I was actually diagnosed with ADHD when I was 4 back in 1991. I always thought it was bullshit. Im now 30, I can see all the symptoms and I have to be very conscious of them. My short term memory, distracted easily, and I felt chills when this guy described perfectly the shit that happens to me. My parents never put me on drugs. Back in the early 90's it was riddelin. I just had to learn to deal with it. Now i just carry a small notebook around with lists and notes. It helps a lot, as long as I rememebr to look at it.
Haha. I was going to say everyone suggests lists and notes to me but it's a miracle to get me to remember to look at them.
Similar-ish story. My teachers mentioned to my parents when I was around 4 or 5 that I had trouble paying attention and focusing in class but since I wasn't hyper it was nothing to worry about.
Struggled through every year of school, dropped out of college twice, blah blah blah but I could never figure out why I struggled so much. I just thought I was stupid and hated school because of it.
that has been the problem with me my whole life. in school? "Well didn't you write it down in your planner?" "yea..of course i did...but i forgot to look at it when i got home"
edit: since this comment is getting some traction from people in a similar spot as me, the most important tool you can ever have is a smartphone. Get an app like IFTTT or Tasker(strong learning curve) to display notifications and such when you get to where you need the notification. Use your reminder app to your advantage as well. need to do something by 1pm? set a reminder at 11, 12, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45 and finally 1pm.
It's how ive gotten better about this shit. the hard part is remembering to put it in your phone. What ive learned to do is not go "Okay, you need this by this time, il make a reminder on my phone when we get out of this meeting" and instead go "give me one second, i have to make a reminder" even if the meeting ends in 1 minute. i will forget when i leave the meeting.
know your strengths, know your weaknesses. Know what works for you!
I have a pen that can write on skin pretty well and I've made up a simple system of pictures to draw reminders on the back of my left hand with enough detail that I remember what the thing was but not too much that I don't have space for anything else. Drawing small pictures also helps a lot with fading and illegibility as opposed to words where 2 hours later you may have no idea what you wrote down.
Yep. I finally had the sense to set a biweekly reminder to change my contacts. It's set to pop up on my screen in time for me to wake up and works like a dream.
I was never very far off so I wasn't entering infection-prone territory. It was more "shit, did I change them last week or the week before?" Or "I know I changed them the week before last but was it Monday or Friday of that week?"
This way, I wake up every other Monday with a notification on my phone that I need to change them and I don't have to spend any energy worrying about trying to remember.
I use Google Keep for notes (including the 3 item lists for when I go to the store and forget why I'm there, ffs), and my phone alarm for reminders that are absolutely crucial (like the 3 days in a row I forgot to pick up my sister-in-law's dog on the way home after work, ffs)
I got into the moleskine weekly planners when I was in school 10 or so years ago. I wrote down every assignment and due date and colour coded each class with highlighters. The left side has a spot for each day of the week and the right side has a ruled page for notes.
When I went back and started an online program in 2013 we were given the entire 4 month course schedule of assignments and due dates each semester so I did the same, but added "hey this is coming up!" notes a week or two before if the assignments were big.
I'm lucky I have a purse to lug it around in. I could easily do all of that on my phone but there's something about writing it down and seeing each week as a whole that makes it easier for me.
Definitely. It added a significant amount of weight to my purse so it got taken out for some reason or another. Sat untouched on my night stand for what I can only think to be 2 or 3 weeks. Doesn't do much sitting there, that's for sore!
I had kind of hit a breaking point at work. I also have social anxiety and the two of them together are a nightmare combination.
When my performance got brought up at my year end review, at the height of my latest "episode", I came clean to them and said I was suspicious of ADHD so they asked for a doctors note.
I thought diagnosis was going to be some drawn out process but I was diagnosed after a 10 min chat & quiz with my doctor. Due to the fact that I have anxiety he wants me to sort that out before starting me on meds for ADHD.
Social anxiety + ADHD is a murderously toxic combination. Social anxiety is a machine for converting small problems into big problems. ADHD is a machine for creating small problems.
Is it ever. He prescribed Exposure Therapy which is a sub-type of CBT. Except he left the onus on me to find a therapist. Small problem, right?
It's something I've been "working on" for 3 months. What's worse is in my initial attempts of a) figuring out what exposure therapy is and b) trying to find a well suited therapist, I found out that ET is one of those sub types of CBT that no one will touch because it can do more harm than good if done improperly.
Ever try ssri's? did the doctor bring it up? i had to try a few dif ones over the years but finally have my social anxiety basically conquered. The side effects are kinda crappy tbh tho.. One of the shitty things about having ADHD and anxiety is that amphetamines contribute to anxiety sometimes.
No I haven't tried anything. He won't put me on ADHD meds until follow ups lead him to believe the anxiety is under control / resolved. He mentioned the possibility of meds for the anxiety but ultimately decided Therapy was the best course of action for now. I've just been putting off finding a therapist cause y'know.. anxiety and ADHD.
That's how I got diagnosed with GAD. Well, that, and months of therapy before meeting a psychiatrist. I always felt like it was a little quick, but maybe not.
Talked to a psychiatrist about it. We started different coping habits at first and after second session, we started trying different meds/doses. Found what worked for me, been taking that med/dose ever since. Now I follow up once every three months to make sure my dosage is still working and that I'm doing alright.
Very very happy that I stopped trying to deal with it myself and talked with a doctor.
