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Read up a bit on ADHD. That 'hyperfocus' that occurs either with deadlines or on a passion project is a symptom, as is the inability to get excited about projec

• sackerhews 5y ago
  Second all of that. Driven to Distraction or Delivered From Distraction. But not both, they're effectively the same book.
  • borski 5y ago
    Yeah, I could see that. Once I had an explanation, I wanted to read all of the things about it (heh, ironic) I did find value in reading both, but mostly because it gave me a sense of history, and how much our understanding of what ADHD is had progressed from the past, and how my (incorrect) assumptions about what it was came to be. YMMV :)
• hanniabu 5y ago
  Besides reading this books, what else do you do that helps? Are you taking medication as well?
• uh_uh 5y ago
  Isn't it just rational not to get excited about boring stuff that is rewarded by a fix monetary ceiling? Economically it completely makes sense: why put more energy into something that yields the same result either way? Or maybe I have ADHD too.
  • masukomi 5y ago
    it's not about not getting excited. It's the result of being "not excited". Neurotypicals can work on things that are uninteresting to them. ADHD people can sit there yelling at themselves to "do the thing" that they _know_ they need to do and still be completely incapable of starting regardless of how "easy" it is to actually do it once something forces them to actually start. this video does a good job of explaining the motivation problem when you have ADHD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0Xv0eVGtY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0Xv0eVGtY
    • uh_uh 5y ago
      > ADHD people can sit there yelling at themselves to "do the thing" that they _know_ they need to do and still be completely incapable of starting regardless of how "easy" it is to actually do it once something forces them to actually start. I also do this. Even worse: the easier and hence duller the task seems, the more difficult it is to get started on it. Once I do start on it and finish 5 minutes later, I need a 20 minute break (WFH doesn't help). I also often zone out during meetings to the point I haven't got a clue what people are talking about. But to be honest the information content of most meetings is really low.
      • EricBurnett 5y ago
        That's actually a strategy recommended to ADHD folk: do 20m of engaging "fun" to prepare yourself for 5m of forced boring activity. Think of it as recharging a reservoir of $tolerance before draining it to power some boring activity.
      • throwaway6734 5y ago
        >I also often zone out during meetings to the point I haven't got a clue what people are talking about I've found that having a pen and some notepaper for doodling and writing whatever a speaker is saying is helpful to stay engaged
• throwaway389983 5y ago
  Same story. Founder, early 30s, a couple kids, just got diagnosed last year. Life-changing. Loved the Suster blog posts you linked. The book I liked was "A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults".
  • unicornfinder 5y ago
    As someone who highly suspects they may have ADHD, how was the diagnosis life changing? Was it through medication, or simply through understanding yourself better?
    • kdkdkskdn 5y ago
      Yeah seriously, what's the secret? I'm 32 and I was diagnosed when I was 20 but the drugs make me anorexic and mute my personality and knowing I have ADHD has not proven particularly useful, especially given that I already knew my tendencies and behaviors and had long since developing coping strategies The only way my life changed when I was diagnosed was that I got paid for the study I had signed up for, which required I have a diagnosis
      • borski 5y ago
        Therapy/coaching, and don't give up on trying to adjust the medication. Finding the right dosage, and specific med that works for you, is tricky (I haven't found it yet, but am closer), but can be life-changing. There are a ton of new types of medications for ADHD now; far more than there used to be, when we basically knew stimulants helped but didn't know why. Still, for about 20% of people, medication simply doesn't help. For them, coaching and therapy (and education about ADHD) is far more useful. Check out https://chadd.org/ https://chadd.org/ for lots of fantastic resources
        • throwaway389983 5y ago
          I also recommend Scott Alexander's blog post on ADHD medication: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/know-your-amphetamines https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/know-your-amphetamines If you're not familiar with the author, he's an incredibly talented blogger whose day job is as a psychiatrist.
• d4mi3n 5y ago
  Reading the OP's account on it's own, I figured it may have been due to burnout or similar. Reading this (excellent) comment, I'm reconsidering my own experiences. I suspect this may be the WebMD effect in action (I clearly have cancer!), but it's definitely making me reconsider a lot of my own personal experiences.
• aloer 5y ago
  What is it that changed your life? Medication? Better understanding of yourself?
  • hda111 5y ago
    Medication could also change the life for worse because one risks getting psychosis.
