ADHD Help

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daylen
Posts: 2528
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:17 am
Location: Lawrence, KS

ADHD Help

Post by daylen »

Today I figured out my lifelong confusion. I always figured that I didn't have ADHD since I wan't all that hyperactive and ADHD was over-diagnosed. After choosing to read about it more in-depth I realized that I have the all the symptoms of the inattentive form, and the symptoms are starting to become more pronounced now that I have graduated from college.

I currently have four different occasional jobs that provide for my very modest needs (thanks to you guys). The problem is that it will take forever to become financially independent. I will choose to be a homeless-dumpster-diver before I do full-time work. I have many great ideas for businesses, but I just get bored and can't focus. Thinking and reading are the only two things I like to do. They don't make me any money.. Writing isn't bad and is becoming more painless over time. The problem is not thinking of a better way of writing something while I write.. it's distracting. I have successfully blogged in the past, but I don't know if I could sustain interest. I am getting better now that I have matured a bit (22 now). Recently, I have even considered vlogging.

I came here to get some perspective on the topic. Any tips or suggestions are most welcome! There is no reason to go to a doctor. I have had a positive relationship with marijuana in the past, and I believe this has to do with the CBD. So I plan on trying just the CBD to see if I can negate the psychoactive effects and retain the benefits. If you have a better idea, let me know!

TL;DR I have the symptoms of inattentive ADHD, and I wish to improve my functioning. Looking for tips and a different perspective on the topic.

FBeyer
Posts: 1069
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:25 am

Re: ADHD Help

Post by FBeyer »

I was about to write a 10.000 word response but there is something I want to get out of the way first:

1) Have you been diagnosed by a professional? As in D.I.V.A. test or similar?
2) Have you absolutely, positively rooted out the possibility that your ADHD like behaviour could be stress related? Men in particular are very prone to ADHD like symptoms when under stress. It really threw my psychiatrist a curve ball when male-specific stress reduction treatment helped my ADHD symptons greatly.

'turns out I have a 25+ year history of constant stress...

My girlfriend and I joked that the only written test I aced since starting university was the online test for adult ADHD. :roll:

daylen
Posts: 2528
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:17 am
Location: Lawrence, KS

Re: ADHD Help

Post by daylen »

1) I have not been diagnosed (I just figured it out less that 12 hours ago), but I when I was in elementary school I was diagnosed with a minor hearing loss which is commonly misdiagnosed instead of ADHD according to a quick google search. My whole life I have used my diagnosed hearing loss as an excuse for not paying attention to people ;) . I don't think people suspected since I didn't want to be noticed, and I was good at it. I did the bare minimum just to keep teachers and parents off my back and daydreamed the rest of the time.

2) Stress definitely amplifies it, but my intuition tells me it isn't stress. It is hard to know though due to subjectivity. What I do know is that I have had these issues continuously my entire life, stressed or not.

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9375
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: ADHD Help

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Well, first I would note that it is actually quite natural for a member of the homo sapiens species to prefer homeless dumpster diving to full time wage employment. That's what we mostly did for millennia prior to reaching population density that necessitated agriculture, and now petroleum based agriculture. Also, if you did manage to successfully feed yourself from dumpsters and maintain body warmth through utilization of layers of discarded textiles, you would be acting more in accordance with doing your part to reduce CO2 emissions than the vast majority of diligent worker bees.

That said, there is joy and social-status to be found in successful completion of creative work projects or challenging goals. You need Vision, Research, Planning, Execution, Management, Maintenance, and it sounds like maybe you only have Vision and Research. Welcome to the club-lol. Changing your own internal chemical stew is one possible solution. Changing your physical external environment is another possible solution. Changing your external social environment/connections is another possible solution.

Most people these-a-days simply go out and find a boss who already has a plan for creating value with your work. Similar strategy would be hiring a life coach, personal trainer, or buying a step-by-step how to do book. The alternatives would be to initiate a partnership (many or most people only do this in the form of marriage), or hire employees (most people only do this at the margin of extreme drudgery like lawn-mowing or semi-consciously as when purchasing an already roasted chicken.) Finding a boss/structure is helpful for bringing out your inner technician/executor/maintainer, hiring employees is helpful for bringing out your inner planner/manager/executor, and forming a partnership is helpful for recognizing/maximizing whatever your natural forte happens to be.

In a weird way, the problem is that you have found that the challenge of taking care of you is too easy. Different people fret more or less about possible fate of future them, so need more or less of a reserve in order to sleep well at night. I think this is difficult to change. My 77 year old friend who has net worth over 70 million still frets. The sure fire method for making yourself fret more is to take on more responsibility in relationship to others. So, you could do a mental exercise, starting with the notion that what you have is an idea for making money/creating value, one employee, and one dependent. They don't all have to be you, you and future you.

