It could be food-related. Look into an elimination diet ... Also, look into innerchild / regression therapy. There's usually an underlying reason why our behaviours lead to procrastination. Good luck.
Edit: Oh, and yoga's good too. You can train the mind to be more focused. Everything takes practice to get good at it ... focus isn't any different - though with computers and multi-tasking, we sometimes think we're "focused" because we're working, but really we're not focused on any one thing.
I'll grant you that for the most part that's true, but for someone that actually has attention or hyperactivity disorders, telling them to "train the mind to be more focused" is equivalent to telling a depressed person to "train to be more happy". It's good advice, but positive willpower isn't always capable of battling the chemical/receptor imbalances that are the root cause of the issue.
But by doing yoga and other psychological therapy, your neurochemistry may be changed. That is how cognitive behavioural and mindfulness therapies work. I think in the end, your neurochemistry needs to be changed in order for the therapy to have an effect. But using drugs are not the only way to change your neurochemistry. In short, I don't think he is suggesting that the author of the article to use willpower. He simply suggests that maybe he can try some psychotherapy.
As I said, it's good advice. But the waters here are much more murky than that. That approach alone won't work for everyone, that's the only point I wanted to make.
You might be right, but it's possible considering all of the modern distractions and passive entertainment we have that it really is a matter of mental conditioning (or something like that).
> Also, look into innerchild / regression therapy. There's usually an underlying reason why our behaviours lead to procrastination. Good luck.
I guess I've sort-of known this, though it's nice to hear someone else confirm it... I know that my procrastination and perfectionism are quite interrelated, as whenever I try and work on a project, my mind manages to find zillions of problems with it, I don't get any real stimulation out it, and I return to distracting habits that give more immediate pleasure (damn you HN!).
Perfectionism, in turn, has its roots in childhood stress (at least it does for me). Not getting enough positive feedback for so many years, not believing in myself, etc. It seems so simple in retrospect, but I didn't realize how much emotional stress I had built up my whole life until maybe a year or so ago. Incidentally, I noticed this when I was reading about the causes of RSI, which turned out to be caused by psychosomatic effects (TMS, again, at least for me). So these stresses, left unresolved, can turn into real physical pain.
I went through this myself a couple of years ago. I had managed to make it all the way through school but once I entered professional life, I realized that people actually had conversations that I couldn't keep focused for. Using urgency to complete projects no longer worked with the time frames I was looking at.
The best thing in the world I ever did was go see a psychiatrist to get tested to see if I was ADD. After the test came back positive, he prescribed meds, and after finding one that worked for me, I was simply blown away.
I never knew that you could actually think about one thing at a time before. I never really understood what it was to have a conversation and not be thinking about a billion things. I never, ever, knew what it meant to focus on something. It's entirely changed my world.
Wish you well my friend. At least go get tested. If you decide to take meds or follow some other avenue, it's better to know what you're working with.
There's a stigma about the meds in a lot of places, but I still remember how much they helped me through middle school. I literally got math-related work done 10 times faster that way.
Unfortunately the stuff that worked for me (Adderall) is basically just meth, and I can't get a hold of it in Japan on account of it being illegal. I think it's not even very possible to get a hold of ADD-related meds outside of the US (France classifies it as a children's disorder, so after 18 tough luck).
The extant differences are not universally thought to be so great as to warrant the dramatically greater public acceptance and promotion that prescription drugs receive in the US. This is not aided by the fact that methamphetamine is itself an FDA-approved treatment for ADHD (http://www.drugs.com/pro/desoxyn.html).
I would agree that "basically just meth" may not be the best way to say describe this, though, as it's only as true as saying they're entirely unlike meth.
A thing which I find works well for my ADD is to talk (out loud, yes) to myself when I'm doing something. I think people have a harder time getting distracted from conversations, and there's also a 'rubber duck debugging' effect in that your own thoughts become clearer.
