30 Essential Ideas you should know about ADHD, 1A Intro, Chronic Developmental Disability

Yeah, I think there's a large subset of people with ADHD who have some kind of alternate circadian rhythm. Mine seems to be 36 hours; for almost 35 years my peak working hours have been 4pm to 5am, with the ability to hyperfocus until I collapsed if I'm really into what I'm doing. Not for lack of trying to have a "normal" schedule...oh god I try really hard multiple times a year. It's just not natural. You should know that stimulants are only one type of approach for treating ADHD. Your best resource, you may have discovered, is Russell Barkley; I cannot recommend him enough. Also check out the YouTube channel How to ADHD. Some relevant Barkley videos: [link] [this video] Fair warning: You may discover some of the things you've done for your whole life without second guessing are actually typical ADHD symptoms. And if you're like me, this might thoroughly shake your snowglobe.

I got diagnosed with ADHD 3 months ago after discovering a) my daughter had it and b) that it's highly hereditary. Probably the best introduction to ADHD is a 1.5 lecture by Dr. Russell Barkley, a top researcher in this area. It's technical, empowering and fun: [this video] Looking back in my life, I've built sophisticated TODO list and second brain systems to help me manage. Now it's obvious that it's because my working memory is poor because of my neurodivergency. Omnifocus (for GTD) and Obsidian (to be an extension of my brain) are my goto for leveraging my ADHD superpower. If you're looking for a community to learn more for yourself or for someone else: reddit.com/r/adhd is a great place to start.

As someone who has recently started figuring out this whole ADHD thing, definitely seek out help for it. There are a ton of really powerful tools and support systems that make a tremendous difference. Especially organizational systems designed for people with executive function deficits (whether that's ADHD or not, doesn't really matter!) Caddra has an interesting chart here for suggestions: [link] I also like Russell Barkley's lectures and books: [this video] and [link] (especially Taking Charge of Adult ADHD) And additionally, if you find that these things speak to you, medication makes a tremendous difference. I really can't overstate the degree to which it can change your life.

>long term effects of putting people on a close chemical cousin of methamphetamine indefinitely What is your basis for this "concern"? Sure it sounds bad, but there are plenty of chemical compounds with "off by one" differences that have completely different effects.... that's just... chemistry. Just so you know, (depending on who you read) those with untreated ADHD may live, on average, 10 fewer years than the rest of the population. So if I had to chose between your concerns and 10 better quality years, I know what I'm picking. > Medical professionals are just speculating at this point when they say it's some kind of neurological disorder rather than just part of the range of physiologically normal brain function. Where are you getting this from? Any papers? If this is the consensus then I really must not have been paying attention (pun intended) You seem to have a lot of "observational" experience in a specific setting, but little more knowledge or understanding than the tip of the iceberg "top-5 symptoms". ADHD is an incredibly complex developmental issue. Look at the issues with ADHD and gauging signals from the body, how those affect eating. Look at various issues with sensitivities sensory stimulation. Issues with inhibition and how they permeate behaviours. Reducing ADHD to "focus" is like reducing baseball to throwing a ball around. Maybe look into some of Dr Russel Barkley's lectures. Some of them are a little dated but mostly accurate. [this video]

> these videos are dumb, doesn't everyone do those things? Have any person go through the adult/inattentive-type ADHD symptoms [1]. Everyone will see themselves nodding. It's difficult for people to understand the difference if they are not affected. There's a difference between common headaches and migraine, or between bad mood and depression. It's about the intensity and the frequency (broadly speaking). This doesn't mean that everyone who procrastinates has ADHD. It's really hard to explain the state of complete mental unability to perform a task that I don't like to do vs. "being lazy". When I first described my symptoms to my wife, she was also like "everyone has those symptoms from time to time". Only after reading a chapter from a book about adult ADHD she understood the difference. Unfortunately, the book is in German. What I can recommend is Dr Russel's ADHD presentation [2] and Roman Kogan's ADHD Wiki [3]. > What intervention(s) have you found the most helpful? Well before learning about ADHD, I have developed many coping mechanisms. The use of todo lists, calendars and alarm clocks has probably made the biggest difference. As you have mentioned the "chase for novelty", I can only imagine how big your bookmark list has become. I've coped with this one by having a single "inbox" bookmark folder and clearing it frequently. Anything I want to keep for a longer time ends up in one of my tools (Static Marks [4] - a tool I've made for long-term bookmarks, OneNote for note

> Just so you know, (depending on who you read) those with untreated ADHD may live, on average, 10 fewer years than the rest of the population. So if I had to chose between your concerns and 10 better quality years, I know what I'm picking. I don't have a problem with that. > Where are you getting this from? Any papers? If this is the consensus then I really must not have been paying attention (pun intended) The burden of proof is on them to show that they are not speculating. Some kind of repeatable physiological test would do nicely. > You seem to have a lot of "observational" experience in a specific setting, but little more knowledge or understanding than the tip of the iceberg "top-5 symptoms". ADHD is an incredibly complex developmental issue. Look at the issues with ADHD and gauging signals from the body, how those affect eating. Look at various issues with sensitivities sensory stimulation. Issues with inhibition and how they permeate behaviours. Reducing ADHD to "focus" is like reducing baseball to throwing a ball around. I may have confused you by mistakenly saying the brain is "complicated" when I should have said "complex." What I meant was mind-bogglingly unimaginably confusingly tricky and hard to understand. Also, I don't recall reducing ADHD to "focus," where did I do that? I'm quite curious, what are the top-6-through-10 symptoms that I should be made aware of so I can better understand? > Maybe look into some of Dr Russel Barkley's lectures. Some of them are

ADHD is a quantitative disorder that touches a spectrum of symptoms. Yours might be heavier in some aspects and lighter in others. It's also often tied to other psychological issues. Not everything works the same for everyone. For "vanilla ADHD" the most impairing factors will often be: - Executive function. This can be organisation, getting started or keeping up with dopamine depleting tasks (chores, bills, etc.) and keeping track of time during tasks - Emotional regulation. This can be emotional reactivity (often called RSD online), or other all sorts of difficulties dealing with emotions in a productive way. This one is often left out in discussions but the most harmful for life outcomes (especially frustration/anger based dysregulations) - Short term memory issues. Part of executive function but should be noted specifically. The first thing to note is natural external dopamine will help. This is getting proper sleep, nutrition and exercise. Exercise, especially intense activities like HIIT will help regulate dopamine naturally. For executive function, the best is to have a system. There are plenty out there (bullet journals, productivity apps, etc.) Find one that you actually use without forcing yourself to. Can be a TODO list in google keep/apple notes, or a Bullet Journal or something like TikTik For short term memory issues, write everything down. This often plays into the system above. For emotional regulation, DBT is the best place to start. The DBT workbook can be f