One of my old coworkers was on meth for a while. She didn't really talk about it, though.
Looks like you found the Ballmer peak.
You have these magical all-night coding sessions with just beer and music and you are getting so much work done.
Then you wake up later and later, eventually waking up so late and only needing to wait a couple of hours before you can start drinking again.
I was in a rut for a while, started staying up really late with absolutely incredible productivity and a feeling of not needed sleep. Flexible startup working hours was the ultimate enabler.
Then I got a headache that wouldn't go away, looked in the mirror and had huge lines under eyes, and I realized it's extremely bad for health and physical appearance.
I think people most susceptible to this are those who can't get easily out of bed in the morning, or take a while to get going with their day.
Nothing is worth irreversibly prematurely aging yourself for...people don't know though. It's a badge of honor but you pay the price.
Honestly, your first line is enough. You can wake up later, you can start drinking earlier, or you can do both. I'm sure a lot of people do better with a more structured, social workday -- it's easier to not feel bad about something if you don't have to try to hide it.
Coffee, which probably the majority of people in the U.S. are addicted to, is a stimulant that we all "abuse"
If drug use isn't causing problems for you, I think you should have every right to do it (if you can work around the legality aspect)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s#Personality
Depending on your current health, other medications, and if you drink alcohol, stimulants can be relatively harmless to deadly. Mixing an upper and downer has a history of stopping hearts without warning.
They’re restricted for good reason. It sucks that some of us just need them to function normally (adhd,etc), but if you don’t need them be aware of the risks.
Also, normies should be able to partake if they just thinks it boosts their performance.
I’ve also noticed that it’s helped other’s around me that are still keeping their diagnosis a secret to see me being comfortable talking about it.
The reason I talk about it is exactly as you say, I think it’s really important to try to destigmatise things like ADHD and ASD in the workplace.
Especially in tech of all places, nobody seems to want to admit that a non-trivial part of the tech industries success is down to it being a field that plays to the strengths of neurodiversity.
To be clear, I’m not criticising you for keeping it to yourself, I totally get it!
Just wanted to provide a voice of reassurance from someone who’s “come out” and living a better life because of it.
Meds (stimulants) changed my life in such a profoundly positive way, that I can’t accept anyone’s stigma for this condition. I know people still misunderstand it, I held off diagnosis for a decade because I didn’t.
Meds help me get my brain closer to an operating baseline you’d find in neurotypical brains. I’ve heard it described that ADHD is like having 70-80% packet loss on information moving around the brain (from the cerebellum to the cortexes and back). You have to work extra hard (in you head) to compensate for that, it’s like wading through the most complex coding problem—but your just trying to do the dishes.
If you don’t need stimulants (for example if they get you high, or you don’t have adhd/a prescription), please think twice before abusing ADHD meds. There an artificial shortage in the US that’s forcing people to skip days/months of medication.
Imagine after wearing glasses for 1/5/10 years only to have them taken away because the maximum number of glasses wearers has been reached. People who abuse stimulants tend to (in my experience) be the ones most active in discrediting ADHD as a disorder—they seem to have a really hard time understanding that a drug that gets them high to the point of bouncing off the walls, generally has a calming effect on an adhd brain and enables focus.
Talking openly is important not only to help the people you work with understand how to support you to get the most out of you, when you have to hide it you expend lots of energy masking your symptoms.
Meds help, but they’re only a piece of the puzzle. They’re outrageously effectively relative to all other drugs used in psychology. But they’re serious drugs which sometimes come with initial side effects that are rough af. Meds help get the quantity of available neurotransmitters to similar levels as a neurotypical brain.
In addition to them, accomodations are needed. Working from home (fewer distractions), listening to music (to help focus when your under-stimulated), time shifting your day (I’m a night owl, and don’t start my day before 10am). These are just some ideas, everyone’s different.
Some employers understand the benefits ADHD/Autistic/neurodivergent people can bring to an organisation—our brains think through problems differently, they connect different ideas. But, you need to accommodate. If the ND people at your work are masking, it means not only are they not feeling safe, you’ve effectively added an additional handicap to them.