Unfortunately this usually requires you to be in an empty room, which isn't always possible. And this is more of a micro thing, not a macro one.
Edit: Another thought: Computer Science is boring as hell. Even the tiniest bit of ADD makes it impossible. Even a person without ADD will probably show some symptoms of it. Rather than figuring out ways to just "get through it", I think avoiding this situation altogether is a better solution.
Probably business. Something exciting. Sitting at a computer or solving math problems all day is a nightmare, even though I've been doing it forever. These things are usually a "sudden realization".
As someone who also was recently diagnosed I highly recommend seeking out a counselor and speaking with your doctor. After getting treatment for ADD I am much happier and productive at school and work. In general, I'm less stressed as well.
A therapist almost diagnosed me a couple years ago but I was biased against the idea of accepting that I had ADD. Of course, now I realize how much wasted time, money, and effort I might have saved if I had been willing to seek treatment the first time a psychologist suggested it to me. Counseling and medication have all been very helpful.
It's tough because it isn't well understood and the public has many wrong and negative impressions of ADD/ADHD. One of the toughest is of course that many people don't think it is real. However, personally, after a year of treatment looking at my life before and after being treated for ADD, it is clear that treatment worked for me. That really dispels that notion for me. If it walks like a duck and quacks like duck... My university also had a lot of great resources to help learn about ADD so check in with them as well.
Young people nowadays have so many things to cause distraction. When I was younger, we didn't have cellphones and the numerous electronic related items that cause you to lose focus. Try eliminating everything but the necessities, and then focusing on one thing at a time. Even if you get distracted, set a goal of going back to it even if it is for a very short amount of time. Just like a tree, keep chipping away at it, and eventually you will make it fall. You can go for medication, however, they can cause dependency, and can cause more issues in the long run.
The problem here is that you're basically required to be connected at all times in any post-secondary environment, unless you're working for a company that has made it a core value to limit connectivity.
I have professors now that e-mail the class at 1:30am on a Friday creating new assignments due the following Monday. They all say the same thing: this is the world we live in now, get used to it. Crises happen at work around the clock, and the expectation now for pretty much everyone in the working world is that you have at least some way to be reached 24/7.
In addition to all the other advice you get, consider this:
It's a not a minor thing by any means, but it is at least a relatively common thing. You're not the first person to encounter this.
Unless you're a literature scholar, no one will look down on you for not having read War and Peace cover-to-cover.
You don't have to figure it all out right away. You have the rest of your life to figure out how to operate your head. Thinking about thinking is fun, but too much at once can be like eating too much candy.
Keep up your expectations for self-discipline, it's valuable and has gotten you this far. That's enough for most people, but you're different. So let yourself off the hook a bit judgmentally.
Cannabis certainly didn't help for me (though of course it's hard to isolate its effects amongst everything else). It made me more interested in doing things at first, but my mind would race much more, and I'd find it harder to actually do those things.
I quit a while back and have surprisingly had little urge to do it any more. While I greatly value the difference in perspective it can offer, I was just using it way too often for too long, without even really enjoying it a lot of the time.
I haven't been medicated for my pretty severe ADD in years (I was very uncomfortable with the personality changes/dampening of creativity/unknown health impact of meds, etc.), thinking I could summon the willpower and discipline to get through it.
I've been spiraling downward in a tailspin of "unproductivity" - to coin a state of being - for a while now, leaving a trail of half started startups and projects in my wake. I've got freelance deadlines that I've missed this week, but I'm sitting here with 30+ HN tabs open in my browser, and probably 10,000 more bookmarked that I'll never read.
I've been working on the "final 10%" of several projects at a snail's pace, for way longer than the first 90% took, and I constantly vacillate between thinking they're the next big thing or a complete waste of time, but I can't - or won't - finish them. More importantly, I'm incapable of doing the smart thing and just choosing one to focus on.
If I'm honest with myself, I haven't been nearly as aggressive as I should have been in researching cognitive behavioral therapy techniques and other non-pharmaceutical coping techniques, or even pursuing some sort of therapy.
