[troad]

Is this take based on any medical evidence?

I note you're casting your take as contrary to a 'lot of ADHD advice', but it's not clear to me whether you're implying that (a) a lot of popular ADHD advice is scientifically unsound and your advice is more in line with the science, or whether you're saying that (b) both the ADHD advice and the science it is based on is wrong, but your take is right.

Edit: Saw some of your other posts and am reasonably confident (b) is the correct hypothesis.

[adadadadadad]

"ADHD" is pseudo-science in my opinion. The impairment to life is certainly real. But the cause is unproven, and for ADHD and the medication, it must be present since birth...a brain defect...but we live in an incredibly distracting environment due to social media and all the societal change coupled with that.

> For the case of ADHD specifically, this is translated to: “if an individual has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder it is because he is inattentive, disorganized and hyperactive-impulsive, and if an individual is inattentive, disorganized and hyperactive-impulsive it is because he has ADHD.

> ADHD in the DSM-5-TR: What has changed and what has not - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9871920/

--

My take on this situation is based on common sense and personal experience.

I would be interested to read the science that counters this if you have it.

ADHD people tend to leave things to the last minute. But the reason they start in the first place is because of the deadline's existence and strictness - the physical reaction of stress when they finally consider the consequences. If you acknowledge they leave things to the last minute and account for that by making deadlines less strict and more forgiving, then the motivating and focusing power of the deadline decreases and they can just make excuses and don't find the deadline motivating enough to start.

The key is maintaining the motivational power of the deadline.

The smaller the deadline, usually the less motivating power it has and the less consequences it has to missing it. It's all a delicate psychological dance, but at some point the person needs to push up against a negative emotion now and then...which our modern culture seems to want to entirely eliminate.

Its the age old: why do I only have intense motivation to do the task the night before its due...next time I just need to start earlier...without realizing its the power of the night before that is the key to it all.

[riehwvfbk]

Well, yeah: the lack of motivation is the problem. But here's the thing: just like a depressed person can't just "snap out of it", someone with ADHD cannot just make themselves get the motivation. Why? Because we can't remember that we need to. ADHD is primarily a working memory impairment.

All brains have an autopilot mode, and an ADHD brain on autopilot thinks thousands of thoughts at once. When I am not medicated I can be cooking, having an imaginary conversation about politics, planning the weekend, and listening to a song playing in my head - all at the same time, and doing all of the above badly. When I am medicated I do the same thing, but after 10 or so minutes a thought pops into my head: hey, you are distracted, focus! Without meds this thought may take an hour or two to arrive.

A deadline seems to raise the baseline of executive brain activity for a similar effect to the medication, but it's not guaranteed. Now try explaining to a boss who doesn't believe that ADHD is a thing why your performance is inconsistent. Don't you care about deadlines? I do, but I can forget that a deadline is a thing that exists in this universe.

OK, you'll say, just build routines. Discipline. Of course - I couldn't survive without routines. The trouble is: I forget I have a routine when my brain is in that fuzzy state. I can get to work, not know what my tasks are for the day, and start daydreaming. Why not just look at JIRA? Because in that state I don't remember that such as thing as JIRA exists in this universe. I actually have an alarm in my phone that tells me to check JIRA around the time I get to the office. I rarely forget, but when I do - the failure is epic.

[adadadadadad]

I haven't really heard about ADHD framed as a working memory impairment.

Because it does seem like an easy workaround via religiously following pomodoro - every 25 mins a reminder that you should look at your task list. It's hard to argue that someone can manage to ignore an alarm ringing every 25 minutes.

I thought of it more as you actually do know what you should be doing, but there is something a lot more interesting and novel that you prefer to be doing and the thought of reverting back to the task you should be doing without exploring this novel one feels like complete torture.

[riehwvfbk]

The working memory impairment idea comes up a lot. I don't know that it's necessarily "scientifically correct" but it feels subjectively true to me, and thinking about it this way seems to help.

Here's the thing: I know what's important, I know that hard work is one of my core values, etc. I just don't remember any of this when stressed and the brain goes for the shiniest thing that gives immediate gratification and gets stuck there.

A too-perfect-to-be-true manager could maybe notice daydreaming and just say, hey, focus. That would be enough to snap out of the fugue state. Unfortunately, manager types tend to be the "tough love" people and they assume things about morals and values. Avoiding this is what people mean when they say ADHD people need more compassion.

Essentially, people with ADHD have figured out how to act in order to trigger the "they have the right beliefs" thoughts in people like you. It takes a lot of effort, and because it's not automatic sometimes we get exhausted and fail. That's when you see the inconsistency.

Imagine being in a wheelchair, needing an elevator to get to the second floor, and then being berated for not wanting to go up there badly enough when you can't make it when the elevator is broken.

[troad]

I've actually found these takes quite interesting, though I wouldn't say I am in agreement.

You might find some of Freddie de Boer's writing on disability interesting, such as this piece [1], this one [2], and others.

[1] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/your-mental-illness-bel...

[2] https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/the-gentrification-of-d...

[SomeoneFromCA]

Are you a conservative or a republican? you sound like one. I am not being passive-agressive, just making a point that political beliefs have strong influence on attitude towards mental disorders.

[adadadadadad]

Give this a read: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.81476...

> Quasi-Scientific Basis of ADHD in DSM-5

[slater]

> "ADHD" is pseudo-science in my opinion.

Cool opinion!

> The impairment to life is certainly real

Ditto!

> But the cause is unproven

It's very much not so.