Technically, use of ketogenic diets in epilepsy is older than Atkins; Atkins just applied it to weight loss. (In weight loss, it works, for a time, but more because you're eating less junk food than because of his theory that calories in the form of ketones are evaporating and being exhaled. If you're doing it right, you're eating a lot of leafy greens, too.)
That said, ADHD isn't epilepsy any more than it is brain cancer, and I gave an idea for how one can do a case-control study. Sadly, you can't do any better than that in nutrition; there's simply no such thing as a dietary placebo.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
A few years ago, I was fired due to my lack of ability to multitask. I could start many things, but would end up not finishing or following through. I remember my old manager (still good friends today) say to me that he likes what I am doing but needs my focus <insert topic>
I went to a specialist to get testing and it came back that I was bi-polar and ADHD. Sometimes my mouth is faster than my brain and I shock not only myself but others around when I say things. I sometimes can't control it. Bi-polar came from my grandmother, and I do have massive ups and down (would cry to the weirdest smallest details or thoughts).
I was given Lamictal and Strattera (well before Strattera there was one other but gave me bad side effects --- basically esculated my high blood pressure) Yes , at the age of 20, I had high blood pressure. 150 lbs 5'5" worked out 3x a week and at least a mile each work out. That and a thyroid issue.
Now on meds, I can notice the difference. I am no longer repeating what I want to say in my head over and over again when I am talking to someone. I can focus on one task and not get jittery or antsy. Less stress due to higher work performance therefore blood pressure is down. Working out more (4x plus a week) is helping, but even on a controlled diet, still gain weight.
It has been 2 years on the meds, and we are still fine tuning the dosage. It took at least a year to slowly increase the Lamtical to optimal levels.
A few years ago, I was fired due to my lack of ability to multitask. I could start many things, but would end up not finishing or following through. I remember my old manager (still good friends today) say to me that he likes what I am doing but needs my focus <insert topic>
I went to a specialist to get testing and it came back that I was bi-polar and ADHD. Sometimes my mouth is faster than my brain and I shock not only myself but others around when I say things. I sometimes can't control it. Bi-polar came from my grandmother, and I do have massive ups and down (would cry to the weirdest smallest details or thoughts).
I was given Lamictal and Strattera (well before Strattera there was one other but gave me bad side effects --- basically esculated my high blood pressure) Yes , at the age of 20, I had high blood pressure. 150 lbs 5'5" worked out 3x a week and at least a mile each work out. That and a thyroid issue.
Now on meds, I can notice the difference. I am no longer repeating what I want to say in my head over and over again when I am talking to someone. I can focus on one task and not get jittery or antsy. Less stress due to higher work performance therefore blood pressure is down. Working out more (4x plus a week) is helping, but even on a controlled diet, still gain weight.
It has been 2 years on the meds, and we are still fine tuning the dosage. It took at least a year to slowly increase the Lamtical to optimal levels.
That's what I'm talking about. I knew I'd find someone eventually.
I have bipolar in my family but I think that I dodged that particular bullet, thankfully. That would be the reason for the Lamictal I presume?
Do you mind telling the name of the drug that was prescribed to you before Strattera? I'm also interested in how you feel about the Strattera. I'm leery of it because I noticed that anxiety is a possible side effect and I did feel anxious once when I was on Singulair. I didn't know that Singulair could have that side effect and it was a bad experience until I figured that out. I don't want to have that particular side effect again.
I'm also curious about how dosing was handled. I was started at 20 mg Adderall and I think that I was very sensitive to it at first. The effects were extremely noticeable for the first 2 days and they've faded away since then.
I contacted my GP about it and she upped the dose to 25 mg but I feel almost no effects right now. I think that I am ever so slightly better at focusing but there were many other benefits that I felt before that I am not getting at all anymore.
For me - I also confuse people by the way I talk. Someone once accused me of 'talking around' a subject rather than simply getting to the point. I also have a tendency to drift rapidly from subject to subject and sometimes make strange topic connections. I think people might think that I'm changing the subject when I do that - it just seems that people get annoyed with me sometimes and I don't know why.
