11 ms·

I just started working with a new team a few weeks ago. So far I've had "nice to meet you" calls with six or seven of the people on this team. And nearly half

I just started working with a new team a few weeks ago. So far I've had "nice to meet you" calls with six or seven of the people on this team. And nearly half of them mentioned "by the way, I have ADHD, just so you know." And since I share so many characteristics with these individuals, now _I'm_ wondering if I have ADHD. Certainly the never-ending Instagram ads want me to think so. Or is this becoming a blanket term for "I'm easily excited and a bit weird"? Personally, I went almost my whole life with mild depression and didn't even know it - I just thought depression happened to other people, and that what I felt was normal. Then when a doctor gave me the questionnaire during a routine checkup and put me on SSRIs, it was basically life-changing. So I wonder if this is another case of that?

pcurve 4y ago
"And nearly half of them mentioned "by the way, I have ADHD" Statistically that seems rather unlikely, so I wonder if people are being over-diagnosed?
- k__ 4y ago
  Many of my friends have ADHD. Probably because ADHD people have trouble getting along with neurotypicals
  - chrsig 4y ago
    > Probably because ADHD people have trouble getting along with neurotypicals In our defense, normies suck.
    - k__ 4y ago
      I couldn't even say who's normal and who isn't. I have a very small circle of friends and they're all kinda... special. So for me such behaviour feels normal.
    - brazzledazzle 4y ago
      I think there's a more constructive way to look at this which is neurotypical people have an extremely difficult time empathizing with people who are neurodivergent. This leads to a lot of friction, especially in friend groups and between managers and their subordinates.
  - dirtybirdnj 4y ago
    NTs have no incentive to understand NDs, yet the lives of NDs hinges on how much effort we put into understanding and being understood. One side is motivated to be open and communicative and the other is motivated to be insular and closed. I know the "us vs them" mentality isn't healthy but I've lived an entire lifetime in a societal warzone and I refuse to just roll over and pretend that I'm not part of a socially marginalized group. NTs are the problem. Society's intolerance is the problem. NDs aren't the problem, NTs are.
    - P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
      Lets rephrase what you just said > straight people are the problem for not wanting to date gay or trans people It just is. Everyone has challenges, people with ADHD have challenges that can be particularly difficult for sure, but blaming others for not being like you is and telling them it's their responsibility is the same thing just reversed. It doesn't improve your situation.
      - rrobukef 4y ago
        Please don't. Society forces everybody to interact socially. In a society where everybody is expected to date anybody, forcing somebody to date is still abhorrent.
        P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
        > Society forces everybody to interact socially. No, the premise you require in order for me to be wrong is that society forces this on everyone, but I live with a woman who has crippling anxiety to the point of being on disability for it and I can tell you that's emphatically untrue. Even SSI related meetings happen over the phone because of her disability. Those with ADHD have many challenges that other people don't have, but asking the whole of society to suddenly be able to understand them better is like asking all women to be start preferring short men. It just is, and those with these challenges will have to learn how to deal with them (and you see posters on HN all the time talking about how they've done just that). For those for which it's truly debilitating, we need to make sure they don't fall through the cracks (and for the most part we do this). It's as much a part of reality as the person with 2 missing thumbs having more difficulty grasping things than someone with both thumbs.
- corobo 4y ago
  Statistics might ignore the "birds of a feather flock together" tendencies of humans. Over the years it's turning out my entire since-college friend group have some sort of mental health disorder that's been missed for 30 years. If I found a team with a couple other ADHD folks that seemed to be thriving that company would be top of my list for sure.
- chrsig 4y ago
  Possible that the people are misdiagnosed, also possible that there's bias in hiring, or bias in field selection from people with adhd. It could also just be that yes, it is statistically unlikely, and this is just a less likely sample.
- cheeseomlit 4y ago
  - EdwardDiego 4y ago
    Haha, "hooked on narcotics" would be a grand thing if it were real, as then I'd never forget to take my pills.
  - adamwk 4y ago
    Who prescribes narcotics to people with ADHD?
    - cheeseomlit 4y ago
      Are you familiar with 'amphetamines'?
      - robotresearcher 4y ago
        Typical use of 'narcotics' means opiates and similar drugs (narc = sleep), and not amphetamines.
        cheeseomlit 4y ago
        My mistake, I meant it in more of an 'often-abused mind-altering addictive scheduled drug' connotation. Not that a drug being scheduled is proof of harm in and of itself, but it seems like many people (particularly on HN for some reason) are in heavy denial that they are addicted to amphetamines and that it maybe isn't such a healthy way to solve behavioral problems. If you're an adult then fine you can make your own decisions, but the fact that people give amphetamines to children because they cant focus in school seems very sick to me.
        Tao3300 4y ago
        > many people (particularly on HN for some reason) are in heavy denial that they are addicted to amphetamines and that it maybe isn't such a healthy way to solve behavioral problems You've coasted into the territory of self-appointed expert on ADHD. To me, this reads as "I have no idea what ADHD is like or how to manage it. My mind can't imagine that other minds may work differently, so what would work for my mind must work for all the other minds." > behavior problems Whether or not you're aware of it, that's an ableist dog whistle for "why don't you just stop being _______?" usually followed by a JBP reading list about lobsters and room cleaning.
