Comment by _rqgx
2 years ago
My therapist recently diagnosed me with ADHD. I strongly disagree with that diagnosis, and I realised I don't know what ADHD actually is and that the internet and this article haven't been of any help.
I can relate to everything that this article says, but I suspect this is true of every single person with a mentally challenging job.
HN is full of developers complaining about open offices and useless meetings; do all of them have ADHD? Otherwise, what's the difference between a ADHD developer and a regular developer?
I _do_ have specific body problems that make my work harder, such as a very strong noise sensitivity and a circadian rhythm that requires me to sleep longer than the average person. Dealing with those specific problems did much more than throwing my hands in the air and yelling "ADHD".
Instead of a 2000-word article that might have been generated by AI, I would just follow these three points.
1. Sleep 9–10 hours every night.
2. Strong exercise regularly.
3. Work somewhere quiet and pleasant.
> complaining about open offices and useless meetings; do all of them have ADHD?
There's a commonly used diagnosis survey you can check. It should give you a better idea than this.
> ADHD developer and a regular developer
To give you one example (but this won't cover all cases / everyone's experience), if you're in the bathroom and think you need to change the toilet roll, then proceed to forget and remember it again 6 times before leaving the room, then head for the toilet roll stash, forget about it and go make yourself a sandwich instead... and that applies to almost everything you do throughout the day, you're probably in category 1 not 2.
For medication, another example would be when you take stimulants and get relaxed, less nervous and feel like you could finally go for a nap...
What I'm saying is, some people may be experiencing smaller issues for the same reason, or they may just not be satisfied with their environment and are able to act on it, but there's some threshold where it's not even the same category. If you don't know what ADHD actually is, maybe check the experiences written by people who do struggle with basic things daily while seemingly highly functioning otherwise? There's a number of subreddits where you can find them.
How does noise sensitivity manifest for you? Do you get severely anxious because of it or is it just a distraction?
Noise generates a very physical feeling of pain that tires me down and makes it impossible to focus.
It's the equivalent to having somebody constantly punch me in the face: it's annoying and distracting at first, and it eventually turns into tiredness and lack of motivation to do anything other than leaving the room I'm currently in to breathe some fresh air.
I understand this is something that happens to everyone (which is why so many people dislike open offices), but I have good reason to believe my noise sensitivity is worse than average and that it has been so since I was a kid.
> HN is full of developers complaining about open offices and useless meetings; do all of them have ADHD? Otherwise, what's the difference between a ADHD developer and a regular developer?
Diagnostically speaking? The number of symptoms and the severity of those symptoms is basically it. Everyone will likely experience some of the symptoms of ADHD during their life. The co-occurence of those symptoms and the amount they affect your ability to function day-to-day is what makes the difference.
Some people will debate over how "real" ADHD is, where real means people with ADHD are a disjoint group and not just people on the very low end of the "ability to focus" bell curve. From my research I do believe it is "real", but that whether ADHD is "real" like sickle cell anemia is real or its just part of a normal bell curve doesn't really matter because society isn't going to adapt around you. If medication is what make the difference to maintain a normal life for some then that's probably a good thing that its available. If people who don't "really" have ADHD can learn strategies for focus and time management that's also a good thing.
> Dealing with those specific problems did much more than throwing my hands in the air and yelling "ADHD".
For a lot of people, dealing with their specific problems starts with recognizing what those problems are and identifying strategies to help. Diagnosing it gives validation that its something concrete you can work on, gives access to mental health professionals who can help you develop solutions, and creates a community of people all trying to solve similar problems.