds are drawn when I finish a big task, I couldn't guess if it was am or pm better than a coin toss. My day metric is when Amazon Prime's "Your Orders" list, tells me I am a day closer to getting a crafting item I ordered for a project I may never get to.
Don't be too mad at your friends. People are not receptive to being told they're odd. And as much as they might say "we knew", they didn't really. They might have suspected, but they cannot diagnose you. Many things are very clear in hindsight that weren't actually clear at the time.
> The most surprising thing my adult ADHD diagnosis revealed was that as I began telling friends that I had been diagnosed positive they told me they had known that since they met me. These were childhood friends.
As someone with peer reviewed ADHD but not official diagnosis, what are friends gonna do about it? They can tell you, you're always late and it's annoying but that's about it. At some point it becomes just who you are as a person, part of your character sheet. If you're not planning to change and it's mostly under control (have job, life, etc), does it even matter to put a label on the thing?
I feel like a diagnosis in my 20's would've been useful. Now it's like I got me my coping strategies and they work pretty well. If I do or don't have ADHD doesn't really change anything.
And for anyone else reading, the leading symptom of adult-diagnosed adhd is saying and thinking things like "I don't get it, ADD can't be real, that's just how everyone is"
different people with ADHD have different symptoms or effects. I think yes it absolutely matters because I have always secretly been hard on myself, that I am worse than others, struggled under extreme rejection sensitivity. It matters and helps, if only to be able to be a little kinder to yourself and have the ability to decide to get help in the form of a therapist, or medication, or find strategies that worked for others.
I found out through a friend who has ADHD just talking about it and finding myself saying "oh god I know EXACTLY what you mean" too often. Then I stumbled upon the reddit adhdmeme community and found myself laughind and saying oh god so true to many of the posts there. Funnily enough now that I'm diagnosed I am noticing that I have unconsciously surrounded myself and just meshed much easier with ADHD people. My wife also has ADHD for example and was always undiagnosed, the friends at work I mesh best with.. you guessed it, also ADHD. Then I learned about how its to a majority genetics and a couple of months after (independent, not somehow induced by me) by nephew gets diagnosed too.
For years I heard I was ADHD from my parents, and while some questions when I got diagnosed no longer applied, weeks later, I reflected on them. One in particular was alluding to something to the effect of "has anyone ever told you to stop you're doing too much" which yeah, I was running at full speed all the time when I was younger, probably more than all my cousins.
Some friends I've known for over a decade clearly have ADHD, and I'm not going to tell them unprompted.
I feel like it is very disrespectful, especially when the conversation is about something completely different. Also, I'm not a medical professional, and it is possible that their ADHD-like symptoms are caused by something else.
That being said, if they ask if I think they have ADHD, or any other form of neurodivergence, I will say yes.
Sometimes, a little nudge is all it takes. I didn’t get diagnosed until somebody close to me asked if I’d ever been evaluated. Highly recommend finding some way to bring it up.
Not only that but it's not always clear that friends don't already know! It's entirely possible their friends might have assumed that they already were aware and had been diagnosed.
Speaking as someone who only got our ADHD diagnosis in our late thirties and our autism spectrum diagnosis at forty fucking two, please consider just telling them. That could be years or decades of social, pharmacological, and even legal assistance that they deserve and need and aren't otherwise getting.
Second this too. I went through live until mid thirties thinking life just was that hard for everyone and I was just bad and shit at things, worse than others - I suffered alone thinking everyone had to be like me, because I'm normal right? It was a huge relief finally being diagnosed because I could finally understand myself better, even found community of sorts.. strategies that worked for others and most of all.. just allowing myself to be KIND to myself, not always beating myself up, being angry at myself for being shit.
I took a similar test but in person at an office a few years ago. Exact same layout, of "click when x appears, do nothing if not". It was only 25 minutes I believe but felt like an eternity. I had a 100% success rate and above average reaction speed, but I still "failed" because of my observed behavior as I was taking the test.
The proctor noted my restless legs, frequent posture shifts, and "tendancy to tap the table when not responding to the stimuli" (this was a strategy I had come up with to create something to do in response to "doing nothing", as it made a sort of rhythm that gave me something to do). I then realized that the test meant very little, but the proctor was watching and diagnosing me durng the test.
I sat a similar test at the start of my ADHD diagnosis (in the UK for reference).
The one I did (QbCheck) was a similar setup but you were presented with shapes on the screen, either a square or a circle, and either blue or red. All you had to do was press the spacebar when the shape on the screen was the same shape and colour as the previous one. No sound distracitons (or maybe I just had the volume muted.)
You also had to do the test on a laptop with a forward facing camera so the software could track eye movement.
I remember starting the test and thinking "This is exactly what my brain is wired for, I'm going to be awesome at this test!"
Within a minute my mind had already moved on to "I wonder how they score this test? I guess they're looking at accuracy, reaction times, how those trend over time, whether the accuracy/reactions goes up/down if they show the same shape/colour more than twice in a row?" etc...
It didn't take long for me to then get jolted into a "wait, did I just zone out a bit there and miss one?"
Then I became overly conscious of my eyes wandering around and not looking at the screen.
Then my mind moved on to "what if I'm too good at this and it means I won't get a diagnosis?"
Soon it was "When will this ever end? This must have been going on for ages!" only to find it had only been about 3 minutes.
The test took 20 minutes or so and I was mentally exhausted by the end of it.
My actual ADHD diagnosis was backed up by an 80 minute interview, basically doing the DSM-5 questions but linking it all back to childhood experiences too. I've no idea how much weight the QbCheck test had.
Glad I got the diagnosis, I've been masking both for years (diagnosed in my late 40s) but just got burnt out doing so. Medication helps but isn't perfect and since I'm probably AuDHD I find the ADHD medication amplifies some of the Autism traits and makes me into a bit of an emotional zombie, but that seems to be better than having zero motivation (aside from stress/deadlines and serious consequences).
I feel your thoughts about "what if I'm too good at this and it means I wont get diagnosed?" and "when will this ever end?" one, felt like forever - the time blindness struggle is real. I still thought I did too well until the end where they showed me.. well I missed a lot of those little dots in the quadrants or whatever it was.
I was researching this test yesterday for my own appointment and did not expect to see it on hacker news.
I am having a really difficult time finding a reputable psychiatrist to assess adult ADHD. I called 15 places and only heard back from one. I scheduled an appointment. They had 1/5 stars, gave me a 30 year old 1 page questionnaire, and asked to see my childhood report card. I did not see them again.
Yesterday I got a callback from an office offering this online test but nothing else? It all smells fishy.
Did anyone have to cross state lines to find a reputable psychiatrist?