Am I kidding myself thinking I can somehow get past this without medication? Is there any other REAL path forward?
Stop blaming ADD. Even if it is related to ADD, this situation could not possibly have been caused by ADD alone. You know that at the crux of it, poor planning was to blame. Poor time management followed, and you screwed yourself.
If you want to get out of this hole, you've got to get off HN now, (I use noprocrast). After that, do 1 project per night at a time. Yes. You will need to work in the dead of night, all notifications off. 1 project at a time, only. It is also incredibly important that your projects are broken down into microtasks so you can cross them off one at a time. I find often the easiest way to become late is to not understand how much work was left. Break it down. Think about 1 task at a time, ONLY. Don't think about B while you're doing A. Not even a tiny bit!
When you've made considerable progress on each project, submit the latest work, say what you've done, and then gather specific requirements and make it clear, that after you finish these next things that the project is "done" and by that I mean, you are at the end of your first iteration of development.
If you can't get those final requirements, and establish an agreed upon state that is "done" the client will drag out the project as far as you're willing to go. Hope it's not fixed price! That's just what people do. You need to put your foot down about what constitutes complete, have a mutual understanding of it, and execute those objectives.
If your client keeps asking for new stuff, put it on a separate list and tell him not until XYZ is done and we're agreed on this.
You can get out of this, but it's important to realize, you won't get out of this using the same time or project management strategies that got you into it.
I do agree with him. Most ADHD/ADD patients put too much focus on the disease, when the only thing that matters is to be willing to do something about it, asap!
The book the OP mentioned, Delivered From Distraction, is a great resource. The author is a psychiatrist who does a good job of presenting med and non-med options in a balanced way. He has ADD himself and did not find that meds helped him (they work for 80-90% of folks), though they have helped his children and many other patients/friends he describes.
Basic things like regular exercise can help, but meds are still a mainstay for treatment. Although studies have shown therapy to be as effective as meds for depression, there isn't great evidence for therapy for ADD. Meds are effective for most folks, have practically no side effects (at least the stimulants, Strattera can have side effects though it has other advantages), and have been safely used for decades without safety issues. The effects of the stimulants also disappear within hours so if you don't like being on a med you can simply stop. It won't change who you are. And if one med doesn't work well, sometimes another works better.
Just like depression (oversimplified) is being fed up with life, ADD is being bored with life. Your environment has created artificial boundaries that prevent you from doing what interests you, hence said boredom.
Get into the hyper-focus at all cost (it's actually just 'really caring about something,') then learn to stay there longer and longer (also known as 'finding your passion.')
You'll have to break through some boundaries to get there, but that's OK. Once you're passionate about something most of the time, you'll be fine.
P.S. This is intentionally written from the one-sided perspective that does considers ADD to be caused by external factors and not a mental illness or chemical imbalance. Those perspectives are equally valuable; pick the one(s) that works for you.
P.P.S. Remember that if your hyperfocus is valuable enough to other people, you'll be able to pay people to do anything you can't bring yourself to.
wow! For once I thought "did I just write this?". This is just so me, I'm in my 2nd year, CS and 20. Guess what, I have the same problem. I got to thank you for posting this.
Congratulations. Now you know your brain just doesn't work like the typical brain. And that's a good thing. You can see things differently even if there are times when you can't see things the same way the typical person sees them (social cues, body language, but you can still learn to pick those up). Use ADD to your advantage. I'm at least twice your age, but had a similar experience at your age. I'm still trying to finish school but it didn't stop me from developing a career as a software engineer. I can personally attest that exercise and the "no sugar/low carb/paleo diet" mentioned by Dylan. Ambient and trance can also help at times. Lists, small goal, small breaks, help you practice focus. Medicine can help, but only in combination with behavioral therapy. Medicine has side effects, too. Many things will be harder for you to accomplish in a given amount of time while other times you'll be amazed that others are so slow. If your ADD is documented and you are being treated by a medical professional, you can get extra time for assignments, lecture notes in advance, and other accommodations like a private room for exams where you can read out loud along with extended time limits. ADD isn't a limiter to your personal success and happiness. It's a challenge to which you adjust.