I regret waiting a decade. I was misled by the name, and the assumption that ADHD is loud, hyperactive troublemakers. I loathe the name ADHD, it does a disservice to everyone by describing a condition by how it affects everyone else at the expense of those who suffer from it.
My own talking about it has led to at least 5 people I know personally seeking a diagnosis. I wish someone suggested looking into it to me, it would have saved me a decade. Better late than never though. Everyone who got a diagnosis has been incredibly grateful, it really makes it worth it. It feels like being given your life back.
To the GP, don’t start talking publicly if you don’t feel safe to. Culturally in different parts of the world it’s not treated the same yet.
If you can talk about your experience with it, please do it helps everyone, but don’t put yourself or your job at risk—it’s hard enough without that extra burden.
If you can, try a different medication.
Long term, if the opportunity comes to work somewhere where your employer understands adhd take it. There’s often untapped power in our brains that you get access to when your properly supported.
I personally do. I find coding to be incredibly boring and the only reason I do it is for money. Stimulants help make it almost interesting.
I agree that stimulants make boring stuff interesting though. Weed also works, by making your brain work at half speed ;)
I don’t give advice unless I’m asked.
..Hello?
Not sure why he didn't just take it outside. Or just do it before or after work. He never smelled like it outside of those days, he just really seemed to want to take advantage of the president being out specifically for some reason.
That's about all I've noticed, outside of drinking at company parties or a drink during lunch or something. I drink a lot of coffee and take several vitamins and a Zyrtec every day, that's about the extent of my substance abuse on the job.
So therefore we should put substance usage into two categories: "abusive" and "safe".
"Abusive" substance use means that it's affecting either your health or your relationships. " Safe" substance use means that your life is generally improved and your long term health is not affected.
Of course it's a spectrum, not black and white, but it's a good starting point. Where a drug end up on this spectrum is a personal thing.
Marijuana, as long as it's not smoked, falls into safe usage for many people (not me, it gives me anxiety). Coffee is safe (again, for most people). Microdosing psychedelics may be safe. Likewise, occasionally using modafinil may be safe.
Treating conditions also falls into "safe" usage even when there may be some mild negative health effects - it's a tradeoff. One that is best just by a health professional, but that's not always possible or desired by an individual. I suspect that many workers who use amphetamines may have underlying adhd and they use it ameliorate that. Others probably just like the energy. In the latter case, as long as it's occasional and doesn't affect your relationships, this is probably ok. Amphetamines absolutely do have the potential to be abusive, but for many people they are not.
The common public-health-messaging terminology here is "use" vs "abuse."
Are you worried about any and all on the job use? You might be okay with an occasional drink/smoke/addy. I’ve met some people that work very well under these substances, even on a daily basis. I’m not saying this is ever a good cultural decision. Perhaps your a purist.
The stims actually have some stuff under the surface many people aren’t aware of. For instance, many people with cognitive problems do well with even hard stimulates, coke, meth, etc; they do well in the short term, but it doesn’t last. Modern ADHD meds are supposed to alleviate this.
Here’s the kicker. Millions (100,000s?) are being told that their lives are too good for ADHD, then things go to shit. Either that or they tell you you’re too much of a degenerate; just give up your career living independently, and move in with your parents at 30+. They have lots of patients who are wards of the state, that can’t live independently.
Discrimination towards people with ADHD actually seems to be accelerating due to these policies. The world isn’t black and white.
Maybe you were talking about conscious and problematic use? Are you worried about off the job use?
Smoking (cigarettes) was common to see 25 years ago, but now I might see one or two people vaping outside.
I'm all for better living through chemistry, and endorse whatever you need to perform regardless of rules and regulations. But I'm just an old hippie...
In my case though it feels like not using caffeine is not an option for having a tech career. Feeling a bit of frantic energy is the only way I can power through for 5-6 hours of work.
The only other software engineer I know to do this was into pretty much every chemical but there are people like that in every industry.
I'd say marijuana use is (unfortunately) quite prevalent.
I posit 2 factors.
1. You can readily do it while doing your job. If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles. Your hands are too busy; but with IT? 1 hand on mouse, other hand on beer bottle. Sure construction workers aren't sober angels, but they aren't as inebriated as IT.
