
What is ADD? - adrusi
http://adrusi.com/what-is-add/
======
JohnBooty
Very close to my own experiences.

ADD is like a television with excellent reception - only problem is, you don't
get to choose which channel it's tuned into. :)

    
    
         "Had I been diagnosed 30 years ago..."
    

The goddamn name itself is painfully misleading. It's probably why I or my
parents and teachers never even considered it until I was diagnosed in my 30s.
"Attention deficit disorder" sounds like a disorder where you _can 't pay
attention,_ not a disorder where you _pay attention very well, just not to
things of your choosing._

The misleading name is also probably part of the reason why some people
question ADD's existence: they don't even understand what it is. They see kids
with ADD focusing on video games or whatever and say: "See, they can pay
attention!"

I have one problem with the article: not everybody experiences ADD exactly the
same way. There are recognized subtypes such as predominately inattentive ADD,
etc.

~~~
jwdunne
This is exactly my feelings 100%. Teachers made me out to be dumb or mentally
defective to my mother but my mother saw something different at home, where my
attention was free. My mum recounted a story of me at 3 years watching my
father and grandfather empty out a flooded garage trench (not sure of the
name). Supposedly, I gave a suggestion that blew everyone away because it made
the job 100x easier.

A bit different to the teacher making fun of me to the whole class by sitting
in a chair, pretending to be catatonic several years later because I didn't
have the answer for her rapid fire 9 times table (I was daydreaming and as is
common my mouth was slightly ajar).

Not to say there wasn't problems; my mum used to send me up to get her a brush
or some small thing and I'd forget once I'd get upstairs. After more than a
few bollockings, I learned to ask where it was in the hopes it'd jog my
memory. I was accused of not listening and I couldn't explain that it wasn't
my fault!

I could however spend hours on Sonic 2 without taking a break. I was also
infatuated with science and spent hours coming up with inventions that, to my
dismay, already existed. I remember reinventing the fire sprinkler. It was
more like a fire water balloon but the principle was similar.

These little memories, which form just a tiny grain of the daily struggle for
the past 23 years, are almost funny. A joke, however, isn't so funny everyday,
many multiple times a day.

When you discuss one small nugget, people say "ohhhh everyone was like that"
and, due to lack of focus, you are unable to defend against their dismissal.

After 23 years, all day everyday, and the pain, hospitalisation and searching,
dismissal by the ignorant is almost insulting.

~~~
JohnBooty
It sucks. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that.

Also, adding insult to injury, your use of the word "mum" suggests that you
may have been forced to play the 50hz PAL version of Sonic 2 instead of the
60hz NTSC version.

~~~
jwdunne
Yes, hahaha. In fairness, if you've never experienced supersonic in any other
format (except Adventure on DC), you don't know what you've missed.

------
dwarman
I have 2e ADHD, diagnosed only a few years ago at 63. A revelation. Lots of
study ensued. This might be be a good article, the intro seems ok, but I
cannot tell.

I cannot read this article. It reflows differently every time I scroll the
page and the text I was reading goes .... somewhere. It is painful. iOS 8.4
Safari on iPad Air. - may be OK on desktop browsers. But I only go there for
work these days.

So in that sense it is a self-referential demonstration of the problem with
ADHD focus. Also a downvote on reflow logic these days. HTML5 has got too
clever. Reflow on scrolling? wtf!

(edit). OK. I got around it. Last paragraph says it all for me. That hits what
NT's cannot grasp: it's not a character defect, its not a "simple" matter of
will power. FWIW, I have hit upon a way around some of the will power issues,
the important ones like giving up smoking and losing weight to get out of pre-
diabetic region: a form of mental Judo based on visualization and meditation.
It's slow - can take a year - but it works. This after 20 years of trying
using conventional will power based methods. I have a stack of Smoke-Ender
certificates to attest to that.

DOORKNOB!

~~~
adrusi
Hmmm not sure why that would be happening. I test in on Firefox on Android
(Nexus 5), where it works perfectly. I don't think I do any weird things with
the CSS, although I just modified an existing theme, so maybe it's something I
haven't looked at much.