First, you are not alone. Many high achieving folks have ADD, and many discover it later in life. Very bright people can get through grade school without realizing they have ADD until they eventually hit their wall. It sounds like you are running into yours.
Understand that this does not mean there is anything wrong with who you are. You could decide to find other strengths or focus on other studies. You could also find an expert who can diagnosis whether you have ADD and help you consider treatment options. The cool thing about ADD is that there is medication that can make a dramatic difference. It's like flipping a switch and becoming that person who suddenly can finish those projects and achieve what you know you are already capable of.
You should find an expert to talk to, and you should look for resources at your university. You could check whether there is a student/academic assistance center. Even though your grades are good (you're by no means failing), there should be folks there with experience diagnosing issues such as ADD.
You could also simply check at the student health center - they should be able to refer you to a psychiatrist. Don't be hesitant to go just because it's a psychiatrist. ADD is nothing like more serious mental issues that we associate with psych. In fact you could say that ADD is just a variation of normal - but the first variation of normal that we have discovered how to hack with meds. Nevertheless, treatment can make a real difference in the quality of your studies, your relationships, and your future success. So it's worth exploring.
And as for your parents, don't let them talk you out of getting the resources you feel you need. It's always possible that one/both of them have it too without realizing it. Most adults these days are diagnosed as a result of their child(ren) being diagnosed first.
Good luck, and hope that wasn't too long and boring to read. :)
Sounds like you have learned enough to program and get a job. Try dropping out and finding work. You might find the motivations of a paycheck just the thing you need to complete your tasks. You might also try not self diagnosing or taking advice from the internet, but rather a trained professional. If I had the guess, I'd say you are board with the abstract academia. Go help someone make something great.
As in all things, it's not so much of a "yes/no" diagnosis, but a spectrum. But the range they can give you in the spectra (ADD/ADHD) seem to be pretty tight.
From my experience, they asked me about past behaviour, current behaviour, and some questions to probe my ability to keep track of the conversation. It was the questions about my past and current that really shocked me. They were asking if I did specific things that I just thought was "me being weird' but are actually /extremely/ typical of people forming coping mechanisms for different symptoms.
With one month to go in the last year of my computer science degree I was diagnosed with ADD.
The psychiatrist gave me some stunning advice: Ritalin or medication will not do your work for you. In my last month of university I was enabled with the ability to start working on projects well before the 48-hour cram period that I had come to know.
I had spent most of my schooling as a child to be made out as an idiot. As I result I'm now awfully quick to recognise when someone is not giving me their respect.
ADD is supposed to be picked up through your younger years. However when I grew up, it was the naughty children that had ADD/ADHD... they were the ones that caught their teachers attention.
Someone like me would never be correctly diagnosed, I has happy internalizing whatever it was that I was thinking about.
I'm in an extremely similar situation to you. Here's my advice: if you're looking to get put on a medication (don't feel bad about feeling like you need it), start getting help now. I'm saying this because getting treatment for ADD is a LONG process. Once you're locked into the medical system, you're good, but it can be a hell of a time getting there.
1) If you're away from home and don't have a primary care doctor, get one. Like, right now. Depending on where you live, wait times for accepting new patients can vary between 1-3 months. They'll typically set up an introductory physical. Once you're there, explain to them that you think you have ADHD and want to discuss treatment options.
From there, the meeting can go one of two ways. The way you want it to go is for the doc/NP to start you on a trial medication.
On the other hand (and this happened to me), you may find that your primary care physician is either 1) entirely against ADHD medications and/or 2) won't prescribe them, instead requiring you to go to a psychiatrist. If this is the case, then you must start the 1-3 month waiting period all over again trying to get in with a psychiatrist. A shortcut here might just be to go directly to the psychiatrist, but depending on your insurance, that may not be possible.