    • borski 5y ago
      This is simply false. Please read up on it before making claims that are unfounded. Medication saves lives.
      • hda111 5y ago
        No, this is not false. Reddit is all over posts about this. Any medication has risks how can you deny this? If you take it you accept this (admittedly) small risk.
        • borski 5y ago
          Sorry, I responded to an exaggeration with one of my own. Mea culpa. Of course every medication has risks. You should evaluate them for yourself, with a physician. However, generalizing that to “medication is dangerous and can cause psychosis, or death, and thus you shouldn’t take it because it can have side effects, even if it could otherwise help you” is garbage advice. Also, the dosages at which stimulants and such are used for ADHD as a therapy (as opposed to abused) are generally quite small, fwiw.
    • Aeolun 5y ago
      True, but this is also the case if you have heart surgery to save your life. There’s tradeoffs to everything.
  • borski 5y ago
    I expanded on this elsewhere in the thread :)
• williamtwild 5y ago
  "as is the inability to get excited about projects you simply don't want to do - " Why is this ADHD and not just being human? This sounds so basic I have a hard time believing this is because of a condition.
  • kdkdkskdn 5y ago
    I have an ADHD diagnosis (honestly I think my case is rather severe, even) and I agree. Procrastinating is something everyone does. Being completely unable to sit still for more than a few minutes is an experience neurotypicals don't share. ADHD is really one of those disorders that's both under and over diagnosed
  • forz877 5y ago
    To someone without ADHD it doesn't make sense at times. If you have certain types of ADHD and you aren't excited about something, you just have a huge resistance to doing it and you likely won't do it. Many don't even do the work with a deadline. On the flip side, when you're intensely interested, you often times are completely absorbed into it, at the expense of other human needs.
    • ksaj 5y ago
      > On the flip side... Also, when that hyperfocus runs out, that absorption is lost, possibly forever. Onto the next fleeting thing.
  • borski 5y ago
    It's not about not getting excited; it's about literally being unable to. Someone with ADHD can sit there and really mean to get excited, and yell at themselves to, and they simply can't do it; their brain won't let them. Someone neurotypical can usually convince themselves to at least do it, and "will" themselves into it. But you're somewhat right, and this is why getting a real diagnosis from a professional is so important: lots of people have some of these symptoms. What distinguishes the ADHD brain from the neurotypical brain is the duration and frequency of these symptoms, and an inability to adjust for them even with disciplined effort. And it's not about medication, necessarily, though for 80% of people with ADHD, medication is extremely helpful; often, just learning about the syndrome and finding a therapist/coach to help build tools and stop blaming yourself for the things you cannot change is extremely helpful on its own too.
• nebula8804 5y ago
  What did you do to solve it? I recently saw this Reddit post [1] and immediately booked an appointment with my doctor. He gave me the run around and asked me to book a 15 min call with another doctor to get an anxiety assessment. As soon as the call began they asked if I felt like I had ADHD. I said maybe and they stopped and said that they only diagnose anxiety. Now I am 200$ poorer(thanks American healthcare) and am nowhere closer. I am going back to my doctor and demand he take it seriously and prescribe something for me to at least try(something like an extremly low dosage of Adderal or something else). Years ago I had a different doctor and she gave me a prescription for Lexapro. My god what an experience that was. I suddenly lost all random thoughts and boredom. Its like I became a robot, got my work done on time, without any distraction and a kind of concentration I had never had before. I wasn't sad or happy for that matter, I just felt neutral all the time. It was such an interesting feeling. However Lexapro had severe side effects. Outside of a few hours of relative alertness, I was extremely exhausted and sleepy. I tried sleeping for 24 hours and was still extremely exhausted. It also made me feel extremely nauseous, like I felt like I was being poisoned. Finally there were other side effects of an ahem...sexual nature. All in all I threw the pills away after a week and never perused the issue again until I saw the video above. Man I'll never forget that week though. The productivity was life changing. [1]:https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/newcvd/what_adhd_feels_like_an_animation/ https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/newcvd/what_adhd_fe...
  • borski 5y ago
    You'll never "solve" it; you learn to manage it. I've had fantastic experiences with donefirst.com, but also chadd.org is a great website with tons of resources. Don't give up on the medication; finding the right one and right dosage is extremely helpful for many people with ADHD, myself included. The most important part is: find an expert. Child psychologists/psychiatrists often have a ton of experience with ADHD, and also often treat adults. Someone without experience treating ADHD is almost worse than leaving it untreated, because some of the 'solutions' proposed by folks who don't understand the syndrome serve to only make life worse for ADHD people (negative reinforcement, talk therapy, etc.). Talk therapy, or CBT, for example, can be helpful, but coaching is much more useful.