Not everengineering websites is important for me, It's important to me that
they work with javascript disabled and even in text-based browsers, so I'll
look into this tomorrow.

~~~
dwarman
It seems that Safari iOS's latest "helpful" behavior, sliding the tabs and
favorites bar out of sight, is changig the window size and so invoking reflow.
Which moved what I was reading off the bottom of the screen. Scrolling down to
find it again re-opened the tabs and favorites, changed the window size back,
invoked reflow, and moved my reading point out of view above the window.
Scrolling back up again - well, I'm sure you get the picture. Part of the
magnitude of the issue was moving the page header (big green panel) from the
top to the side and back again, also when the header was on the side the text
font was larger.

~~~
soylentcola
Haven't fired up any iOS devices in a while so I'm not sure but does iOS
Safari have a "view in desktop mode" button anywhere? I mostly use Android on
phones/tablets but I occasionally run into similar issues on some sites
(various wikis come to mind) and reflowing/horizontal scrolling screws things
up on the mobile Chrome and Firefox.

Typically for those sites I hit the "desktop mode" button which I believe just
changes the user agent string so that it shows everything without any mobile
"optimization". It makes for a bit of zooming and panning if you're in
portrait mode but beats having most of the screen cut off or whatnot.

------
BillyParadise
Good article. I was diagnosed as an adult, and now have coping strategies
(including some stimulants for days when I really need to get shit done). Had
I been diagnosed 30 years ago, oh the things I could have done.

The worst? My mother was a teacher. You'd think she would have caught it.

Task switching is really my biggest issue. Once I get in hyperfocus mode on
something, a) I really hate getting interrupted, probably because b) getting
back focused again is all but impossible.

~~~
bpyne
Do the stimulants cause any jitters or mood alteration like caffeine can
cause?

~~~
melindajb
The stimulants can, especially in the early days, affect your mood. A good MD
will work carefully to start very slowly and ramp up, with the idea to give
you the lowest possible effective dose.

For example: my MD started me on the lowest dose of ritalin once a day for a
week

then twice a day for a week

then once that was ok I was given a longer acting version called Concerta that
I took once a day.

it took six months to ramp me up to my current dose. there were times he felt
it was time to go up and I wasn't ready. there were times when I felt it was
time and he wanted me to wait. I had some side effects that went away if I
went down a dose level, and then as I adapted, I'd move back up again. My dr.
was very experienced and warned me about what to expect--a period of feeling
invincible for a few months that would fade (true), and a feeling in the
evenings of "rebound" as medicine faded (true). He was my rock when I started
on this and still is It brings tears to my eyes how he helped me change my
life. Now I only see him every three months for 30 mins and I'm given an
unusual amount of latitude: I'm given various doses and allowed to manage it
myself--choosing lower doses when I want to drink real coffee (my full dose
does NOT work with caffeine) or when I can't get a full night's sleep. I'm
told this is highly unusual given the meds are a controlled substance and a
sign of the faith my MD has that I'm not a drug seeker. (he's right. I saw
"requiem for a dream" and let's say he'll never have to worry...)

I was lucky. I can afford the best doctors. the right medicine worked, the
first time. This is not true of everyone.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that anyone who thinks they have
ADHD to go to an MD who specializes in this stuff. Family doctors do NOT
count. your basic Ph.D therapist doesn't count.

start with science, go slow and built outwards. FWIW my therapist says he will
only work with 4 MD's in SF because his take is that they're all pill pushers.
My MD is one of the only MDs in SF allowed to provide telephone prescriptions
for Concerta. The pharmacy he sends me to never has shortages. This is also
not consistently true, even in SF.

It's no joke. Amphetamines can screw you up. Take this stuff seriously, please
and find a good doctor for a proper evaluation.

edit to add: you know I have ADHD: I didn't answer your question. haha!