I've had problems with saying too much and I've had problems with failing to read body language. Winks, nudges, finger to lips. I'm the kind of guy who was always oblivious to that stuff. I'd sometimes say things to people who weren't supposed to know it in spite of other people trying to warn me.
When I was feeling the full effects of the Adderall I was not acting that way. I was able to stay on the subject and I was able to read people's reactions to what I was saying. I was also able to divide my attention better. I was multi-tasking better.
My wife thought that the difference was very noticeable and also pleasant. She was very happy with the way I was acting when I was feeling the effects of the meds.
Now I feel almost nothing. It's very frustrating. I feel as if I had been trapped under ice for most of my life. For a few days I was allowed to break the surface and experience life as it could be, but now I'm trapped again.
A guy I play world of warcraft arenas with takes adderall to enhance his gameplay...
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"No one may threaten or commit violence ('aggress') against another man's person or property. Violence may be employed only against the man who commits such violence; that is, only defensively against the aggressive violence of another. In short, no violence may be employed against a nonaggressor. Here is the fundamental rule from which can be deduced the entire corpus of libertarian theory." - Murray Rothbard, Cited from "War, Peace, and the State"
I posted my first experience with an adderall presciption last spring,and now I'd like to give my final thoughts.
I was not prepared for all of the weirdness that followed when i told people that i was trying adderall. The first rule of being on adderall is to not let anyone know that you're on adderall. Some people thought it was being used recreationally and some people started to explain to me that ADD isn't a real thing. Well i have some thoughts to share about that.
The first week was mostly an amphetamine high i think. I felt really great on days 2 through 5. As that wore off I started to have less of a high and more chance to evaluate the effects of the drug. Short version l it helps. It doesnit always help with the things that i'd like to get help with, but it does help.
I believe that we all have varying abilities to focus. Some of us get distracted easier than others. I suppose you could say that a great focuser has 100 out of 100 in a hypothetical focusing skill. Most of us are't that high, but focus is just one small part of the measure of a person's intelligence and you can compensate for reduced focus by being good in other skills. In the end people don't judge you on the quality of your focus, but rather on products of your labor. You can be a respectable and productive person even if your focus is not as good as it couold've been.
in my case i feel that my ability to focus was sufficiently low that it was impeding my ability to improve other skills as well. i may have been at 60 out of 100. not terribly impaired, but impaired enough that i could perceive the advantage that other people had.
Adderall seems to do two things. on the one hand it's a stimulant that seems to change the evaluation of risk and makes me generally more willing to begin a project. The second effect seems to narrow your focus. It makes it difficult to focus on multiple things, but at the benefit of having less distractions From whatever task you're actively engaged in. It is a mixed blessing in other words, but the benefits of narrow focus are significant in some areas. I have completed a lot of projects that never would've been attempted prior to starting the prescription. My art is rapidly improving. I also started to play the guitar and i started to get into woodworking. All of these are activities that i had some interest in but i was so unproductive with my time in general that it never made sense to add hobbies. The guitar was particularly interesting. I had tried to learn the guitar many times when i was younger. Now i am able to pick up skills and learn things that formerly escaped my notice, and the increased pace of skill acquisition makes the process of learning much more enjoyable.
Aside from the academic pursuits and hobbies there are a few side-effects. It can be difficult to go to bed sometimes (stimulant after all) and I have also lost about 25 pounds in the last year due to a reduced appetite.
All in all I feel that adderall has helped me, and I do not see it as a performance aid so much as a pair of blinders that you put on to keep your focus on the proper tasks. You still need to be disciplined and you still need to work hard, but Adderall makes it possible to derive more benefit and thus more pleasure from the work that you do.
I have also lost about 25 pounds in the last year due to a reduced appetite.
