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I used to use techniques like this to maintain my focus. Let me toss something out though that might be a bit controversial. Perhaps having to do this is a si

by NyxWulf 16y ago

I used to use techniques like this to maintain my focus. Let me toss something out though that might be a bit controversial. Perhaps having to do this is a sign of ADHD. For me it was. There are many signs and symptoms, and unfortunately many people have heard that people are over medicated on things like Ritalin and Adderral. However, the thing to consider is that people with strong ADHD actually have a different brain structure. It turns out that the focus benefits of being on the medication only works for people who genuinely do have ADHD, and does not work for "regular" people (if there even is such a thing). Let me just say, that Adderral changed my life. I used to have what I termed "Reddit seeking behavior". I could work on tasks that were interesting, but if it got a little rough or boring - what's happening on Reddit, or HN or Digg? However when I got on Adderral that entirely changed. I still check HN, but much less frequently because I'm busy getting things done. I don't have to resort to extreme changes in my environment to resist distractions. It comes naturally now. I don't discount or disagree that focus can be improved. I know it first hand, but I would also argue that people with ADHD have some additional things going on that are much harder to train. If you are one of those people, getting on the appropriate medication could well change your life. I know it did mine. That's a big statement, and often over used, but for me, it changed the way I experience every day life in substantial and dramatic ways. Take it for what it's worth, YMMV.

learner4life 16y ago
How are you coping with the side-effects? When I tried Adderall for the first time, it was like some one had switched on the stadium lights. However, it killed my sleep and I was a wreck within a week. I had to discontinue it as lack of sleep was causing social issues with my wife and co-workers.
- zaidf 16y ago
  I've heard your kind of experiences from friends too. And that is what kept me from taking it. Yet, I experienced no high of any sort. I still indulge in timewasting activities while on adderall(I'm on it now:)--but it's significantly less.
- NyxWulf 16y ago
  I don't have those side effects, so Adderall my just not be a good fit for you. Have you tried something else? What did your doctor say?
derefr 16y ago
Did you find that it impacted your creativity/lateral thinking? I sometimes consider focus-enhancing drugs, given that I feel that I'm not nearly focused enough in my programming or my daily tasks—but I'm also a writer of sci-fi/fantasy stories, and I wonder if taking such drugs would prevent my mind from drifting to the kinds of places it needs to go to give me new material. Thoughts?
- zaidf 16y ago
  Hasn't impacted my creative thinking one bit. I'm not sure if that is a sign that it isn't working on me(though there are plenty of signs that it is working).
- kaens 16y ago
  I have a similar story to NyxWulf. As a musician, I find that Adderall does not reduce my creativity per se, but it does change it a bit. That said, it is not a permanent change. If I take a break from Adderall, the way I think about music is back to how it is "normally". As an aside, I've found that smoking pot while on Adderall brings me to a rather mentally focused and creative state, which is nice, but not something I'd do every day. I think Adderall would be more useful for you while taking existent characters and places in your worlds, and extrapolating around them, for lack of better phrasing. Coming up with new characters and places? Not so much. Really fleshing out existent ideas for characters and such? Oh yes. YMMV, of course.
- NyxWulf 16y ago
  When I started taking it, there was a pronounced impact on things like my personality and creativity. I think that was mostly from the drug effect. I was super focused and pretty euphoric for about a week. There was some residual euphoria for a month or two, but always decreasing. Unfortunately the euphoria is why Adderrall is so strongly controlled, people have to keep taking more and more of it to chase that feeling. If however you use it as prescribed, the euphoria leaves and the focus remains. I honestly feel more creative now, but as mentioned by others, it's a bit different. Before, I felt like I had a thousand ideas battling for my attention all the time. I didn't really notice it though because - well it was like that since birth. When I went on Adderrall, it was as if someone took all the buzzing in my brain and turned the volume way way down. The ideas and thoughts are still there, but they don't dominate my thinking process unless I choose to focus on them.
callmeed 16y ago
I'm curious ... I also have what you call "Reddit seeking behavior" Could I go to a general practitioner or local clinic and get a prescription to try Adderral?