the short answer is that yes, in the beginning your mood may be "up" and you
may feel down on the rebound while you are adjusting. But as you stay with it,
things even out and become VERY predictable. If you have ADHD you will
recognize the terror I used to have about making sure my brain was ON a the
right time--all sorts of weird rituals to wake it up for an important meeting,
etc. On the meds, I have confidence my brain will be at its level best so my
anxiety and its attendant grouchiness just went away. PS: coaching and therapy
(two different things) helped this a lot and if you're late diagnosed as I
was, you will need them. I recommend reading "driven to distraction" before
you start meds, because that "invincible" feeling the first few months is the
best time to start changing habits. you will dip in motivation after that, but
never as bad as without and having those systems in place to fall back on will
save you.

~~~
n_siddharth
Would you mind sharing this information? I live in south bay and have
struggled to find a good therapist/MD and have had very little success finding
any recommendations.

------
unimpressive
I linked this on HN earlier today, Russel Barkley giving an overview talk on
ADHD. Highly recommended:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyDliT0GZpE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyDliT0GZpE)

EDIT: This thread is disappointing me. Part of why I linked this talk is that
it paints a very different picture than most people would probably already
have of what 'ADHD' looks like.

~~~
helpfulanon
Posted a comment about this as well - I also highly recommend watching this,
Dr. Barkley's lecture altered how I view my myself

------
lettergram
It's interesting that people consider hyperfocus and lack-of-focus different.
Essentially, they are two sides of the same coin.

ADHD is simply the lack of ability to control attention. There are drugs that
work short-term, however long-term only methods of coping are really
effective.

After reading everyone posts below, I figured I would direct you to my
startup:

[http://synaptitude.me](http://synaptitude.me)

The startup (just applied to YC) that my team and I are working on actually
addresses this issue using something called neurofeedback therapy:

[http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-
in-200-words/](http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-in-200-words/)

Effectively, your mind is like a programmable computer. Once you learn to
recognize when you start losing focus, it's possible to program it (over time)
to do something different. The idea being, neurofeedback therapy lets people
better understand themselves and in-turn cope better.

After the brain has been reprogrammed it stays that way long-term (unless
something else reprograms it).

If you are interested in reading more about neurofeedback, here's a literature
overview:

[http://synaptitude.me/blog/literature-overview-of-using-
neur...](http://synaptitude.me/blog/literature-overview-of-using-
neurofeedback/)

------
robwormald
A great book on this topic is "Driven to Distraction" \- I recommend it to
anyone curious about ADHD. The first chapter put me in tears - it was like
reading a history of my life.

~~~
sirtaj
Same. Suddenly my entire childhood made sense. It's also a little frustrating
because I can't help thinking of all the lost time.

------
EGreg
I honestly don't see the reactions described here as really abnormal.

Doesn't want to play 300 hour RPGs

Forcing oneself to study boring subjects is effective for two weeks then
willpower gets worn down

Hmm, sounds like often ADD is a measure of how far you are from one of those
studious people who are able to sit still and intensely focus... I don't think
that's as useful as acknowledging there are different types of people.
Personally, ADD seems to me to be the "Hysteria" of the 21st century. If
anything, short attention span is manifest a lot more in today's generation
because of the fast turnaround time of electronic queries (googling from your
phone vs perusing the library), and vastly increased personal reachability
(cellphone vs pre-beeper), leading to a faster pace of life.

Thom Hartmann wrote a book describing this phenomenon regarding ancestors who
were adapted as hunters vs farmers:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_vs._farmer_hypothesis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_vs._farmer_hypothesis)

------
toddkazakov
Before I read this article I never heard of ADD. Now that I am more familiar
with the symptoms this sounds a whole lot like me.

When I start programming I can do this for 16 hours without eating, peeing,
etc. I am constantly worried, always miss appointments, my girlfriend is
always annoyed with me that I only do stuff that interests me and usually out
of nowhere I stop listening to her in the middle of the conversation.

Finding an interesting job was priority number one for me. I just couldn't
bear working 9-5 for a large corporation. In the middle of the day after I'd
just stop paying attention to anything or anybody and just start playing
chess.

I am quite surprised I experience about 80 percent of the symptoms listed on
various websites, but it never occurred to me that this can be a real
condition.

~~~
throwaway90135
> Now that I am more familiar with the symptoms this sounds a whole lot like
> me.

> I am quite surprised I experience about 80 percent of the symptoms listed on
> various websites, but it never occurred to me that this can be a real
> condition.

If you suspect you have ADHD and you find that it is negatively impacting your
life, I would suggest seeking a good psychiatrist for a professional
evaluation. Be warned that some psychiatrists are all too eager to write a
prescription and send you on your way, when successful treatment hinges on a
deeper understanding of the condition and the development of successful coping
strategies once you've identified the negative behaviors.