- schwartzworld 4y ago
  Many people diagnose themselves, and still more are diagnosed by psychiatrists with checklists, as opposed to a neurologist. So there is probably some amount of over diagnosis. Some people may be using it as shorthand for "I'm sometimes disorganized" the way people use OCD as shorthand for "I like things clean". Some industries and workplaces are better suited for ADHD sufferers as well. My ADHD got in the way in most of my other jobs before I became a developer, where it's actually sort of an asset. Perhaps OPs job attracts a certain type.
- unwind 4y ago
  On the other hand, the parent's wording kind of made it sound like it was a lot of people. "Nearly half" of "six or seven" could be ... two. That might be a lot percentage-wise, but it's also a really small number of people to draw conclusions from, isn't it?
- viraptor 4y ago
  I've heard a nice description of ADHD being both the most under and over diagnosed issue at the same time. Since it's mostly based on self-reporting, it's easy to get on the meds if you want to, or easy to pin on an issue someone may be having, as a quick solution. On the other hand, for various reasons high functioning people will keep on going and try to deal with it daily until they run into some roadblocks. It took me over 30 years to get diagnosed, but really I should've done it in primary school already. (There was minimal awareness then)
- Tao3300 4y ago
  The statistics you're not citing are from history. It could be that in the past it has been majorly under-diagnosed.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    I still suspect that yes, it was under-diagnosed or overlooked for a long time, but that ultimately it's a disorder that is, for most people who have it, a result of a fairly-large section of the ordinary human brain-development spectrum being badly mis-matched with modern society, in a way that it hadn't been in the (perhaps somewhat distant) past. Since differences in brain development aren't really considered disorders unless they cause a problem in ordinary life, if ordinary life itself changes to put different sorts of demands on people, then it seems plausible that could create disorders where there were none before. I'm pretty sure that's a lot of what's going on with AD(H)D. I mean, if you look at early 20th century jobs most similar to office jobs today, they look from the outside, and are depicted by contemporary media, as crushingly dull—but, they had the benefit of also being highly repetitive, stack of papers to go through, do the thing you do, put it in the outbox, move to the next stack. Now everything's every bit as dull, but we're also expected to juggle a much broader set of not-terribly-similar tasks, often taking on little bits of what used to be the jobs of entire, dedicated humans before computerization "freed" companies to smear those tasks across their entire workforce. That seems like a recipe for failure for someone with ADHD-brain.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
__derek__ 4y ago
Is it possible that your new employer has prioritized making accommodations for folks with ADHD, leading to more of them joining? Many companies don't have a compatible environment/culture.
k__ 4y ago
I went in an ADHD rabbit hole a week ago. I never considered my self suffering from it, my quirks were individual parts of my character! But now I highly suspect I have it. I lose focus all the time. For example, Going from doing laundry, to gathering dishes, and bringing out trash without finishing one of them. Or I can't read long articles with topics that are important for me but don't tickle one of my interests. I've started reading countless books for only 20-30 pages. Also, it feels impossible to plan for/estimate longer time periods and I'm constantly bouncing my knee or stimm in another way. I started freelancing because I couldn't get to work at the same time every day and even now I just work 5-10h a week, because my lack of motivation for repeating tasks. I thought, well it's biological, I can't have it, my relatives are all normal... But wait, my mother did impulse purchases all the time, was switching jobs constantly and even retired with 50, because of that. Whelp, guess I should get a psychiatrist soon...
- llamaLord 4y ago
  In my experience, companies that have ADHD founders or CEO's tend to have an unconscious bias towards hiring other people with neurodivergant traits. We think differently, and tend to value others with similar "differences". The trick is avoiding an ADHD/Aspie monoculture. You need some people around to do the important, but less shiny stuff.
- waboremo 4y ago
  Haha, freelancing ADHD is a classic! We seek being our own boss so we don't have to be forced to do what we cannot, only to then intensely struggle completing tasks we know we are capable of due to executive dysfunction, and then feel so much shame and guilt over a struggling freelance business leading to even more restlessness! Anyways definitely seek a specialist, there are many options and even if it's not ADHD they've got access to a lot of really great resources to cope with what you do struggle with.
  - k__ 4y ago
    I'm not struggling, yet, but, when I think what I could do with more than 5h of work a week, I get sad.
ryandvm 4y ago
In my experience, most ADHD is really just a case of "I have limited willpower for extremely boring shit." Give me something interesting to do and I can work on it non-stop for 12 hours. The problem is that most jobs and almost all schooling is flat out incompatible with being an easily distractible person. I think it's just a phenotype that doesn't work well in the traditional professional environment. And yes, Adderall will help you focus on boring shit. [Source: I'm clinically diagnosed with ADHD)
- fsociety 4y ago