Tips:
Don't bother getting help through your university. They get too many kids coming through there looking for easy Adderall and Vicodin, to the point where they treat everyone like drug addicts. Getting that kind of treatment from others can be really off-putting and make you feel bad about having ADHD. That's the last thing you need.
If you can't get meds through your primary care, make sure you see a psychiatrist, not a psychologist. If you call a mental health center that has a mix of psychiatrists, psychologists, and counsellors, make sure you know you're getting set up with a psychiatrist. You can still get diagnosed with ADHD by a psychologist, but they don't prescribe medication, so you'll have to wait another 1-3 months to meet with someone who can after you get diagnosed.
Just like some others here, I feel like I could have written this post myself. I was diagnosed w/ ADD at five and have only recently sought treatment (at age 34). I resisted the idea of taking meds for years but now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to address the issue. My entire life, I've been limited to intellectual disciplines that I could assimilate w/in 48 hours or just BS my way through (liberal arts). If I had been able to read more than two pages w/o losing focus, things may have been different. Now I'm receiving treatment and for the first time in my life, I think that I might be able correct the problem (or at least mitigate it). For me, that means accepting that I can't do it without help.
My advice is to talk to more than one mental health professional. Try to keep an open mind about the different methods and combinations of methods used to treat ADD. Whatever you decide, do not wait to address the issue.
Thank you for sharing this, I am in a similar situation and often think this, however always fall back to the "I'm just being lazy train of thought".
I didn't actually make it through the exams that would allow me to study Computer Science, after studying hard I just couldn't concentrate when it came to the exam, I had plenty of time and knew it was important however couldn't focus. (I was like this throughout most of my education, good in class - failed the exams)
Perhaps this is just more excuses in a modern world full of distractions, either way I think I'll seek some professional advice.
Just as a heads up more serious mental illnesses have symptoms similar to ADD in there very early stages. Instead of self diagnosing with ADD do 2 things 1. get a real psychiatrist ( sorry to say but this person will probably not give you adderall, dex or Ritalin on your first visit). Get a nuero psychological exam done by a nuero scientist ( a real psychiatrist will be-able to connect you with one assuming you need one) Lots of people who think they had ADD in college go on to find out they have more serious conditions.
I found out that my case is more severe than you...
But the comments here don't seem to come to any conclusion...
Maybe I will find treatment as well..
I can simplify this entire thread for you. Everyone who has struggled with this says "see a specialist, get diagnosed, take action". That action can be a range of things, but first and foremost, talk to a specialist.
Seriously, there's nothing wrong with seeing a psychologist and/or psychiatrist. There are many possible scenarios, including that something other than ADD is causing your symptoms, or even that there's nothing "wrong" with you. I think there are many good mental health professionals who focus on providing a minimal viable treatment for patients. Simply getting diagnosed with something doesn't mean you need to be medicated, and being diagnosed with something isn't even a necessary condition for a professional to help you find a way to help yourself succeed.
Thank you so much for the overwelming response from the HN community. I will now spend the night going over all your responses. I'm going to book a counselling session through my university and hopefully they can give me some advice as to where to go from here.
Good to hear. When you talk to the counselor, they may give you some ideas on coping strategies - making lists, using calendars to remember all your appointments, etc. You most likely do them already to have gotten this far in your academic career, but if you don't make sure to put effort into making them part of your routine (whether you decide to go the meds route or not).
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] threadEdit: Oh, and yoga's good too. You can train the mind to be more focused. Everything takes practice to get good at it ... focus isn't any different - though with computers and multi-tasking, we sometimes think we're "focused" because we're working, but really we're not focused on any one thing.
I guess I've sort-of known this, though it's nice to hear someone else confirm it... I know that my procrastination and perfectionism are quite interrelated, as whenever I try and work on a project, my mind manages to find zillions of problems with it, I don't get any real stimulation out it, and I return to distracting habits that give more immediate pleasure (damn you HN!).
