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Comment by jasonlotito | Hacker News Reader

Do you actually have ADHD?

> I've used it to get ahead in software for the past ~8 years

No, you don't. At least not from how you are describing your use. You don't take this medication to get ahead. You take this medication to get to an even playing field. To get some control over your life.

So yes, if you are abusing drugs, don't. That's generally good advice.

Don't abuse drugs.

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I apologize my wording made it appear I was abusing drugs, I don't condone that. In fact I'm the opposite: I microdosed Adderall. 5mg a day for the longest time, then bumped up to 10mg. My doctors over the years pushed me to take more but I always said no. Instead I would take breaks and let tolerance die down before resuming.

I first got a prescription when I found I would rather spend 2-3 hours of my work day staring at a wall than work on a tedious task (literally, I did this). I was either hyper focused on a task and spent all day and night on it, or would rather be left with my thoughts.

I went home many days wondering what was wrong with me and waited every day to hear the news I was fired. I eventually went to a doctor around the age of 20 and he said, without a doubt, I have severe ADHD.

I have found other ways to cope with the condition. Many already shared in this very thread what has worked for me: no sugar, exercise, plenty of sleep, and a tinge of coffee. Even when on small doses of Adderall, if I had more than a handful of Oreos, I would have to go home because work is impossible. This actually happened! I know it's hard for people without ADHD to understand. It's not about willpower, it was an impossibility for me to work.

I was convinced that I had ADHD by the time I was 21 after a lot of struggling in high school and college. I went to a psychiatrist and he asked me the basic DSM IV questions and he said it was a 90% match. So he put me on Ritalin and then eventually Adderall. I also had severe insomnia so this exacerbated my abuse potential in order to make it thru multiple days with higher performance without sleep. Within a year or two, I got off all the stimulants because I was falling apart.

Almost 13 years later (and a lot more serious work struggle) I started talk therapy and began to realize that confidence, self-esteem, chronic anxiety and depression were my real underlying problems. It's hard to focus when you feel anxious all of the time. It's very hard to think deep - which reinforces the confidence and focus problem in high performance work situations. A vicious circle. So we tried the usual SSRIs, sleep meds, and benzodiazepines - which all have their own problems.

Another 12 years later after being on these meds, I stopped early in 2016. Life was slowly getting worse - and my physical health as well. In the start of this year I to realized that SSRI/SNRI are not fully effective if you don't change your lifestyle. So I cut out sugar, juice, sweet fruits, simple carbs, alcohol, and limited my caffeine to the morning - all of which makes a world of difference. Now I'm struggling to form the daily habits of cardio in the morning and mindfulness meditation a couple times a day. I feel 100% more focused and stable.

Only wish I had figured this shit out when I was a younger man.

Thanks for sharing this! I am pretty sure that I have ADHD but I was never diagnosed, nor did I ever try visiting a doctor for this purpose. As someone with relatively low access to healthcare, I am always concerned about taking any medicines, even if they are supposedly "good". I realized that most of my ADHD symptoms stem from inflammation. If I take away any inputs including dietary(sugar, gluten, dairy, egg, etc.,) and environmental(pollutants, cold, dust, pollen, etc.,), I am as focused as ever. So that's what I focused all my effort on. My focus levels have improved quite a bit but I am still not there yet. If your symptoms are similar to mine, you might benefit from Spirulina and Turmeric. Both of them help reduce inflammation and provide several health benefits.

Thanks. It wasn't clear in your comment. Working with your doctor is the right way. Your original comment made it seem to me that you weren't.

Life is not a playing field full of fun and games, even though you could frame it in terms of game theory. People want to be successful, not to evaluate their "innate" performance against other people. Moral justification for doping is unimportant, because it's arbitrary. In reality, however many competing actors make me miserably insecure by their superiority, whatever is their percentile relative to the general sample, I wish to win, I wish be more than what I am all the same.

Please read the article.

I did.

Doesn't change what I said, nor should it. The OP was potentially offering dangerous advice. I see all too often people suggesting things about ADHD, medication and drugs that are dangerous. Speak with a medical professional.

If you are taking drugs you have not been prescribed, see a doctor.

As for your "want to be successful" argument, that's a fallacy. You are causing more harm by abusing drugs to get ahead than you realize.

Read the article? No, go see a doctor.

Its terribly easy to be prescribed these drugs by doctors. I feel like you feel less responsible and even coy by pushing the discussion off onto the "See your doctor" rails. But what good is that when any psych will hand these drugs out like skittles?? I have 4 boxes of unused adderall sitting in my cabinets from a script I was given. Acting like doctors are going to solve whatever explanation you are obliged to give is just silly. Lets hear the whole story..

If most people are stronger than you, and steroids make you stronger, does taking steroids to ‘even the playing field’ constitute abuse or just taking medicine? How is that substantively different from taking adderall?

Regarding your first question: is this prescribed by a doctor, or simply you deciding to use it?

I can't answer the second question until you answer mine.

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