Comment by jnovek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jnovek | Hacker News Reader

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“For many people it's completely debilitating.”

Anecdote: I have ADHD (diagnosed) and I think I can safely say that it is the single highest source of stress in my life.

Interest-oriented motivation is incompatible with employers’ needs for predictability. I’ve lost entire workdays because of completely irrelevant side-quests.

I find working on a contract basis is much more compatible with my ADHD experience than being a FTE because I can at avoid charging for days when my brain goes completely off the rails.

This is with medication and years of psycho and occupational therapy. This is with regular exercise (which definitely helps). I think I am managing the disorder with the best tools I can reasonably get my hands on right now and the best it ever gets for me is controlled chaos.

I do love the rush of learning something new that folks with the disorder tend to get but, man, at this point I would happily ditch that occasional good experience in exchange for behaviors that look like a functioning adult in his 40s.

> I find working on a contract basis is much more compatible with my ADHD experience than being a FTE because I can at avoid charging for days when my brain goes completely off the rails.

True for me as well but hard for most to find a situation (or employer/client) that can be this lenient.

For me, I have certain issues that are literally impossible to explain. Why am I a half hour late? Because I had to go back inside the house to grab something different I forgot 4 separate times, and on the third time, I lost the item I went back for originally, and had to spend 15 minutes looking for that. Oh, my car keys ended up in the refrigerator for some reason. Why not? There have been periods where this has been every waking moment of my life if I don't concentrate as hard as I can.

"Why don't you just set aside a spot for things." Wow, geez, I never thought of that, thanks. I'm cured.

I cultivated a "mad professor" reputation. It's easier to get away with in our industry than most.

It was only much later I found out why I was doing that, of course.

Is ADHD really the highest source of stress in your life, or is wage employment? I mean, you put your finger on the issue right here:

> Interest-oriented motivation is incompatible with employers’ needs for predictability.

I'd challenge the word "needs" though. They want things. They are happier with predicable mediocrity than they are with unpredictable flashes of discovery. You could say that this is an anxiety disorder on the part of the investor and managerial class. But of course, they are not disordered; you are; that is the nature of the power relation.

I could construct an analogous sentence:

"Likewise, interest-oriented sexual arousal is incompatible with the breeding requirements of the Glorious Leader. We have pills to bring on appropriate moods in the females."

This sentence triggers the correct, disgusted reaction, because we respect women's reproductive capacity as sacred. We do not hold the mind as similarly sacred, which is why others believe they have a right to yours.

> Is ADHD really the highest source of stress in your life, or is wage employment?

For me, it's the highest source of stress in my life. Wage employment is obviously fuel to the fire, but one has to remember one thing. ADHD is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 365 or 366 days a year.

It causes disorder in employment, but as the late, great Billy Mays once said, "But wait! There's more."

It affects literally every aspect of my life -- personal relationships, hobbies, responsibilities, sleep, physical health, etc.. ADHD doesn't only affect me from 9 to 5.

People get pissed when you don't respond to their emails/texts, when you don't pay attention to what they are saying, forget to do whatever they need, etc..

It's crazy to me, because to my knowledge, it's one of the only diseases, if not the only, that is mainly characterized by how the symptoms affect others and not the person suffering.

> I find working on a contract basis is much more compatible with my ADHD experience than being a FTE because I can at avoid charging for days when my brain goes completely off the rails.

Now I just need to find a spouse willing to be married to me on a contract basis :/

Damn. You just described my whole life.

And contract work applies an automatic ceiling to career progression.

It's a bugger all right.

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