Moreover, it's worth noting that the author's definition of ADHD and
hyperfocus doesn't actually match the medical definition of ADHD. Also, many
of the ADHD websites list overly-broad ADHD criteria, such than almost any
warm-blooded human could feasibly self-diagnose as having ADHD given the
vagueness of the symptoms.

ADHD is, first and foremost, a deficit of attention abilities. It isn't quite
as selective as the author makes it out to be, in that someone with the
traditional medical definition of ADHD would not be able to focus on anything
for 16 hours straight as you are able to. In fact, being able to focus for
such a long period of time is a truly enviable ability, and I doubt you'd find
any competent medical professional who would suggest that you have ADHD if you
are able to focus on your work for _twice_ as long as the 8-hour workday that
most people struggle through.

It's important to note that we all miss appointments, we all prefer to do
activities that interest us, we all occasionally stop listening to people mid-
way through a conversation, and we all struggle to pay attention to boring
jobs. These aren't signs of a disorder, these are just facts of life.

~~~
toddkazakov
All I am saying is this might explain many things in my behavior my
friends/partners never understood (sometimes even I did not).

I lose interest too quickly in various things like readings books, playing
games, following conversations. Even when writing, after a sense or two, I get
bored in what I want to say. The only thing (so far) that interests me is my
job.

I share your concerns that nowadays doctors tend just to prescribe drugs, that
only treat the symptoms. All seek for a medical advice - i.e. get diagnosed.
From there on I think the best I can do is be aware of the problem and try to
except more control/will over the things that make sense.

~~~
MichaelGG
Psychologists won't just try to get you on drugs. There are plenty of coping
strategies and just understanding what's going on. Self diagnosis is rife with
errors. I had plenty of ADD symptoms and it looked like a fine match. Others
agreed. But after seeing a decent doctor, they quickly realized I had bipolar
disorder. While that does bring some attention issues, treating it with
stimulants is often a terrible mistake.

You don't have to commit to anything. Within a couple of appointments, a pdoc
should be willing to give you a preliminary diagnosis. (Some insurance might
even force them to do so sooner.) If you tell them you refuse to take drugs
(why? Stimulants are incredibly helpful, ADD or not), they should give you an
honest evaluation of what they believe they can do for you.

------
smt88
I highly recommend reading about the opinion of this doctor that ADD doesn't
exist as a separate condition. It is, instead, a symptom of many other
possible conditions.

[http://time.com/25370/doctor-adhd-does-not-
exist/](http://time.com/25370/doctor-adhd-does-not-exist/)

This is consistent with my own experience with people who believe they have
ADD. Many of them turned out to have untreated anxiety and depression.

It's also interesting to note that there's a lot of research supporting the
idea that mindfulness can decrease the effects of ADD. That seems to support
the idea that ADD isn't a physiological fact, but a curable behavioral issue.

~~~
throwaway90135
I think it's clear at this point that ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed,
particularly among people who self-diagnose after using the internet to
confirm their beliefs.

However, ADHD and other executive disorders are very real and very
debilitating for a small portion of the general population. I've unfortunately
experienced this first-hand after a serious traumatic brain injury took me
from normally-functioning adult to ADHD adult overnight. (Part of the reason
I'm using a throwaway is that I prefer not to make this fact well-known).

> This is consistent with my own experience with people who believe they have
> ADD. Many of them turned out to have untreated anxiety and depression.

This mirrors my experience somewhat, although I believe many people simply
confuse normal human behaviors as ADHD symptoms. It's perfectly normal to
prefer to focus on subjects you enjoy while experiencing difficulty when
forced to focus on uninteresting topics, but somehow this has been construed
as a symptom of ADHD on the internet. (As I've commented elsewhere, hyperfocus
is not actually a symptom of official ADHD definitions but it's very popular
on internet forums).

> It's also interesting to note that there's a lot of research supporting the
> idea that mindfulness can decrease the effects of ADD. That seems to support
> the idea that ADD isn't a physiological fact, but a curable behavioral
> issue.

I have to disagree on several of your definitions here: There is plenty of
research in to potential biological contributing factors to ADHD-type
behaviors. However, the brain is remarkably plastic and capable of learning
good or bad behaviors. Unfortunately, modern life tends to train us toward
ADHD-like behaviors, with constant bombardments of stimuli and companies
working overtime to develop products that distract us and are carefully
designed to capture our attention.