  Idk my experience is much different. On the weekend, I would have a list of games I really wanted to play. Boot one up, play for a few minutes, feel like I should be playing a different one, switch and repeat. Or I would have hobbies or activities I would want to do. But would end up in the same cycle. Then at the end of my weekend I would feel down because I spent the entire past two days constantly task switching with zero enjoyment. But on Adderall I am able to sit down and enjoy the first game / hobby I pick.
  - herdyderdy 4y ago
    Has this helped long term and repeatedly? I have that same struggle of switching between things all my life even if I enjoy one activity a lot. Very occasionally I do find something I can sit and enjoy for hours but it is rare.
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    Yes willpower is too simple and too tied up with connotations of hardworkingness and virtue to adequately explain it. It's more like "don't have control over where attention is focused." Wanting to do it may make it more likely but there are other factors, and I can also easily get caught up in a task that is actively unpleasant. Unmedicated the focus goes where it wants to go, not where I want it to go; but not necessarily nowhere either. And ADHD people in my experience aren't worse at activities that do require what I would call simple willpower. Things like race cycling or endurance running, where persisting through discomfort and even pain are necessary.
  - 4y ago
golemiprague 4y ago
TurkishPoptart 4y ago
>So far I've had "nice to meet you" calls with six or seven of the people on this team. And nearly half of them mentioned "by the way, I have ADHD, just so you know." Is this a generational thing? I mean, are these people in their early 20s? I'm in my 30s and would never say anything about my mental health in a phone call with a stranger unless my boss is bringing up this subject with me on a one-on-one.
- citruscomputing 4y ago
  It can be relevant in the context of "this is how I work best, this is how to work with me best, these are the areas I'd appreciate a little more patience from you on." If you know what ADHD is, someone saying they have it is pretty good shorthand for all that. That said, I still haven't brought it up with anyone at work because of the stigma around it. It's tiring pretending it's not a problem for me though. I think you're right that it's a generational thing. More people know what it is, are less judgemental, or know they have it themselves. Also, a lot of people don't see it as about mental health in the same way e.g. depression or BPD is. (Unsure if that's what you were implying though!)
- grayclhn 4y ago
  Wow, it's almost like ADHD is independent of mental health.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mitchdoogle 4y ago
There is strong evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ And of course, there is the issue of drug-seeking - for increased concentration and focus, for fun, or some other reason. And many doctors suspect patients of drug-seeking. Symptoms can easily be faked and are difficult to spot. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/ https://healthland.time.com/2011/04/28/faking-it-why-nearly-1-in-4-adults-who-seek-treatment-dont-have-adhd/ https://healthland.time.com/2011/04/28/faking-it-why-nearly-...
- drewcoo 4y ago
  > many doctors suspect patients of drug-seeking And many of us (and many, many published articles) suspect big pharma of making docs drug pushers. So many fingers pointing in all directions!
- vsareto 4y ago
  >There is strong evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed >https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ That's for children and adolescents just fyi
- astrange 4y ago
  ADHD diagnosis involves interviewing your parents about what you were like as a child. If they're skipping that it's because they don't feel like doing it.
- JackMcMack 4y ago
  1) That "ADHD is overdiagnosed" metastudy is frequently referenced, but always for the wrong reasons: "Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable. Misdiagnosis (when a child is incorrectly labeled with an ADHD diagnosis instead of an alternative condition) and false-positive diagnosis (when a subsequent clinical encounter reveals a wrong initial diagnosis) are not the focus of this article." Unfavorable here is: - medication can have side effects - it might be used as an excuse to stop trying/caring - there's a social stigma 2) Your second link provides no evidence of drug-seeking behaviour. It only claims that it's possibly to get a high score on an ADHD checklist with fake answers. It makes no claim that people without ADHD actually seek an ADHD diagnosis to get prescription stimulants. Note that I'm not claiming they aren't, just that this article doesn't support that claim. 3) The third link is just an article on time with the headline that 1 in 4 adults who seek treatment are faking it. I can't find any reference to this number in the article body, nor a link to the paper. I think this is the paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46282569_Effectiveness_of_symptom_validity_measures_in_identifying_cognitive_and_behavioral_symptom_exaggeration_in_adult_attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46282569_Effectiven... Color me surprised: this one does actually support the claim that 22% are exaggerating symptoms. There are of course some limitations to this study. And it makes no claim that those that are exaggerating symptoms are doing so to seek medication (again, I'm not claiming otherwise). The good news is that there are methods to identify these patients. And given that this study is from 2010, I hope that those are in use to aid with (mis)diagnosis today. Mitchdoogle, do you have any other evidence to support your claim of overdiagnosing and drug-seeking? In the future, please take the time to read through the articles you link. And please take the time to read the last paper before you reply.
schrodinger 4y ago
I'm a late ADHD diagnosis (37 now, diagnosed 35) and one thing I noticed is that I needed way less than they would prescribed. I was given 2 15mg tablets a day, and I would take 1/4 of one once in a morning, maybe twice a week. It has been life changing, for days when I need to work through a to-do list rather than something intrinsically motivating. But if I had continued with the prescribed does, I would have stopped—since it had so many side effects.