My psychiatrist gave me some questionnaires (BECK Depression Inventory, THE BECK Anxiety Inventory) and gave me an IQ test (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), she noted in her report the fact that I had a tendency to be restless, that I was distracted by the sound of the clock in her office ticking and that the IQ test scores were very lopsided with Processing Speed being much lower than everything else (and slightly lower working memory). Total test took 8 hours. I had abysmal results on the (Picture Completion) subtest.
I used my general physician. It may not be as high quality as a psych, but he determined the symptoms correlated with the diagnosis and the medicine has helped me immensely in my life.
I spent a decent amount working on ADHD diagnostics and unfortunately it sucks. To my knowledge, to this day, there isn’t a single reliable biomarker that identifies autism spectrum disorders.
It’s usually correlation studies paired with questionnaires which for lack of better words can be described as “incidental” at best. Most z scored tests I know are also developed with small samples, a hundred participants with an outgroup of 20 would already be a LARGE sample. The standard ADHD questionnaire was validated on some 35 people.
There might be some hope in deep learning, particularly in observing eye movement components to deliver reliable biomarkers in the future, but I’m not so confident any time soon.
It’s dreadful and fascinating at the same time that defining and testing for ADS has been so elusive for so long…
From a molecular neuroscience perspective, for both ADHD and ASD (autism) you're unlikely to find any pure biomarkers as clean as a disease like huntingtons disease whose mechanism is clearly understood as extra CAG repeats on the HTT gene (a clean mendelian disorder). ADHD is defined by behavior/cognitive symptoms and most all behavior/cognitive diseases are multifactoral, which ADHD is. WES/WGS and GWAS has been done and for familial ADHD and unlike ASD there is mostly no clear monogenic mutation (a single gene that would explain the phenotype) [note monogenic mutations are usually a very small subset of cases but give scientists a look into what pathway/mechanism is causing a multifactoral disease]. Thus it is not for a lack of looking classically, and deficit is speculated to likely manifest as a neural circuit organization or synaptic issue (though the latter is more closely linked to ASD). This is currently impossible (basically) to measure in alive human brain as it requires nanoscopic imaging, note how challenging the fly map was (incomplete IMO as well).
There’s a doctor who goes by Russell Barkley, PhD on his popular YouTube channel and claims to be able to brainscan for ADHD with certainty. Is his claim legitimate?
Russel Barkley is a pioneer in the field of ADHD research. I have heard of such a claim, but not from Russel Barkley. Could you provide a link of Russel Barkley making the claim please?
It's somewhere in this talk (broken down as a playlist). It's been a while since I've watched it but I do recall him saying that they can see physically differences in the brain of adhd folks
Seeing physical differences in brain volume, connectivity or activity between groups of many adhd folks and non-adhd folks is one thing and that can be done. However, performing a clinical diagnosis of adhd in an individual, solely based on a brain scan, is a completely different thing.
There are only papers which suggest this could be true, none that conclusively prove it. That I’m aware of.
There are some cool studies done where people with a without ADHD are tasked to forage berries. The people with ADHD do better and adhere to foraging patterns which existing theories suggest would be more optimal.
A lot of the studies like that indicate the individual with the condition might benefit more from ADHD than the group they’re in, but I’m not sure that studies have explored group benefits very much.
There’s an often cited paper in which nomadic men who carry a certain ADHD-related allele (DRD4-7R, a dopamine reception variant with ADHD traits and novelty seeking) tend to have better nutritional status. I can’t recall much about it or how high quality it is.
I’ve always thought, it’s not absurd to think there different development routes which the brain takes depending on the environment it develops in.
With your foraging example, it does make me think ADHD is a small group/individual optimisation. Prioritising high vigilance and individual productivity over social cohesion.
I speak with no authority. I don’t even know how such a theory could be tested.
I don’t mean from a nutritional standpoint, but a behavioural perspective. Smaller groups would have an higher percentage of responsibility per individual to be vigilant and proactive.
It would make sense to me that evolutionary there would be different mental development paths depending on the requirements of their situation.
This is coming from my understanding that ADHD is more prevalent in stressful upbringings.
A psychiatrist told me that people with ADHD perform better under extreme pressure and chaos. No idea if that's true. Personally I don't even think of ADHD as a deficiency. It's just a trait that is not compatible with modern society and workplace.
There might be a correlation, but I doubt causation. I would argue people with ADHD, like myself, tend to end up in situations where extreme pressure and chaos is more common. Thus, we have more exposure than the average person. I imagine it can be a trainable trait in many people.
ChatGPT's take was that 10 ADHD people/animals would go exploring and if one produced a new source of food then it would be advantageous for the group, but the other 9 could fail and be completely useless. A bit like venture capital funds haha.
So there is still room for complete failure in life, and maybe its a lot of luck/environment that some ADHD people succeed naturally.
2. Assuming it really is: Why would this make it unlikely to be encoded on a single gene? As a layman, the only condition I'm aware of with this "downside but also upside" quality is sickle cell anaemia (downside is anaemia, upside is increased resistance to malaria), which is decided by a single nucleotide change on chromosome 11.
Sometimes the upside is just being different. I heard about a group of cattle, and one of them was ill, while the others feasted. The feed was tainted, and so only the sick one survived.
Though, with ADHD, I think it's definitely more than that. It doesn't just make it hard to focus, it makes it hard to focus on what you need to, until the moment that it is obviously now or never. Focus, though - there's tons of that, flitting about, and sometimes grabbing you up and running away with you - sometimes for months. I would imagine that there are a lot of novel discoveries attributable to it.
By seeking out novelty, someone could be a more effective forager or better able to spot predators/prey hiding. ADHD often comes with a high attention to detail, so there's lots of advantages that could come with that (e.g. that twig wasn't broken before, something has passed through here).
Also, having different sleeping patterns can mean that the people with ADHD are likely better equipped to keep a fire burning overnight and possibly be alert for predators.
> As a layman, the only condition I'm aware of with this "downside but also upside" quality is sickle cell anaemia
Essentially all traits that you might think of as "traits" and not "features of the species" have downsides and also upsides. Where there's any significant imbalance, the genes for that trait will be purged from the gene pool (if the trait is basically all negatives) or sweep to become universal (if all positives).
Are you familiar with any of those? I did some research after receiving my report and apparently the combination of tests listed above are well-respected, about as good as it gets. I’m curious what your take is.
The subjective part of the assessment was actually the clinician making sense of the data. My cognitive assessment (IQ and its subtypes) scored fairly high, I averaged something like 115 (84th percentile). But my memory assessment scores (audio/visual memory/working memory, immediate/delayed memory) tanked tremendously, I averaged around 90 (30th percentile).
My positive diagnosis was based on the variability of scores and the clear cognition-memory gap. The results made sense, aligned with my experience in life (I fell asleep in almost every lecture in college, sustaining attention while taking notes was a heavy audio-visual working memory exercise for me).