You probably already know, but please be aware when you stop taking this medication, your appetite will return in force and unless you're careful you'll not only gain back the weight you lost, but a substantial amount more, which can greatly increase the risk of diabetes. For many people that amounts to having a good number of years chopped off their lifespan.
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Wind of Endless Plains 2WWWWW
Legendary Creature - Avatar
Flying, Vigilance, Lifelink
Madness 3WWWWW
If Wind of the Endless Plains' madness cost was paid, destroy all lands and creatures. They can't be regenerated. Wind of Endless Plains gains Defender.
7/7
Waves of the Endless Island 2UUUUU
Legendary Creature - Avatar
Split-second, Non-basic Landwalk, Shroud
Madness 3UUUUU
If Waves of the Endless Island's madness cost was paid, return all permanents to their owner's hands. Waves of the Endless Island gains Defender.
7/7
Confusion of Endless Possibilities 5WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar
When Confusion of Endless Possibilities enters the battlefield, target player skips his or her next turn and your life total becomes 1.
Hexproof, Haunt, Amplify 7
Madness 7WUBRG
If Confusion of Endless Possibilities' madness cost was paid, target player skips his or her next turn. Confusion of Endless Possibilities gains Defender.
7/7
Thanks for the advice. I did not know that it was a common thing but i did briefly experience that when i didn't get a refill of my prescription on time. I was ravenous for 2 days. I'll be better prepared next time.
Merged with the old thread - It's better for background to just continue the old thread
If you have trouble sleeping (which I did while on a similar medication) they can prescribe a sleep aid, or you might want to try Melatonin.
The sleep trouble is mostly only if I take it too late in the day. Today for example - I'm taking it at 1130 and that should be okay. If I take it at 2 pm otoh, then yes there is definitely sleep troubles.
I don't know what Melatonin is, so I'll go google that now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Merged with the old thread - It's better for background to just continue the old thread
If you have trouble sleeping (which I did while on a similar medication) they can prescribe a sleep aid, or you might want to try Melatonin.
The sleep trouble is mostly only if I take it too late in the day. Today for example - I'm taking it at 1130 and that should be okay. If I take it at 2 pm otoh, then yes there is definitely sleep troubles.
I don't know what Melatonin is, so I'll go google that now. Thanks for the suggestions.
It's just a sleep suppliment, but one that you shouldn't take before speaking to your doctor even though it is OTC.
Merged with the old thread - It's better for background to just continue the old thread
If you have trouble sleeping (which I did while on a similar medication) they can prescribe a sleep aid, or you might want to try Melatonin.
The sleep trouble is mostly only if I take it too late in the day. Today for example - I'm taking it at 1130 and that should be okay. If I take it at 2 pm otoh, then yes there is definitely sleep troubles.
I don't know what Melatonin is, so I'll go google that now. Thanks for the suggestions.
It's just a sleep suppliment, but one that you shouldn't take before speaking to your doctor even though it is OTC.
Can't stress this enough; I turned to melatonin to be able to sleep semi-normally after quitting drinking. It works, but if you end up using it long term, you will very likely need help from your doctor to stop taking it without side effects. I would not suggest large dosages higher than about 3mg & would not suggest using it for more than a week or two at a time.
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Hey all... I'm retired, not dead. Check out what I'm doing these days (and beg me to come back if you want):
I've taken Straterra and Vyvanse off and on for the past decade and the key to continued effectiveness has always been tolerance breaks. If I didn't work or go to school I didn't take my meds that day. Because of that(or luck!) I never plateaued and had very positive results. I do have to say that you need to be aware of your body and know when you are becoming addicted to a medication or experiencing unreasonable side effects. Vyvanse was amazing but I went off of it because its addicting qualities were bothering me and I didn't want to get to the point that I was popping pills to get high.
I used Melatonin as a sleep aid when I quit smoking pot. It definitely helped me get to sleep. Sadly, i would wake up every hour or so sweating profusely and my dreams were very extreme......almost violent. I suspect it was because of my vast drug history though. I know many people who have used it successfully. Its much safer than taking something like Ambien.
