I am not convinced. First let’s be clear that there is minor ADHD which is a world of focus issues and minor distractions, and then there is catastrophic ADHD which is like living through the movie Momento in a world where memories don’t stick.
I live in a household with catastrophic ADHD. I really have no idea what minor ADHD is like, but the last thing catastrophic ADHD needs is a gaming experience. A gaming experience is not going to cure the brain damage that causes people to require a minimum of 11 hours of sleep per day or misplace everything they own, including clothes, shoes, and wrist watches.
When people ask me what my personal experience of adhd is, I describe it as being the worlds best street magician--except I'm also the mark--and I suck at making things reappear.
I don’t wish to be rude but why do you think the author needs to convince you of something regarding what sounds like a very different and difficult circumstance for you?
Seems like they're just offering their perspective. I'm sure the author wanted other perspectives, seeing as they wrote a blog post about it, and then posted it here themselves.
It struck me as quite the non-sequitur really. Didn’t address any of the content around the Vision Pro, defined ADHD as something different to the article and then used it as an opportunity to dump about their personal struggles.
We have, but we didn’t try enough types of medication to find an ideal fit. I suspect the right medication would be helpful. The more extreme the ADHD the higher the concentration of medication is required to achieve normal functioning which means high side effects.
To understand the complexity of brain medication requires an understanding of the problem. For ADHD the problem is both dopamine and low serotonin. Dopamine is complicated and moderating for it has second and third order consequences the ill cannot see. Solving for serotonin is simple and the results are crystal clear. So it seems many of the medications attempt to adjust for both with various degrees of success. When a person with ADHD attempts to self medicate with drugs, stimulants, or bad food choices they are solving for serotonin up take and it doesn’t work.
Another problem with medications in high concentrations is body tolerance which eventually eliminates the value of the medication and medication can run out.
Currently we are working through behavior modification of risk/reward. If you lose something you don’t have it anymore so perform a deep dive on that emotional consequence to think of solutions and planning to address that moving forward. This is working but it’s supremely and requires overcoming lots of adversity.
> For ADHD the problem is both dopamine and low serotonin.
No mental disorder is caused by low anything. ADHD (some types) are more like you have extra leaky neurons and the dopamine falls out of them. On the other hand, serotonin drugs working for depression seems like it might be a coincidence.
I won’t tell you not to use medication. Most of the world drinks caffeine everyday.
Maybe it truly is necessary for some people. But I would really caution its usage. It’s the same as putting a hammer and slamming it against the person’s brain. It’s also temporary and goes away the moment the drug disappears.
Meditation has the benefit of bringing permanent positive changes. But more importantly it acts in a way that recognizes the incredible complexity that our brains consist of.
Not the OP, but I also have catastrophic ADHD as they so eloquently put it.
I've tried several techniques, that have had some minor initial success, but I just get bored and stop doing it. Which is also why I never became a better than beginner guitar player, properly filled out my opening repertoire in chess, finished almost any project I started, or did regular exercise. I just can't get myself to do boring repetitive tasks.
"catastrophic ADHD" is probably one of the best ways I've seen it described. At times I get hit with just how many things it's ruined over the years and it just makes me feel completely hopeless, like I don't even have any control over my life at all. I don't know if I ever will. It sucks feeling like I could be intelligent and have great potential but my ability to turn that potential into real action is so impaired that I'm almost completely useless and never achieve any of my actual goals.
I've tried to meditate before, but... it doesn't really work. If I try to think less, then thoughts will just hide themselves from me. repeatedly, some new fully-developed thought will just suddenly reveal itself to me, having already been developing for the past 10+ seconds without my knowledge. And this will just keep happening. Stuff just keeps happening in the background and I have no control of it. It's like other parts of my brain are thinking completely for themselves and all I can do is watch and beg for control, and never get it.
I'm autistic, and that type of experience is commonly recognized as an autistic pattern of thought.
I don't want to live like this, the catastrophic ADHD, but it doesn't seem like there's any way to fix it. I feel like my brain is completely defective.
> If I try to think less, then thoughts will just hide themselves from me. repeatedly, some new fully-developed thought will just suddenly reveal itself to me, having already been developing for the past 10+ seconds without my knowledge.
That sounds like successful meditation, because noticing this is the first thing you're supposed to learn using it.
Just practice it going away again once it shows up.
It almost sounds like it, but I can't control those thoughts. They happen on their own. I've been told one of the ways to successful meditation is learning to be a passive observer of these thoughts, to let them happen but not engage in them, but I definitely don't know how that works.
Interesting. I definitely have an internal universe, but I've been trying for almost a decade to access it. Meditation does not work unless I'm on certain drugs, all of which that are legal having stopped working for that purpose. The only way I have found is to find another real person and actually describe it to them as I explore. If there is nobody else there, it is as if my internal universe does not even exist. Even my DID system seems to stop existing. I just become a completely empty shell unless there is somebody else around to observe me. In other words, it does not seem like it exists for me, but only to be observed by others.
I want to fix this, but I do not think that is possible...
Also, the technique recommended in the video doesn't sound like something I can do since I don't feel like having to explain the weird noises to the other people in my house.
I live in a household with catastrophic ADHD. I really have no idea what minor ADHD is like, but the last thing catastrophic ADHD needs is a gaming experience. A gaming experience is not going to cure the brain damage that causes people to require a minimum of 11 hours of sleep per day or misplace everything they own, including clothes, shoes, and wrist watches.