The benefit of this exercise for procrastinators, or people who are not in possession of great time perception and management skills is that truisms such as "most people overestimate how much they can do in a day and underestimate how much they can do in a year" become much more clear when you are writing down a To Do list you want an employee to accomplish in 4 hours vs. wishful thinking about your own super-powers. Also, humans often tend towards being more rational and kind in evaluating the line between indulgence/deprivation when considering the needs/wants/preferences of a dependent rather than themselves. For example, I am pretty happy-go-lucky considering the worst-case-scenario possibility of a dumpster/forager lifestyle for myself, but NOT in a situation where I am responsible for the care of a theoretical grandchild. And the dependent you theoretically assign yourself does not have to be a human baby; it could be an endangered species of bird, or a collection of antiquarian books, or ???

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jennypenny
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Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:20 pm

Re: ADHD Help

Post by jennypenny »

https://www.additudemag.com/category/manage-adhd-life/

Some adults with ADHD who don't want to be officially diagnosed (so it's not in their medical record) self-medicate with sudafed. I've read it's particularly effective for inattentive types. It can take as little as 1/3 of a 12-hour pill per day and works well in conjunction with a strong coffee booster mid-afternoon.

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9375
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: ADHD Help

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@jennypenny:

Good suggestion. I happenstance noticed that OTC asthma medication (ephedrine hydrochloride) has similar effect. Phenylephrine does not work. Pseudoephedrine does. So, you have to get the kind that they keep behind the counter, so people who want to manufacture street drugs can't buy in quantity. Mixing pseudoephedrine with fish oil can mellow effect..

I would also note that when I sought to be diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s, I was informed that it was more likely that I had very low-level bi-polar (cyclothymia), since I learned to read at an early age. None of these syndromes are simple to pinpoint diagnose/treat.

What the article you linked had to say about time management or perception is very true. My mother who has bi-polar disease is a shopaholic, and I sometimes describe myself as being frugal with money, but spendthrift with time. Maybe because money is so much easier to track?

slowtraveler
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:06 pm

Re: ADHD Help

Post by slowtraveler »

I also experienced ADHD symptoms. They've decreased with moving out and leaving the stresses of my former life.

CBD helped me, growing it costs $100-200/pound, which should last a year. Miracle gro and some cheap, high P-K, low N fertilizer for flowering phase are all you really need, and water. This assumes you live somewhere like Co or Wa, where you can grow openly and don't need lights.

Vipassana meditation is free and also helped me, if you go this route, I highly recommend staying through to the very end of the 11 days.

Doctors didn't help for shit. But they did cost more money than the other methods.

The biggest cost to me was the switching of focus every few weeks-months. ERE massively helped me here, as did a book called Horse Sense, because I then began focusing long term on a single target and making real progress. I think you have that in place but switching jobs may be distracting as well. I think the lifestyle/ environment you build around you can exaggerate the worst or intensify the best if ADHD.

ADHD can help build a broad understanding of the world around you. It can help you learn about much of the world since their is so much natural fascination with multiple domains. Enjoy this. But look for patterns in both your interests and any long term fascinations like wealth or love. That has helped me see that I have a few long term foci and many short term fascinations.

daylen
Posts: 2528
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:17 am
Location: Lawrence, KS

Re: ADHD Help

Post by daylen »

Thanks everyone. I thought I would share my rationalizations. I have had more time to internalize my new model of reality, but I still have a lifetime to perfect it.

My rational self (system 2) had been imprisoned by my instinctive self (system 1). The nature of my existence had always been cloudy. The inability to stay in system 2 long enough to accomplish the goals it posed on itself led to a multiplex of unhealthy habits that did not get better. This further compounded stress and required me to develop strict coping mechanisms. Gradually, my deductive abilities started to develop from the projection of possible futures. I started to develop the ability to teach myself. This accelerated the process and allowed me to control my environment better. Life became easier. I grew bored. I learned more. I grew addicted to thinking about every possible reality.

Now I see reality as an infinitely complex structure, independent of space-time. I can learn how to control my mind. I am free. :D

TopHatFox
Posts: 2322
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:07 pm
Location: FL; 25

Re: ADHD Help

Post by TopHatFox »

I think I have ADHD too. Been trying to get tested for it, but have yet to successfully go through the medical bureaucracy.

I see we're in the same boat as far as Screwed Recent College Grads. That's exciting. We can do it maybe.<3

I threw in the towel and will start full-time employment+ next week. Let's see what happens. :lol:

Astra
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 7:22 am

Re: ADHD Help

Post by Astra »

Not to get all new agey on you, but there is evidence for effective treatments other than prescription drugs:
  • high-quality Omegas 3-6-9 supplements can help with inattentive ADHD. There are even Omega-3 formulas available specifically for ADHD (Vayarin, Equazen Pro, PS-Omega-3)
Maybe these can help you!

daylen
Posts: 2528
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:17 am
Location: Lawrence, KS

Re: ADHD Help

Post by daylen »

@astra Yes, I have found that omega-3 and meta-cognition work well.

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: ADHD Help

Post by Stahlmann »

old daylen wasn't man of letters :D

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