Tell the doctor that your having trouble concentrating. Tell him you've read up on cooking "methamphetamine" but believe there's a safer, less drastic alternative out there. Most doctors worth their salt will see that you've made a responsible choice and will give you a prescription for adderal.
haha i think cooking up meth may be a little bit extreme! Also, before trying adderall i'd recommend vyvanse. alternatively Modafinil is pretty good as well. I've been on addy for ~6 years and it for sure is good stuff but dangerous
I am 32 now and am much more efficient at most things. I do try to make lists and notes, as suggested. But if I put my notebook down and re-read through it all, I noticed I have duplicated the exact same note several times in the course of a week, even mentioning in the note; "I am sure I have mentioned this before, but here it is..."
I hate that "well they're not hyper so they can't be so bad off" bullshit. I have ADHD-PI and my brother has ADHD-C, so he's hyper and I'm not. My whole life I was told his was "worse" than mine. But guess who ended up failing and dropping out of everything?
I lean more towards the fact that it was the early 90s so their understanding of the disorder and diagnostic process was way different than what's in place now.
I'm also my parents' first kid, and the first grand kid on both sides so they literally didn't know better. They heard the advice of my teachers and thought "well they say it's not a problem!" And because I also didn't know better I just thought that's how it was going to be. I got very good at pretending to be engaged and was disciplined in the sense that I sat and "listened" and did as I was told. Except I was never ACTUALLY listening.
Just like with any other mental illness, awareness and resources to become aware are far more prevalent and accessible in today's society than they were 30 years ago. It's unfortunate for those of us who grew up during that time but all we can do is try to prevent it from happening to younger generations.
I'm in Canada so it's a bit different. I booked an appointment with my GP thinking I would get a referral to a psychologist to be tested.
Instead he asked me about why I thought I had it, and we went through one of the diagnostic questionnaires they had in their resources. Based on my "score" on the questionnaire he felt confident that it is in fact ADHD - Inattentive type and would have prescribed me with medication but didn't due to the fact that I have unresolved anxiety issues. Ones that's in check we'll start on the ADHD meds.
Similar story here. College was extremely difficult for me. Never dropped out, but I had virtually no time for social stuff because I was working twice as hard to keep up with workload. I had to go to every single professor office hour, etc. I was a wreck.
Finally diagnosed at 30 with ADHD after getting pressured by my wife to look into it. Now with medication I'm a whole new me. I'm 100% better organized, better memory, better focus and overall less constant feeling of "scatterbrain".
I do this same exact thing, though if it's any consolation, I'm six years younger and was medicated most of my early childhood. Much like you, I thought it was bullshit and I didn't need these meds that I got teased for taking regularly. So I stopped. And holy shit, my life went to hell. I nearly didn't graduate college, and still have nightmares about it, because my ADHD derailed my life. I'm back on it now, and I can almost always remember to look at my notebook. I've noticed even since starting to carry it with me everywhere, my memory has at least gotten better. The follow-through, well, that's the bitch of the whole thing, ain't it?
The follow-through, well, that's the bitch of the whole thing, ain't it?
Yup. I graduated HS with a half a credit more then I needed. The first 9 years of school I spent at my moms for the majority, and my freshman year my GPA was .6! I move to my dad's in the country where i was less distracted and my dad was on my cases all the time(which i needed) and I graduated with a 2.9 GPA with a 3.5 in senior year. Having that guidance was huge. Not saying my mom was shitty or lazy, she just didn't know. My dad didn't take no shit. He let me do my thing, but if shit started slippin, he was on me. He was also military trained so that came into play.
Notes is so important! Taking notes on what to do tomorrow, and what you have done today is very helpful. If it wasn't for my notepad I would never have finished my Masters degree. And I was diagnosed during my final year of the MSc at the age of 26.
Written in many places, on many things; sticky pads, iCloud notes, note books, legal tabs, napkins, receipts. Often I'll take these scattered notes an compile them into one long list.
Something like:
Spray Paint (blue)
*GRE
*1RM Friday Bench
*Russia?
*If you're walking through fire do not expect to come out the other side looking pretty
*760**11
At the time I write them I'd have context but revisiting them doesn't always remind me of it. So I end up with a list of half useful notes. In the end it's more helpful than hurtful.
I've noticed a lot of people here are saying notes help them. When I take notes they become random ramblings usually not of much help. After making the list or taking notes I have to go through and revise them and make them coherent. I have found that note taking helps me focus. If I'm at work and my mind keeps wandering I'll take five minutes to write down whatever my mind keeps wandering to. I find that writing with pen and paper is better than using my phone or a tablet for note taking but is usually messier. I end up with 5-6 sticky notes of my thoughts by the end of the day.
Similarly here I was diagnosed back when I was like 7 and never really understood what it actually was. Recently stopped taking my meds because I was getting some side effects and really felt the difference in my ability to get work done. I went from having to force myself to my desk and eventually getting on with work to forcing myself to my desk and literally flitting about so much that I can't get any work done. I started reading up on some of the habits I have that I use to get work done and realised lots of people with ADHD have the same habits.
My dad after 34 years finally told me I had ADD when I told him I wanted to get checked. Because I always felt I had it and working in scouts with a kid that definitely has is made me think back and realize that we were similar at that age. Hell I just worked through it and it took me a long time to learn to study and well do anything. I still have short term memory problems and distraction is my middle name but in the last 2 years I've gotten a lot better thanks to a task app on my tablet. I set alarms and dates for almost every task I need to do. Without it I'm so lost.