~~~
Others
As someone with ADD, self-diagnoses is incredibly frustrating. It drives a
really unhealthy perception of the disease.

~~~
smt88
My understanding of professional ADD diagnoses is that they look at the
diagnostic criteria, ask whether the patient fits, and then make the
diagnosis. It's not like there's an objective test.

Do you disagree? What makes it more difficult for someone to self diagnose
than for a professional?

~~~
Others
uh, years of medical school?

~~~
hndude
Does your ADD have any overlap with ego? Rather than answer (directly) an
honest question, you leave a sarcastic non-answer. Seems like you are pretty
insulted by his query, perhaps your sense of self identifies a bit with your
diagnosis of ADD.

~~~
reitanqild
Others' answer (question) seems highly relevant. And the sarcasm was well
applied.

When people more or less ask why a person with years of training for a job is
betterqualified than a layman I think a gentle nudge towards humbleness should
be appreciated.

~~~
smt88
Years of training _in what_? We don't even have an objective, widely-agreed-
upon scientific definition of ADD yet. Years of medical training don't help
you do the impossible, which is to understand what it's like to be in someone
else's head.

And we're not talking about just any layman. We're talking about the person
actually experiencing the symptoms.

It was an honest question: what in a medical doctor's training makes them
better at diagnosing ADD than the person suffering from it? Like the sarcastic
post, you're taking a position without explaining your reasoning.

~~~
reitanqild
Years of training in understanding whatever little we know about ADHD etc.

> We're talking about the person actually experiencing the symptoms.

Yeah, me too. That makes me an expert, right? The fact is, I didn't even know
until 5 years ago. You can make a qualified guess before asking a doctor yes,
but at least here it seems a doctor has to rule out a lot of options,
including sleep apnea before he they go with ADHD.

Also, as has been mentioned before, practicing d/p tend to see a few cases
every year and has at least some background to say what is normal and not.

All this should be obvious, shouldn't it? It is not like anything I have
written so far requires huge leaps of faith, no?

------
coldcode
ADD and Autism are two instances of brain chemistry being "different" which
strangely seem to work with programming and is fairly common among
programmers. Sometimes I wish I had become a brain researcher, as the brain is
a fascinating thing to study as we still know very little about how it works,
and often times even less when it doesn't. We can't even adequately define
what "normal" is if it even exists.

We can't even understand how drugs affect both of these; much of what we know
to prescribe them is more guesswork and anecdotal than based on solid
understanding.

------
lmitchell
Thank you for sharing this - my girlfriend has ADD and this is the best
explanation of what it really feels like and how it affects you that I think
I've ever heard. I honestly feel like I understand her better now, which makes
me really happy.

------
whoisthemachine
Unfortunately, the hyperfocus comes with a huge side effect: once someone with
ADD reaches near-completion of whatever they are focused on, they tend to lose
the focus they have. This was and still can be the biggest hurdle for me to
overcome.

------
philliphaydon
I was diagnosed with ADD and spent years on ritilin. IMO its not about not
focusing or having a short attention span. It's about not being stimulated.
Too easily do we throw drugs at a problem rather than solving the cause.

~~~
thelambentonion
I strongly suspect that I have ADD/ADHD (and I'm looking for a good
psychiatrist in my area to discuss this with now), and I fully agree with you.
However, in life and at work, there are many instances where I __need __to do
things that I don 't find particularly stimulating or interesting.

In these areas, my inability to force myself into the mindset of that work has
seriously impacted my quality of life. I've spoken to a few people who I know
have similar problems and are now on medication, and it seems like it's been
INCREDIBLY constructive for them.

This is all anecdotal, of course, but I figured I'd throw in my two cents. I'd
still like to find a solution that doesn't involve medication, just as a
matter of personal convenience, but it's been a struggle so far.

