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Comment by cpuguy83 | Hacker News Reader

Having gone through this with my fam, given that you seem to have reactions to every med, have you considered it may be autism or aspurgers? ADHD and autism are often seen together, and reactions to other meds also seems to be fairly common. I just wanted to throw that out there because this realization that it's not just ADHD, not just anxiety, etc has changed our life dramatically... and there are meds that can help with this (on top of some dietary changes).

Anyway, good luck!

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Bipolar, schizophrenia, and depression can also cause attention deficient. It is extremely common for children with Bipolar to be misdiagnosed as ADHD.

Depression is usually easier to diagnose accurately. Schizophrenia can be hit or miss, depending on severity. In my case (I'm bipolar), psychosis was so much a part of my normal life that I was completely blind to it and my external symptoms weren't severe enough to be recognizable.

For just ADHD, There are also other classes of medication that can help. Atomoxetine, bupropion, guanfacine, and clonidine are alternative medications that work differently than first line stimulants.

I'm curious if you're willing to share, how psychosis can be a part of a normal life, how you can have it for any length of time without it being recognizable? Did I understand correctly? Is it like, having a very unusual perception of reality, but not so unusual as to interfere with normal functioning?

In people I know who have experienced it, it was very debilitating, so I hadn't even considered the possibility of having it for a long time and still being able to function.

I'll send you an email, as this is getting off topic. :)

Edit... this ended up being an entire blog post, my blog and email are in my profile.

This is possible. When I was diagnosed, it was autism masking ADHD (apparently the other way around is more common though) because I have all the ADHD issues with everything except my special interest. I was told that ADHD more commonly masks autism though, so it's certainly worth exploring the possibility.

The “able to function normally for special interest” is a symptom of ADHD itself, there is no need to bring in autism as an additional explanatory variable. (Not saying your autism didn’t mask symptoms but what you described happens in ADHD without autism very frequently)

For example I have ADHD without autism and grew up thinking I was “smart but lazy” because I was > 99% as far as raw intelligence but had little motivation for the drudgery associated with school (or indeed life itself), yet I could play video games for hours straight without seeming to be at a disadvantage compared to neurotypical peers.

This is because ADHD, among other things, is a disorder of attention regulation as opposed to being completely unable to pay attention to anything.

Hyper focus is a cool super power of adhd.

So cool that you routinely don't do the dishes, laundry, rubbish, childcare or gardening because you're way too in the zone.

It's cool af if you're young and single and you can just go and go and go on what it is that you're totally wrapped up in. It's shite when you grow up a little and other people have expectations of you and you constantly fail to meet them.

Speaking about other possible conditions, anecdotally there are two people in my family who saw a psychiatrist for ADHD like symptoms, who years later were eventually diagnosed with sleep apnea (both with a normal BMI).

It seems like this is not uncommon, quoting Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep”:

> Based on recent surveys and clinical evaluations, we estimate that more than 50 percent of all children with an ADHD diagnosis actually have a sleep disorder, yet a small fraction know of their sleep condition and its ramifications.

Good guesses. I do have apnea. I have a cpap and it’s well controlled.

I have an auto immune condition(Sjogrens) as well As a clotting disorder. Plus way to much sugar in 20s.

Took many many years to figure the above out. Proper treatment diet has been helping, but a lot of damage has accumulated.

I have sleep apnea, and ADHD. Before getting on CPAP life was pretty tough. It definitely exacerbated my ADHD at least 2x. So, I can understand that if you're neurotypical and have sleep apnea it is going to be affecting your executive function such that you aren't at 100%. The flip side is ADHDers are significantly more likely to be morbidly obese and have other health complications like sleep apnea as a result. At that point it's a real downward spiral. Very glad I finally sought treatment for my apnea after kicking the can down the road for 4 whole years, which is very typical ADHD behavior in itself.

For real though CPAP is life changing if you need it and you get on it.

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