I always thought its was an over hyped hyper issue. Some people are just more easily distracted, I thought. Around my early 20's is when I really felt like it was more then just being hyper and distracted easily. I just had to learn to deal with it. This video really put some perspective on it.
My dad is almost 60 and is just now realizing how ADHD has affected his life. He always disregarded the diagnosis after being told it was a fake disorder. It wasn't until I started pushing them to get me diagnosed at 16 that he realized it was a thing.
On a side note, if anyone in your family has been diagnosed with ADHD and you have children, if you see any signs of ADHD, get them tested. ADHD affects more than just a learning aspect. It can have a very negative affect on their ability to socialize. So even if they get good grades, if the teacher mentions issues with focus, get them tested.
I only push this because I've only recently started treatment, and now realize how much more I could have done. Adapting to the medicine along with reorganizing myself is taking a long time and would have been less stressful if I had been tested sooner.
TL;DR : Get your kid tested if they show any signs of ADHD, regardless of their performance in school. It could save them a lot of struggle in the future
Where does the line lie? I identify with what this guy says but ive never even though about having it or even thought about the possibility of having any thing in common with the kids who were actually diagnosed.
I don't think I have ADHD (I grew up before people were readily diagnosing it) but I do have an anxiety disorder. I can definitely tell the difference between when I procrastinate due to anxiety and... other reasons.
When it is an anxiety-based procrastination I "cannot" start. I just can't. I am having a hard time finishing this post because it is making me think about something I am currently putting off because of my anxiety. Sorry.
Not to diagnose you as ADHD at all, but I personally had terrible anxiety before I was diagnosed. Since the diagnosis and medication, it's like the anxiety has magically disappeared.
All it takes is a visit to your doctor. Just ask him about it, and if he's a good doctor, he will listen and take it into consideration.
I coasted through high school with a 3. something but never had to really use my brain (A's and B's in the easy subjects and C's and D's in Chem, Algebra past the first couple of levels, etc).
In college, I stupidly chose Computer Science as my major, which I coasted through the first couple of years no problem, but when I got to data structures, discrete math, both Cals, and linear algebra, I was completely hopeless. I'd do the easy stuff no problem, but when it came to the hard stuff, I just put it off, half-assed it, and got bad grades. I had to retake the hardest courses a couple times (thank fucking god operating systems was curved so high that I managed a D the first time) and just couldn't apply abstract knowledge. I'd get it in theory, but I just couldn't put it down on paper. It didn't help that I was working full time.
I ended up graduating with a 2.34 or something like that, and BARELY fucking scraped by my last semester with a shit load of D's and a C. Of course, around here GPA is taken into consideration with jobs and most places wouldn't interview me or if I did have a technical interview, I was boned.
I worked support and I worked as a Web Dev for a local university (really terrible pay but good benefits) while my fiancee made 2x as much as me. She was a straight A student.
Anyways, I thought I was just a piece of shit and every time I had an epiphany and realized I needed to change, I'd say well fuck it, life is fine ish right now and I don't need help. I started a new job as a full stack developer at a startup (her dad's cousin needed help managing his clients, and hired me on full time to do PHP and other dev work) and I realized I fucking suuuucked at what I did. No matter how much I kept at it or tried, my brain was just full of a buzzing sound and I just found myself sort of sitting there most of the time waiting for him to help me.
Growing up, the kids who misbehaved all the time were the ones with ADHD. Usually they were okay, but when they forgot their meds....uh oh. So, I always affiliated that with some other shit and ignored it. About 6 months ago, I went to the doctor and explained my situation to him. I actually went for a leg problem I was having but when he pressed on personal issues I let everything out.
He gave me some breathing exercises, told me to keep going to the gym, and to keep going with that for a while. It worked for a bit, but I went straight back to my old habits. When I went back for a checkup a few months later, I explained that I did my best (i honestly truly felt like I did) and I think he got that. He put me on anti depressants to see if that might help the issue, but those made it worse for me. I went back again, and we had a long talk (with my fiancee present) and he asked her a few questions about my habits and he said he wanted me to go to a psych doctor he knows, and said this is probably a bit of ADHD and wanted to have me try adderall.
Holy shit, my life is so much better now. I'm for efficient at work, I learn a lot quicker, I don't stop paying attention during conversations, and I don't procrastinate (this one I'm still working on- but I can tell the metaphorical bully that lives inside my brain to shut the fuck up and let me work a lot easier now) and I'm able to actually organize my thoughts and everything.
I'm not saying this is the solution for everyone, but if I hadn't talked to my doctor I'd probably still be a massive piece of shit. I'm more of a polished turd now, but I'm actively trying to do better for myself and take care of myself for 20 years down the road. I'm only 25, and though I haven't had the official diagnosis (setting up tests and whatnot now) everything makes sense and my life is improving. My fiancee has noticed a massive increase in my work quality (she looks at my code to make sure I'm not fucking stuff up) and in my general productivity of getting chores and whatnot done around the house.
TL;DR: Talk to a professional, it may change your life. Just make sure that you're 100% honest with them and they'll be able to provide you with the help you need, whether that be a good pep talk, meds, or counseling.