I personally haven’t adopted any of this as my identity but it opened a door to do some metacognition and reflect on how I interface with the world. Also the stimulant medication didn’t magically fix everything, sometimes the hyper focus is worse, but there was one HUGE benefit that I didn’t realize I was missing - emotional regulation. I’m a heavy ruminator and pretty much suffered in silence most of my life, my inner dialog is much more organized and calm, and I can comb through my thoughts easier now.
P.S. I cannot recommend enough - check out “HealthyGamerGG” on YouTube. He does some deep dives on ADHD and other diagnoses. Classically trained psychiatrist with something like 5 years of training as a Buddhist monk. Very insightful guy who’s both data-driven and spiritual, helping a lot of people.
Be careful and approach `HealthyGamerGG` with a bit of healthy skepticism. I have benefited from a number of his videos, but recently small things have lead to me growing concerned that as his reach/influence grows, the same motivations that existed early on mutate as with many influencers. Not suggesting anything negative per se, just recommending a variety of sources and validating his claims. For another source, Dr. Barkley's videos are very good.
I'm not OP but that seems like a very respectable diagnostic track. No test is 100% reliable, so you'd want multiple tests. Even then the results can realistically only be interpreted by a psychologist that is familiar with your situation (hence the clinical interview). So this seems perfectly proper.
> Also the stimulant medication didn’t magically fix everything
Sadly there is no medication that fixes adhd. The only thing these medication does is make it easier to deal with by alleviating (some of) the symptoms. Personally I've noticed from my medication (methylphenidate) that it make it easier to stay focused on whatever task I'm doing, but if that happens to be scrolling reddit, I can still waste hours, perhaps even more since I would have otherwise distracted myself from reddit long before. So it's not perfect, but it does enable me to concentrate 8h+ at work, and that's ultimately the main benefit it brings me.
That’s my bad for conflating the two. Indeed they are not the same in ICT-11 but! diagnostics is moving towards the direction of treating them the same. ADHD and ASD have extremely high comorbidity and it has been proposed many times to classify them together because the symptoms overlap (difficulties at school, aggressive behaviour or temper, lack of social skills, etc). In fact it has become so difficult to find distinctive features of ADHD both in diagnostics AND treatment (both are usually treated with cognitive behavioural therapy and in more severe cases medication) that it has been proposed numerous times to drop their distinction in the ICT, but this hasn’t happened yet. Good paper to the point:
I don't think that's the conclusion of the paper you linked, although there are papers suggesting that ADHD and autism are essentially subtypes of a single overarching disorder.
The more common view is that because prevalence of attentional deficit in autism is so high, it's rare to find someone with autism who isn't also able to fit an ADHD diagnosis. This might mean a shared common ancestor as it were, or perhaps autism has attentional deficit as an intrinsic part of the disorder rather than people with autism also often having ADHD.
The other direction is the amount of people who have ADHD who also have autism. In this case, while the overlap is higher than the general population, it is easy to find people with ADHD who do not meet the diagnostic criteria for autism.
Put more simply, people with ADHD aren't necessarily autistic, but people with autism are usually ADHD.
CBT is not a first line treatment for ADHD in Australia. Indeed standard CBT is contra-indicated because it requires the kind of "homework" that ADHDers struggle with. There are CBT variants tailored for ADHD however.
> distinctive features of ADHD both in diagnostics AND treatment (both are usually treated with cognitive behavioural therapy and in more severe cases medication)
Uh, what? How exactly could treatment be more distinct than ADHD people being indicated for a highly-regulated drug like amphetamines, which are extremely effective to the point of being life-changing treatment? Meanwhile nobody would consider prescribing Adderall to treat autism. What a bizarre conflation of two completely different disorders.
Isn't this true of nearly all mental disorders in DSM-5 and ICD-11?
We don't really know what mental disorders are and so we don't have objective diagnostic tests for them. [1]
We just have treatments that sometimes work for some people (and with the replication crisis[2] that sometimes is probably a lower value than expected).
I did a similar test and it came back neurotypical.
Given the overlap between ADHD and video games, I'm not convinced of the accuracy. It felt like a lame rhythm minigame to me.
I don't think the research is solid, my guess is these tests are convenient for insurance and liability paperwork since stimulants are controlled substances.
I like how this can be summarized as a person taking part in an ADHD test before getting off-track and overanalyzing the task without actually doing it.
This was part of how my ADHD was diagnosed. I did a full day of testing at a specialist center. First I had a conversation with a nurse, then a psychologist, then they had me do a similar test (but in a controlled environment and I also had face tracking and a motion sensor monitoring my movement). After the test, I was given lunch and a dose of adhd medication and about an hour break, then they had me do the test again. After that I met with a psychiatrist who walked me through the test results. Then I had another break while the three specialists met to discuss my case and make a diagnosis. Finally I met with the three to hear the outcome (I was also given a full write-up of my results from the day).
My one surprise from this article is that "play a web game for 18 minutes" in an uncontrolled environment was considered enough testing for a diagnosis!
It's been a trip hearing how much testing others have gone through. IIRC, we had all of one conversation with our psychiatrist (albeit one we had already been seeing for a while) and got our diagnosis. But then it wasn't exactly subtle ADHD.
For our autism assessment a couple months ago, our therapist (whom we've been seeing for about a year at that point?) had us take one or two relatively short multiple choice assessments or the like and that was enough to diagnose us as on the spectrum. Did you know: Not all autistics struggle with eye contact? Some of us (ourselves included) are actually pretty good at it. One reason it's called a spectrum!
The previous time with our mental health professionals factored into their diagnoses, though, not just the tests. The takeaway: Book a therapist and psychiatrist both if you don't already and get those balls rolling.
No questions, but feedback for you from an engineer in a similar situation (late diagnosis), make sure you go back and get them to check for every other thing under the sun. You really don't want to dive into the ADHD side and find out it was something else (other things can masquerade as ADHD), so a good neuropsychologist is critical. And "body medicine", too, for example adrenal disorders. It's worth being extremely thorough at this point - you're off the standard path, embrace it.
Also, congratulations, once you figure it out your life is going to change for the better in a way you can't currently understand (literally, lacking the brain regions and/or development for it, take it from me), but the process can kinda suck a lot, so stick with it, it's worth it in the end, wherever you end up.
I have a question (and please take it in jest)! In between buying a telescope, seeking out an opinion on ADHD, accidentally hacking an online test, and then blogging about it, how many things on your todo list(s) did you not do?
Have you got some fancy scroll thing for your blog? Something in my brain is noticing that scrolling feels smoother than your average site, though maybe im crazy.
Following through on the top comment, surely you realized when you decided to forgo the back half of the test that, had the program compensated for it, you were consciously leaning into the ADHD diagnosis, right?