pcurve 4y ago

"And nearly half of them mentioned "by the way, I have ADHD" Statistically that seems rather unlikely, so I wonder if people are being over-diagnosed?

k__ 4y ago
Many of my friends have ADHD. Probably because ADHD people have trouble getting along with neurotypicals
- chrsig 4y ago
  > Probably because ADHD people have trouble getting along with neurotypicals In our defense, normies suck.
  - k__ 4y ago
    I couldn't even say who's normal and who isn't. I have a very small circle of friends and they're all kinda... special. So for me such behaviour feels normal.
  - brazzledazzle 4y ago
    I think there's a more constructive way to look at this which is neurotypical people have an extremely difficult time empathizing with people who are neurodivergent. This leads to a lot of friction, especially in friend groups and between managers and their subordinates.
- dirtybirdnj 4y ago
  NTs have no incentive to understand NDs, yet the lives of NDs hinges on how much effort we put into understanding and being understood. One side is motivated to be open and communicative and the other is motivated to be insular and closed. I know the "us vs them" mentality isn't healthy but I've lived an entire lifetime in a societal warzone and I refuse to just roll over and pretend that I'm not part of a socially marginalized group. NTs are the problem. Society's intolerance is the problem. NDs aren't the problem, NTs are.
  - P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
    Lets rephrase what you just said > straight people are the problem for not wanting to date gay or trans people It just is. Everyone has challenges, people with ADHD have challenges that can be particularly difficult for sure, but blaming others for not being like you is and telling them it's their responsibility is the same thing just reversed. It doesn't improve your situation.
    - rrobukef 4y ago
      Please don't. Society forces everybody to interact socially. In a society where everybody is expected to date anybody, forcing somebody to date is still abhorrent.
      - P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
        > Society forces everybody to interact socially. No, the premise you require in order for me to be wrong is that society forces this on everyone, but I live with a woman who has crippling anxiety to the point of being on disability for it and I can tell you that's emphatically untrue. Even SSI related meetings happen over the phone because of her disability. Those with ADHD have many challenges that other people don't have, but asking the whole of society to suddenly be able to understand them better is like asking all women to be start preferring short men. It just is, and those with these challenges will have to learn how to deal with them (and you see posters on HN all the time talking about how they've done just that). For those for which it's truly debilitating, we need to make sure they don't fall through the cracks (and for the most part we do this). It's as much a part of reality as the person with 2 missing thumbs having more difficulty grasping things than someone with both thumbs.
corobo 4y ago
Statistics might ignore the "birds of a feather flock together" tendencies of humans. Over the years it's turning out my entire since-college friend group have some sort of mental health disorder that's been missed for 30 years. If I found a team with a couple other ADHD folks that seemed to be thriving that company would be top of my list for sure.
chrsig 4y ago
Possible that the people are misdiagnosed, also possible that there's bias in hiring, or bias in field selection from people with adhd. It could also just be that yes, it is statistically unlikely, and this is just a less likely sample.
cheeseomlit 4y ago
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  Haha, "hooked on narcotics" would be a grand thing if it were real, as then I'd never forget to take my pills.
- adamwk 4y ago
  Who prescribes narcotics to people with ADHD?
  - cheeseomlit 4y ago
    Are you familiar with 'amphetamines'?
    - robotresearcher 4y ago
      Typical use of 'narcotics' means opiates and similar drugs (narc = sleep), and not amphetamines.
      - cheeseomlit 4y ago
