HN (and probably the Bay Area which usually is reflected here) has become a weird echo chamber of nerds all claiming they think they have ADHD. When really, it’s that smart people get bored very easily. And most of what we do in our jobs are boring. Of course, stimulants help with this - why do you think we all drink so much coffee. Prescription stims are even better and are well tolerated. The right western doc will happily diagnose and prescribe for ADHD regardless of the severity.
I know ADHD is a spectrum, but I believe that diagnosis is only really warranted for those truly clinical - people who literally cannot hold any job at all and would be homeless otherwise. I guess there is the argument we should all just be allowed to take whatever drug we want and there is certainly merit to that.
Even the most productive coders, writers, musicians etc talk about their struggles to stay focused. It takes grit and intense self discipline to sit for 8 hrs doing work that isn’t immediately satisfying. Most people can’t do this, it’s not abnormal. People goof off at work all the time in most jobs, because they can’t hold their attention for so long.
I have not yet been diagnosed with it but my therapist felt it was important after almost 3 years of therapy to check it. I believe my therapist has a bit more of insight into my mental health (and mental health in general) than a random HN comment.
I appreciate your point of view but feel it can come off wrong, I have multiple signs that warranted from my therapist a deeper investigation and I will trust them.
Again, I'm not looking into getting medicated to focus, I don't want to be constantly on speed to function.
I feel like your kind of comment is exactly what made me not ever think about this. I can hold a job, I could do well in school (but not in university, at all), it's not because others might have it much worse than I do that I'm not worth to be checked on. You have no idea about the state of my mental health and struggles to be able to judge if I'm just smart and bored or if there is something else underlying it all.
I just bring this up because I feel your comment comes from a good place of caring but it's ultimately unhelpful and, depending to who else you could have directed this comment, could be actively harmful.
But the inability to maintain focus held me back for many, many years as my parents did not believe ADHD was a "thing". I didn't get medicated until I was in my 30s and it has made a world of difference. It's not a panacea and I still have my own tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. But it's more like wearing glasses instead of having to squint for my entire life. Sure, I'd survive without it, but it's a tool to somewhat make up for a biological shortcoming versus the accepted norm.
I wish you luck in your pursuit of self improvement and I hope you discover effective ways to get closer to where you want to be. It's a good thing to explore and learn about for sure.
According to various sources, ADHD is the single most treatable psychiatric condition. But I guess what I expected from treatment, and what technically constitutes as treatment were misaligned.
I also do really believe we should be meditating more or something similar - when I try to read a novel these days (even one I am interested in) I find it is significantly more difficult to do it than it was when I was much younger and had generally lower reading comprehension.
Me personally, being on HN, I started to believe I too had ADHD reading peoples' stories on here. After a lot of therapy, and even going for an ADHD evaluation myself (a huge pain in the NHS), I realized it was more a result of burn out and depression. Thankfully, with a lot of therapy (almost a year now), I am slowly regaining my focus, and even improving my ability to deal with boring tasks (which I had convinced myself, based on stories on the internet about adult ADHD, that I could never do).
If I had been in the US, I would have self referred to a psychiatrist, gotten an ADHD diagnosis, and been on meds by now. Problem solved? I don't think so, I never would have treated the fundamental psychological issues that actually were causing the problem. But I would have gotten ADHD diagnosed and think there was something wrong with my brain forever. I feel this must happen a lot in the US. Adult ADHD is actually very rare - it is very hard to go unnoticed as a child with ADHD.
I would strongly suggest anyone reading HN stories about adult ADHD first to see a psychologist and do talk therapy first. Also, make sure to get a second opinion on a diagnosis like adult ADHD.
As someone with ADHD that was professionally diagnosed on multiple occasions, I would say to keep this up if you can.
If you can find something that works, then keep at it. I chose the medication route many years ago, and it's been rather... bittersweet to say the least. But that is just my experience, and I believe I am somewhat of an outlier -- at least with the information I currently have.
autistics tend to do that? :)
I was given ritalin as an adult to see if I had ADHD. The test was simple, take it, do you feel you concentrate/focus better? if not, you don't have it.
The biggest thing I ask people about is the executive function aspect. Are you simply getting distracted because you are bored or do you also find you have tasks you legitimately WANT to do but for some reason your executive function does not allow you do it. That seems to be (as a lay person) the biggest tell for someone who actually has ADHD.
I’m nearly fifty and got diagnosed with ADHD about five years ago.
I got expelled from school at 15 for just never showing up. Despite being one of the smartest kids in school, I would do so well I a new class and then it would tank badly.
I’ve never held a job for more than 18 months.
I’ve had the benefit of being a well spoken good looking white man that interviews like a god and is very good at writing a resume, plus I had good people in my corner giving me excellent references. In a booming job market, getting work was easy enough.
But my life was going off the rails. Depression. Risk taking behaviour. Anti social issues and so on.
Saw a GP for serious cyclical depression issues. I was self medicating with caffeine and flu meds.
She said have you considered you might have ADHD?
I hadn’t considered it all.
Got referred to a specialist. He said it’s very hard to get diagnosed with ADHD later in life.
90 minutes later after my life history we started a trial on Ritalin!
Overall - ADHD is a curse. It’s not a super power. And Ritalin, Adderall etc… are not miracles.
I could write a book on my experiences….
School was always a breeze, I would get hyperfocused during classes paying attention to instructors and content but could never, ever do homework. Any kind of school work outside of school hours was a struggle. Still managed to be always on top of my classes.
I never actually learned how to learn, studied statistics in university and was hit by a brick wall on how to actually learn things which depended on more than just passively absorbing content...
To this day I don't believe I have a decent strategy for learning, it's a very scattered approach where I dunk into the subject from multiple angles and slowly build a mental model based on the patterns I see repeating from multiple sources. I'll start with an introductory book to gather an overview of the subject and then will jump in between other books and more advanced sections to see earlier concepts already applied and then track it back to the gaps I see missing in my knowledge.
Somehow this way of learning is much more motivating to me than simply parsing through a linear approach of theory building. Whenever I try to go front-to-back with a textbook I get terribly unfocused.