- zaidf 16y ago
  I believe adderall is very carefully regulated. Our uni clinic refuses to prescribe it. It refers you to a $250/hr shrink who wrote me a prescription 20mins into our session and billed me for the hour. Well worth it though :)
- NyxWulf 16y ago
  My regular doctor prescribed it - he's a general practitioner. It is quite expensive if you don't have insurance. It's definitely something you'd want to talk to your doctor about, and they will monitor you closely when you go on it. If it turns out that it doesn't work for you, it can have some negative side effects on your personality. People get really angry and irritable, so if that happens you'll want to get off of it. Definitely talk to a doctor about it if you think it is impacting your ability to work or study effectively.
zaidf 16y ago
I only started adderall few weeks ago. For the past five years, I kept myself from going this route after hearing so many horror stories re: adderall etc. But finally, I realized few weeks ago that a pill can't make my life too much worse than it was. So I made the move. It's been few weeks and my life has completely changed. I haven't quite experienced a "high" nor a crash except the first day. I just feel normal--and not like a bot that adderall is supposed to turn you into. I am not sure what to make of it. And it could completely be placebo. I really wish I took this step few years ago! Simple things like making my bed, having breakfast seemed like a super pain in the ass. Not anymore. I really hope it stays this way longterm and isn't placebo.
- NyxWulf 16y ago
  My experience was pretty similar. Except as mentioned in one of my other responses I had a pretty strong personality change for the first week - probably similar to the robot idea. It went away pretty quickly though. I honestly think I was just so shocked I could think in quiet that I spent more time doing that than I used to, so people thought I turned more robotic. I was genuinely fascinated at how much my internal environment changed, and I did spend a lot of time thinking about it. For me it was so profound and so beneficial that I didn't really care if I turned into a robot, I was staying as long as I could. It turned out to be a non-issue for me though.
eavc 16y ago
I am literally in the waiting room for my appointment to get a prescription. I was diagnosed just last week. I'm very excited that I may be on the verge of a new chapter.
- NyxWulf 16y ago
  I wish you the best of luck. I really hope it works well for you, it has been such a positive experience for me that I really have a hard time explaining it without sounding like a "fanboi".
  - eavc 16y ago
    Thanks. At the moment, I feel a sense of kinship with others who have made this discovery relatively late in life (as opposed to in childhood). In that light, I'll share that my first 6 hours on medication (ie. as of this writing) have been an absolute revelation. I did a few chores around the house, the kind of thing that would usually take three times as long as it should, throw me into a bad mood, be interrupted by three or four stops at the computer to see whether anyone's responded to me on HN, and then end up being done with less than great attention to quality. Instead of that, I felt like I was in flow--for the first time in a LONG time. That usual static in my brain and in my attitude was almost entirely turned off, and instead, I was able to focus my attention and energy on efficiently and effectively solving the problems and accomplishing the tasks that were part of the job. One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises was that I generally didn't misplace any of my tools while I was working. Usually, I spend several irritating chucks of thirty seconds or more trying to track down the pliers or the sand block. That didn't happen at all this time. Also, and I'm sure this sounds pathetic to those who can't relate, I would often be faced with the most trivial of decisions, the most minor of challenges, and that would throw me off entirely, compounding all of those negatives I described above. This time, when a challenge was before me or a choice had to be made, it seemed like the most natural and normal thing in the world for me to quickly assess the situation, the options, and immediately settle on a likely solution and put it to the test without delay. All without duress and without effort. I see what you mean about becoming a bit of an evangelist for this. If these benefits from medication last even once my system has done whatever adaptation it's going to do, I will be looking at a whole new life.
Revisor 16y ago
Concentration depends on context, surroundings, motivation. It can be trained and improved. To use a drug as a quick remedy is dangerous and frankly rather sad. Please rethink what you're doing. To put my tin-foil hat on: I consider ADHD an artifical diagnosis pushed by the pharma companies.