Perfectionism, in turn, has its roots in childhood stress (at least it does for me). Not getting enough positive feedback for so many years, not believing in myself, etc. It seems so simple in retrospect, but I didn't realize how much emotional stress I had built up my whole life until maybe a year or so ago. Incidentally, I noticed this when I was reading about the causes of RSI, which turned out to be caused by psychosomatic effects (TMS, again, at least for me). So these stresses, left unresolved, can turn into real physical pain.
The human brain is fucking weird.
The best thing in the world I ever did was go see a psychiatrist to get tested to see if I was ADD. After the test came back positive, he prescribed meds, and after finding one that worked for me, I was simply blown away.
I never knew that you could actually think about one thing at a time before. I never really understood what it was to have a conversation and not be thinking about a billion things. I never, ever, knew what it meant to focus on something. It's entirely changed my world.
Wish you well my friend. At least go get tested. If you decide to take meds or follow some other avenue, it's better to know what you're working with.
I definitely agree that you should see a specialist. Please don't be reluctant about it.
The tests that are done to determine whether someone has these disorders are non-trivial and are accurate.
At your age, you decide what kind of treatment is best. You can definitely start with diet and move on to medication.
Unfortunately the stuff that worked for me (Adderall) is basically just meth, and I can't get a hold of it in Japan on account of it being illegal. I think it's not even very possible to get a hold of ADD-related meds outside of the US (France classifies it as a children's disorder, so after 18 tough luck).
Different molecules, different delivery systems, different dosages, different therapeutic goals (euphoria not being one of them).
I would agree that "basically just meth" may not be the best way to say describe this, though, as it's only as true as saying they're entirely unlike meth.
Unfortunately this usually requires you to be in an empty room, which isn't always possible. And this is more of a micro thing, not a macro one.
Edit: Another thought: Computer Science is boring as hell. Even the tiniest bit of ADD makes it impossible. Even a person without ADD will probably show some symptoms of it. Rather than figuring out ways to just "get through it", I think avoiding this situation altogether is a better solution.
You use this theoretical platform to empower your work and improve it.
A therapist almost diagnosed me a couple years ago but I was biased against the idea of accepting that I had ADD. Of course, now I realize how much wasted time, money, and effort I might have saved if I had been willing to seek treatment the first time a psychologist suggested it to me. Counseling and medication have all been very helpful.
It's tough because it isn't well understood and the public has many wrong and negative impressions of ADD/ADHD. One of the toughest is of course that many people don't think it is real. However, personally, after a year of treatment looking at my life before and after being treated for ADD, it is clear that treatment worked for me. That really dispels that notion for me. If it walks like a duck and quacks like duck... My university also had a lot of great resources to help learn about ADD so check in with them as well.
I have professors now that e-mail the class at 1:30am on a Friday creating new assignments due the following Monday. They all say the same thing: this is the world we live in now, get used to it. Crises happen at work around the clock, and the expectation now for pretty much everyone in the working world is that you have at least some way to be reached 24/7.
It's a not a minor thing by any means, but it is at least a relatively common thing. You're not the first person to encounter this.
Unless you're a literature scholar, no one will look down on you for not having read War and Peace cover-to-cover.
You don't have to figure it all out right away. You have the rest of your life to figure out how to operate your head. Thinking about thinking is fun, but too much at once can be like eating too much candy.
Keep up your expectations for self-discipline, it's valuable and has gotten you this far. That's enough for most people, but you're different. So let yourself off the hook a bit judgmentally.
A lot of folks end up having fun with it.
- exercise
- no sugar/low carb/paleo diet
- meditation
- ambient music / white noise
- small goals
- adderall
- modafinal
- cannabis
- seinfeld's "don't break the chain" method
- dont fight it, monetize it
good luck bro
I quit a while back and have surprisingly had little urge to do it any more. While I greatly value the difference in perspective it can offer, I was just using it way too often for too long, without even really enjoying it a lot of the time.