Which is exactly how it manifests, at least for a lot of people. ADHD isn't just "I can't focus lol", it's "trying to focus feels like dragging myself through broken glass"
One of my kids got diagnosed with ADHD and autism/asperger. He can sit for hours reading IF IT IS INTERESTING. But homework? Impossible. Even if it's just reading a couple of pages of a book it's nearly impossible for him to do it and it takes so much energy and suffering to get through it.
I know this is a joke, but I'd be careful about assuming: I had a trained therapist diagnose me with ADHD ... incorrectly.
It turns out, there are other conditions out there that can appear to be be ADHD. If a trained therapist can confuse them, outside observers certainly can too, so it is possible that "very ADHD-acting" person you know might not have it.
(Or, especially for females, the reverse can be true, as not everyone with ADHD manifests with the same trademark hyperactivity.)
It was originally called ADD.
Then they forced the H in there for hyperactivity.
And now they say there is non-hyperactive ADHD, but... they don't call it ADD.
So the first rule of getting attention for your paper is to re-define common terms...
I understand this is your personal medical info, but could you drop any hints as to the nature of the misdiagnosis? I've learned late in life that I am neurospicy and learning from other's experiences in this domain has been quite helpful.
I listen to a lot of psychiatry podcasts, and they generally think that ADHD is being seriously overdiagnosed at this point.
Executive dysfunction, especially that which was not impairing as a child, has a lot of potential causes. Anxiety, depression (yes, ADHD can cause these, but these can also cause executive dysfunction in people without ADHD), OCD, Bipolar (manic people in particular often attribute worsening of hyperactivity and distractability to ADHD instead of mania), Schizophrenia pretty much universally is related to cognitive symptoms and lowered motivation even when not psychotic, and borderline personality disorder can cause changes in interests and identity.
For many of these conditions, stimulants can act as a band aid on something else. It can superficially make people feel better (of course, it's speed), but it can distract from other symptoms that are impairing functioning, and prevent people from seeking long term solutions.
People are way too happy when they find out that the treatment is taking speed every day for their whole life, as if this isn't going to take its toll on the body and that the brain is not going to adapt to this.
I can roll with that. I do have executive dysfunction and other "fun" facets of a funky neurobiology. I also recognize that every body and mind is different and it's a personal journey to find the right tools.
I recognize that non-medical options should always be front line approaches but there can be a chicken and egg effect as to making that happen.
In my youth I adhered to a "better living through chemistry (wink wink)", I do now too (rip Mitch Hedburg) but the wink wink part is very rare and disciplined and now it's all about pharma and supplements to wring what I can out of what I've got left.
On the non-medical options front, I will note that my lifelong hyperactive and neurotic tendencies dramatically improve with a 3-4 day a week distance running training regimen. I enjoy running enough, even though it is very difficult, that I've kept up with it for several years. I'm not as consistent about this, but I also found yoga classes to be a way to make mindfulness fun and easier.
That's not to say I'm not on the medication train (despite moaning about medications a lot). I do personally avoid taking any controlled substances. This is easy because I hate how stimulants make me feel, but in general I worry about the effects of having a direct reward signal from taking a pill.
Jumping on this conversation a bit: I was recently diagnosed and am still very much in the "what helps?" and "what parts of my personality/habits are connected to this and which aren't?" stage. Do either of you by any chance know a healthy online space to discuss this with others?
I found Finally Focused by James Greenblatt to be quite helpful. He makes sure key minerals and vitamins are in a good range before prescribing stimulants.
This sometimes solves the problem by itself, or it reduces the levels of stimulants needed.
Differentials for ADHD include: panic disorder, metabolic issues, anxiety disorder, depression, adrenal disorders including deficiency and excess like pheochromocytoma, bipolar, autism, learning disorders, personality disorders like borderline and antisocial, OCD, trauma including PTSD and CPTSD, sleep disorders including narcolepsy, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, ironically substance use disorder like cocaine and amphetamine addiction, thyroid issues again ironically including both hypo and hyperthyroid, seizures, hearing and vision issues, and life stressors.
So, uh, ... a whole textbook. And I probably forgot some.
This comment is so funny to me, because I imagine you being distracted to make the comment before making it to the end where the psych did indeed review the new results.
Well I only know that because I skipped to the end. Then, while scrolling up I realised I missed the whole side-quest about promising to not cheat the test again, taking the test again, but then "accidentally" finding an exploit the system, and then cheating the test again, but this time cheating even more to see the results.
Then, scrolling up more I see that this whole thing started with seeing stars and then buying a telescope on amazon (probably at 3am).
And here I am commenting on HN instead of replying to an email...
Brother the test is quick, easy, and painless, and the results can be lifechanging.
The other thing is, ADHD in my mind is really a syndrome that starts with a symptom - inattention - that can be caused by so, so many things.
I have both, because of course I do, I had a medical problem that exacerbated my ADHD to a significant, significant degree (it's amazing I was able to be a software engineer for so long without treatment). So don't just tunnel vision in... as we tend to be prone to do. Get the whole workup with an experienced clinician, it's so lifechanging it's hard to describe.
I want to add that the comment is also funny to me because it and the blog post are very relatable to me. I don't mean to dismiss it at all. It's really important to get a good diagnosis for anything like this and not dismiss it or lock into the wrong diagnosis because of your own tunnel vision.
You wrote "the test is quick, easy, and painless" but I also want to note that it's not always. Depending on your country, parents, specific doctor, etc it can be very difficult to get a proper diagnosis and help. In some places a big criteria is diagnosis during childhood so if you're 30 or 40 you might have no chance. Or a chance but it depends on your parents retroactively answering a questionnaire, or finding an old report card with the right words.
As you said it's life changing to get the right help and I encourage everyone to pursue this.
Therapy, which (at least for me) has focused dually on adhd management strategies that can be very helpful (including, in particular, enhancing relevant social skills related to setting expectations and boundaries) and on identifying and modifying negative self-image issues and counterproductive learned behaviors (e.g. various forms of self-directed hostility that attempt to assert control over a neurophysiological issue).
It’s funny, I went to therapy a lot of times before I found someone I could stick with, and if I were to give my past self a list of what I’ve gotten from therapy, I think I would’ve been unimpressed. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed that I’m more confident and calmer, and it has definitely improved my relationships.
There’s a kind of virtuous cycle that happens where you replace a grumpy mindset where you’re always mad at yourself for not meeting other peoples’ expectations and always mad at other people for making your life hard, with a confident mindset where you understand yourself, are therefore comfortable relating to other people about your abilities and needs, and can focus on putting yourself in situations where you’ll be successful.
lol, we’re all writing the same thing. I’ll give you one example, because I particularly liked it. My therapist always talks about separating people from problems, and I never had any idea wtf he was talking about. And then he gave me this exercise where he was like, “let’s construct a narrative where this person’s eccentric personality makes them really good at something specific. Where would you expect a person like that to encounter friction and how would you manage it?”
