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Comment by staticelf | Hacker News Reader

I have been diagnosed (surprisingly, too, as I was being investigated for something else) and while I know ADHD "exists", I will concede it's probably an overly broad compromise of a diagnosis for now. But then other well known conditions are too: IBS, fibromyalgia, CFS, for starters.

All these conditions represent something real going on, even if the currently used terms aren't precise. Much as celiac disease was considered a general bowel complaint by pre-1850s doctors before being eventually discovered, I think with ADHD we'll see more discrete conditions being discovered and understood too (e.g. a specific sub-condition that reduces the transport of dopamine in the brain, say). But, for now, ADHD is the term we've got to work with.

I think you just articulated my thoughts about the subject. Thanks!

I wrote my comment pretty hastily and couldn't articulate well enough what I thought about the subject. Luckily people like you exists that can understand my shitty written comment and fine tune it to perfection.

Even if I have it and would get a diagnose from my doctor, I don't think it would change my life for better or for worse so what's the point?

> Judging from some self tests I have made I could perhaps have it myself but it hasn't affected my career in a negative way the slightest.

If it hasn't affected your career (or your personal life etc.) in a negative way in the slightest you simply don't have it—the last D in ADHD is essential.

It's great that you can read a small comment and reach that conclusion. As I've mentioned to another person in the thread I had an ex that was convinced that I had it and that it had a negative effect on me, something I disagreed on though.

It is my opinion that it hasn't affected me in a negative way since I am satisfied with my life and I have had other issues that have had a much greater negative affect on my life.

I don't think you should chose a company or career based on a disease or a disorder. If you can live with it, which I think most can that have diagnosed ADHD, you could overcome whatever issues come up and still be successful.

I'll even give one practical example, I am usually all over the place and in the tech field I've used that to read up and learn a lot of different languages, tools etc making my skillset in tech very broad which have helped me tremendously in my career. I have a hard time to stick with one programming language and is never satisfied with one thing and switch back and forth on everything. That is both a negative thing and a positive one. I have a (really) hard time sticking to one thing and seeing it through but with tools like todolists and communities like WIP it makes it just a bit easier even if I always have the urge to pick up something else and restarting everything.

Unfortunately ADHD gets worse with age if untreated leading to a nasty numbers of mental issues such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

And yet there are things that seems not problematic but then they are. Relationships might be a problem because it gets boring much faster and also some people exhibit all-or-nothing. It's either full obsession or absolute ignorance.

Yet we all know that premature optimization is the root of all evil.

To be honest, I don't think neurotypical people can really understand ADHD. And it's probably even harder for people who believe that brain is just some kind of a tool that we have 100% power over. And that's a problem because this lucky people who won on genetic lottery are often in power. I think like over 50% of my life problems are not because of ADHD but because whole world tries to convince me that it is my fault. And yet there are hundreds of research papers that conclude that you can't just fix someone with ADHD. There is no therapy and no medication that can cure ADHD.

Sure, I recognize that there may be people with more severe issues. I have two childhood friends that had diagnosed severe ADHD but at the same time they both had other issues as well which I personally think hindered them more in life than their ADHD ever did.

I never tried to convince anyone that it is their fault for whatever problems they encountered in life and sadly one of them died by an overdose in an early age. Perhaps ADHD contributed to their lifestyle of choice, perhaps not.

I am not impossible to convince that I am wrong, I have just never seen any evidence for it (I haven't really searched for it though). AFAIK ADHD is a disorder that we just don't know that much about and maybe it has a biological function that has been positive in the development of mankind.

As I stated, I am not a doctor tho and maybe there is loads of evidence for it in which I am not aware about but frankly I don't care much one way or the other. It's not an issue that I care about that much and I just wanted to share my take since one of my exes was completely convinced that I had it. I know that people with ADHD can be very successful and I don't think people should think less of themselves because of some diagnosis.

So you are not interested in any research and you have only anecdotes (and one ADHD friend who died of overdosing) and still have very strong opinion about something you say you don't really care about. You are like a living example of people that make ADHD folks live harder.

I could read research papers about neurological studies but honestly I don't think I would understand it even if I tried. To be completely honest I don't believe you would either since most research papers are pretty hard to understand if you're not involved in the subject matter. One study doesn't make a thing proven science, so to have a good understanding of the matter you would pretty much have read upon it a lot. I don't have any very strong opinions on the subject though so you're simply attacking a straw man.

Please explain how I made the lives of my friends harder. By being their friend? You know nothing about me or my life. Being unfriendly doesn't convince anyone, you're just as much of an example of it as I am.

I just shared my thoughts since I at least have experience of it and if you disagree that's completely fine by me. I don't understand the sentiment today that you're not allowed to have opinions on stuff unless you're a scientist. It is imho impossible to be well read upon all things in life, sometimes all you have is anecdotes and experience.

it's hard to answer comments like this cordially.

good for you i guess but i've spent enough of my life self-flagelating, pretending everything is my personal failing thanks.

quite thankful i can ask for help, be heard and see improvement.

As I have mentioned to others, I didn't mean for my comment to be read as something negative even if I kinda understand why since it was a bit disregarding from the get go and I didn't elaborate that much.

People today seem to read too much into a small statement and immediately creates a straw man that they later attack in the response.

I am sorry if you have diagnosed ADHD and it has affected your life negatively. I hope and believe that you may overcome your issues whatever they may be. It is great if you can ask for help and see improvement from it.

I wish I had the confidence of a software engineer casually disregarding medical research.

The experience I've had on versus off my meds says different.

How do you explain the brain imaging studies?

So rather than think "oh, I guess those tests are rubbish and I don't actually have ADHD", your conclusion is "oh, ADHD must not exist then"?

I think you could create tests that describe tests that describe a pretty large amount of people in many ways. In the future we maybe have tests that show if you're a morning bird or a night owl.

The society is structured in a way that makes it easier for some types of people to succeed but it doesn't mean that people who doesn't fit that model can't or that it's something wrong with them. That is what I meant by my initial comment but it is clear that it wasn't how people here read it.

Maybe it exists and is a real disorder, perhaps I even have it. I don't care either way and I try not to let it affect me or my life.

Or, you could trust the lived experience of millions of real, suffering people, and the medical expertise of all the doctors in the world working on helping those people, and shut the fuck up about something you know nothing about.

Please stop with the straw man shit. I do trust lived experience of people that have an ADHD diagnosis. Why would you think otherwise? I do trust people with medical expertise. I do at least have a little experience with people that have ADHD diagnosed so I know some things about it but I never claimed I was an expert. I explicitly wrote that I was not a doctor.

Fuck you too, though.

> Why would you think otherwise?

Because you keep using language like "maybe it exists and is a real disorder".

There's no "maybe".

2002 called, they want their hot take back.

The 1880s called, they want their nervous hysteria back.

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