I used Melatonin as a sleep aid when I quit smoking pot. It definitely helped me get to sleep. Sadly, i would wake up every hour or so sweating profusely and my dreams were very extreme......almost violent. I suspect it was because of my vast drug history though. I know many people who have used it successfully. Its much safer than taking something like Ambien.
If you used marijuana chronically for an extended period of time and then suddenly stopped, then that was the reason your dreams were so extreme.
You can use Melatonin as a sleep aid, but I would try sleeping naturally first. It's better to not have to rely on any chemicals to help your body sleep.
that wasnt the case. I tried naturally beforehand (sleep is something that I still struggle with to this day). I didnt have any dreams whatsoever and when i did fall asleep (which usually involved not sleeping for a day or two to the point where my body couldnt handle being awake any longer) I slept through the night. It wasnt until I began using the melatonin that I experienced the night terrors.
I've been on Adderall for the majority of my life (currently 21, started around 5 or 6). As far as the side effects, I've experienced a few of them (loss of appetite, occasional trouble sleeping, and tics) but they started young enough that I didn't even make the connection until a few years ago since they weren't often sever enough to interfere with everyday life and I just learned to live with it. I've noticed my appetite is much stronger on days I miss my meds and as far as sleep trouble goes; I was also prescribed clonidine at night when my tics started getting worse and a side effect of clonidine is drowsiness, so that kinda worked itself out.
I believe that we all have varying abilities to focus. Some of us get distracted easier than others. I suppose you could say that a great focuser has 100 out of 100 in a hypothetical focusing skill. Most of us are't that high, but focus is just one small part of the measure of a person's intelligence and you can compensate for reduced focus by being good in other skills. In the end people don't judge you on the quality of your focus, but rather on products of your labor. You can be a respectable and productive person even if your focus is not as good as it couold've been.
This is something that I always wondered about.
I agree that everyone has varying abilities to focus, but I do not think that the difference is as extreme as some people put it.
I think it has more to do with what you find interesting and desire to do at the time. My brother, who cannot focus on his work for *****, can also spend entire days doing computer programming stuff/anything that is not his actual work. But here's the kicker, and a very important thing for people to realize- What he does in his spare-time are what other people do for a living. But I bet you a billion dollars that as soon as that actually becomes his work and no longer his hobby/spare-time stuff, then he'd lose interest.
I think a lot of people operate this way.
To be entirely honest, I don't think anyone possesses the ability to focus on something that they do not want to do at the time.
And from that comes a bunch of things that would probably sound very demeaning to others, and as such I won't write it here.
I agree that everyone has varying abilities to focus, but I do not think that the difference is as extreme as some people put it.
I think it has more to do with what you find interesting and desire to do at the time. My brother, who cannot focus on his work for *****, can also spend entire days doing computer programming stuff/anything that is not his actual work. But here's the kicker, and a very important thing for people to realize- What he does in his spare-time are what other people do for a living. But I bet you a billion dollars that as soon as that actually becomes his work and no longer his hobby/spare-time stuff, then he'd lose interest.
I think a lot of people operate this way.
To be entirely honest, I don't think anyone possesses the ability to focus on something that they do not want to do at the time.
And from that comes a bunch of things that would probably sound very demeaning to others, and as such I won't write it here.
As someone diagnosed with ADD 'before it was cool', I can honestly say there is a pretty extreme difference in the ability to concentrate, at least at first. For me, it took about four or five years of martial arts (self-discipline) and some ADD medication before I could manage myself in a classroom effectively without medication. As an adult, it's really not that big a deal for me anymore, since I've learned to cope, but as a kid it was a problem. I think it's something that everyone can learn to manage with self-discipline, the problem is that many of the kids getting diagnosed with it either don't have it and just lack self-discipline, or don't have the self-discipline aspect incorporated into their treatment. This is because it isn't really an attention deficit (as you point out) but a lack of adequate stimulation to maintain attention. The snail's pace of information given in the classroom, even in advanced classes, would be physically uncomfortable for me, leading my focus away. I would feel like my skin was crawling and that the teacher was trying to punish me by moving through material slowly. It's a weird feeling, and I've since learned to manage it.