It was sort of fun, we talked about how Arthur Schawlow (who co-invented the laser and won the Nobel prize) was banned from driving on Stanford campus and had to be chauffeured. And I finally understood what he was talking about; you can access this perspective for anybody by constructing such a narrative. What if everybody’s a misunderstood genius at something? Why not? How would you live in such a world? One insight among many.
If you pair meds with therapy and adjusting your life according to the things you learn about yourself through the lens of the diagnosis your quality of life can increase dramatically (at least it did for me).
I will say how it was life-changing for me getting diagnosed as 39M.
The quick answer:
Understanding neurobiology and the meta-cognition about the why of certain behavioural patterns and experiences is extremely helpful to just calm down and "forgive" myself, and not judge myself so harshly. It's as if I can optimise my life by leaning on my strengths and importantly recognising and dealing with my weaknesses. Just the awareness lets me catch myself getting into patterns, and act on them sometimes, and just let myself be the other times without any guilt. This insight brings peace more than you think. I can now organise my inner dialog and enjoy the diverse thoughts while also being aware of my impact on people in my life.
I was skeptical of the meds myself. I spoke with about 20 people through AHD support groups and group sessions. The drugs are mostly a trial and error affair with side-effects and altered behaviour. My subtle lifestyle changes - keeping one true todo list, always logging down my thoughts and taking comfort in the fact that they are jotted down so that I dont have to keep going down that thought and actually get up and go catch the train etc already gave me the biggest benefits. Then I wanted to see for myself what the drugs could actually do. At the end of it I may choose to take them or not. After 8 months of slow analytical trial and error with a very helpful psychiatrist who understood where I am coming from, I now take a very small dose of Elvanse(Vyvanse) + Guanfacine on some days of the week where I feel like I could use the help. They are not life-changing. They nudge me into being more capable of being me. My wife can notice the regulation the drugs let me have - A win for me. My kid has a better relationship with me than before - A win for me. Could I do without? Sure. But, I choose to have that little support to manage myself to get to who I want to be around my family without losing who I am. To each their own.
Longer background:
Despite reading about and knowing the symptoms of ADHD, and being told by a professional 10 years ago that I should consider getting formally diagnosed, I thought to myself - "Hey, I am smart. I feel happy and satisfied. I dont have any problem. I'm good as I am. I dont need to do anything about it." and promptly kept sweeping any thoughts about it under the proverbial rug.
Until, I started seeing my son develop in front of me. Seeing all those symptoms - impulsivity, hyper-focus on few things and inattentive to most others, emotional regulation issues, extreme reasoning abilities in some areas while being "immature" in other areas. This was me growing up. Being smart and intelligent, but longing to fit in, struggling to deal with the mundane. So, I decided to get diagnosed properly. Basically, I could hide behind my smartness and the ability to manage my symptoms until it just myself in my life, and then my wife, and then my son, but when the second one came along, I couldn't manage anymore and the overwhelm started to show the real patterns.
Imagine you spent your whole life crawling, and someone taught you to walk, but for your brain. It's hard to describe.
The medication unlocks your ability to learn the skills you need to cope with the problems you have, and therapy gives you the outside feedback you need to escape your own brain trying its hardest to mess things up and hide the mess.
The thing is, the test is super quick and easy. And then they throw 50 procedurally complex and tedious tasks at someone who can definitionally not do that, and they know that. Kafkaesque.
Btw no criticism implied on my end, I'm just now constitutionally incapable of not telling people they should get screened. Hmmm I wonder why I have difficulty resisting that urge...
I think I get your point. It's cruel to require Kafkaesque testing and that just makes it not worth it try. But too simple of a test can also misdiagnose.
The chance to be diagnosed with an appropriate gate varies greatly based on where you live and which doctor you can see and more. It can be anything from a 5 minute conversation, to 6 months of inconvenience, to no chance of even existing in your lifetime, to suck it up and don't ask because your career will end.
Right let me be very explicit: TOVA or equivalent are basically "play video games for 10 minutes as a part of your diagnosis" like the OP, the kafkaesque part is getting the appointment, and getting them administered, getting the diagnosis confirmed, going through the records and getting the prescriptions, everything around it :) they're actually pretty sophisticated tests, despite their palatability - I think if they had better ones they'd obviously use them.
Or even better, "We have one available psychologist and they kinda don't believe in ADHD, so they'll see you but not actually grade the test correctly, so you'll have to try again, and as a bonus get labeled medication seeking". Not my experience, but...
" diagnosis during childhood so if you're 30 or 40 you might have no chance "
Huh? You don't have to be tested as-a-child, you don't have to call up your fourth grade teacher. You can self report your subjective experience.
"Did you have these problems as a child? Have you always had trouble doing your homework? Did stressing out about homework enable you to do the homework?"
They ask the question a few different ways typically.
I get it, perhaps it is different in your area, but I get the impression that an adult ADHD diagnosis is far from impossible.
As I said getting a diagnosis varies by region and doctor. A lot. It's practically impossible in some countries. And also depending on region or personal circumstances, it may not be easy to find another doctor or psychiatrist. Also note that in many countries, only a psychiatrist can diagnose it. Even if diagnosed, you might live in a region where most medicine for ADHD is illegal or have a doctor that won't prescribe them. If you just get disbelief after 6 months of waiting, and after another 6 months just get told stimulants are bad, you might give up.
If you search (eg reddit) for ADHD adult diagnosis, it is filled with horror stories. There's even lots of posts of people diagnosed and medicated for 20+ years that move to another country and can't get a prescription. Or you get a prescription, but the pharmacy won't dispense it or insurance won't pay for it. A typical post on these topics also has one or more people responding "I'm in the same place and it was easy" but also has one or more people responding "I'm in the same place and I tried for 3 years before giving up". By the way, it's also common for women to have more trouble getting a diagnosis compared to male siblings and friends with the same symptoms.
Only recently in aus did an adult diagnosis get support from the government PBS scheme. And even then it's because they're letting retroactive childhood diagnoses be considered for the subsidised medication options.
In some countries it's almost impossible (I don't have any direct experience but I've heard tale that in e.g. aus/nz, east asia, south asia, etc people give up before getting diagnosed often), and my understanding is that in Europe it's virtually unheard of to have an adult diagnosis.
In the US, at least, it ranges from difficult to straightforward, but that's not true everywhere
> ... my understanding is that in Europe it's virtually unheard of to have an adult diagnosis.
Can't speak for the whole of the continent but UK here and I got my ADHD diagnosis a few years shy of 50 years old. Wasn't tricky at all, just a long-ish (8 month) wait for a non-private diagnosis (not full NHS but via an outsourced provider via Right-To-Choose).
When going through the DSM-5 questions (during an ~80 minute interview) I was asked to give examples from both current life experience and from childhood, and that was enough.