~~~
JohnBooty

         However, in life and at work, there are many instances
         where I need to do things that I don't find 
         particularly stimulating or interesting.
    

Yes! There is a school of thought that says ADD is more of a "personality
type" than a "disability."

Generally I view it that way as well. But it sure is a disability when you
actually have to do boring things - and who _doesn 't_ have to do boring
things? I mean really... who _doesn 't_ spend a significant portion of their
lives doing things that aren't particularly interesting?

And I'm generally in not in favor of treating myself as if I'm "disabled" in
any way whatsoever - I don't expect less of myself because I have ADD. Hell, I
also participate in sports even though I'm asthmatic and blind in one eye and
my depth perception sucks.

------
helpfulanon
If you have ADHD or are close to someone with it, do yourself a favor, sit
down and watch this lecture series by Dr Russell Barkely:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBixSjmbc8eFl6UX5_wW...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBixSjmbc8eFl6UX5_wWGP8i0mAs-
cvY)

It's geared a little more towards childhood ADHD, and it's quite long (I
needed to be medicated in order to watch the whole thing, of course..) but
this Dr is a fantastic expert on the topic and doesn't hold back on explaining
the disorder in clear medical terms. He also does not sugar coat anything or
tell you what you want to hear. It's a very pragmatic and thorough explanation
of what ADHD means, and really opened up my eyes in many ways.

One of the important takeaways from that lecture is that ADHD is _not_ simply
attention problems, there are a myriad of related issues with executive
function that are just not as apparent. Learning that ADHD is more than
attention can fundamentally change your coping strategies. Well worth
investing time into deeper education

------
QandAandQ
I was diagnosed with ADD when I was young. I read tons of people on here
urging others to "get help". But what does that mean? Essentially there is
only one thing a therapist can do. That is, prescribe you speed/amphetamines.
These will make anyone more focused, its a complete fallacy that they are
proper medication for having ADD. When you take these drugs (which are
neurotoxic at higher/extended doses, a fact which is actively hidden by drug
companies), you are seriously messing with your reward system. This makes them
very hard to get off after taking them a while, as it can take months for your
brain to go back to normal. Thats why people think they have such terrible
ADD. Look! I cant focus without the meds! Well no wonder, they manipulated
your brain chemistry at a huge level!

~~~
theorose
Have you found a successful alternative to handling your condition?

I used to think ADD was made up to medicate difficult kids and that
amphetamines are too dangerous to use as medicine. Then I changed careers and
stopped working late nights in load chaotic social environments. It was awful.
I was never really able to finish projects before, now I could hardly start
them.

My father and his brothers had all been diagnosed with ADD, I did a little lit
review, opened my mind and saw a doc. I was prescribed 5mg Dextroamphetamine
daily and began finishing projects.

Before my diagnosis I meditated regularly, I did yoga and got exercise, I was
into all kinds of "self-programming" and "mind-hacks." Only after I began
taking a small daily amphetamine prescription did I start finishing projects.

It's been nearly a decade and my dosage has only increased once, to 10 mgs
time-release. Every few years my doc screens my heart and liver. I am exposed
to many, many chemicals that are neurotoxic at high levels. The solution to my
meds is simple - don't take too much and keep them out of reach of children.

And yes, I'm messing with my reward system. That's because my reward system
wasn't really working for me in the first place.

~~~
QandAandQ
Well luckily I am good enough at math/programming that I get huge amounts of
leeway at my job. Meaning I miss tons of meetings, am always late, miss
emails, and all that stuff. Basically as long as I keep coding like I do, my
boss could care less about everything else. If this career didnt exist I would
be in huge trouble. But regardless, I took medication for a long time. It
worked for a while, but 5 years in I saw it lose effectiveness. Upping the
dosage with little restraints led to addiction/abuse. Never taking too much is
absolutely crucial, once your neural path ways have been exposed to high
doses, it is very difficult to restrain yourself to small ones. Are you aware
of behavioral/personality changes with it? Or have you generally stayed the
same? My biggest issue was taking a drug every day that altered my personality
in noticeable ways. After years on end its easy to forget who you were before,
which I think is absolutely terrible.

