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Comment by buzzwords | Hacker News Reader

Interesting, I struggle to read. I always have. But I genuinely enjoyed it. Few years back I told a colleague that by the time I reach the end of paragraph I forget how it started. He told me sounds like a learning difficulty. So I did a test, thinking I was dyslexic. It turns out I have ADHD with particularly bad short term memory. Anyways my question for everyone here, how do you read with ADHD? How do you over come reading the same passage multiple time?

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Fix your ADHD. It certainly comes with constant fatigue. It becomes clear that ADHD, like autism, is related to a lack of energy for the brain, and disappears when enough energy is available. If you feel too tired to focus, if you think you might need to sleep more than others, have the need for naps and so on, go consult a sleep clinic, get tested for all kinds of conditions, and find and fix the root cause. Ritalin won't fix the root cause and depending on how tired you are, will rather deplete your energy levels than improve your status in the long run. Ritalin gives you an illusion, not a remedy. Causes of fatigue can be a chronic inflammatory state, some immune reactions triggered too often...

Do you have allergies? Rashes when you eat some food? Trembling hands? Some skin problems? Hearing loss or tinnitus? Are you abnormally tired after sports? Do you have abnormal cramps after sports or drinking alcohol, or when not sleeping enough? Regular teeth health issues? Do you have a sensitive vague nerve? Did you faint more than other people in the course of your life? Does your body need more time to heal? Do you feel dizziness when standing up? Have you always had the impression that you actually aren't that stable on your feet, even while actually practising a lot of sports? What about headaches and migraines? When you work, have you specialised in some tasks that are/feel quite systematic for you? Are social interactions or other tasks that require new analysis exhausting for you? These are signs that you optimise your energy expenditure by focusing on tasks that barely require you to think with much energy.

Lack of energy is a very good reason for the brain to avoid using energy for its executive function, the function that is actually impaired in people with ADHD. It's normal, and trying to fix that feels exhausting, which is why people with ADHD avoid spending that energy.

The executive function is preliminary to focusing with other parts of the brain. If it's impaired, the brain won't even try to focus with other parts for the actual work. Two problems solved at once. Twice the energy spared.

Find the root cause of your ADHD (which often is just a symptom) and fix it.

You seem to have thought about this. Would Creatine help?

Personally, for any kind of serious reading, I have to go to a place/room with zero opportunities for distraction. No noise, no surrounding commotion, even slightly dimming lights helps. My retention rate drops significantly if there are any distractions. For lighter reading or docs, I’ve got to take almost diagrammatic-like notes. whiteboard, paper/pen, or ipad work best for me - typed notes don’t work well. I may not even revisit the notes later, but actually writing them helps retention. If I’m out of luck and must read in a non conducive environment, just resolving that I’ll have to re-read once or twice is the only way. Not aware of any magic solution unfortunately.

Audiobooks sped up to ~2x or so, but you usually have to build up to that speed.

There are also exercises which help develop short term memory like n-back training for which there are many phone apps.

Oh you don't zone out?

The speed helps with that.

Also doing something mindless helps. The dishes, the laundry, moderate exercise.

I can't pay attention to most audiobooks at 1x, I get bored between words.

Try going for a walk when listening to an audiobook. When I do that I rarely zone out. When I don't I nearly always zone out.

I think constantly checking if you can recall the last paragraph is a bad habit. It not only requires mental effort, it also breaks your flow.

I have ADHD myself, and I advise you to always keep reading. Don't stop and think about what things meant, don't recall the important events at the end of a paragraph or chapter, none of that. Just keep reading.

If you really feel like you didn't 'get it', go back 3 chapters. But reread it without stopping.

I just speed ahead, and I always retained more than I thought I did. If I keep going, eventually I can reach a kind of flow. It doesn't matter if I missed bits here or there.

Or, you could try the opposite, and slow down. It sounds like torture, but eventually, it will become habitual.

Can you read dense novels with this? I feel like you'd miss subtleties, but grasp the overall story or simpler books.

I think you can compare it to watching a movie. You won't recall at the end what color jacket the character was wearing, or what the name of the victim was, but you still get the movie. Even though the jacket-color might be significant in someway (like being the same color like the monster the character would become or something). It's normal and expected that a single viewing/reading will not give you all the insights.

Just like a movie, if I really like it, I could decide to read it again, and discover things I didn't get the first time around. But there is no requirement to spot every detail the first time.

I read Anna Karenina pretty fast. And the Power Broker. I'm a fast reader in general.

I take my meds (ritalin) before serious reading, and it usually works

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