Europe here. I have several friends that got diagnosed with ADHD as adults.
If you try to do it through the public system it's very difficult to even get an appointment because there's months long waiting lists. Basically if you have a job and function somewhat OK in normal life you won't be diagnosed in the public system. If you do get through it can be a long process where they want to interview your parents etc to determine if you had symptoms as a child. But you can also get a diagnosis through private practitioners and some of them function almost like diagnosis mills. A couple of video interviews and tests and you are done.
IDK I'm just going by a friend moving there and not being able to get any of her existing medication prescribed, even though she's been diagnosed for literally 40 years.
Reminds me of one of the first video games to get FDA approval as a medical device. EndeavorRx I believe it's called. You have to keep the character moving down the path while not paying attention to all the shit the game produces to distract you.
The biggest risk for ADHD treatment is that most diagnosed people are told: "you brain doesn't make enough dopamine" which makes it feel safe for you and why they say non-ADHD people cannot take it.
But for your specific brain it does make enough and it will fight to maintain that via homeostasis (usually by creating more dopamine vacuums/re-uptakes that stick around a long time...there is good science on this).
So you become dependent on the medication and tolerance can occur making your situation worse than it was in the end.
ADHD-as-a-diagnosis is just a clever way to make the government okay with prescribing stimulant medication to "people who it can help" and having someone safely monitor its usage, and to assure the government that we won't end up with too large of percentage of the population taking it.
Not going to get into a back/forth due to the pseudo-conspiracy end, just stating that this is significantly inaccurate.
Those are some possible outcomes, yes, but it is not a black/white thing, and that is actually WHY it's important to work with a qualified doctor to monitor medication, effects, dosage and so on, and make adjustments as necessary.
Different medications work very differently as it relates to dopamine, uptake, production, etc. And there are also non-stimulant medications that may be effective for some folks.
This is just my story but before ADHD diagnosis and medication I was unemployed, on food stamps, in an abusive relationship, and struggling with alcoholism. After taking medication for a couple years I'm in a healthy relationship, making good money in a stable job, and on the wagon. The medication prescribed helped so much with my impulse control issues that it literally changed my life.
Don't know what conspiracy theory are u in but I forgot taking my meds this morning and forgot it a couple times every month. I hope I am addicted to it so I don't forget
I remember finding a test online for "left-right blindness" that had a similar kinda busted vibe. It was literally something where you look at arrows going up/down/left/right and you have to press a thing to match it.
I wish I could find it again and run it across some cohorts, because it was quite fascinating to feel my brain suffer more on the horizontal arrows.
That’s basically how the end of my diagnosis went because aspects of my results were borderline, so she suggested that I just try meds to see. But keep in mind that only one type of ADHD involves being hyper. Some of us are inattentive types where our brain feels like an old 70s pony car engine, and if you pull up to a stoplight you need to keep the motor revving or it will stall. Taking Ritalin for us is the equivalent of keeping the revs up.
If you're borderline, talk to the doc about a trial of guanfacine. (note that some people HATE it, for exactly this reason) It's the opposite - if your engine is always redlining, it sets a rate limiter and gives you the chance to look out the window and enjoy the scenery, metaphorically.
And in the most interesting cases, you can find a lot of value in both - stimulants keeps you going, guanfacine gives you perspective and the ability to unclench.
As an ADHD person who was already planning to ask my psychiatrist if we can try different medication at my next appointment, thank you very much! That description sounds exactly like what I want to achieve.
I cannot overstate the degree to which it has been lifechanging, after years of trials of various other things. Honestly it was overwhelming - like a months-long mild psychedelic trip. I never want to go back. I am much, much less of an asshole now, and I say that advisedly. (note: lower assholery indicates nothing in absolute terms - I am probably still quite a bit of one. But less! and gratefully, joyfully so.)
Edit: And this is me trying to restrain myself so I don't look like someone starting a cult...
This is the case for me. I finally got diagnosed last year and prescribed Ritalin this year, and it has been transformative in aiding me in getting out of ruts/stalls.
> Add: I wonder why they don't just give people some ritalin and ask if they feel calmed down? Except the obvious reason of course
I have been screened a few times for ADHD and each time was found to obviously have it.
Ritalin does not make me feel calmer. I have been told by those close to me that there are externally visible improvements in my behavior. At doses to reach that effect, it also impacts my sleep quality enough that I don't take it.
Adderall causes mild symptoms of psychosis and mania before it has any theraputic effect.
Dexmethylphenidate (aka Focalin) has identical theraputic effects to ritalin, but slightly reduced side-effects.
I'm still on my journey of finding meds (and dosages) that work but I would highly recommend for anyone who has a inattentive scatterbrain to try lis/dexamphetamine.
Methylphenidates can be quite numbing (zombifying) in my group of ADHD friends but dex seems to have a more consistenly helpful effect. The unfortunate caveat for me is that I personally seem predisposed to pelvic floor/urinary issues, which you'll find anecdotal evidence of being exacerbated by amphetamines (research seems yet to catch up), but aside from that the theraputic effects, particularly in emotional regulation seem so far unmatched.
It's unfortunate we have such a tentative model of how our body and, particularly, our minds work so drug treatments often require a trial and error process.
I have exactly the same problem with pelvic floor and urinary issues when I take adderall, although with continued use and PF therapy it's gotten moderately better (and my dr and I decided that the benefits outweighed the risks and issues).
I found methylphenidate-based drugs to be useless after a few days.
Have you tried pure lis or dexamphetamine? I know dex can be prescribed without the mixture, maybe lis can too. I keep meaning to ask my doctor about it.
The other issue I find is tolerance, though even with this I'm still far more focused than when I'm not taking adderall. It really is amazing how much better it makes me feel. I find no problem with addiction whatsoever -- if I forget to take it, then I just have full blown ADHD, but I'm no worse off. I also find it's more effective if I minimize coffee, but I haven't yet cut coffee entirely. (I find caffeine is vastly more addictive than amphetamines.)
I have similar stimulant intolerance since I developed bipolar 1 in my late teens (had been diagnosed with ADHD at 7). I was off ADHD meds for several years, and have now tried a few of the nonstimulants.
Strattera was subtle, but I had clearly improved feedback at work, a cleaner apartment, and no side effects.
Qelbree caused a lot of nausea.
Intuniv caused lightheadedness and got me an unnecessary cardiac workup.
Wellbutrin doesn't have as much ADHD efficacy as Strattera (my doc won't let me take both at the same time), but it improved my seasonal depression and motivation significantly. I had some irritability for the first few days after a dose increase, but otherwise the only side effect is reduced hunger and I also stopped asking people for cigarettes or zyns when I'm drunk.
