5 ms·

Personal anecdote, I can thank a country doctor and my elementary school teachers for recognizing this back in the 70's: I was sent to school with a thermos of

Personal anecdote, I can thank a country doctor and my elementary school teachers for recognizing this back in the 70's: I was sent to school with a thermos of coffee and permission to go to the gym and run until I could compose myself.

leoh 12y ago
This is a wonderful story. I've also personally noticed I can focus an order of magnitude better with exercise.
lloeki 12y ago
Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. I was lucky enough to discover a few sports (snowboarding, rollerskating, climbing) at the right time i my life that managed, unbeknownst to me, to get me through the parts of life where I needed the most focus (incl. my degree). Things went downhill when I started to work and got a car, which dramatically reduced my physical activity, up until I picked myself up and went running, then skateboarding. This changed my quality of life on so many levels: although I still get both periods of numbness and hyperfocus, the positive feedback loops are much more frequent and negative feedback loops much less so. I still have to take great conscious care about not exerting (physically or mentally) myself too much because there seems to be no warning telling me "hey this is too much" and I regularly wear myself out. Still, I now have control over my life, but the fact that all of this I had to find myself early in my 30s and still get scorned at to this day is terrible: how many are being cast away as either unruly or lazy and left to their own devices?
- DanBC 12y ago
  > Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. If those are UK doctors I politely urge you to complain. Otherwise, try showing them this: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-full-guideline-2 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attenti...
  - lloeki 12y ago
    In a country where the first non-native language, which happens to be English, is typically studied for more that 10 years and is completely unable to produce a significant amount of people able to even read it, I fear that a technical document written in such a foreign language will only receive the Stare of False Approval followed by the Shrug of Dismissal. † Notwithstanding the courage of our teachers and all, this country††'s education system is a complete failure, and those that shine do so in spite of it, not thanks to it. †† I can't even come to terms with calling it "my country" anymore due to recent events regarding mass surveillance, that go against everything I hold forth and cherished about France, inherited since le Siècle des Lumières.
- PhasmaFelis 12y ago
  > Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. I'm really sorry to hear that. I urge you to keep trying, because I think you may have had a run of unusually bad luck with doctors. I'm 36 and I've never had a problem getting scripts for my ADD meds. I was diagnosed at age 5, but I have several friends who realized what was going on much later in life, and none of them had any difficulties getting a diagnosis either. I'm in the US, so I don't know if the medical culture is different where you are, but I hope that you can find a more cooperative doctor.
  - lloeki 12y ago
    > I don't know if the medical culture is different where you are France, where the situation is as described above. Select groups are trying to raise awareness of the issue for children so that they don't end up being classified as spoiled brats, but last time I checked there's basically squat for adults.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- TrevorJ 12y ago
  I'm not sure what your health care system is set up like, but if you can go to a different doctor, or a specialist, it would be worth doing. Even here in the US, some doctors are much more receptive than others.
- pc2g4d 12y ago
  Being driven to physical activity rather than drugs could be seen as a positive outcome here, as frustrating as it must have been to get those invalidating messages from doctors.

leoh 12y ago

This is a wonderful story. I've also personally noticed I can focus an order of magnitude better with exercise.

lloeki 12y ago

Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. I was lucky enough to discover a few sports (snowboarding, rollerskating, climbing) at the right time i my life that managed, unbeknownst to me, to get me through the parts of life where I needed the most focus (incl. my degree). Things went downhill when I started to work and got a car, which dramatically reduced my physical activity, up until I picked myself up and went running, then skateboarding. This changed my quality of life on so many levels: although I still get both periods of numbness and hyperfocus, the positive feedback loops are much more frequent and negative feedback loops much less so. I still have to take great conscious care about not exerting (physically or mentally) myself too much because there seems to be no warning telling me "hey this is too much" and I regularly wear myself out. Still, I now have control over my life, but the fact that all of this I had to find myself early in my 30s and still get scorned at to this day is terrible: how many are being cast away as either unruly or lazy and left to their own devices?

DanBC 12y ago
> Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. If those are UK doctors I politely urge you to complain. Otherwise, try showing them this: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-full-guideline-2 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg72/resources/cg72-attenti...
- lloeki 12y ago
  In a country where the first non-native language, which happens to be English, is typically studied for more that 10 years and is completely unable to produce a significant amount of people able to even read it, I fear that a technical document written in such a foreign language will only receive the Stare of False Approval followed by the Shrug of Dismissal. † Notwithstanding the courage of our teachers and all, this country††'s education system is a complete failure, and those that shine do so in spite of it, not thanks to it. †† I can't even come to terms with calling it "my country" anymore due to recent events regarding mass surveillance, that go against everything I hold forth and cherished about France, inherited since le Siècle des Lumières.
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
> Personal anecdote: people (incl. doctors) laugh at me when I say I may (within 3-sigma) have ADHD, either because "that's for kids only", or because "it's just a myth and I should get my act together and quit being lazy". I have no hope of getting any form of medication for my condition. I'm really sorry to hear that. I urge you to keep trying, because I think you may have had a run of unusually bad luck with doctors. I'm 36 and I've never had a problem getting scripts for my ADD meds. I was diagnosed at age 5, but I have several friends who realized what was going on much later in life, and none of them had any difficulties getting a diagnosis either. I'm in the US, so I don't know if the medical culture is different where you are, but I hope that you can find a more cooperative doctor.
- lloeki 12y ago
  > I don't know if the medical culture is different where you are France, where the situation is as described above. Select groups are trying to raise awareness of the issue for children so that they don't end up being classified as spoiled brats, but last time I checked there's basically squat for adults.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
TrevorJ 12y ago
I'm not sure what your health care system is set up like, but if you can go to a different doctor, or a specialist, it would be worth doing. Even here in the US, some doctors are much more receptive than others.
pc2g4d 12y ago
Being driven to physical activity rather than drugs could be seen as a positive outcome here, as frustrating as it must have been to get those invalidating messages from doctors.