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I don't know if I have ADHD, but if I do an online survey it says I most probably definitely do. I was never diagnosed as a child because I largely functioned a
by etempleton 4y ago
I don't know if I have ADHD, but if I do an online survey it says I most probably definitely do. I was never diagnosed as a child because I largely functioned as a kid and was quiet and non-disruptive, but looking back the signs were all there.
Fast forward as an adult I have a number of coping mechanisms and one of them is to have something on in the background. I have never associated the effectiveness with the noise itself, but rather with something that is keeping part of my brain quiet. It prevents my mind from wandering. It is ideally something I already know. Like a show I have seen before or a podcast that I am okay not fully retaining. Not enough stimulation and I get distracted easily, too much stimulation and I shut down completely. Music doesn't usually work for me.
- dlivingston 4y agoI've been diagnosed with ADHD and I have the exact same coping mechanism. Another I have is to use Pomodoro timers and todo lists religiously. What other coping mechanisms do you have?
- etempleton 4y agoSimilar. I put every appointment or meeting in my calendar immediately, take as many notes as I can, and keep to do lists by due date. For me a lot of it is just offloading things to my phone / computer because I know I will forget. If something isn't in my calendar it might as well not be happening. Doesn't matter what it is.
- euroderf 4y ago> If something isn't in my calendar it might as well not be happening. Doesn't matter what it is. Out of sight, out of mind. Similarly, drawers and cabinets remove things from existence. Only a wall of open shelving will do. Is this ADHD, or something else ?
- marcusverus 4y agoHave you tried ambient music? If not, check out Brian Eno’s “Music for airports”.
- niel 4y agoI can also recommend William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops. https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/the-disintegration-loops https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/the-disintegratio... The combination of noise, repetition, and minimal melody really helps me focus.
- hatsunearu 4y agolofi hip hop seems to work pretty well, but there usually are three stages: - I don't get into the groove despite the music - Something clicks and I get into the groove - I'm so deeply in the groove that even lofi hip hop bothers me, so I turn it off and go ham Also I find it funny that lofi hip hop has an alternate title of "beats to relax/study to"--I used to listen to it while studying in college, but now I use it for working on personal projects or at work.
- sixstringtheory 4y agoThe Jazz Vibes playlist on Spotify does it for me. Really anything without lyrics. Talking has a way of hijacking the attention centers in my brain.
- actionfromafar 4y agoIf I know the lyrics super well and it's something kind of sad, it works for me.
- hnick 4y agoLofi-girl helps me too, it's completely out of my traditional musical tastes but there's something in it that makes me start working. I also have to turn it off eventually though, I find I need to revert to silence after a while for some reason. And if I notice a beat or tune I've heard before, it can rip me out of concentration.
- 71a54xd 4y agoI was diagnosed at 22, ironically after I graduated from college after struggling to study effectively and fortunately by complete willpower and energy drinks managed to have decent grades. Get a recommendation for a neuropsych and get a diagnosis. People here love to objectify and hate on anyone using stimulants. A 5mg dose of stimulants daily has quite literally changed my life. You don't have to live wondering what you could've been cognitively capable of.
- ericmcer 4y agoAgree, the real wake up for me was when I wasn't just able to focus at work, but felt calm on my drive home, didn't feel anxious while sitting and talking over dinner, etc.. My initial goal was to leverage the racy, focused energy of stimulants to get work done, but I ended up most enjoying feeling calm and present hours after that part has faded.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- triggercut 4y agoThat sounds similar to me. I was diagnosed unexpectedly at 38 and it changed my life. There is a good chance your internalised coping mechanisms are adding undue stress to your nervous system, making you tired and depressed, and ironically exacerbating the conditions for symptoms to become more disruptive (when you're tired, aren't eating properly, hyperfocusing too much and wearing yourself out, working late nights to catch up and not getting enough sleep, rinse, repeat, constant burnout). If it's within your means to do so, I can't stress enough how much better it is knowing, for sure.
- bluSCALE4 4y agoWhat's the benefit in knowing for sure?
