I guess I use the same method. For a year or so, I forced myself to drink an additional liter of water per day and I didn’t feel any difference from it, except that I had to go to the toilet all the time. The only problem that arises now is that I tend to forget that I’m a bit thirsty because of the ubiquitous distractions in our lives.

hyper-optimized distractions are one of our new challenges we face today as attentional beings.

hyper-mindfulness and hyper-awareness is one of the best tools I've found to overcome them.

Though compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocus

Yeah...

I think it's laughable, preposterous to call focus and flow a "disorder."

Whoever wants to call me being able to focus on a task at hand a disorder can stuff it up their butt.

I think you are trivializing problems that many people struggle with. From my understanding hyperfocus is not at all "being able to focus on a task at hand" but rather being unable to focus on anything other than a specific task. Often this task is often NOT what should be worked on during the allotted time.

From what I've seen, people in hyperfocus often seem to effectively lose their sense of hearing, too. Which is sort-of useful in a noisy office, but can be dangerous when going about your daily life.

The problem is that the converse can be true, this is true if you actually hit the hyperfocus trance but if you don't get there, the noise can actually distract you from ever getting there and if it is not a task you want to do, the noise is guaranteed to provide the needed distraction, to avoid the task all together.

Yes. Hyperfocus and distractibility seem both related to trouble with managing attention.

I have an attention disorder with hyper focus. Most of the time for people like me (at least the other ones I have talked to). The focus is on items that interest your mind, it can be a blessing and a curse. Obviously it works well if hyperfocus hits you while you are programming, not so well when it decides to focus on something like say sexual desire as hyperfocus is an almost compulsive behavior.

But honestly, at least for me, the hyperfocus is not really that debilitating, it's the lack of being able to focus on anything mundane or boring, your mind will literally just not latch on and it's like pulling your hair out to continue to force yourself to try to mentally latch on.

This is where medicine comes in, specifically amphetamine based stimulants, which honestly are one of the real true success stories of modern mental health science. There are few other drugs in the mental health sector that have the efficacy of amphetamines and its ability to regulate the issues associated with ADD/ADHD.

So the problem with those of us that have attention disorders is our minds latch on hard to what we are interested in and just fog on the uninteresting parts. This leads to a few issues, one can be sloppiness, one just flubs over the details that they don't like, no follow thru is another big issue, so one starts a project does all the details they are interested in and then loses interest in the project. Avoidance of task until it becomes a big problem is another. As a note on the latter, for some tasks that one cannot focus on are almost physically painful and extremely stressful to even think about. Before I sought treatment a big one for me was just doing the dishes, I don't know what it is about dishes but I find it to be one of the most boring and mundane tasks you can do. So I would avoid it, until the sink hit critical mass, and then I had to drag myself kicking and screaming to the sink and in the processes I would get distracted by every single little thing. What should have been a 30 minute job would stretch out 2 to 3 hours while I found every other thing I could to distract myself in the kitchen. The whole time, I knew the dishes needed to be done, I knew as they where stacking up it would be easier to just deal with them now, and it would be worse later, it caused me a lot of stress knowing it was building, but yet I was locked in this pattern each and every week yet my pathological behavior never changed.

Now back to the medicine, ADD/ADHD medicine provides those of us that suffer from it, with the ability to turn on and off focus as well as allows us to remain focused on more mundane tasks. When I am on my medicine it is like I have the ability to turn hyperfocus on and off, on whatever subject I want to, it becomes like a superpower as well I am able to break that focus as it is not so compulsive. As a contrast, now I can be extremely focused on a task, realize that I am getting eye or wrist strain remind myself that I need a break, get up walk over to the sink and wash a few dishes as an activity to do while I take a breather. Where off the medicine, I am extremely single task focused, and have to drive that task to completion, any distractions from that single task are almost physically painful and stressful to even think about.

The way I always explained it, is it's like taking a road trip where all you focus on is the destination, you dream about the destination, you speed to get to the destination, you don't get off any exits until you are so low on gas that you can't ignore it, but in the end the destination was far less interesting than the trip to get there but you missed all that, because all you could do is focus on getting to the destination. With medicine you can still be extremely focused on the destination but realize that the sign of the roadside oddities and emporium at the next exit actually looks pretty cool and might be worth a slight detour. It allows you to see opportunities along the trip and view the trip as an experience in and of itself.

Methylphenidate and nicotine also work fairly well.

Thanks for the write-up!

>should

by whose perspective?

It could just be the tasks and goals one sets for one's self. Or as basic as hyper focusing on coding to until you realized all grocery stores have closed for the night and you don't have any food in the house.

The first component of any disorder is that it's causing a problem. If you like it and it's not harming others then it's not a disorder regardless of what condition it may resemble.

The thirst mechanism becomes less reliable with age, so older people may find those products beneficial. But yes, for most healthy young to middle aged people, "drink when you're thirsty" is generally fine. Maybe with the added subpoint that if your urine is often colored, try to drink a little more.