Advice: go talk to a counselor at your university. At the very least, they should be able to point you in the right direction studies-wise.
I've been spiraling downward in a tailspin of "unproductivity" - to coin a state of being - for a while now, leaving a trail of half started startups and projects in my wake. I've got freelance deadlines that I've missed this week, but I'm sitting here with 30+ HN tabs open in my browser, and probably 10,000 more bookmarked that I'll never read.
I've been working on the "final 10%" of several projects at a snail's pace, for way longer than the first 90% took, and I constantly vacillate between thinking they're the next big thing or a complete waste of time, but I can't - or won't - finish them. More importantly, I'm incapable of doing the smart thing and just choosing one to focus on.
If I'm honest with myself, I haven't been nearly as aggressive as I should have been in researching cognitive behavioral therapy techniques and other non-pharmaceutical coping techniques, or even pursuing some sort of therapy.
Am I kidding myself thinking I can somehow get past this without medication? Is there any other REAL path forward?
If you want to get out of this hole, you've got to get off HN now, (I use noprocrast). After that, do 1 project per night at a time. Yes. You will need to work in the dead of night, all notifications off. 1 project at a time, only. It is also incredibly important that your projects are broken down into microtasks so you can cross them off one at a time. I find often the easiest way to become late is to not understand how much work was left. Break it down. Think about 1 task at a time, ONLY. Don't think about B while you're doing A. Not even a tiny bit!
When you've made considerable progress on each project, submit the latest work, say what you've done, and then gather specific requirements and make it clear, that after you finish these next things that the project is "done" and by that I mean, you are at the end of your first iteration of development.
If you can't get those final requirements, and establish an agreed upon state that is "done" the client will drag out the project as far as you're willing to go. Hope it's not fixed price! That's just what people do. You need to put your foot down about what constitutes complete, have a mutual understanding of it, and execute those objectives.
If your client keeps asking for new stuff, put it on a separate list and tell him not until XYZ is done and we're agreed on this.
You can get out of this, but it's important to realize, you won't get out of this using the same time or project management strategies that got you into it.
"Just do X"! If only it were so easy, the world would be a much different place.
2. There's nothing we can do to help him other than say "just do it" because frankly if he doesn't "just do it" pretty soon he's fucked.
3. ADHD 1/3 scapegoat 1/3 misdiagnosed 1/3 ? maybe. Neurological evidence for disease? Yes. Vague diagnostic criteria for actual patients? Check.
I do agree with him. Most ADHD/ADD patients put too much focus on the disease, when the only thing that matters is to be willing to do something about it, asap!
Basic things like regular exercise can help, but meds are still a mainstay for treatment. Although studies have shown therapy to be as effective as meds for depression, there isn't great evidence for therapy for ADD. Meds are effective for most folks, have practically no side effects (at least the stimulants, Strattera can have side effects though it has other advantages), and have been safely used for decades without safety issues. The effects of the stimulants also disappear within hours so if you don't like being on a med you can simply stop. It won't change who you are. And if one med doesn't work well, sometimes another works better.
Maybe. But this is something that you really need to talk to a therapist or doctor about.
Get into the hyper-focus at all cost (it's actually just 'really caring about something,') then learn to stay there longer and longer (also known as 'finding your passion.')
You'll have to break through some boundaries to get there, but that's OK. Once you're passionate about something most of the time, you'll be fine.
P.S. This is intentionally written from the one-sided perspective that does considers ADD to be caused by external factors and not a mental illness or chemical imbalance. Those perspectives are equally valuable; pick the one(s) that works for you.
P.P.S. Remember that if your hyperfocus is valuable enough to other people, you'll be able to pay people to do anything you can't bring yourself to.