I think this is the biggest misunderstanding people have (even those getting prescribed the medication, which I think the vast majority don't actually need) is that it isn't focus that's a problem, but filtering what requires focus. People with actual attention deficits have it because we need a much greater volume of information to keep ourselves occupied. If I wasn't getting it through my class, suddenly the number of holes in the ceiling tiles was critical information that absorbed all my focus. Something that requires self-discipline and focus, like martial arts or sports, is a good way to train yourself to cope with it. This pops up for school kids a lot because they're probably not in an advanced enough class or aren't being taught in a way that's accessible to them. Our one-size-fits-all approach to education is very detrimental to those of us who learn at a much more rapid pace. It also seems to happen to people with other learning disabilities (like dyslexia) for the same reason - they're capable of more but their learning disability means that they can't access more.
In the case of your brother, Magicware, I understand what you're saying but I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion. Programming is a very stimulating activity requiring a lot of brain power, and I think he'd probably be just as happy doing it as a job as in real life. I loved doing Graphic Design as a hobby and ended up loving it as a job, too.
You misunderstood. I didn't mean it in that way. I meant that he enjoys it because it's a hobby, one that many others would consider a job. But the moment it is no longer a hobby, then he would get bored of it.
It's the way his mind classifies the activity that causes him to either be bored of it or genuinely engaged with it. Like how some people love reading, but others hate it with a passion and cannot stand it.
Regarding the rate of speed of information in a classroom- I'm sorry, but I call bull*****. I'm currently taking a certificate course for an EE-related job. I've learned everything that we're going over right now from my father, and as such there's literally nothing new for me. Plus, the teacher moves at a snail-pace. He teaches a subject matter that should have been done within 30 minutes for an hour, largely because he operates on the (necessary) assumption that no one knows wtf he's talking about and so people need to have it drilled into their mind so that they don't go messing things up later. Yet, I am focused for the entire 4 hours. Know why? Because I know perfection is the only way to guarantee my first interview goes well, and that my starting pay will be high as a result of it.
In other words, I am very motivated to do well, and as such even things that I already know do not bore me to death. In comparison, I've been very bored, to the point that I fell asleep, when I've taken college courses that repeated certain subjects that I've already learned in other courses.
The same is true in high school.
Now, this may very well be different from the experiences people with ADD have, and I know I'll never know what it really feels like. But, like you said, so many people lack self-discipline to begin with, especially young people. And motivation.
This is the entire basis of my thinking. People do poorly in high school and college because they're unmotivated, and "professionals" (to be entirely honest I consider the entire profession of psychology to be bunk for the most part, having taken numerous courses on it in college and seeing that most of it really comes down to the researcher's own bias coloring the experiments, the fact that no two people are the same mentally [which, incidentally, means that most of what I write here could be bunk as well] and vice versa- it certainly shouldn't be considered a science) are so damn caught up in their own thinking that they fail to see this.
But look at what happens to so many problem children when they're given something to focus on. They do well. It's not because that something is a miracle cure; it's just that they found something genuinely interesting that motivates them to obtain a certain goal.
You misunderstood. I didn't mean it in that way. I meant that he enjoys it because it's a hobby, one that many others would consider a job. But the moment it is no longer a hobby, then he would get bored of it.
It's the way his mind classifies the activity that causes him to either be bored of it or genuinely engaged with it. Like how some people love reading, but others hate it with a passion and cannot stand it.
Regarding the rate of speed of information in a classroom- I'm sorry, but I call bull*****. I'm currently taking a certificate course for an EE-related job. I've learned everything that we're going over right now from my father, and as such there's literally nothing new for me. Plus, the teacher moves at a snail-pace. He teaches a subject matter that should have been done within 30 minutes for an hour, largely because he operates on the (necessary) assumption that no one knows wtf he's talking about and so people need to have it drilled into their mind so that they don't go messing things up later. Yet, I am focused for the entire 4 hours. Know why? Because I know perfection is the only way to guarantee my first interview goes well, and that my starting pay will be high as a result of it.