OP's video spoke to me, but your story truly convinced me. By the way you described your college and work career, I would have thought it were me. I graduated with a mediocre GPA for Comp Sci, got lucky and landed a really good programming gig, and then had the exact same experience as you did. No matter how many times someone tried to show me something, it didn't click. I could make easier programs for class, but the application I supported was worlds apart from anything I had ever worked on. I floundered there for two years before I left. I had put off projects for so long that I could not force myself to do them. How could I ask for help when I was 8 months into a project and had no idea what I was doing?
I have been back and forth whether or not I should get evaluated until I read your comment. It described myself to a T. I have spent years trying to figure out how to get my life back on track, but now I can start see a glimmer of hope. Thank you!
No ADHD but taking adderrall makes me crush it at work. Just a low dose with breakfast and we're off. Writing research papers like they're fine works of art.
Prediction: Someone who really is questioning themselves but stops when he feels like he's just following a crowd, especially with a comment like this.
Seriously, I'm so confused right now.
How expensive is it to get screened for ADHD? My family's Mexican, so I'd have to have been literally bouncing off the walls to have been taken to a shrink or wherever you're supposed to go.
Ask your general practitioner. Consult the DSM-V definition of ADHD with them, and then discuss what steps to take next. This may or may not lead to a full screening (even if you are diagnosed), but at least you can discuss treatment plans from there. I didn't get a full screening for a year after I was diagnosed, and I only did because it was a requirement to get accommodations from my university.
Edit: if your doctor is unwilling to help find a new doctor, and don't be afraid to do research yourself (don't diagnose yourself). The first time I went in to talk to my doctor he said that if I didn't show signs of ADHD by age 6 that it couldn't be considered ADHD. It turns out he was going by the DSM-IV definition, and that the DSM-V definition allowed for signs up to age twelve. I brought this up with him and began receiving treatment for it because he was willing to cooperate with me.
That's exactly what I did, until I read your comment. Thank you. I know I have a form of attention disorder, but society and comments like this tell me not to do anything about it cause 'everyone thinks they have it' and they're all idiots if they do think that. Because of this, I've never done anything about it, even though it's been affecting everything in my life lately, especially work.
Thank you /u/themangodess for making realize that I've just been listening to cynics who are themselves just following a crowd to try and be liked by the karma train.
I just don't like these kinds of pet peeves people have, because while you might be on a train with other people questioning if they have undiagnosed ADHD, you shouldn't hop off just because some of them might be hypocondriacs. At the end of the day you're an individual who thinks/knows you have ADHD and is questioning it, and that's a good thing. Getting to know yourself in any way is always a good thing.
I wish I could tell everyone in this thread who is thinking the same thing as you to just go get screened for it.
I was screened as a child and was found to be "borderline" ADHD. My parents never got treatment for me. I barely graduated high school because of massive anxiety and depression (both of which I've since learned are extremely co-morbid with ADHD), did much better in college because I met my hyper-organized girlfriend (now wife), but struggled for the past 10 years with getting work done, staying on top of bills that I had the money to pay, but would forget about, and sticking with anything I set out to do.
About 6 months ago (after a few months of studying ADHD, including watching all of Russell Barkley's lectures, all while at work I might add), I finally got diagnosed and got on Adderall.
It was absolutely life changing. Before I got on meds, I would wake up, go to work, dread all the shit that had piled up that I hadn't done yet, and hop on Reddit, and still not do anything all day. For a period of about a year I literally did almost no work at all. I was constantly afraid that someone would find out, and I'd lose my job. It also made me question everything in my life. I loved my job, and yet I couldn't bring myself to do the work. I beat myself up every day for being lazy, and told myself that tomorrow I would finally buckle down and get to work, but of course not never happened.
The first day I took Adderall, I hopped on Reddit like I normally did, and after about a half hour I thought to myself, "okay, I don't really feel like Redditing anymore," and I got to work.
Since that first day on meds, I have not spent more than a half hour a day on Reddit during work hours. I actually get shit done. Im better about staying on top of bills and other life responsibilities. I'm also the happiest I've been, maybe ever in my adult life. I feel like I'm finally in control of my life and that I really can accomplish whatever I set out to do.
What I'm trying to say is that you have nothing to lose by getting evaluated. Maybe you have it, maybe you don't, but what do you stand to lose by finding out?
For me, it was hands down the best decision I've ever made in my life.
Heh. I was always suspicious that I had ADHD but never checked because every time I mentioned it someone said things like "but everyone has those symptoms you describe" or indeed said I was just going with the crowd.
A couple months ago I found Dr. Barkley's video and decided to check for myself. I was meaning to ask for a recommendation from my uncle who is a neurologist, last month I ran into his wife, who has various graduations related to teaching and I felt might know someone to recommend. She looked at me and said "Oh, you're fine. I'm like that too, it's just that us intelligent people always have something on our minds", it baffled me to the point that I couldn't even give her a proper answer. Some time later I asked my uncle for a recommendation, said I wanted to get check for ADHD and he just gave me the phone number, told me that if I think I have something I should get it check out.
My appointment is tomorrow and I get the feeling this is a pivotal moment. Sometimes I feel like maybe I've been hiding behind this possible diagnosis for a long time and if it turns out I don't have it then I'll be out of excuses. If I do have it I'm going to find every single one of the fuckers that told me it was probably nothing and tell them how hard it has been this whole time, specially my aunt.
