3 ms·

Let your girlfriend know that she deserves treatment on weekends, too. ADHD doesn't take days off. Medication helps with much more than work and chores.

nickburns 3y ago
this is unsolicited, non-medical healthcare advice. yikes.
- thomastjeffery 3y ago
  Well obviously they would have to talk to their psychiatrist, who would make the final decision. That is already legally guaranteed! I just wanted to share the context that it is very common for people to approach ADHD treatment from the perspective of work, and not life. I've talked to many people who have had to advocate for their own healthcare in this context, and greatly benefitted by doing so.
  - kerkeslager 3y ago
    > Well obviously they would have to talk to their psychiatrist, who would make the final decision. That is already legally guaranteed! Good thing psychologists are totally unmanipulable and nobody ever breaks laws. > I just wanted to share the context that it is very common for people to approach ADHD treatment from the perspective of work, and not life. Then perhaps you should have shared what you wanted to share instead of sharing an unqualified medical opinion.
kerkeslager 3y ago
As someone with ADHD who has been on stimulants... yes, ADHD doesn't take time off, but it's not that simple, and you should be more careful with making confident assertions about what other people should do with their health. Stimulants slowly stopped working for me at low-moderate doses, and at higher doses I started having bad anxiety from them. One potential solution to this was to take time off from stimulants at regular intervals (such as weekends) to reduce buildup of tolerance and stay at the lower dose while getting the effects when I needed them. I ended up not going that route (taking Strattera now) but it's something I've heard from a few people. I'll also add that ADHD symptoms aren't always experienced as all bad by everyone. Some people experience it as more creative, or adjacent to flow, and only want "treatment" when they need to buckle down and do more "boring" work. I'm not in that camp, but a friend of mine is.
- thomastjeffery 3y ago
  Obviously, my confidence can't directly change someone's prescription. Only their psychiatrist can do that. My point here is that the many psychiatrists are working in a framework where the evidence they are looking for is that treatment helps the patient complete obvious tasks like improving at work or school. This is why children get the overwhelming majority of diagnoses: school provides a framework of hard data to make judgements from. Work and school advocate for themselves. The rest of a person's personal life doesn't. That's why either a psychiatrist or their patient must advocate for holistic treatment.
  - kerkeslager 3y ago
    > My point here is that the many psychiatrists are working in a framework where the evidence they are looking for is that treatment helps the patient complete obvious tasks like improving at work or school. This is why children get the overwhelming majority of diagnoses: school provides a framework of hard data to make judgements from. And if that was your point you should have said that. What you actually said, was a medical recommendation based on assumptions you could not possibly know.
    - thomastjeffery 3y ago
      No, that was your uncharitable reading of what I wrote. This isn't a programming language. Everything we write is context sensitive. It's always going to be the reader's responsibility to provide a sensible context. As a reader, you will always be able to frame my writing negatively.
      - kerkeslager 3y ago
        > No, that was your uncharitable reading of what I wrote. I am in general an advocate of assuming the best possible meaning, but there isn't a charitable enough reading to what you said in your first post that makes it mean what you said in your second post. > This isn't a programming language. Everything we write is context sensitive. It's always going to be the reader's responsibility to provide a sensible context. As a reader, you will always be able to frame my writing negatively. True. So what context did I miss that makes "Let your girlfriend know that she deserves treatment on weekends, too." an okay thing to say? All the context I'm seeing there seems to indicate that you are sharing an unqualified opinion on whether someone should be treated for a medical condition on weekends, which is none of your business. Yes, it's readers' responsibility to read charitably, but there is also some burden on the communicator to communicate effectively. Maybe you intended to say something other than what you said, but ultimately readers can only make the best of what you actually said, not what you intended to say. If you intended to say something other than what you said, there's no shame in admitting you misspoke. Mistakes happen. But I'm not going to take the blame for your poor communication if I didn't read your mind when you said something you didn't mean.

nickburns 3y ago

this is unsolicited, non-medical healthcare advice. yikes.

thomastjeffery 3y ago
Well obviously they would have to talk to their psychiatrist, who would make the final decision. That is already legally guaranteed! I just wanted to share the context that it is very common for people to approach ADHD treatment from the perspective of work, and not life. I've talked to many people who have had to advocate for their own healthcare in this context, and greatly benefitted by doing so.
- kerkeslager 3y ago
  > Well obviously they would have to talk to their psychiatrist, who would make the final decision. That is already legally guaranteed! Good thing psychologists are totally unmanipulable and nobody ever breaks laws. > I just wanted to share the context that it is very common for people to approach ADHD treatment from the perspective of work, and not life. Then perhaps you should have shared what you wanted to share instead of sharing an unqualified medical opinion.

kerkeslager 3y ago

As someone with ADHD who has been on stimulants... yes, ADHD doesn't take time off, but it's not that simple, and you should be more careful with making confident assertions about what other people should do with their health. Stimulants slowly stopped working for me at low-moderate doses, and at higher doses I started having bad anxiety from them. One potential solution to this was to take time off from stimulants at regular intervals (such as weekends) to reduce buildup of tolerance and stay at the lower dose while getting the effects when I needed them. I ended up not going that route (taking Strattera now) but it's something I've heard from a few people. I'll also add that ADHD symptoms aren't always experienced as all bad by everyone. Some people experience it as more creative, or adjacent to flow, and only want "treatment" when they need to buckle down and do more "boring" work. I'm not in that camp, but a friend of mine is.

thomastjeffery 3y ago
Obviously, my confidence can't directly change someone's prescription. Only their psychiatrist can do that. My point here is that the many psychiatrists are working in a framework where the evidence they are looking for is that treatment helps the patient complete obvious tasks like improving at work or school. This is why children get the overwhelming majority of diagnoses: school provides a framework of hard data to make judgements from. Work and school advocate for themselves. The rest of a person's personal life doesn't. That's why either a psychiatrist or their patient must advocate for holistic treatment.
- kerkeslager 3y ago
  > My point here is that the many psychiatrists are working in a framework where the evidence they are looking for is that treatment helps the patient complete obvious tasks like improving at work or school. This is why children get the overwhelming majority of diagnoses: school provides a framework of hard data to make judgements from. And if that was your point you should have said that. What you actually said, was a medical recommendation based on assumptions you could not possibly know.
  - thomastjeffery 3y ago
    No, that was your uncharitable reading of what I wrote. This isn't a programming language. Everything we write is context sensitive. It's always going to be the reader's responsibility to provide a sensible context. As a reader, you will always be able to frame my writing negatively.
    - kerkeslager 3y ago
      > No, that was your uncharitable reading of what I wrote. I am in general an advocate of assuming the best possible meaning, but there isn't a charitable enough reading to what you said in your first post that makes it mean what you said in your second post. > This isn't a programming language. Everything we write is context sensitive. It's always going to be the reader's responsibility to provide a sensible context. As a reader, you will always be able to frame my writing negatively. True. So what context did I miss that makes "Let your girlfriend know that she deserves treatment on weekends, too." an okay thing to say? All the context I'm seeing there seems to indicate that you are sharing an unqualified opinion on whether someone should be treated for a medical condition on weekends, which is none of your business. Yes, it's readers' responsibility to read charitably, but there is also some burden on the communicator to communicate effectively. Maybe you intended to say something other than what you said, but ultimately readers can only make the best of what you actually said, not what you intended to say. If you intended to say something other than what you said, there's no shame in admitting you misspoke. Mistakes happen. But I'm not going to take the blame for your poor communication if I didn't read your mind when you said something you didn't mean.