In other words, I am very motivated to do well, and as such even things that I already know do not bore me to death. In comparison, I've been very bored, to the point that I fell asleep, when I've taken college courses that repeated certain subjects that I've already learned in other courses.
The same is true in high school.
Now, this may very well be different from the experiences people with ADD have, and I know I'll never know what it really feels like. But, like you said, so many people lack self-discipline to begin with, especially young people. And motivation.
This is the entire basis of my thinking. People do poorly in high school and college because they're unmotivated, and "professionals" (to be entirely honest I consider the entire profession of psychology to be bunk for the most part, having taken numerous courses on it in college and seeing that most of it really comes down to the researcher's own bias coloring the experiments, the fact that no two people are the same mentally [which, incidentally, means that most of what I write here could be bunk as well] and vice versa- it certainly shouldn't be considered a science) are so damn caught up in their own thinking that they fail to see this.
But look at what happens to so many problem children when they're given something to focus on. They do well. It's not because that something is a miracle cure; it's just that they found something genuinely interesting that motivates them to obtain a certain goal.
I do not find anything wrong with your views. I think that you're right, and that they're even compatible with what I said.
If you don't naturally have focus then discipline can fill the gaps, but people who don't have focus may also have trouble disciplining themselves. I tried to solve my problems by addressing discipline, and that's why i joined the navy. They taught me how to follow orders but i didn't get true discipline out of it. This is why I equated it to blinders. It doesn't improve any skill so much as it eliminates some of the distractions. Being less distracted coincidentally also makes it easier to work on being more disciplined.
I'd argue that motivation, proper motivation that is, is far more important than discipline. This is because I think motivation leads to discipline, not the other way around.
I very much doubt you could have gotten Einstein to focus on the inanity of linguistics while he was busy working on his math/physics stuff back in Germany.
But suppose that Einstein had a great passion for linguistics instead of math/physics. Then the opposite would probably be true.
Now, the thing I don't know is whether motivation is something that you can build on your own, or is it largely out of your hands. I would argue towards the latter, largely based on my own experiences. I am doing the EE-related job only because that is the only legitimate option left for me (unless I want to outright go back to school and spend 2-4 years studying something again) to make a good living. As such, I am very much invested in doing this.
At the same time, the same should have been true while I was studying in college. I had a very good reason to get straight As all the time, and yet I barely did the work.
Your mind works in weird ways.
I personally think it's because I've experienced a number of set-backs that made me realize just how ******* idiotic I was all this time, and I've just made my mind up not to be that anyone. In short- as consequences become more and more real; I become invested in doing things better and properly. I am now motivated to do things that would have seemed trivial or unimportant to me earlier.
Which is why I firmly believe that children should be allowed to make as many idiotic mistakes as they can early on and learn from consequences on their own, without their parents attempting to teach them everything. By the time you're in your early adulthood, then the consequences could be far too severe to learn from/make up for. Rather, parents should exist largely to give advice/provide support when the child asks for it. But heavy handed parenting seems like a no-no to me.
I don't think it's off topic. I think it's very insightful and relevant to the topic.
Motivation is one of my favorite subjects.
I understand your dissatisfaction with psychology but don't hate psychologists. I feel that too many people sell them short for the times when psychology fails to conform to the scientific method. I don't think of psychology as a pure science. More like a science mixed with a religion. Of course there's a great deal of peer reviewed research that has been done in the field and I don't mean to offend anyone. I feel that religions have their purpose too, and it's okay to have faith.
When you talk about motivation i think about Maslow, and I think about michael Jordan. I feel strongly that what makes Michael Jordan a great basketball player is not necessarily some intangible element called "talent". Rather he was put in a situation where he could focus on his considerable interest in the sport, and his interest provided motivation which - combined with hard work and creative thinking - made him good at the game.