Will do! What is the EEG for? Is there a "hard way" to diagnose ADHD? This is part of the reason I never got checked, because I couldn't ever know for sure (and nowadays I've got a friend who is pretty sure he shouldn't have taken pills since childhood)
Hey, nice timing. I just got back from the appointment and she said that it's HIGHLY likely that I've got ADHD and a strong one at that but that she needs to run some tests to be sure, problem is the battery of tests is much more expensive than I'd expected, roughly about 1,2x my monthly income. But honestly, I can deal. I've tried not giving a shit about this but I very likely had to pay for it in quality of life so we'll see how it goes.
I was diagnosed as a child but stopped taking my medicine because of teasing from my siblings (young kids are jerks to each other). For years I convinced myself I didn't actually have ADHD and refused to mention it because of the stigma associated with over diagnosing.
It's funny that I stopped taking my medicine because I thought I would be made fun of for having mental illness, and I refused to start taking it later because I thought I would be looked down on because I didn't have a "real" mental illness.
I went to the doctor just over 2 weeks ago and told her exactly what I was experiencing and how it was hurting. She got me some medicine and we're testing to see what dose/formula works best.
It feels good for once to know things are going to get better.
I honestly hate this mentality. There is more anti-ADHD rhetoric than there are people self diagnosing themselves. Is self diagnosing bad? Sure, but if they go to the doctor and find out the truth (wether they have it or not), maybe it wasn't as catastrophic as people make it out to be. I wish I was diagnosed when I was a kid. I could have avoided years of frustration and depression.
Same here. I always got in trouble at school and the psych told me I had ADHD. My parents and I should have listened and got treated but I refused the diagnosis saying that if it was on my record, I would never join the military.
In hindsight it was a bad idea but that's when I knew I legit had it.
That's kind of the human condition though isn't it? Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like most of us aren't comfortable in our own skins, some are better at hiding or ignoring it than others but life just feels weird. I'd love to be able to go to a doctor tomorrow and have them tell me exactly what all my problems are and how to fix them so that life just doesn't seem weird anymore. The truth is that I probably don't have (nor do I want) ADHD or any other kind of disorder that would explain away all my problems and I just need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
I have it myself, but I'm also a teacher. Most students are a bit chaotic, and need to learn how to plan and focus on what I'm saying for 50 minutes.
The difference with ADHD kids is massive. They are a mess on a whole other scale. Every minute for them seems to be a struggle to keep seated, keep listening. They're always the ones who don't understand my instructions, they're always the ones who I need to repeat things to. That is the point of this disorder. It takes recognizable symptoms, mixes them all together, and then just blows it up to a hundred times as bad.
At least you understand them and can adjust your teaching accordingly. I had a few teachers in the 90's that ended up treating me like a savaged animal that should be caged most of the time. For one of them, I was the target of there frustrations and while they never hit me, made sure I was aware of how much of a piece of shit I was.
And don't get me started on the substitute teachers. Fuck those cunts. At least a few of them got there shit pushed in by the principal once she found out what was going on. That was amazing to witness.
I hear you. Especially before high school, I was fairly miserable in school. Teachers always singled me out for punishment. I felt like I had no control over what I did, and I repeatedly told my teachers this, literally: "I can't help it, it's not my fault" but that only resulted in even more punishments. I felt different from the get-go, and just could not understand why everyone else managed to fly under the radar while seemingly anything I did was bad.
Looking back at what I wrote in my journal, I seemed to have figured out pretty quickly that there must be something inside me beyond my control that caused all this - I called it the angel and devil in me. They fought over me and decided that I needed to leave my desk, ignore instructions, make strange sounds and throw with things, or try and be cool for once.
But so many teachers came and went that did not see this. I was treated like a punk while I was the nicest kid, I never bullied anyone, I loved to play with my friends, I was so interested in what we were learning - but almost every week I received punishment in one form or another.
I just commented elsewhere that I don't think I have ADHD despite a diagnosis, but this hit pretty close to home. Two minutes in a classroom setting and my brain just stops absorbing information. Even orientation meetings at my daughter's high school, decades after the end of my formal education, were torturous ordeals. There was simply no way to force or trick my brain into actually paying attention.
I hear you. So often someone is talking to me and there is nothing even distracting me, I just... don't hear it. I'm sitting across from them and I don't hear a thing. With friends, I can go like "come again?" but in a classroom, during a speech, or even important job interviews... I've zoned out during presentations of my students. Which is bad. But don't tell anyone. :P
Not always. There's a great deal of variety with the condition as there is with every mental health problem.
There can also be a huge difference between the hyperactive and inattentive types.
Even those with milder symptoms find that it disrupts their life, and shouldn't be dismissed as "ahh good enough".
Most people who truly have ADD can point to instances where notably bad stuff happened as a result of these problems. Not "I didn't hand my paper in on time", but "I forgot to pick my children up at school for hours because I was distracted reading a bunch of books in Barnes and Noble and my phone was dead because I forgot to charge it".
(Source: Mom has ADD, I have ADD, was walked home from school by a teacher because the building was closing)
I get that, I was just explaining away the fact that people in this thread are going to self diagnose themselves with a condition that severely affects someone because they've felt some of the mild effects often associated with the disorder because wouldn't it be nice to have an explanation for some of our own imperfections.