- gghh 4y agoAccess to medication, which is reported to work well in conjunction with targeted therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy. For more info see the book "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" by Russel Barkley https://www.amazon.com/dp/1462546854 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1462546854 and the DIVA-5 test that many physicians use as part of the diagnosis process https://www.divacenter.eu https://www.divacenter.eu (costs 10 EUR to download the PDF).
- thelittleone 4y agoAcknowledging the problem (regardless of what one calls it) allows one to seek out solutions. If the problem has a name e.g., ADHD, one might notice a HN post about brown noise for ADHD treatment, open it and find a possible drug-free remedy that's possibly effective for them.
- triggercut 4y agoThere is a lot of overlap in symptoms with other conditions. OCD, Autism, MDD etc. Knowing exactly what the underlying issue is gives you the best way forward in treating effectively.
- 4y ago
- travoltaj 4y agoI was diagnosed at 29. FWIW, this is exactly what it's like for me too - "Not enough stimulation and I get distracted easily, too much stimulation and I shut down completely."
- isolli 4y agoThis is also how I fall asleep. I need to find the right podcast; not too boring but not too exciting either.
- rjtavares 4y agoOh shit... This whole thread is making me nervous, but this comment is straight up scary...
- cruano 4y agoI listen to space videos, stuff like Astrum. Usually fits that niche cause I'm interested but I can live without knowing how many moons does Jupiter have And with stuff like audiobooks you can't doze off because you loose track, but with this you'd just missed 1 of the 10 things he was talking about
- dbetteridge 4y agoMy go-to is Futurama episodes... Didn't realise this was a common coping mechanism till I asked around and both my brothers do it (Adult ADHD diagnosis) and one friend (Also diagnosed).
- elcritch 4y agoI found Audible books are great for me. Put in earbuds and do chores, or program, etc.
- peepee1982 4y agoI'm exactly the same.
- throwaway6734 4y agoYour experience matches mine and I do the same thing with shows and movies.
- lloydatkinson 4y agoInteresting - have you ever music without vocals such as lofi? Here's a couple of live streams I regularly listen to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4sJkuOPUP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4sJkuOPUP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk And here's a channel that as well as sometimes having a livestream regularly uploads ~1 mixes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCKbkDggYQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCKbkDggYQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GWyf-35QHI&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GWyf-35QHI&t=2s
- isolli 4y agoMusic works for me if: a) it's without words, and b) I know inside out. For a long time it was Beethoven's fifth symphony :) Music also works for me by triggering an emotional state that helps me focus.
- OhHiMarkos 4y agoHow do you feel afterwards? Let's say after a hard working session with music on. Because I just like you, use music for concentration and I can pull some long hours, but afterwards I have difficulties calming down. Maybe it's because I am tired, but I have some suspicion that the dopamine hit from music might be the culprit.
- isolli 4y agoGood question. I think my ears usually get physically tired before I get to that point... However, on the downsides, it can turn into an earworm in the evening. Or the rest of the day can feel depressingly bland compared to the emotional elation that got me through the work session.
- enraged_camel 4y agoSynthwave/retrowave works great for me.
- crispyambulance 4y agoI work in an open-plan office and headphones with brown-noise or the right-type of music is absolutely essential. The thing is, you can only do that for so long. At some point you get tired of the headphones. I feel like I might "snap" one of these days and start telling people to STFU. The noise is dominated by a couple of people who, for whatever reason, can't seem to modulate their volume. Perhaps there's a name for that disorder as well? In the meantime, my workplace has "focus rooms" which I use a few times a week. Since there's a box of tissues in there, I refer to them as crying rooms :-).
- jerojero 4y agoI also use Beethoven's 5th symphony when I really want to get something done. I also like the 9th as well as Mozart's requiem.
- nicolas_t 4y agoI've been diagnosed 3 years ago and I used to use the exact same coping mechanism as you do. I'd watch a show I've seen before while working on things. Music also worked for me to a lesser degrees but only if there's no vocals. Getting diagnosed was one of the best thing I could have done. Knowing for sure, being able to use medication (although I limit very strictly how much I use) has been super helpful. I got tested privately, without involving health insurance. I didn't want it to be on any public records.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fredgrott 4y agoThere are 7 distinct types of ADHD according to recent brain scan research. you have what I have which is type two with internal HD not external HD. I did find that Rhodiola, Green Tea extract, Raw Cacao, and low dose of L-DOPA, and Lions mane does make an impact in helping me handle it as now I notice I am starting to get to the point of mind-seeing code which is a first with me in that I have 4+decades of my ADHD being uncontrolled(mind seeing code happens at about the 6 month point after you get the right med doses settled)
- thevagrant 4y agoWhat do you mean by "mind seeing code"?
