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Comment by Quikinterp | Hacker News Reader

I struggle with being lazy in all aspects of my life. I have ADHD and anxiety. Does anyone know of where I should start looking to lower my procrastination and laziness?

It doesn't feel like I'm lazy, because I also don't get things done that I WANT to do. I simply do not know why I don't get things done. I don't know if I'm lazy or paralyzed by fear. Trying new things is always hard for me

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For me its the overwhelming amount of decision making that prevents me. Imagine for a moment you have to make decisions that impact a lot of people and you can't just do stuff on a whim. Under this model, you would delay an important decision to the very last possible moment.

In addition as engineers, it can feel like you are walking in circles when examining your solution. It's not just writing code that is the issue, its dealing with these valleys and troughs of emotion that comes with undertaking work.

Even labor jobs require a certain level of internal rally cry if it makes sense. It's even more tougher that require constant mental attention and analysis. Which is why the financial buy-side for me was too much. The anxiety alone, the uncertainty aspect of it would make it very tough to execute, especially because there are few variables that is completely out of your control. Many burn out and many only end up collecting the management fee. Few that make it seem to not too sound either.

are you medicated for ADHD? stimulant based ADHD medicines have one of the highest reported effective rates among medicine based psychological treatments.

Finding out how you can break the negative feedback loop of being anxious/distracted -> not get things done -> feel guilty and get more anxiety and building positive momentum is key.

for me things that seem to work are: doing some kind of exercise, from dancing, lifting weights, bodyweight exercises going for sauna short EMDR session seem to be very effective in toning down heightened anxiety levels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DALbwI7m1vM) or starting to clean my room

I also suggest to try to keep daily journal of how you feel, and keep track of things that worked/ that didn't work, etc. also helps to begin morning journals with clear 3 goals you aim to get done for the day.

Have you considered trialing medication? ADHD medication is among the most effective brain-targeted medication known to medical science. Both methylphenidate and amphetamine-based drugs have a 90% effectiveness rate.

I have and I do use it, and it helps me a lot. But it still feels like there's an underlying laziness to myself. Maybe I should try other medication because I sort of stuck with the first one I tried, and only trialed the doses after that

There are so many to choose from now and some really ingenious delivery systems. For instance, Concerta is a plastic pill surrounded by a hard dose of MPH (methylphenidate). The outer shell of MPH burns off in your stomach providing an immediate dose of the medication. And inside the plastic capsule, there is more MPH in a liquid form. The inner liquid MPH slowly leaks out by osmosis via a tiny hole in the plastic inner shell.

How anyone thought of this and made it actually work is mind boggling.

Looks like it didn't work too well depending on which one you were given.

https://www.medsnews.com/health/two-generic-version-of-conce...

I imagine, it's since been fixed or the companies in question are no longer producing it.

I find all these ingenious delivery systems (including Vyvanse, Maydays, etc.) to be pure marketing gimmicks.

The article you linked seems to be talking about how two generic versions of Concerta were pulled because they were not found to be bio equivalent to the name brand medication.

The approved ADHD medications are highly effective and this has been shown through a great deal of well conducted research both by the companies and by independent researchers.

I would love to see how effectiveness was determined. I've seen that stat thrown around here and there, and I find it dubious at best. Even if true, that means 10% of people will find medications ineffective. Sure, there are non-stimulants, but there is a reason they aren't used first, and that would still mean there is an x% of people that are treatment-resistant.

I know that goes for every disease, but the internet likes to paint ADHD medications for ADHD people like it's a literal cure-all.

In regards to stimulant efficacy, I would love to see the effectiveness rate over a time span greater than a few months to a year. I would like to see 10 and 20 year long studies (I understand the difficulties).

Anecdotally, the medications help, but I would consider them to be like a low dosage of painkillers for a burn victim -- better than nothing.

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