> Maybe with the added subpoint that if your urine is often colored, try to drink a little more.

Honest question: why? Are there studies that point to coloured urine as the cause of disease?

It's clear to me that coloured urine is associated with disease (since the body excretes waste products via urine), but not that it can be the cause of it.

I think it's just an indicator of more concentration of non-water things, correlated with not drinking a lot of water, and slower urine production.

Yes, it is important to pay attention to urine, and poop too.

This will sound wierd, but I knew a rancher who could diagnose a calf (correctly, confirmed by a vet) based on those two things. Ironically, he had been developing diabetes, which had he been paying as close attention to waste products he might have caught sooner.

PSA: Look before you flush, it's actually not a bad way to gauge general health.

Maybe a little weird, but certainly not surprising to me.

It's the closest you can get non-invasively to looking inside yourself.

Can I get weirder? What lab assessment material should I procure - as a consumer - to evaluate the most significant characteristics of my wastes?

Your nose and eyes is sufficient lab equipment.

I don't think that our ancestors were able to drink when they wanted to. You need to travel to some drinking spot which takes time and probably required group effort.

Though I don't think that we should just blindly recreate our ancient habits.

You are correct, though at some point we figured out how to carry it, stay close to it, and establish access.

I've been told by a few wise people to wait to drink until I'm done trekking, by the way.

I don't think we should blindly do anything, and abandonining millions of years of evolution and wisdom especially.

> I've been told by a few wise people to wait to drink until I'm done trekking, by the way.

I'm not sure what distance we are talking about but doing any kind of sport (even light exercise) you should start to drink after at most 1 hour.

If drinking wasn't necessary, long distance runners or athletes of other endurance sports wouldn't drink. You need to stay hydrated or you'll face fatigue, muscle problems and generally perform worse.

Trained athletes will be able to drink much less but that is because their bodies are more efficient, they still need to hydrate for maximum performance. The 1 hour rule isn't set in stone and you can go 3-4 hours without drinking but it has many drawbacks.

Hydration actually isn't very important for endurance athletes in events up to a couple hours. The real benefit comes from carbohydrate supplementation. The water just acts as a convenient delivery channel to get the carbs into the athlete's body quickly.

I’m quite certain that is strongly dependent on the ambient temperature.

I'm talking about a several-hour moderate difficulty hike without running or high-intensity exercise, which you started in a state of adequate hydration.

I've tried out several different approaches many times, and the best I've learned is to wait to drink when resting, no sipping in between.

I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. YMMV.

When I drink only when I am thirsty, I can go whole day with drinking only one cup of water. When that happens, my head hurts a lot in the evening, at which point is it too late to drink. I also dehydratated myself a couple of times when doing sport.

Apparently, "drink when you're thirsty" does not work for me.

Same, I sometimes start getting a headache in the late afternoon only to realize I’ve only had coffee a my one liquid intake for the day. It’s not as bad when working from home because I have more reminders to drink, including when in the kitchen to make lunch.

I'm the same. I rarely feel thirsty and can happily go all day without drinking any water. Even when dehydrated, I don't feel thirsty. Remembering to drink is a constant chore.

Yeah, the body has a mechanism to tell us when it needs water. You don't pee when you don't feel the urge to, so I don't drink water when I don't feel the urge to in most cases.

I drink some when I first wake up just so I don't forget to drink some, and if I'm exercising I drink a lot

I've heard many wise teachers advise drinking a glass or two of clean water in the morning, so you're on the right track.

On the subject of peeing, I've come to the conclusion that it's unhealthy to hold it in more than on the rare occasion, and I aim to pee within a few seconds of having the urge.

Actually, I believe it should be a human right to pee within 30 seconds of wanting to, and I'll do it, too.

How do you know whether those teachers were actually wise or just repeating bullshit that sounded good?

Because I witnessed their abilities.

Which abilities were those, and how do you know whether their abilities were caused by or in spite of their hydration habits?

If that is a bulletproof way to handle water intake, why would you worry about "forgetting"?

Well if I'm engrossed in work or in flow I probably won't notice that I am thirsty or will ignore it for a while. For me it just seems like a good idea to take in some water in the morning to get my body going.

I didn't claim anything to be bulletproof, just saying that your body tells you when it needs water and drinking in excess of that is probably unnecessary

>I didn't claim anything to be bulletproof, just saying that your body tells you when it needs water and drinking in excess of that is probably unnecessary

Yes, and it's important to listen to it, and hear it. Some body signals are subtle, and you won't hear them unless you pay attention.

Headaches, migraines, and other unignorable signals are the body screaming for help after many other more subtle signals have been ignored.

IIRC, if you're thirsty, your body has already been dehydrated. Ideally, you'd want to drink before you're thirsty.

Maybe when we had nothing else to do, but I feel modern life is quite distracting. It can be hard for people to get in touch with their feelings, physical needs, etc