I think that interests can be cultivated. I didn't care about history until I was much older than the average high school student, and then it was a product of a new interest in politics which itself was a product of becoming a new parent.
Cultivqting new interests is a good thing.
I relate to the story about your brother. I can spend a week looking at my guitar, thinking about how i really should practice a bit. Then some other project will come up and all of a sudden the guitar is in my hands. It's partly avoidance and procrastination. Can you imagine a drug that makes it harder for you to get distracted by the guitar? That's adderall. It doesn't address root problems but it does help. You might think that it would be better to address the root problem but i strongly feel that accomplishment of tasks is the best way to fight procrastination. Procrastination (and depression as well imo) are a snake that eats its own tail. It causes failure, but is itself a result of failure and therefore self-reinforcing. Adderall doesn't necessarily help you finish any particular project but it does help you get SOMETHING done. The good feelings that you get from that accomplishment feed your psyche as you move to the next project. You procrastinate less because your mood and feelings of self-worth are more positive.
Come to think of it - mike myers explained this very well in one of the austin power movies.
"I eat because I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat."
That is what you're dealing with when you have problems with procrastination.
Melatonin is literally thw mildest sleep aid you can take. I built up a tolerarance to it after the first week. Unisom and Bennadryl is much better but the tolerance still applys. If you need a sleep aid while taking amphetamine then you likely do not need the meds. Adderral is great at first but I always implore any user to research on Erowid the side effects as they can be harsh. Adderral is practically one step below meth in high doses and the same rules apply. Make sure to eat, hydrate, flush with antioxidants and take dietary supplements with B vitamins. This drug is serious. You will excel doing the robotic tasks but still mess up the more intricate. Mood swings, loss of appetite, anxiety and binge drinking are all pressing side effects to even the most controlled user. Learn what your body can and can not handle. I can not find a logical reason to give this drug to those still growing. I have tried MDMA and Meth and while ADDY is much lighter the same crap applies.
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By: ol MISAKA lo
Cockatrice: Infallible
Mhjames: mtgsalvation: I DON'T SEE HOW THIS CARD IS GOOD. I KNOW PATRICK CHAPIN USED IT AND WENT 8-0, BUT THAT WAS A SMALL TOURNAMENT. THE CARD IS TOO SLOW. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THE OPPONENT HAS A SPELL IN THE GRAVEYARD
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That said, ADHD isn't epilepsy any more than it is brain cancer, and I gave an idea for how one can do a case-control study. Sadly, you can't do any better than that in nutrition; there's simply no such thing as a dietary placebo.
On phasing:
I went to a specialist to get testing and it came back that I was bi-polar and ADHD. Sometimes my mouth is faster than my brain and I shock not only myself but others around when I say things. I sometimes can't control it. Bi-polar came from my grandmother, and I do have massive ups and down (would cry to the weirdest smallest details or thoughts).
I was given Lamictal and Strattera (well before Strattera there was one other but gave me bad side effects --- basically esculated my high blood pressure) Yes , at the age of 20, I had high blood pressure. 150 lbs 5'5" worked out 3x a week and at least a mile each work out. That and a thyroid issue.
Now on meds, I can notice the difference. I am no longer repeating what I want to say in my head over and over again when I am talking to someone. I can focus on one task and not get jittery or antsy. Less stress due to higher work performance therefore blood pressure is down. Working out more (4x plus a week) is helping, but even on a controlled diet, still gain weight.
It has been 2 years on the meds, and we are still fine tuning the dosage. It took at least a year to slowly increase the Lamtical to optimal levels.
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I have bipolar in my family but I think that I dodged that particular bullet, thankfully. That would be the reason for the Lamictal I presume?
Do you mind telling the name of the drug that was prescribed to you before Strattera? I'm also interested in how you feel about the Strattera. I'm leery of it because I noticed that anxiety is a possible side effect and I did feel anxious once when I was on Singulair. I didn't know that Singulair could have that side effect and it was a bad experience until I figured that out. I don't want to have that particular side effect again.