Understand that this does not mean there is anything wrong with who you are. You could decide to find other strengths or focus on other studies. You could also find an expert who can diagnosis whether you have ADD and help you consider treatment options. The cool thing about ADD is that there is medication that can make a dramatic difference. It's like flipping a switch and becoming that person who suddenly can finish those projects and achieve what you know you are already capable of.
You should find an expert to talk to, and you should look for resources at your university. You could check whether there is a student/academic assistance center. Even though your grades are good (you're by no means failing), there should be folks there with experience diagnosing issues such as ADD.
You could also simply check at the student health center - they should be able to refer you to a psychiatrist. Don't be hesitant to go just because it's a psychiatrist. ADD is nothing like more serious mental issues that we associate with psych. In fact you could say that ADD is just a variation of normal - but the first variation of normal that we have discovered how to hack with meds. Nevertheless, treatment can make a real difference in the quality of your studies, your relationships, and your future success. So it's worth exploring.
And as for your parents, don't let them talk you out of getting the resources you feel you need. It's always possible that one/both of them have it too without realizing it. Most adults these days are diagnosed as a result of their child(ren) being diagnosed first.
Good luck, and hope that wasn't too long and boring to read. :)
What is diagnosis like - is it rather hit and miss or are there clear physical signs? Off to read I guess.
From my experience, they asked me about past behaviour, current behaviour, and some questions to probe my ability to keep track of the conversation. It was the questions about my past and current that really shocked me. They were asking if I did specific things that I just thought was "me being weird' but are actually /extremely/ typical of people forming coping mechanisms for different symptoms.
The psychiatrist gave me some stunning advice: Ritalin or medication will not do your work for you. In my last month of university I was enabled with the ability to start working on projects well before the 48-hour cram period that I had come to know.
I had spent most of my schooling as a child to be made out as an idiot. As I result I'm now awfully quick to recognise when someone is not giving me their respect.
ADD is supposed to be picked up through your younger years. However when I grew up, it was the naughty children that had ADD/ADHD... they were the ones that caught their teachers attention.
Someone like me would never be correctly diagnosed, I has happy internalizing whatever it was that I was thinking about.
1) If you're away from home and don't have a primary care doctor, get one. Like, right now. Depending on where you live, wait times for accepting new patients can vary between 1-3 months. They'll typically set up an introductory physical. Once you're there, explain to them that you think you have ADHD and want to discuss treatment options.
From there, the meeting can go one of two ways. The way you want it to go is for the doc/NP to start you on a trial medication.
On the other hand (and this happened to me), you may find that your primary care physician is either 1) entirely against ADHD medications and/or 2) won't prescribe them, instead requiring you to go to a psychiatrist. If this is the case, then you must start the 1-3 month waiting period all over again trying to get in with a psychiatrist. A shortcut here might just be to go directly to the psychiatrist, but depending on your insurance, that may not be possible.
Tips:
Don't bother getting help through your university. They get too many kids coming through there looking for easy Adderall and Vicodin, to the point where they treat everyone like drug addicts. Getting that kind of treatment from others can be really off-putting and make you feel bad about having ADHD. That's the last thing you need.
If you can't get meds through your primary care, make sure you see a psychiatrist, not a psychologist. If you call a mental health center that has a mix of psychiatrists, psychologists, and counsellors, make sure you know you're getting set up with a psychiatrist. You can still get diagnosed with ADHD by a psychologist, but they don't prescribe medication, so you'll have to wait another 1-3 months to meet with someone who can after you get diagnosed.
My advice is to talk to more than one mental health professional. Try to keep an open mind about the different methods and combinations of methods used to treat ADD. Whatever you decide, do not wait to address the issue.
I didn't actually make it through the exams that would allow me to study Computer Science, after studying hard I just couldn't concentrate when it came to the exam, I had plenty of time and knew it was important however couldn't focus. (I was like this throughout most of my education, good in class - failed the exams)
Perhaps this is just more excuses in a modern world full of distractions, either way I think I'll seek some professional advice.
Thanks so much