The problem with your thinking is that you aren't looking at the science behind it. ADHD people's brains are different. It's a genetic disease they were born with that is a neurological developmental disorder. It affects chemicals in their frontal lobe that dictates executive function skills. This is why ADHD people procrastinate. They don't have enough dopamine in their brain (dopamine is reward chemical) that allows them to actually do the thing. Also why many ADHD people chase after booze or sex or adventure. Because that gives them the dopamine to actually feel alive and human. They crave stimulation because they lack so much dopamine. Medication gives them that dopamine to actually act out their plans and shit. When normally they would procrastinate at the last minute because adrenaline produces dopamine in your brain so ADHD people are actually able to motivate themselves and focus to get the work done that is probably due in like 5 hours. Unless there is an emergency causing their brains to produce dopamine like that, they aren't going to do the thing. That's different from a normal person's procrastination. They have that sufficient level of dopamine already. They just are choosing not to do it. See the difference? And also emotion regulation. ADHD people don't have a filter for emotion and the part of the brain that helps regulate emotions is developed way later for ADHD people. So they can seem immature when it comes to their temper, kind of like a child getting easily angered. Every single problem in my life was eventually explained by ADHD and I'm fucking glad it was because the way I used to live was not normal by any standards and I could never tell what the fuck it was and also thought I just needed to be comfortable being an uncomfortable weirdo. No. I needed medication. That made me normal. People are born differently. Imagine if I had bad eyesight but I'm like oh but everyone can have problems seeing a bit far away right? i just need to deal with my human handicaps? No. I need glasses. because I was born with shittier vision.
Perhaps I worded what I said wrong but my point was saying that people are going to self diagnose themselves with a serious condition because they've felt symptoms that are similar even if far less severe and wouldn't it be nice to explain away their imperfections. Certainly if someone actually has ADHD they need medication, if someone actually has bad vision they need glasses, and if someone feels like they have any kind of problem they should get it checked out just to make sure because for certain individuals getting medication or glasses or anything else might dramatically increase their quality of life. My point was that life is awkward and that all problems can't just be explained away as much as we'd like them to be.
For adults especially college level students I think it's confused for laziness. I was diagnosed when I was in 1st grade and had a really hard time in school and it affected me on a pretty severe level. Im 27 now and learned how to deal with it and cope with it but my 20 year old brother just got diagnosed and I know he sure as hell doesn't have it along with a bunch of other kids his age who never had any problems. I think once adderol and the other drugs got popular it became a crutch for a lot of people to lean on.
But the thing is, can you be lazy if you don't want to be lazy? Like if every second of your laziness you are racked with guilt and shame and you want so badly to do something of value but just can't force yourself to, is that being lazy? Or what if you try as hard as you can to do something but your mind just gets distracted so easily and so often that you end up losing hours and hours without even realizing it?
These two types of people and someone who is just shamelessly lazy because they hate working will look exactly the same to 99% of outside observers. It's almost like an addiction, some people make a conscious choice to live that lifestyle, but most people just somehow fall into a cycle that they hate and don't have the ability to get out of it on their own. It often required medical attention to stop being "lazy", but adderal is only going to work for one of those types off people.
Yeah it's a mistake to think you have to have a diagnosable mental illness to talk to a therapist or a psychologist. Sometimes it just helps to have a person to talk to that you know won't judge you. Most of us have some weird compulsion, behavior, thought pattern, worry, anxiety, etc., and a good therapist will challenge the way you think about it. Sometimes just saying something out loud to another person really does help.
Well I have Aspergers which goes hand-in-hand with ADHD and have literally been assigned an ADHD medicine over a month ago which I have yet to actually go get, just can't seem to get myself to do it. Is it that hard to believe I might have ADHD although I haven't been officially diagnosed with it?
Conversely, I was diagnosed and don't believe I have it. The test was questions like "Do you like to be told what to do or do you like making your own decisions" or "Do you sometimes feel confused or sad'
They just wanted to sell some pills. As soon as I grew up and stopped taking them, everything got better.
The test was questions like "Do you like to be told what to do or do you like making your own decisions" or "Do you sometimes feel confused or sad'
Having a shitty doctor and misdiagnosing (not over or under diagnosing, just missing it) was a huge issue with ADHD in the 90's and 00's.
Modern diagnoses are generally based on neuropsych exams (such as WAIS-IV for adult diagnoses) rather than general practitioners "how're you feeling" questions.
I'll go the other direction: I am diagnosed ADHD, but don't believe I have it. I think my doctor used ADHD as justification to prescribe Adderall as an off-label treatment for my ongoing fatigue issues. I do fit quite a lot of criteria for ADHD, but I just think it's garden-variety laziness, made worse by relentless exhaustion that isn't relieved by sleep.
He has another talk where he says 40% of people go undiagnosed, that it's one of the most under-diagnosed not over-diagnosed disorders as is generally said. At the same time it's the one that has the most effective set of pharmaceuticals and practices/strategies to overcome it to a great degree.
To be fair, I think this probably describes a lot of people. Procrastination is just a human thing to do. It's not good for us but it's instinct. I don't see it as a moral failing, a lot of people just have a hard time doing things that they aren't interested in.
Of course. When the guy just describes procrastination as attention-deficit hyperactivity-deficit and ignores every other symptom people will be led to believe that's what they have.