        My mistake, I meant it in more of an 'often-abused mind-altering addictive scheduled drug' connotation. Not that a drug being scheduled is proof of harm in and of itself, but it seems like many people (particularly on HN for some reason) are in heavy denial that they are addicted to amphetamines and that it maybe isn't such a healthy way to solve behavioral problems. If you're an adult then fine you can make your own decisions, but the fact that people give amphetamines to children because they cant focus in school seems very sick to me.
        Tao3300 4y ago
        > many people (particularly on HN for some reason) are in heavy denial that they are addicted to amphetamines and that it maybe isn't such a healthy way to solve behavioral problems You've coasted into the territory of self-appointed expert on ADHD. To me, this reads as "I have no idea what ADHD is like or how to manage it. My mind can't imagine that other minds may work differently, so what would work for my mind must work for all the other minds." > behavior problems Whether or not you're aware of it, that's an ableist dog whistle for "why don't you just stop being _______?" usually followed by a JBP reading list about lobsters and room cleaning.
schwartzworld 4y ago
Many people diagnose themselves, and still more are diagnosed by psychiatrists with checklists, as opposed to a neurologist. So there is probably some amount of over diagnosis. Some people may be using it as shorthand for "I'm sometimes disorganized" the way people use OCD as shorthand for "I like things clean". Some industries and workplaces are better suited for ADHD sufferers as well. My ADHD got in the way in most of my other jobs before I became a developer, where it's actually sort of an asset. Perhaps OPs job attracts a certain type.
unwind 4y ago
On the other hand, the parent's wording kind of made it sound like it was a lot of people. "Nearly half" of "six or seven" could be ... two. That might be a lot percentage-wise, but it's also a really small number of people to draw conclusions from, isn't it?
viraptor 4y ago
I've heard a nice description of ADHD being both the most under and over diagnosed issue at the same time. Since it's mostly based on self-reporting, it's easy to get on the meds if you want to, or easy to pin on an issue someone may be having, as a quick solution. On the other hand, for various reasons high functioning people will keep on going and try to deal with it daily until they run into some roadblocks. It took me over 30 years to get diagnosed, but really I should've done it in primary school already. (There was minimal awareness then)
Tao3300 4y ago
The statistics you're not citing are from history. It could be that in the past it has been majorly under-diagnosed.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  I still suspect that yes, it was under-diagnosed or overlooked for a long time, but that ultimately it's a disorder that is, for most people who have it, a result of a fairly-large section of the ordinary human brain-development spectrum being badly mis-matched with modern society, in a way that it hadn't been in the (perhaps somewhat distant) past. Since differences in brain development aren't really considered disorders unless they cause a problem in ordinary life, if ordinary life itself changes to put different sorts of demands on people, then it seems plausible that could create disorders where there were none before. I'm pretty sure that's a lot of what's going on with AD(H)D. I mean, if you look at early 20th century jobs most similar to office jobs today, they look from the outside, and are depicted by contemporary media, as crushingly dull—but, they had the benefit of also being highly repetitive, stack of papers to go through, do the thing you do, put it in the outbox, move to the next stack. Now everything's every bit as dull, but we're also expected to juggle a much broader set of not-terribly-similar tasks, often taking on little bits of what used to be the jobs of entire, dedicated humans before computerization "freed" companies to smear those tasks across their entire workforce. That seems like a recipe for failure for someone with ADHD-brain.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