- dlivingston 4y agoFascinating - do you have some recommended sources where I can find out more about the 7 types of ADHD & dietary recommendations?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago> It is ideally something I already know. Yes. I've listened to some albums 100s of times and they are so familiar they aren't distracting but actually help me focus. If I listen to something interesting and new it's harder to focus. If I listen to primarily speech (Howard Stern, podcast, etc.) forget it.
- ducharmdev 4y agoFor me it's the Twin Peaks soundtrack
- k__ 4y agoInteresting. I had the same experience as a kid, but I didn't try the noise thing yet. Mostly, because music leads to very emotional responses. But, maybe I should try other "sounds". My mind keeps wandering all the time and it's quite stressful.
- titoasty 4y agoSimilar here. What's working for me is listening to the same lofi channel, which helps me focus without being disturbed by the music because it's, hmm, generically bland. Like some brain filling. But still enjoyable. (a bit harsh definition for a genre I like) I become too emotionally invested when I listen to any other kind of music. So lofi for work!
- sph 4y ago> I was never diagnosed as a child because I largely functioned as a kid and was quiet and non-disruptive Those pesky ADHD-Impulsive giving us a bad name. Same here, diagnosed but I was the most calm and polite kid ever. The hyperactivity is inside my head. There's a hamster running in circles at 9000 RPM and it's never taken a break. "You're overthinking it", people say to me. You have no idea.
- MichaelApproved 4y agoI’m guilty of overthinking everything. It’s come in handy as a programmer but it tends to hold me back socially. I’d often think about social interactions ahead of time. My brain would create countless situations that I’d play out. Once I exhausted one situation, I jump into analyzing the next possible situation. On and on I’d go. I’ve only recently been able to quiet down my beehive brain a bit thanks to a few realizations I came to about the damage it was doing to me: - Even after analyzing 100 different possibilities, reality would often be much different than the scenarios I thought about. - When the situation didn’t play out exactly as I’d imagined, I’d still react instantly without thinking through the new variances. In my foolishness, the unexpected scenario seemed close enough to the ones I had already thought about, so I’d respond off the cuff. In reality, things were different enough that a pause to think would’ve been better. - Thinking through 100 different scenarios also meant going through the emotional baggage that came with them. In my mind, sometimes people reacted positively and sometimes negatively. Imagining all the negative ways someone could react would lead me to attributing negative feelings to them, even though they haven’t responded negatively. On the flip side, if I attributed a specific positive outcome to someone that didn’t live up to my exact interpretation, I’d end up feeling disappointed with an outcome I should’ve been happy with. - Lastly, I’d push to resolve a situation immediately because I didn’t want to go through another beehive of scenarios while waiting to continue the conversation another time. Sometimes that push to resolve the conflict resulted in a positive breakthrough. However, other times the person would agree to a certain resolution due to sheer exhaustion which leave us with an unsustainable outcome. Of course, there were other things that helped calm my brain down. Things that helped me take a step towards these realizations and act on them. Hopefully, my comment can be one of those steps for someone else.
- jackallis 4y agothis is me 100%.
- wishfish 4y agoI fully understand. I do much of the same. Work from home. Keep the fan on at all times for the noise. Have one monitor playing content-less videos on a loop. For me personally, train cab ride videos and asmr massage do the trick. There's nothing to follow. The content is relaxing. It does the trick. I used to follow a couple of Buddhist podcasts where the speaker is calm & measured. Never paid much attention to the content, but the voices helped immensely. Anyways, thanks for sharing. It's a little good to know I'm not unique in these tactics.
- blahburn 4y agoI feel the same way, but still wanted music in the background. This channel was a great balance since I can't understand the lyrics, but the tunes are catchy enough to hum to sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/@MyAnalogJournal https://www.youtube.com/@MyAnalogJournal