I procrastinated a lot with school but I had no issues keeping attention to what I was working on. Even if a group of dancing animals was going on feet away from me, I wouldn't have had an issue working on something. However, that paper that's due in a month? I got plennnnntttyyy of time to do that so, not today.. But yeah, want to give me a script for adderall or ritalin, why not, I could make a few bucks selling it to people.
You'll never see this, but everyone and their sister has adhd and it makes my life hell. I get tired of hearing i failed in life so there must be a problem with my brain. Try living with it your whole life struggling to focus, only to hear ppl blame their shortcomings on a self diagnosed farce
Ive sought help and found many ways to cope. Making sure i think before i talk and paying attention to my hands. But its something ill always have to live with. I just get frusterated when people use it as a scapegoat.
I got diagnosed as an adult, and referred to a specialist that could prescribe me the medication that might help.
Never got around to calling. Lost the diagnosis, lost the specialist information. It's probably behind me in my room somewhere. It's been almost a year, I think.
Just... This video really resonated. I'm about to graduate, and I see my classmates effectively apply their scripting knowledge on the fly, accomplishing in minutes what takes me much longer. We have the same knowledge, and I always just wonder-- am I incompetent? Then I see other classmates with similar work ethics as mine, terrible procrastination problems, and it all evens out, and the things we produce are all at a similar quality anyway, and it just gets really confusing as to what level I'm expected to perform at in my field.
I hope more progress gets made in clinical psychiatry-- it could really increase productivity for all of us.
Jokes on you. I only got 1:42 through the video paused it, paced around my apartment, looked in the fridge, played a piano thing, played a web game, and then opened the other browsing tab that had another video half watched.
To be fair, I think a lot of people have some level of these issues but don't know that it may be how they're wired, and may think they're just not trying hard enough.
I went undiagnosed until I was 33. I knew I sucked at remembering short-term things, or juggling multiple tasks, or focusing on books or lectures, or even fully paying attention to the only conversation I'm currently having with somebody face-to-face. But I thought it was something I just needed to dedicate myself more to and I would do it better. I thought that for about 15 years before I decided to talk to a doctor about it.
The irony for me now is that my ADD causes me to often forget to take my medication for my ADD.
I mean isn't that how you go about it? I began to think I had ADHD but didn't want to be "one of those guys" who tries to anchor their easily-overcame weaknesses to a disease or syndrome or disorder. I fought it for years - I didn't have ADHD, I was just too fat and unhealthy/I needed more sleep/I'm not in the right frame of mind.
I addressed ALL of these things, and tried to use every coping and time management technique out there. It would work for a few days, but become exhausting and I'd be back to my old ways.
Finally, I made an appointment with a psychiatrist. I read enough about ADHD-I that I thought "Let me get a pro's opinion on this, I think I might have this."
Lo and behold, he told me "you very obviously have ADHD."
He put me on wellbutrin, which is non-stimulant based, and is (I think) a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. It isn't as intense as amphetamine based, but it isn't habit forming, nor do you get diminishing returns as you take it over time.
Don't knock people who think they may have ADHD - a lot of us are told we're just lazy and useless, and in reality, help is very easy to find.
Everybody who sees this video is going to "think" they have ADHD. Unless you had pretty severe behavioral problems growing up to the point you almost couldn't function due to impulse control or attention issues you are probably fine. The amount of people who claim to have it or claim to be diagnosed with it is staggering. Now a days any doctor will willingly write an adderol prescription and say kids have ADD. Truth is a lot of people are lazy and don't want to do things and try to play it off as having attention issues and ADHD.
My wife lived with me for two years before she lost this attitude. I'm definitely more on the hyperactive end of the disorder and I can out work just about anybody. Nobody has ever accused me of being lazy. My family is well taken care of and all my responsibilities are met. Don't ask me to relax, remember anything, or pay attention to anything and all is well. I'd love anyone who says ADHD is made up to live through my anxiety attacks and say it's not really a real thing. I'd also challenge them to keep up with me when I'm on a hyperfocus brain melt. I can actually cause myself physical harm because get so wrapped up in what I'm doing I do not pay attention to pain or discomfort. Earlier this year I dug six 15" by 5 foot deep deck footings with a post hole digger in rocky soil in just a few hours. When my wife came home she was dumbfounded that the work was done but pointed out that both of my wrists were swollen. I didn't even notice. Lazy piece of shit looking for an excuse reporting for duty!
I was referring to people who are lazy, blaming a disease they were never diagnosed with for the reason they are so lazy. I actually suffer from ADHD, and nothing pisses me off more than someone who diagnoses themselves with it because they procrastinate or something stupid.
See my other comment for my full explanation of my experiences.
I apologise and agree with you. People who self diagnose because they like smoking weed and watching SpongeBob all day in thier Mom's basement are the reason for most people's rotten attitude for this disorder. Both me and my youngest son are diagnosed and my wife had a hard time with it. She thought it was just my rotten habits rubbing off on him. She gets it now.
I think his point is that there are genuinely lazy people who don't care about their future, and only act when they absolutely have to. They don't have ADHD but are just genuinely lazy, however their lazyness will pass of as ADHD symptoms.
You're not understanding him. That's not at all what he's implying. He's saying people always falsely diagnose themselves with ADD/ADHD to excuse their laziness. This makes folks with legitimate ADD/ADHD look bad.
I've been diagnosed with ADHD by two seperate psychiatrists over the years, one of them Harvard trained, and this bullshit is infuriating.