2. The inherent negativity of the industry. Many jobs are about 'fixing something broken' and tickets and new 0day and we have to patch. Generally speaking the industry is something negative. When dealing with negativity dayin-dayout it takes a psychological toll which nobody addresses appropriately.
When these 2 factors collide, they feed into each other.
edit/ Sorry, didn't figure my posits would be so controversial. downvoted quite heavily.
If you can remap this in your mind to be expressed as improving negative experiences, then maybe it will seem better emotionally :)
There is a long history of construction workers on amphetamine, opioids or cocaine.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31685308/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32677121/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700122/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35143279/
A job in construction is very challenging, both physically and mentally. Many in the construction industry resort to drugs and alcohol to cope with stress or to self-medicate physical pain. Some of the reasons that construction workers turn to substances include:
* Long work days
* Physical pain and injury
* Stress (pressure to work quickly)
* High risk of work-related disability
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/workforce/b...
Most construction workers I know aren't working unless they have hit a joint. The point wasnt so much about whether blue collar are doing it, but rather the convenience and ease.
Substitute any other industry, and your statement is just as valid or speculative. It's unspoken because you mind your own station, and you don't talk shit about your peers.
He was also very arrogant, pumped out features like no tomorrow but the code was always just barely functioning. Product loved him because he delivered but he left a wake of destruction for the security team to clean up.
Another person I worked with said he would never hire or work with someone who uses nicotine. It was even suggested that nicotine users "deserve" to be sabotaged and should not be employed.
The only time I have heard of "rampant" abuse of stimulants for work, it's been in online forums. To me, these stories sound as real as the ones about micro dosing LSD. I know people that have abused stimulants as college students to pull all-nighters in the week before finals. I haven't heard of anyone abusing stimulants after graduating, I imagine most people realize no job is worth abusing medications and taxing their body in that way.
I absolutely hate how I am made to feel guilty for needing stimulant medication, it feels like a version of imposter syndrome where I constantly question my own diagnosis. There genuinely are no good representation of the struggles of ADHD or the benefits of stimulant medication in media. The stigma that Adderall is "meth for kids" shows a severe lack in empathy or understanding of what ADHD is and how medication/chemical groups work.
The people I know, even diagnosed, in NYC finance and FAANG tier companies told me they don't want to use anything stronger than coffee for crunch time. With every stimulants redose used to push away tiredness, the side effects like blunted emotions become exponentially worse. Some of my diagnosed friends choose to avoid stimulants completely because of emotional blunting and other side effects that happens to them at therapeutic doses. Sleep deprivation makes all stimulant medication a lot less effective. No drug can help you recover the way sleep does. There have been morning where I fell asleep after taking my daily dose of Adderall.
People are more comfortable now sharing their diagnosis and if they are medicated. The stigma around adult ADHD is starting to improve but isn't great. Many experts in the field used to think that people outgrew ADHD as they grew up but studies have shown that's completely untrue.[1] There is still a very strong stigma regarding ADHD and being medicated. ADHD isn't visible and in the last year there have been people that have told me I don't look like I need to be medicated or I am "smart enough" unmedicated. To those people, me taking my prescribed dose is the same as me abusing stimulants. There have always fears and stigma around people requiring medication for mental health conditions. Unless you know examples personally, I would take anecdotes with a huge grain of salt.
Stimulants make things easier to do but they don't give you momentum or energy to start something new, that's still something you have to do for yourself. Adderall feels close to a strong coffee taken together with ephedrine or Sudafed, not meth.[2] In movies and TV, a character starting stimulants is used as a plot device to help them overcome and obstacle or as a source of comedy, sometimes a deux ex machina.
There's a shared theory among me and my friends. The field of CS is naturally more attractive to people with ADHD. Software engineering work is structured in a way that would make it easier to manage symptoms for someone with ADHD. Things like hyperfocus, a symptom of ADHD, can even make things easier to learn. I don't know if the field itself is generally more accepting of individual differences. I am sure there's selection bias happening, but it seems reasonable to me. It would explain why there's a larger subset of software engineers have an ADHD diagnosis compared to some other professions.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/well/family/is-it-possibl...