__derek__ 4y ago

Is it possible that your new employer has prioritized making accommodations for folks with ADHD, leading to more of them joining? Many companies don't have a compatible environment/culture.

k__ 4y ago

I went in an ADHD rabbit hole a week ago. I never considered my self suffering from it, my quirks were individual parts of my character! But now I highly suspect I have it. I lose focus all the time. For example, Going from doing laundry, to gathering dishes, and bringing out trash without finishing one of them. Or I can't read long articles with topics that are important for me but don't tickle one of my interests. I've started reading countless books for only 20-30 pages. Also, it feels impossible to plan for/estimate longer time periods and I'm constantly bouncing my knee or stimm in another way. I started freelancing because I couldn't get to work at the same time every day and even now I just work 5-10h a week, because my lack of motivation for repeating tasks. I thought, well it's biological, I can't have it, my relatives are all normal... But wait, my mother did impulse purchases all the time, was switching jobs constantly and even retired with 50, because of that. Whelp, guess I should get a psychiatrist soon...

llamaLord 4y ago
In my experience, companies that have ADHD founders or CEO's tend to have an unconscious bias towards hiring other people with neurodivergant traits. We think differently, and tend to value others with similar "differences". The trick is avoiding an ADHD/Aspie monoculture. You need some people around to do the important, but less shiny stuff.
waboremo 4y ago
Haha, freelancing ADHD is a classic! We seek being our own boss so we don't have to be forced to do what we cannot, only to then intensely struggle completing tasks we know we are capable of due to executive dysfunction, and then feel so much shame and guilt over a struggling freelance business leading to even more restlessness! Anyways definitely seek a specialist, there are many options and even if it's not ADHD they've got access to a lot of really great resources to cope with what you do struggle with.
- k__ 4y ago
  I'm not struggling, yet, but, when I think what I could do with more than 5h of work a week, I get sad.

ryandvm 4y ago

In my experience, most ADHD is really just a case of "I have limited willpower for extremely boring shit." Give me something interesting to do and I can work on it non-stop for 12 hours. The problem is that most jobs and almost all schooling is flat out incompatible with being an easily distractible person. I think it's just a phenotype that doesn't work well in the traditional professional environment. And yes, Adderall will help you focus on boring shit. [Source: I'm clinically diagnosed with ADHD)

fsociety 4y ago
Idk my experience is much different. On the weekend, I would have a list of games I really wanted to play. Boot one up, play for a few minutes, feel like I should be playing a different one, switch and repeat. Or I would have hobbies or activities I would want to do. But would end up in the same cycle. Then at the end of my weekend I would feel down because I spent the entire past two days constantly task switching with zero enjoyment. But on Adderall I am able to sit down and enjoy the first game / hobby I pick.
- herdyderdy 4y ago
  Has this helped long term and repeatedly? I have that same struggle of switching between things all my life even if I enjoy one activity a lot. Very occasionally I do find something I can sit and enjoy for hours but it is rare.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  Yes willpower is too simple and too tied up with connotations of hardworkingness and virtue to adequately explain it. It's more like "don't have control over where attention is focused." Wanting to do it may make it more likely but there are other factors, and I can also easily get caught up in a task that is actively unpleasant. Unmedicated the focus goes where it wants to go, not where I want it to go; but not necessarily nowhere either. And ADHD people in my experience aren't worse at activities that do require what I would call simple willpower. Things like race cycling or endurance running, where persisting through discomfort and even pain are necessary.
- 4y ago

golemiprague 4y ago

TurkishPoptart 4y ago

>So far I've had "nice to meet you" calls with six or seven of the people on this team. And nearly half of them mentioned "by the way, I have ADHD, just so you know." Is this a generational thing? I mean, are these people in their early 20s? I'm in my 30s and would never say anything about my mental health in a phone call with a stranger unless my boss is bringing up this subject with me on a one-on-one.

