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Comment by orangepurple | Hacker News Reader

Daily 20 hour water (& salt) fasting reduced my desire to jump between tasks. Less scatter-brained too. My thoughts stay on rails longer. Didn't change my diet much; I don't eat many refined foods or carbs other than occasional bread.

Years ago in college I was prescribed Adderall but it didn't make me focus more. It made me compulsively clean my apartment, masturbate, tweak out, and occasionally be extremely paranoid of being attacked while on public transit. I was ready to rip someone's head off. I discourage using this medication.

If you haven't reduced carb intake to a bare minimum I suggest maintaining it first for a month before looking for more help.

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Do you think that it might be harmful to discourage the use of a medication for everyone simply because the medication affected you in a way that you didn’t find helpful?

I have severe ADHD and Adderall has played a huge role in allowing me to do things (like building a successful career as a software engineer) that never would have been possible without it.

On the other hand, starting adderall was the best personal decision I have ever made.

I am less angry, less impulsive, more deliberate, more attentive, more kind, and more patient.

Your reaction sounds like the reaction of someone without ADHD. I'm not claiming that's the case. I know everyone has different reactions to medications and you should do what's best for you. That said, starting adderall literally changed my life.

I would consult a physician though instead of eating less bread if you really do feel that you might suffer from a mental disability. Bread might help, but professional insight will certainly help more.

I didn't mean to imply that I only eat bread. Just that it is my main source of the few carbohydrates I eat anymore. They will have to pry chocolate from my cold dead hands.

Sorry, I meant "getting rid of bread". To be honest, I was snarky at you for suggesting dietary changes instead of talking to a professional. It has very "wow thanks, i'm cured" energy. I won't be snarky in the future.

Wow 20 liters a day sounds like you need a lot executive function to make that work. Did you ever suffer from a lack of executive function (if you planned on doing stuff layed everything you need to do for the task, thought about it regularly and the taks just didn't get performed by you 3 times a week or more often)?

Did that get better for you?

I read it as "20 hours fasting a day, only consuming water and salt during that 20 hours".

Sounds like you may have had too high a dose, or too quickly absorbed of a dose. That's more or less what I feel like in the 30-40mg range, which is about middle of the road for Adderall XR. The problem with XR is for some folks, it isn't extended release at all, it's just two timed dumps of immediate release.

Daily 20 hour water (& salt) fasting reduced my desire to jump between tasks

You mean you only consumed water and salt for 20 hours of the day, or avoided these? Just trying to get clarity.

Also, did you find that type of carb food had much impact, or just overall amount?

I only consume water, salt, and black coffee for 20 hours of the day.

I found myself reaching for more sweets both natural and artificial when confronted with stressful or difficult tasks as a coping or escape mechanism. This was very distracting. It was the hardest of all to reduce the intake of artificial sweeteners. I used to compulsively chew gum. Gum with aspartame did help me lose 70 pounds when I first started fasting, but I have since sworn it off entirely, as I find the sweets cravings to be a source of distraction themselves. The cravings and irrational dreams of injecting sweets do end after a while. I was very addicted to sweets and was unable to feel full. I think nowadays this is called leptin resistance.

It’s quite possible you don’t have ADHD. They diagnosed me with ADHD and gave me Adderall. It threw me in to manic episode which landed me into the hospital.

I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 13 when my parents were at a loss as to why I could not focus on my schoolwork and homework. They gave me Ritalin at the time, which only made me hostile (their words; I don't recall)

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