by NyxWulf 16y ago

learner4life 16y ago

How are you coping with the side-effects? When I tried Adderall for the first time, it was like some one had switched on the stadium lights. However, it killed my sleep and I was a wreck within a week. I had to discontinue it as lack of sleep was causing social issues with my wife and co-workers.

zaidf 16y ago
I've heard your kind of experiences from friends too. And that is what kept me from taking it. Yet, I experienced no high of any sort. I still indulge in timewasting activities while on adderall(I'm on it now:)--but it's significantly less.
NyxWulf 16y ago
I don't have those side effects, so Adderall my just not be a good fit for you. Have you tried something else? What did your doctor say?

derefr 16y ago

Did you find that it impacted your creativity/lateral thinking? I sometimes consider focus-enhancing drugs, given that I feel that I'm not nearly focused enough in my programming or my daily tasks—but I'm also a writer of sci-fi/fantasy stories, and I wonder if taking such drugs would prevent my mind from drifting to the kinds of places it needs to go to give me new material. Thoughts?

zaidf 16y ago
Hasn't impacted my creative thinking one bit. I'm not sure if that is a sign that it isn't working on me(though there are plenty of signs that it is working).
kaens 16y ago
I have a similar story to NyxWulf. As a musician, I find that Adderall does not reduce my creativity per se, but it does change it a bit. That said, it is not a permanent change. If I take a break from Adderall, the way I think about music is back to how it is "normally". As an aside, I've found that smoking pot while on Adderall brings me to a rather mentally focused and creative state, which is nice, but not something I'd do every day. I think Adderall would be more useful for you while taking existent characters and places in your worlds, and extrapolating around them, for lack of better phrasing. Coming up with new characters and places? Not so much. Really fleshing out existent ideas for characters and such? Oh yes. YMMV, of course.
NyxWulf 16y ago
When I started taking it, there was a pronounced impact on things like my personality and creativity. I think that was mostly from the drug effect. I was super focused and pretty euphoric for about a week. There was some residual euphoria for a month or two, but always decreasing. Unfortunately the euphoria is why Adderrall is so strongly controlled, people have to keep taking more and more of it to chase that feeling. If however you use it as prescribed, the euphoria leaves and the focus remains. I honestly feel more creative now, but as mentioned by others, it's a bit different. Before, I felt like I had a thousand ideas battling for my attention all the time. I didn't really notice it though because - well it was like that since birth. When I went on Adderrall, it was as if someone took all the buzzing in my brain and turned the volume way way down. The ideas and thoughts are still there, but they don't dominate my thinking process unless I choose to focus on them.

callmeed 16y ago

I'm curious ... I also have what you call "Reddit seeking behavior" Could I go to a general practitioner or local clinic and get a prescription to try Adderral?

zaidf 16y ago
I believe adderall is very carefully regulated. Our uni clinic refuses to prescribe it. It refers you to a $250/hr shrink who wrote me a prescription 20mins into our session and billed me for the hour. Well worth it though :)
NyxWulf 16y ago
My regular doctor prescribed it - he's a general practitioner. It is quite expensive if you don't have insurance. It's definitely something you'd want to talk to your doctor about, and they will monitor you closely when you go on it. If it turns out that it doesn't work for you, it can have some negative side effects on your personality. People get really angry and irritable, so if that happens you'll want to get off of it. Definitely talk to a doctor about it if you think it is impacting your ability to work or study effectively.

zaidf 16y ago

I only started adderall few weeks ago. For the past five years, I kept myself from going this route after hearing so many horror stories re: adderall etc. But finally, I realized few weeks ago that a pill can't make my life too much worse than it was. So I made the move. It's been few weeks and my life has completely changed. I haven't quite experienced a "high" nor a crash except the first day. I just feel normal--and not like a bot that adderall is supposed to turn you into. I am not sure what to make of it. And it could completely be placebo. I really wish I took this step few years ago! Simple things like making my bed, having breakfast seemed like a super pain in the ass. Not anymore. I really hope it stays this way longterm and isn't placebo.

NyxWulf 16y ago
My experience was pretty similar. Except as mentioned in one of my other responses I had a pretty strong personality change for the first week - probably similar to the robot idea. It went away pretty quickly though. I honestly think I was just so shocked I could think in quiet that I spent more time doing that than I used to, so people thought I turned more robotic. I was genuinely fascinated at how much my internal environment changed, and I did spend a lot of time thinking about it. For me it was so profound and so beneficial that I didn't really care if I turned into a robot, I was staying as long as I could. It turned out to be a non-issue for me though.

eavc 16y ago

I am literally in the waiting room for my appointment to get a prescription. I was diagnosed just last week. I'm very excited that I may be on the verge of a new chapter.

NyxWulf 16y ago
I wish you the best of luck. I really hope it works well for you, it has been such a positive experience for me that I really have a hard time explaining it without sounding like a "fanboi".
- eavc 16y ago
  Thanks. At the moment, I feel a sense of kinship with others who have made this discovery relatively late in life (as opposed to in childhood). In that light, I'll share that my first 6 hours on medication (ie. as of this writing) have been an absolute revelation. I did a few chores around the house, the kind of thing that would usually take three times as long as it should, throw me into a bad mood, be interrupted by three or four stops at the computer to see whether anyone's responded to me on HN, and then end up being done with less than great attention to quality. Instead of that, I felt like I was in flow--for the first time in a LONG time. That usual static in my brain and in my attitude was almost entirely turned off, and instead, I was able to focus my attention and energy on efficiently and effectively solving the problems and accomplishing the tasks that were part of the job. One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises was that I generally didn't misplace any of my tools while I was working. Usually, I spend several irritating chucks of thirty seconds or more trying to track down the pliers or the sand block. That didn't happen at all this time. Also, and I'm sure this sounds pathetic to those who can't relate, I would often be faced with the most trivial of decisions, the most minor of challenges, and that would throw me off entirely, compounding all of those negatives I described above. This time, when a challenge was before me or a choice had to be made, it seemed like the most natural and normal thing in the world for me to quickly assess the situation, the options, and immediately settle on a likely solution and put it to the test without delay. All without duress and without effort. I see what you mean about becoming a bit of an evangelist for this. If these benefits from medication last even once my system has done whatever adaptation it's going to do, I will be looking at a whole new life.

Revisor 16y ago

Concentration depends on context, surroundings, motivation. It can be trained and improved. To use a drug as a quick remedy is dangerous and frankly rather sad. Please rethink what you're doing. To put my tin-foil hat on: I consider ADHD an artifical diagnosis pushed by the pharma companies.