citruscomputing 4y ago
It can be relevant in the context of "this is how I work best, this is how to work with me best, these are the areas I'd appreciate a little more patience from you on." If you know what ADHD is, someone saying they have it is pretty good shorthand for all that. That said, I still haven't brought it up with anyone at work because of the stigma around it. It's tiring pretending it's not a problem for me though. I think you're right that it's a generational thing. More people know what it is, are less judgemental, or know they have it themselves. Also, a lot of people don't see it as about mental health in the same way e.g. depression or BPD is. (Unsure if that's what you were implying though!)
grayclhn 4y ago
Wow, it's almost like ADHD is independent of mental health.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mitchdoogle 4y ago

There is strong evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ And of course, there is the issue of drug-seeking - for increased concentration and focus, for fun, or some other reason. And many doctors suspect patients of drug-seeking. Symptoms can easily be faked and are difficult to spot. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173757/ https://healthland.time.com/2011/04/28/faking-it-why-nearly-1-in-4-adults-who-seek-treatment-dont-have-adhd/ https://healthland.time.com/2011/04/28/faking-it-why-nearly-...

drewcoo 4y ago
> many doctors suspect patients of drug-seeking And many of us (and many, many published articles) suspect big pharma of making docs drug pushers. So many fingers pointing in all directions!
vsareto 4y ago
>There is strong evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed >https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/ That's for children and adolescents just fyi
astrange 4y ago
ADHD diagnosis involves interviewing your parents about what you were like as a child. If they're skipping that it's because they don't feel like doing it.
JackMcMack 4y ago
1) That "ADHD is overdiagnosed" metastudy is frequently referenced, but always for the wrong reasons: "Overdiagnosis is defined here as occurring when a person is clinically diagnosed with a condition, but the net effect of the diagnosis is unfavorable. Misdiagnosis (when a child is incorrectly labeled with an ADHD diagnosis instead of an alternative condition) and false-positive diagnosis (when a subsequent clinical encounter reveals a wrong initial diagnosis) are not the focus of this article." Unfavorable here is: - medication can have side effects - it might be used as an excuse to stop trying/caring - there's a social stigma 2) Your second link provides no evidence of drug-seeking behaviour. It only claims that it's possibly to get a high score on an ADHD checklist with fake answers. It makes no claim that people without ADHD actually seek an ADHD diagnosis to get prescription stimulants. Note that I'm not claiming they aren't, just that this article doesn't support that claim. 3) The third link is just an article on time with the headline that 1 in 4 adults who seek treatment are faking it. I can't find any reference to this number in the article body, nor a link to the paper. I think this is the paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46282569_Effectiveness_of_symptom_validity_measures_in_identifying_cognitive_and_behavioral_symptom_exaggeration_in_adult_attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46282569_Effectiven... Color me surprised: this one does actually support the claim that 22% are exaggerating symptoms. There are of course some limitations to this study. And it makes no claim that those that are exaggerating symptoms are doing so to seek medication (again, I'm not claiming otherwise). The good news is that there are methods to identify these patients. And given that this study is from 2010, I hope that those are in use to aid with (mis)diagnosis today. Mitchdoogle, do you have any other evidence to support your claim of overdiagnosing and drug-seeking? In the future, please take the time to read through the articles you link. And please take the time to read the last paper before you reply.

schrodinger 4y ago

I'm a late ADHD diagnosis (37 now, diagnosed 35) and one thing I noticed is that I needed way less than they would prescribed. I was given 2 15mg tablets a day, and I would take 1/4 of one once in a morning, maybe twice a week. It has been life changing, for days when I need to work through a to-do list rather than something intrinsically motivating. But if I had continued with the prescribed does, I would have stopped—since it had so many side effects.