Its difficult to find information about it online (thanks drug companies), but
if you do real research into medical journals, Moderate doses can lead to long
term/structural changes in the brain. Abuse can be neurotoxic. Ritalin is
considerably safer than adderall/dex. This makes it hard to separate out what
was caused by the drug and what is a symptom of ADD, thus causing a bad
feedback cycle.

I recently saw a therapist (for unrelated issues) who said it was a common
pattern for bright individuals who were bored with regular schooling to be
diagnosed as ADD.

Meditation, exercise, proper sleep, and healthy food all have a huge effect.
Biggest thing is being interested in what I am working on at work. I drink
huge amounts of caffeine and sugar (soda helps the most), which help a ton. I
take frequent breaks, go for walks, and work obscure hours. I end up getting
about 4 peoples work done myself, mainly because I can leverage my programming
ability to find shortcuts in the work that other people cannot.

~~~
theorose
I'm glad to hear you have a valuable talent that your appreciated for enough
to earn deserved slack in your process. I failed math twice in high-school and
gave up on it until I returned to school as a medicated adult (15 years
later). Now I love math and programming, but without the rote training as a
teenager I have to work too hard for it to be a viable career. I solved that
by starting a visual analytics consulting/services company - now I get to work
very closely to math and coding, but I hire other people to concentrate on the
technical details :)

The behavior & personality change (more generally, neuroplasticity) is a very
interesting aspect. I have most definitely not stayed the same. Doing anything
every day will lead to long-term structural changes in the brain, meditating,
making music, playing sports, coding. When we desire those changes we call it
expertise. Behavior change was my explicit reason for taking Dexedrine in the
first place and I'm happy I have successfully brought about (some) of the
desired change. As for unwanted changes, I'm still happily married and my
closest friends and family have remained close so I see no evidence of the
changes being harmful enough to outweigh the benefits.

Nobody is the same person we were 10 years ago, whether they use drugs or not.
On the other hand, I worked in harm reduction and addiction services for 15
years, and I'm not about to deny that issues with addiction and impulse
control are very real and dangerous challenges for a subset of amphetamine
users. Kudos to you for noticing and addressing the issues your use was
leading to, I bet it wasn't easy.

I'll stand with you and say that getting ADD treated with stimulants is very
much like lighting a fire. You can generate the energy you need, but you can
also get burned. There is no cure all, mileage may very, etc.

------
ryhanson
Having been recently diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive type), I never thought I
had ADHD, because I COULD focus on things. I didn't realize that this hyper-
focused state I would go into was a major sign of ADHD, especially since I
couldn't stop focusing.

I, too, was one of the fortunate ones that hyper focused on computers and
programming. This focus started at a very young age, and has since turned
itself into a very rewarding career.

You are not alone! I believe there is a pretty strong correlation between
software developers and ADHD. I feel like programming works well with the
chemistry of an ADHD brain. Some of the best engineers I've met have been
diagnosed with ADHD. There are a few that I believe have it, but I'm not sure
if they've been diagnosed or not.

ADHD truly is a very interesting brain type!

~~~
zkhalique
How is being able to focus on, say, a coding problem, a sign of ADHD? This DSM
5 trait sounds a bit arbitrary.

~~~
throwaway90135
It's important to note that hyperfocus is not a DSM-V criteria for ADHD. In
fact, hyperfocus doesn't appear anywhere in any official diagnostic criteria
for ADHD that I'm aware of (If I'm wrong, I'd love to know).

The official DSM-V criteria, along with helpful explanations, are available
here:
[http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html](http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html)

I'm still not sure how hyperfocus came to be such a popular idea on internet
ADD forums and self-diagnosis websites. If someone can point me toward the
etymology of the idea, I'd really like to see it.

~~~
ryhanson
Very true! My psychiatrist even said that hyperfocus has nothing to do with
how people are diagnosed. He did mention that hyperfocus is a common trait
among people who do have ADHD, but not exclusive to them. Meaning there are
plenty of non-ADHD human's out there that have the same ability(or issue) to
hyperfocus.

------
throwawadd
I have also been diagnosed with ADD and have serious problems focussing on
studying - up to the point where I might drop out. I can pass many courses on
an a+ level, but most courses that require a lot of studying are extremely
hard to pass. I have already done some internships as a programmer - all of
them very successful. I love computer programming and am certainly not bad at
it.

