Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway1988-5 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway1988-5

Found out that I have ADHD. Never managed to read any books about programming, after a few pages my brain starts making up excuses to do other things and I start rereading the same paragraph over and over again.

No issues doing the actual programming, could sit for hours on end without any issues.

One nifty thing about my ADHD is that something that was super interesting can become dull as hell. For no apparent reason.

Issues with focus, staying on task and motivation are generic issues that everyone has. Just like everyone gets sad or down sometimes. When it becomes a constant problem that affects your life, that's when it becomes a depression and needs treatment. ADHD is similar, except that it doesn't really come and go but is more of an undulating constant.

View on HN

I've had similar experiences in my dealings with ADHD. I've found resources like khan academy and 3b1b to be miraculous in helping me stay engaged. or atleast letting me rewind and watch multiple times.

w.r.t. books on programming - I've found that ones that offer a hands on project really aid in staying engaged with it. That's usually enough to give you a solid primer on a topic, where other literature starts to become a bit more accessible/less of a drag/less overwhelmed with unknown terminology

A little trick for technical articles that I've found is to use screen readers.

Screen readers work great, for me it's my phone. On my desktop I'd be getting distracted and bored in about two paragraphs. Even if I try to come back to the article, there's invariable 3 other things that I'm switching between.

On my phone I've read 250k word books cover to cover, same books I could never read on a PC. Attention is weird like that.

Another trick is getting your dopamine* externally. There's an association between ADHD and substance abuse, and I can see why. Pharmacology is a cheat code: a few hours of infinite motivation, will power, and attention.

Unfortunately, when people start needing a substance just to feel normal, that is the definition of an addiction.

(* More complicated than just Dopamine or Serotonin, both seem to play a role. Medecine has not solved this one yet.)

> Unfortunately, when people start needing a substance just to feel normal, that is the definition of an addiction.

If they would otherwise not feel normal and there are no negative side effects, is that a problem?

That's a tough question to answer, and I think people should make that decision for themselves, with all the information they have about their particular situation.

Negative side effects of note with usual ADHD medication (amphetamine salts) include increased cardiovascular load, development of a tolerance (you need higher doses to achieve the same effect). Sometimes amphetamines induce small changes in personality, rarely full blown psychosis (this has happened at therapeutic doses!).

In general you should apply the same sort of risk-benefit analysis we use for every other drug. If you don't experience any side effects so strong you want to stop, and you believe you're aware of the risks, great.

If you're taking them without a script, I'd advise you to find a steady-state dose that works for you and stick to it. Don't let yourself increase the frequency or the dose without a conscious decision. That's how many people have spiraled.

Finally, I think it's important to have a lot of respect for psychoactive chemicals. Nature doesn't care very much for human overconfidence. If you start being careless, chemistry will do what chemistry does.

>there are no negative side effects

I'm a prescription-attention-drugs person and specified drugs do not exist.

> Unfortunately, when people start needing a substance just to feel normal, that is the definition of an addiction.

Disagree. What is 'normal'?

A better definition for addiction is the brain no longer produces the neurotransmitter without the presence of the drug (or is doing so at a highly diminished rate). There's no evidence that such occurs with the amounts prescribed for adhd.

For that matter, people needing an external source of a substance to feel normal is unavoidably part of being an organism. We need water, or we wont feel normal. We need vitamins -- and plenty of people have vitamin deficiencies, are they addicted to said vitamins?

What are the go to options?

Those concentration drugs that you hear about, do they work? I've heard that a lot of students use them, but I'm a little bit wary of using something like that.

Why are you wary of using something like that?

I use one of them, and it has been a great help for me for studying and for work. I don't take them during "off-time", i.e., weekends and holidays, and I don't feel like I need them for my hobbies, where part of what makes it fun for me is that I can take my time, shift my focus constantly, and define "progress" by my own internal metrics.

> Why are you wary of using something like that?

I don't know how to evaluate the risk, basically. Medical stuff tends to have a lot of noise.

They do. If you don't have a diagnose, be careful with it. You want to be able to execute challenging mental tasks without it. You will still be able to do that after trying such medication, but you will always know, there would be a easier way to do it and that can become a mental block.

Ok so how do I give this a try?

With the same attitude like any other drug, I guess. It's very likely less harmful than other drugs. If you're mindful about it and you really want to try it, then ...

consult a doctor. they're probably controlled substances in your area, and people trying to get them illegally makes it all the more difficult for people that actually need them to live a healthy life.

That seems very unlikely. At least compared to the chance of the drugs having an unmitigated positive effect.

There's no evidence that they actually help people that don't have adhd. it'll just make them _feel_ like they're doing better, in spite of any objective measure.

I would recommend trying something like l-theanine, or other any of the other supplements which have purported effects on focus.

They can work, they work wonders for me. There's also no "magic pill" and they have their downsides. For me, the pros vastly outweigh the cons, and I've tried several times to make a happy life without support of medication and it's just not as good. (Even with trying a more alternative lifestyle, not being in an environment where I need to sit and focus all the time, etc.)

But also, every body and mind are different. Consult a specialist. There's many different types of ADHD medication out there now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com