I'm nearing my 40s. In my mid-twenties I was diagnosed and over the next couple of years tried all of the usual ADHD meds and none of them were short of terrible in regard to side effects. I guess I've just learned to live with it in a way that outweighs the side effects I get from the drugs.
I was diagnosed with Shiftwork Disorder at one point in time and was prescribed Modafinil and it was incredible for the most part and had zero side-effects, but my doctor wont prescribe it for ADHD. One down-side to Modafinil is that I could get stuck on an unproductive task and would realize in hindsight that I had just been hyper-attentative to this unimportant task for hours.
Studies show Modafinil isn't effective in ADHD adults. It may have benefit in children with ADHD.
I think many prescribers give ADHD adults a high dose too soon causing side-effects. In my experience, it's best to start with a low dose and slowly increase as necessary. The myth is ADHD responds quickly, but observing hundreds of patients it takes months, not days, for benefit of treatment to develop. There's wisdom in the phrase, "start low and go slow".
Yep. What you find often is that the drug is effective right away, at a 20-30-40% effectiveness level. But over time you learn to take advantage of the benefits more effectively, and get more used to the side effects, so it tends to increase significantly in effectiveness at the same dose over 6-8 weeks much like SSRIs, not because the effects last that long, but because you use the tools to improve the tools.
> it also impacts my sleep quality enough that I don't take it.
Yeah, it's basically why I don't bother with it. I know it works, but trading one set of problems that I know how deal with for a different set of problems that needs more meds isn't appealing at all.
I had a doc that prescribed me amphetamine. It was glorious for work, being in one of those horrendous open table environments with only a screen in front of you to keep from staring at the person directly across.
I was able to laser focus and jam through things but the side effects were not worth it and I backed off. I've yet to find a magic pill that does that without the side effects.
So this is the cheats with "give everyone ritalin and see how they feel" - it works for most neurotypical folks too. It's just a very small increase compared to the annoyance and side effects, so it's usually not worth it. To extend the car analogy from a sibling comment, putting race fuel in a volvo.
So they can't test by response, because everyone would be like "yeah I can focus better", you have to test with the drug on, and the drug off, to see whether the "horsepower increase" is worth the fuel price. Increasingly strained metaphors are my strength.
> ... I wonder why they don't just give people some ritalin and ask if they feel calmed down? Except the obvious reason of course
In ADHD (and most conditions) diagnosis by medication response is not acceptable. Response to drugs is highly variable and fails criteria for acceptable tests. Also drugs can produce side-effects. According to professional standards, it's unethical to expose people to nontrivial risks without good cause.
That was my first thought. I only wish my type was to put in the work for a blog post instead of just thinking on it and getting overwhelmed with all I need to get done.
> This performance pattern^H^H^H^H^H^H BLOG POST may indicate attentional difficulties, and taken together with other findings, an increased likelihood for the existence of ADHD.
Correct. People with focus issues do not necessarily have ADHD. That requires meeting a defined set of diagnostic criteria, including that it has an impairing effect on an individual's life.
Also, just because it seems like a simple lack of focus to you externally, that does not mean the person does not have a disorder.
Pre-taking medication, here's what my personal experience trying to focusing looks like:
I have some really interesting, but lengthy text that's really important for me to read for class. No cell phone, cleaned my room, put on specialized focus music, jot down all my random thoughts on a notepad, got myself a cup of coffee and made sure I eliminated all distractions.
I then proceed to read the first two or three sentences before I realized I have been mindlessly scanning the text with my eyes like I'm reading, but instead I am doing the equivalent of watching a movie. I'm 100% zoned out and in la la land.
I realize this, so I stop, refocus, repeat. I realize I did it again, stop, refocus and try reading out loud. I'm annoyed because I'm saying the words out loud but not comprehending it.
I meditate for 30 seconds to calm my mind, try to refocus and repeat. I finally get through it after about 30 minutes.
Here's how my personal experience looks with medication:
I pick up the damn paper, read it and summarize it with notes in 5 minutes.
In the past few years the internet have been busy trying to attribute completely normal human quirks to ADHD, ADD and various levels of autism. We see these "Only people with X will understand this" and it's something stupid like forgetting why you entered a room. I don't know if neurodivergent people increasingly seeks out online "forums" like Reddit and Imgur, but they seem to be populated entirely by people with ADD, autism and depression (and Furries, but that feels less problematic). All are on a mission to convince anyone who stumble into their realm that they too have a disorder.
Understandably people want to help when they see someone struggling with the same things they did, and I'm not suggesting that you don't seek out professionals if you think you might have a disorder, but we need to stop labeling completely normal behaviour as problematic.
Just like people without various disorders can't relate well to those with e.g. ADHD, people with the these disorders also understand neurotypical behaviour way less than they think they do. A large number seems to struggle with separating "normal" quirks of the brains and their diagnoses.
You're right. People tend to forget that ADHD means Disease, and if you have a steady life and don't feel like you have to fight yourself on a daily basis then you are not ill. But if, to quote another comment next to this one, it causes you to pee your pants on random or specific occasions, or if it ruins your life in any way, then you certainly need to see a doctor and talk about it.
> People with ADHD are differently wired in their brain
I am not sure that is objectively true in the sense that people think. If so, the condition would have a much more objective diagnostic process. I have been professionally described as ADHD, had an fMRI (unrelated reason), and my results came back perfectly normal.
I know n=1, but the data doesn't necessarily suggest that ADHD is some kind of organic, neurological disease.
I agree that ADHD is a serious condition for many people, and that it's overly romanticized and that isn't good when it comes to getting help for those that do need it.
To that point, I'm going push back on this language just a bit:
> you end up addicted and pretty much permanently require drugs to function well
That is negatively framing medication, which if taken properly as prescribed is no different than any other medication someone might take to help with a chronic health condition. It slightly encourages and leans into the idea that ADHD is "fixable" without medication and so taking medication is a problem (or due to a weakness, etc).
I'm not discounting the value of other forms of non-medical treatment, but in many case medication IS appropriate as part of the overall treatment that a person requires to manage their ADHD. We should not use language that stigmatizes treatment that should be between a person and their doctor.
Agree with original commenter but +1 to reframing the language. I was very afraid to begin medication because I would always hear about how addicting this medication can be. But like you say, you wouldn't tell someone with diabetes that they're addicted to insulin.
fully agreed with this. it's the same stigma that I see get applied to SSRIs - that you become 'dependent' on medication, it's not 'natural', etc
in reality, if the side effects are minimal and you function better on it, it's a sip of water and a pill a day and that's largely it for health outcomes. most drug interventions are generally extremely well-studied with very large sample sizes. there's a reason why clinical research is considered gold-standard - the regulatory requirements to even get a drug to market is monumental and some of the most rigorously audited and vetted processes in the world
the ironic thing is that most of the big pharma detractors are also ingesting dozens of supplements, the vast majority of which have little to no good empirical evidence backing them (and very small effect sizes to boot) along with even less regulatory oversight for issues like contamination, formulation, or if it even contains the active ingredient. which isn't to say that 'big pharma' doesn't often pursue avenues for profitability reasons instead of the public good but that's not the typical critique that an anti-empiricist brings most times
That's not really an "addiction" by any reasonable meaning besides "something I do often".