• meej 5y ago
  I'm really glad to see that this is the top comment. This was my first reaction too, sounds a lot like ADHD.
• failwhaleshark 5y ago
  Currently, I cannot read even one page of a book much less an entire book. I also get bored of people and interests easily. Which type? I have ADHD-PI diag at 38, but it maybe a direct consequence of low testosterone. It's interesting that the major parts of my body are very masculine while others aren't as much as they were. And, it's not Klinefelter's or a karyotype issue. Attractive members of my preferred gender for adult activities are frequently "shouting" overt interest nonverbally that doesn't register to me as anything other than a potential threat. My instincts should be of curiosity, delight, and novelty. Starting on clomid tomorrow because the memory, concentration, alertness, and fluid/crystalized intelligences became disabled to the point where I cannot work. I may also have to take hCG too. An endocrinologist has to research the primary cause because it could be an HPG tumor or something else, because the low T issue is absurd.
  • eyelidlessness 5y ago
    Not to get into the other details but I’m finally getting over my fear of admitting I don’t read. Here’s what I’ve realized: I’m always reading all of the time [zizek.gif]. I’m reading code, documentation, release notes, emails and texts… from the moment I wake til I sleep. Put an interesting book in front of me and, well, I’m interested but getting my brain into a place where it can take in new reading sources is like getting my body in a place to take up running right after walking my dog. Not gonna happen. And I’m not ashamed of it.
  • andyana 5y ago
    This is extremely interesting. I have many of your symptoms, including low test, and I was diagnosed with a a microadenoma on my pituitary gland 2 weeks ago.
• throwzaway20102 5y ago
  What kinda bs is this? Life, and you doesn’t revolve around the work you do for your capitalist overlords ya dunce.
• gigatexal 5y ago
  Shit this explains me at work the last couple of months. I might have ADHD. Time to go see a doctor. Thank you!
• brailsafe 5y ago
  ADHD is interesting, but it's not really a superpower. It's a superpower in retrospect if you've already found a way to be successful with it, but it's not really something I've found that can be deliberately applied to succeed at things that other people have an easier time with. For me it also helps in areas that I've seen other people struggle in, but I think the key is in how intentionally you can apply yourself. So if you're already a Nat Geo Photographer or professional basejumper, you might look back after a diagnosis and think "that makes sense", but I don't think it would help me get there. What seems at least somewhat true, is that if you're a person who can be employed arbitrarily and can connect your income directly to things that bring you value, you'll have an easier time in a capitalistic society than someone who needs to derive their motivation from the things they do all the time; with the exception of someone who is exceptionally talented and just falls into success as a consequence of the output of what they've been fixating on. I'm a software developer I guess, which gives me a hypothetically high earning potential. But over the last 10 years, someone working a menial job for 30-40k would come out on top financially. I've had a hell of a lot more free-time than that person, which is very personally valuable, but it doesn't scale maybe even over more than one decade with such a tattered work history.
  • brailsafe 5y ago
    After reading one of the parents' links, I wouldn't revise anything I said. Advice that amounts to "delegate the task to someone you hired at your startup" is pretty much only useful for exactly ppl who can do that. I'd rather hear about devastating and comical failures that a person realistically worked their way out of. As in someone losing their job that they needed to pay for their house because they lost interest in the subject matter, then couldn't get another job that paid the same because their burnout broke their ability to grind algorithms problems and it blew up their family and sent them into a depression spiral, and they couldn't pay for therapy obviously so they ended up on the street with less than zero to their name. After that, if they still have a successful startup, then great, maybe there's something constructive to work with. It ain't a fucking super power unless you're pretty lucky imo. I don't mean to dismiss the GPs comment about their own ADD. No doubt, it's going to be life changing, hopefully for the better. I'm just sick of startup founders saying that actually all I need is to cut carbs and be a CEO.
• walterlb 5y ago
  This was very helpful. Thank you
• Graffur 5y ago
  This describes me pretty well. What is the test for ADHD and is it just a doctor's opinion if you have it or not? Also is there any tangible benefits? I don't understand how just knowing provides enough benefit to bother going to a doctor.