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Comment by dexwiz | Hacker News Reader

Title is a bit misleading. 25% of adults self diagnosed themselves with ADHD while diagnosis rates of adults are actually 4.4%.

For myself and others, depression manifests itself as ADHD like symptoms. Something anxious takes up residence in my mind, and until it’s resolved, it can dominate all other thoughts. Combined with a million distractions, and I seem to loose all ability to focus on what I want. But in reality I am just focusing, or avoiding focussing, on something else.

We are not machines. Concepts like willpower lead people to believe they can just choose to focus on what they want, when they want without concern for what’s going on in their lives.

Mindfulness is a step in the right direction, but it is not a panacea alone. You still have to address what you discover through self reflection.

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I don’t mean to be critical, but as someone with actual diagnosed ADHD it is kinda annoying. When I got diagnosed I did my research online about what to expect, and it was frustrating (and confusing) just how many blogs were talking about symptoms I could not relate with at all. Eventually I figured out these people were discussing coping with depression, and it was disheartening that they probably are still not treating their underlying illness appropriately.

Actual diagnosis? Did you answer “very often” to “How often do you have difficulty keeping your attention when you are doing boring or repetitive work?”

Maybe we shouldn’t be going around convincing ourselves we have a disorder we may or may not have. Blaming ADHD and hindering ourselves more.

That being said, if medication helps you thats a good thing.

Yes, actual diagnosis. As an adult, after it already destroyed my marriage and career.

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A huge roadblock for effectively planning things is pretty bad for relationships and careers.

More like my marriage and career were in shambles so I sought help. Now things are better. The medication works (and I present the paradoxical reaction), so why question it?

Yeah if I’d been medicated from a young age I wouldn’t have had so many issues. That’s the point of medicating, no?

My point was the “diagnosis” is hardly a diagnosis at all, and it’s not surprising that amphetamines help you perform (that’s what they do). You have no reason to claim that you have ADHD and someone else doesn't.

Edit: @m463 I strongly disagree that the cdc statement below reflects the reality. If you don’t believe me, please go take the test just as an experiment. I couldn’t reply, I think I’m banned from posting. I may have spoken too harshly but I stand by what I said.

Well except for the diagnosis. So much the same way a cancer patient doesn't have a reason to claim they have cancer and someone else doesn't?

> Well except for the diagnosis. So much the same way a cancer patient doesn't have a reason to claim they have cancer and someone else doesn't?

Are cancer patients diagnosed via multiple choice questionnaires?? Please tell me more about the rigorous testing process for ADHD diagnosis.

ADHD diagnosis is nothing like a cancer diagnosis. I can’t tell if you’re trolling.

Edit: My bad this is pretty low level bait looking back

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Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You've been breaking the site guidelines badly and repeatedly in this thread. Could you please stop? We have to ban accounts that keep posting this way. This is not a site for flamewars.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

The cdc seems to say the dignosis is more rigorous than some sort of internet self-assessment:

Diagnosing ADHD usually includes a checklist for rating ADHD symptoms and looking at the person's history of behavior and experiences. The provider will determine if ADHD symptoms were present before age 12 years and may ask for permission to gather information from friends and family. A medical and psychological exam may be needed to rule out other health problems that can cause symptoms like ADHD or that are often present with ADHD, such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, alcohol or substance misuse, or learning disabilities.

https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/articles/adhd-across-the-lifetime.h...

You should know very well that an ADHD diagnosis is a lot more than just that question. In my case four people close to me were given questionnaires, I was lucky enough to still have all my school reports, which were no grades but a page of solid text back in 1989 to solidify my suspicion. There's also an IQ test and a very annoying attention test on the computer. Matter of fact, one of those who filled out the questionnaire (and is not related to me) was like "If you have ADHD I'm even more likely to have it".

ADHD and its symptoms along with the myriad of possible comorbidities are annoying. I'm the kind of hyperactive foot whipping guy which people pointed out often but no one told me it could be ADHD. A friend (also in the local hackerspace) doesn't show that and that was enough for a (non-ADHD-specialized) therapist to disregard this ADHD suspicion.

Depression is the one I also fight with, but mostly it's rooted in my inability to get stuff done which leads to all sorts of financial and social problems. I'm just happy I skipped self-therapy with illegal drugs and got a high enough IQ to survive 42 years of untreated ADHD. I'd strongly support if schools did test all pupils how good their executive functions are (actually they do with giving them daily homework) and Russel Barkley's suggestion to not let young people with ADHD drive a car unless they take their medication might be worth a study.

Another important correction for the title - "in U.S.". Americans are infamous for drug abuse, according to National Center for Drug Abuse statistics 50% of people 12 and older have used illicit drugs[1], which definitely affects their ability to focus.

[1] https://drugabusestatistics.org/

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