"It's really hard for me to study sometimes cause I just get so bored, I'm totally ADHD, it's really a problem."
Shut the hell up, you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. You can't focus on studying? I litterally can't count 100 things sometimes without my mind wondering off into some dumb bullshit. My memory is so shot I have to rely in Facebook to tell me my mother and sister's birthdays every year. I've lost jobs because I could keep on task long enough to get anything done even when I know full well I have to stay focused or I'll lose the job.
It's the most crippling thing that I can't tell people about because idiots like that have made ADHD appear to be an excuse. If I tell people I have ADHD, the response I'm always likely to get is "quit complaining and just focus" or something similar. It's something you get eye rolls for now.
I am in the same boat as you. I was diagnosed at a very young age and I struggled through my entire education. It isn't that I am unable to do things, it just takes me 4x longer to do. In college a paper that would take 1-2 hours for a normal person, would take 4-8 for me to finish. I was never able to organize and was always loosing my homework / forgetting to do it.
But I graduated with a business degree (fucking barely haha Cs get degrees).
No one without ADHD will ever be able to understand what it is like to have ADHD. It is the same with any disease really. I am also deaf in my left ear which doesn't help my situation. Even if I mention it to people the first time I meet them (which I hate doing), they forget and don't understand why I have to ask them to repeat themselves all the time, have to stand / sit on the right side of people, miss bits and pieces of what they are talking about, I could go on and on. My ADHD doesn't help this situation either because once I stop comprehending what the person is saying, my thought process veers off focus. When I don't mention it to people, and I have to ask them to repeat themselves (random social encounters whatever) they look at me like there is something wrong with me. Which leads me to generally avoiding social interactions because most of the time they are more effort than it's worth.
That's life for you I guess. I am pretty used to it now, so it doesn't really bother me much. I started my own eCommerce business in college a few years ago and work from home. It is perfect for me because I can work at my own pace and take as long as I like. I would assume it would be hard to find an employer who would understand how I work. I see it as an advantage because the longer it takes me to do something, the more time I have to think about what I'm working on. It allows me to have multiple perspectives on what I'm trying to create and leads to a better, more thought out end result. Trying to explain that to an employer is impossible. I like to believe it is the reason for my moderate success, but who really knows anyway.
I have ADHD, diagnosed when I was 4 years old in 1991. I haven't used it as an excuse since high school. Main reason, I've learned people don't care. I have a fellow who worked under me, only about 5 years younger then me. The first few weeks every time he made a mistake he blamed it on his ADD. After 2 weeks I had enough and told him flat out, i have ADHD and I don't use it as an excuse. If I fuck up, I deal with it and move on and try to learn from it.
I feel like if ADHD is what we think it is, it would be more common to have it vs. Not have it. Huh, what a coincidence for the companies selling the "cure".
I'm legit wondering if I have some degree of it after watching this. Also: my sister has diagnosed ADD so the chances I have something are definitely there.
But am I lazy? Not really. I used to work a sales job where I was working like 10-11 hour days six days a week. It's not that I'm not able to bust my ass. I didn't leave that job because it was too much work, I left because after a while I realized I'm just not good enough at sales to get anywhere with it. My performance was always spotty and inconsistent. Not because I wasn't putting in time. I had too much trouble closing on a sale for someone who had worked there that long.
Should I have called anyone working 40 hour weeks lazy?
That's why I suddenly want to find out, am I a procrastinator or have a bit of ADHD? (Or as he puts it, IDD.)
I had too much trouble closing on a sale for someone who had worked there that long.
I wouldn't call you lazy or anything. In my opinion, sales isn't a job anyone can excel at, some people just have the perfect personality for it. One of my business partners is a very acceptation salesmen. I go through planning with him, strategize with him, the works. He explains everything he does and why he does it and how to do it. I understand everything and why he does it, but I could never be the salesmen he is. Sales is definitely not something everyone can excel at not matter how much time you put in.
Sales is also pretty easy to get burnt out on. If you run into a rut and can't close deals, then it is really going to kill your moral and burn you out even quicker.
Try not to blame yourself or think that there is something wrong with you. Sales just wasn't your thing. Maybe you would have excelled better as a sales manager. You obviously aren't lazy because you worked your ass off and tried your best. You just have to find something that you're good at that also makes you happy.
I don't beat myself up about it. My bosses were very inspirational so it took me a long time to realize that sales isn't for me. I was just trying to drive the point home that I'm not alien to working long hours. I just have poor motivation to work toward things that are off in some indefinite future.
Oh okay. Honestly I struggle with the exact same thing, so it could be a possibility. This was one of the main reasons that I struggled in school. I could never see the end game of any of knowledge I was being fed, so I didn't have the motivation to do it.
I was diagnosed with ADHD and Tourettes and have been struggling with them my entire life. Do you have any idea how hard it is to finally have used up all your energy trying to focus on something and then you start to have tics and that focus goes out the window?
Look up any videos on the brain scans of those with ADHD. The brain is functioning differently in an empirically measurable way, than a typical brain. The brain lacks the normal activity in the executive functioning area in the front of the brain. This isn't made up, it's measurable against a control. It was an evolutionarily advantageous trait 500,000 years ago in the plains of Africa when we were hunter/ gatherers but now this trait causes problems in our modern world.
929
u/[deleted] May 30 '17
[removed] — view removed comment