Comment by wwweston | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wwweston | Hacker News Reader

A family member told me it changed his life by enabling a consistent level of productivity that he struggled with before.

I've considered exploring this because my level of productivity varies pretty widely, and I've had experiences that partly match other people's descriptions (broken sense of confidence in prioritization, too many ideas/interests)... but I also wonder:

How do people who diagnose ADHD reject the diagnosis? Or do they? Software professionals tend to see software solutions to domain dynamics whether they're necessary or most productive; it seems to me it's possible that medical-psych professionals might tend to medicalize personal dynamics... in particular, how does one tell the difference between outlier levels of OCEAN/Big5 trait "openness" and ADHD?

Or is it simpler than this, and you find someone who treats ADHD, try the treatment, and if it changes your life, the label is the least important part of that?

I will say that I was diagnosed after college with ADHD and was given a prescription for Adderall. I get the feeling it was from a "script farm," so I didn't get anything more than a "yes you have ADHD, here's some drugs."

I tried the Adderall and the focus I always lacked was there; it felt almost like a super power. I explain it like being Cyclops from X-Men. I had this laser beam of focus: whatever I looked at I could focus on for as long as I wanted. But it also felt a bit like a performance enhancing drug, and something that was changing who I was by changing my brain, so I stopped taking it.

Recently I've started seeing a therapist who explained that my ADHD is not a deficit of attention, but a different way of how my brain works. Since I'm always thinking about a ton of things all at once I'm able to tie things together better than a lot of people I've worked with (or been in school with). If there's a crisis situation things slow way down for me and I'm able to think really clearly in the moment, instead of panicking.

The best part was that it was explained to me that if I ever needed to focus the way other people do (on things that I struggle to focus on), I can always temporarily "switch" my thinking by taking an ADHD drug.

TLDR: Initially rejected diagnosis, but have accepted it thanks to a better explanation from a professional.

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