But I have to wonder, what are my chances of getting a decent programming job
in Europe without a degree? Getting internships has been very easy, but I
can't imagine getting a job as a programmer can be as easy without a degree.

Are there people who know more about this, or people who I can talk to about
this? Thanks

~~~
Wingman4l7
I can't speak for Europe, but it seems like there are plenty of well-regarded
dev houses in Seattle who are more interested in what you've done on Github or
published in a mobile app store than what college degree you've got. There are
also several multi-month programming bootcamps that claim a 90%+ placement
rate in $70-100k+ USD jobs in development or data science.

~~~
unimpressive
>but it seems like there are plenty of well-regarded dev houses in Seattle

Can you give any pointers to these or examples?

------
dwarman
Coincidetally, this article showed up in my feed. Apart from the advice to
carry a notebook to record what got one into the Hyperfcus Zone (I tried, I
did, but I cannot remember to remember to make the note), it is a professional
take much like our anecdotal ones here.

[http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/10117.html](http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/10117.html)

------
studentrob
Exercise, eat healthily, set goals and give yourself something creative and
challenging to work on. Try this before taking medication.

------
rtpg
As someone dealing with ADD but (for legal reasons) can no longer get any
Adderall (which is what I had as a kid to help out), does anyone have
recommendations on alternative solutions that they've found to help?

~~~
reitanqild
"Gamification". And get me right here: not dumbifying.

I used to depend on the pomodoro technique and a other hacks like "autofocus"
etc.

Basically techniques that allow you to set targets that you can easily and
provably reach even if that target is just work-on-this-and-nothing-else-for-
x-minutes-and-make-a-check.

Edit: and deadlines. Maybe another reason why the pomodoro technique works so
well.

------
throwaway90135
ADHD can be quite debilitating at the extremes. Understanding what it is and
how to cope with it is extremely helpful for those who are afflicted.

That said, it's important to point out that the author of this post is
defining ADD differently than the medical definition of ADD. The idea of
hyperfocus is very popular among the self-diagnosed and on internet forums
dedicated to ADD, but the term "hyperfocus" doesn't actually appear in any of
the medical literature I can find, with the exception of a few books that seem
to suggest that "hyperfocus" is more likely related to the idea of
perseveration, which is a deficit in set shifting ability. However,
perseveration isn't as selective as the concept of "hyperfocus," which seems
selective for enjoyable tasks.

The idea of hyperfocus as a component of ADD is part of a bigger problem: The
modern pop-psychology definition of ADD has been watered down and expanded so
much that it is beginning to feel more like a horoscope than a medical
diagnosis. Even official medical diagnostic criteria can't seem to agree on
how strict the definition of ADHD is. For example, ICD-10 ADHD diagnostic
criteria will yield a rate of roughly 1-2% ADHD in the general population of
children. Using the DSM-IV criteria, that number rises to roughly 6-7% of
children.

However, if you have the average person read an internet definition of ADHD or
follow one of the first results for "ADHD test" in Google, you'd be hard
pressed to find an average college student or tech worker who _wouldn 't_
identify as at least mildly ADHD per the pop-psychology definitions. Take a
look at one of first results in Google for "adhd test":
[http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/addquiz.htm](http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/addquiz.htm)

Questions such as "How often are you easily distracted by external stimuli,
like something in your environment" are so vague as to be applicable to
everyone who has ever been distracted by a notification on their phone. I
don't think I've known anyone who wouldn't agree with questions like "How
often do you have difficulty sustaining your attention while doing something
for work, school, a hobby, or fun activity" when we're expected to sit through
8+ hour desk jobs doing things that frequently aren't tasks we would have
chosen to willingly pursue.

The growing misconception seems to be that for a non-ADHD person, it should be
_easy_ or somehow _enjoyable_ to focus on the things that we don't necessarily
enjoy doing. That's obviously not the case, but these casual redefinitions of
ADHD as a disorder that is accompanied by an increased ability to focus on
enjoyable tasks are really stretching the definition of what it means to have
AD[H]D.

------
triangleman
> The next day I had an anxiety attack because I had squandered a whole day

The root of the problem. ADD is an anxiety disorder.