The actual meaning is more complex, involving inability to stop, negative effects on your life, etc. - none of which apply to wearing your glasses or breathing.
You... don't think there are negative effects to stopping breathing?
If you can be behaviorally addicted to gambling, or even more aptly eating, you can be behaviorally addicted to medication that doesn't give you any physiological dependency.
> The DSM-5 has re-classified the condition [ed: gambling addiction] as an addictive disorder, with those affected exhibiting many similarities to those with substance use disorder. They both activate a reward mechanism in the brain, causing dopamine release to reinforce repetitive behavior. Both often lead to loss of control.
Edit: to engage more substantively, imagine if your glasses gave you, say, mild skin irritation that progressively got worse with wear, but you chose to mitigate that and wear them anyway. I would rate it at that level.
it's not good to flame people for things they can't control. I also think it's not fair to compare insulin (life saving non synthesizable hormone) vs amphetamine (hard drug that helps people better cope with a society expressly designed to beat them down), because then we forget that dosing amphetamines daily comes with its own price of damage to the body. drugs prescribed for adhd are also very much addicting - if one lets an amphetamine script run out, symptoms of withdrawal will take place, regardless as to how the condition is verbally labelled (which while horrible is also to me not fair to compare with a diabetic dying without insulin)
To your point about life saving - untreated ADHD folks have a 2-3x mortality rate, generally due to accidental cause or risky behaviors. Studies have shown that medication can have a significant statistical decrease in the overall mortality rate. So while it's not a cut/dry as insulin, it is still "life saving" for many.
The reasons you cite are why it is a controlled substance, and why it should be taken under supervision of a doctor. But they aren't arguments against the drug itself or that it is in a different "category" of drug. It is a treatment, and like any treatment, the pros/cons should be discussed with medical professionals and appropriate decisions made for each individual.
And yes, sadly our society fails people who are different and our medical system fails people with regards to their medication all the time - that can happen with any medication though. And yes, consequences vary greatly depending on the medication.
I've never heard of anyone with ADHD on prescription amphetamines experiencing withdrawal when stopping. At least, not with any symptoms worse than just having ADHD and being unmedicated.
People with ADHD are often amused by referring to amphetamines as a "hard drug" since it has practically none of the typical hard drug effects on them.
I think it is also worth reframing what "functioning well" means. Society expects certain things of us and our brains function in a way that those things are more difficult. Is that our fault, or society, or some mix? Isn't it possible that society itself could adjust in such a way that people who naturally struggle to sit in a cubicle doing the same thing all day every day could be offered other options? Seems like our capitalistic system that requires "productive" work as measured by those who already control the capital is maybe also a problem here.
I'm on stimulants and I agree that the post you responded to needed reframing. But I think we do ourselves and anyone else who isn't "normal" in body or mind a huge disservice just focusing on acceptance of treatment when there are larger societal changes that could be made.
I agree and it would be great if we could do that and ideally there would be roles for people that are not able to maintain the strict structure and their contributions were valued even if different.
That said, I think we agree that accepting the treatment folks need to function in society as it exists is a step in the right direction.
Dr. Barkley does a great job presenting research and factual information in a way that is easy to understand and I've also found it very helpful personally. Was diagnosed in adulthood, so resources like this were great finds during my hyperfocus dive into gaining some measure of understanding of ADHD.
> it's a serious dysfunction [...] treated ADHD can make you productive "all the time", you end up addicted and pretty much permanently require drugs to function well
On its own, its not "a serious dysfunction". Within the context of operating within the current societal setup for a paycheck that provides basic survival needs, yeah.
It allows me to sit down and do 'something' without being taken completely off task for the rest of the day because someone kept knocking on the door or reading a hostile/complaint email. What that 'something' is is not always 'productive' but now I can do it without everyday things or upcoming events throwing me in a completely different direction.
Meds helps with the alignment issue. If you are taking meds and its making you "productive all the time" and you find yourself addicted to it, I suggest talking to your doctor about that. I had to work with CBT just to form a habit of remembering to take the medication, and it took a few years before I finally started to remember regularly. I still forget on days that dont fit into that routine
> it's a serious dysfunction and it's sad to see that it's being romanticized lately in social media or plainly discredited by some people/media
The author of the article is contributing to this by using their medical diagnosis to "outsmart" the system for writing material. Presenting a proper ADHD assessment as merely an online test just adds fuel to the fire (and if this is the only interaction they had I am skeptical of the assessment procedure).
> and while treated ADHD can make you productive "all the time", you end up addicted and pretty much permanently require drugs to function well
That's an unfair and sweeping characterization of the immediate therapeutic benefits and long-term health outcomes of individuals.
Why assume malicious intent? I am well aware that the test isn’t just some Math.random() and even includes quotes from the official site that talk more about how their scoring engine works.
I don’t think I was trying to “outsmart” anything, I’m just a naturally curious person
I don't think you had bad intentions. You may know the testing is more involved but there is a common perception that people can just do a single online test and get a diagnosis. People should be informed that it's just one indicator of many. I apologize for my "writing fodder" phrasing though, that was rude on my part.
I think it's important to take it case-by-case. Many people with ADHD find stimulant medications positively life-changing. However, plenty of people with ADHD also have a substance use disorder. Sometimes medication is an effective treatment for both issues; other times it exacerbates the latter.
Consider the subreddit r/stopspeeding, a recovery community for people addicted to stimulants. Many, many users share similar stories of being prescribed a stimulant medication for ADHD, then beginning to abuse it. Many of these people really do have ADHD, but find that their lives are better without stimulant medication.
Thanks friends.
I thought I was bad at lots of things other people were good at, because I was more disciplined and saw the bigger picture. So I only worked on important things. Things that could matter to millions of people, or still be relevant in 100 years.
And all the side quests and rabbit holes were obviously for recharging, expanding my biological-being-on-an-odd-planet situational awareness, or benefited me as self-improvement challenges. All in service of the important things.
How would tracking the day of the week, doing homework on something I could learn later if/when I ever needed it, or mowing the lawn, help me accomplish anything important?
Wasting brain space on those kinds of things would be dysfunction. I actively culled such dreck!
Now I know my self-narrative was Stockholm Syndrome coping.
But I still don't mow lawns, and if the blinds are drawn when I finish a big task, I couldn't guess if it was am or pm better than a coin toss. My day metric is when Amazon Prime's "Your Orders" list, tells me I am a day closer to getting a crafting item I ordered for a project I may never get to.
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