Hacker News Reader

Comment by renegade-otter | Hacker News Reader

Procrastination is not a new thing. And ADHD is a pretty rare condition - just look at the diagnosis rate from country to country. The US has the highest one because doctors here are basically legal Speed drug dealers - for children.

The author of the Search Engine pod just had a two-parter about his "ADHD":

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whyd-i-take-speed-for-...

(The history of regulating Speed in the US is actually fascinating).

I could focus just fine all my life, then suddenly I couldn't. I've talked to other adults who are experiencing the same.

And it's funny how people get super torqued when you say something like this. There is a lot of room between "I have legit ADHD" and "I am addicted to my phone".

Sometimes I could not start a project at work for weeks - then I got off Twitter.

View on HN

Just remember adults here are also dealing with being diagnosed for the first time, and all of the stigma around how this affects kids affects adults, too.

My personal family experience had been that today in the US it's very hard to get an ADHD diagnosis, at least if the patient is smart and manages to achieve decent school grades.

The speed for children scare mongering is pathetic and ignorant and betrays your lack of experience with children with this and related condition.

Lots of kids have behavioral and impulse control problems. If you give them amphetamines you see exactly the same problems, but with the boundless energy amphetamines give you. When you give amphetamines to ADHD children they visibly and noticeably become calmer, quieter, and more focused. If you did not come into it with the predetermined idea that this drug is "speed" you would certainly not arrive there from watching the behavior of medicated children with ADHD.

You were addicted to twitter good for you for solving your problems. Don't extrapolate that experience out to kids though. ADHD is fucked up, life ruining stuff. Look at the rates for drug abuse, car crashes and incarceration for adults with untreated ADHD. This sort of scare mongering makes it less likely for children to access effective treatment when it can be most impactful on their lives. It is harmful and you should be ashamed.

Thanks for your comment. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult late (after 4 x 2 hours sessions with extensive questionnaires and iq test). Originally I was really worried that I'd be incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD despite not having it so was reassured by how serious the process was.

One thing that jumped out at me though with regards to your comment about medicine. I started taking concerta and quickly noticed that if I'm the slightest bit sleep deprived, concerta doesn't amp me, it doesn't make me have more energy but instead it makes me sleepy. With it, I'm visibly calmer and quieter and I also have a lot less craving for chocolates (which I'd keep eating non-stop during the day). It's quite magical actually.

I have a suspicion the high rate of ADHD may be related to the low rate of employment in kinaesthetic jobs (eg construction, farming, even to a great degree historical militaries) and high rates of high-attention-demand work - which yes, I'll include most fast food industry.

That said ADHD runs through my family like a (mad) bull in a china shop, and yes, hence very much voting this comment up. Lots of individual things can help - getting enough sleep for one, enough exercise ... but at the end of the day, one has to be reasonable and accept that medicines help.

An aside : children under a certain age, one can't (safely) detect ADHD because the symptoms are "ordinary behaviour". This is why I suspect there are lifestyle components too...

Or perhaps it's a multiple of things, and not just getting off twitter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com