I'm also curious about how dosing was handled. I was started at 20 mg Adderall and I think that I was very sensitive to it at first. The effects were extremely noticeable for the first 2 days and they've faded away since then.
I contacted my GP about it and she upped the dose to 25 mg but I feel almost no effects right now. I think that I am ever so slightly better at focusing but there were many other benefits that I felt before that I am not getting at all anymore.
For me - I also confuse people by the way I talk. Someone once accused me of 'talking around' a subject rather than simply getting to the point. I also have a tendency to drift rapidly from subject to subject and sometimes make strange topic connections. I think people might think that I'm changing the subject when I do that - it just seems that people get annoyed with me sometimes and I don't know why.
I've had problems with saying too much and I've had problems with failing to read body language. Winks, nudges, finger to lips. I'm the kind of guy who was always oblivious to that stuff. I'd sometimes say things to people who weren't supposed to know it in spite of other people trying to warn me.
When I was feeling the full effects of the Adderall I was not acting that way. I was able to stay on the subject and I was able to read people's reactions to what I was saying. I was also able to divide my attention better. I was multi-tasking better.
My wife thought that the difference was very noticeable and also pleasant. She was very happy with the way I was acting when I was feeling the effects of the meds.
Now I feel almost nothing. It's very frustrating. I feel as if I had been trapped under ice for most of my life. For a few days I was allowed to break the surface and experience life as it could be, but now I'm trapped again.
I was not prepared for all of the weirdness that followed when i told people that i was trying adderall. The first rule of being on adderall is to not let anyone know that you're on adderall. Some people thought it was being used recreationally and some people started to explain to me that ADD isn't a real thing. Well i have some thoughts to share about that.
The first week was mostly an amphetamine high i think. I felt really great on days 2 through 5. As that wore off I started to have less of a high and more chance to evaluate the effects of the drug. Short version l it helps. It doesnit always help with the things that i'd like to get help with, but it does help.
I believe that we all have varying abilities to focus. Some of us get distracted easier than others. I suppose you could say that a great focuser has 100 out of 100 in a hypothetical focusing skill. Most of us are't that high, but focus is just one small part of the measure of a person's intelligence and you can compensate for reduced focus by being good in other skills. In the end people don't judge you on the quality of your focus, but rather on products of your labor. You can be a respectable and productive person even if your focus is not as good as it couold've been.
in my case i feel that my ability to focus was sufficiently low that it was impeding my ability to improve other skills as well. i may have been at 60 out of 100. not terribly impaired, but impaired enough that i could perceive the advantage that other people had.
Adderall seems to do two things. on the one hand it's a stimulant that seems to change the evaluation of risk and makes me generally more willing to begin a project. The second effect seems to narrow your focus. It makes it difficult to focus on multiple things, but at the benefit of having less distractions From whatever task you're actively engaged in. It is a mixed blessing in other words, but the benefits of narrow focus are significant in some areas. I have completed a lot of projects that never would've been attempted prior to starting the prescription. My art is rapidly improving. I also started to play the guitar and i started to get into woodworking. All of these are activities that i had some interest in but i was so unproductive with my time in general that it never made sense to add hobbies. The guitar was particularly interesting. I had tried to learn the guitar many times when i was younger. Now i am able to pick up skills and learn things that formerly escaped my notice, and the increased pace of skill acquisition makes the process of learning much more enjoyable.
Aside from the academic pursuits and hobbies there are a few side-effects. It can be difficult to go to bed sometimes (stimulant after all) and I have also lost about 25 pounds in the last year due to a reduced appetite.
All in all I feel that adderall has helped me, and I do not see it as a performance aid so much as a pair of blinders that you put on to keep your focus on the proper tasks. You still need to be disciplined and you still need to work hard, but Adderall makes it possible to derive more benefit and thus more pleasure from the work that you do.
You probably already know, but please be aware when you stop taking this medication, your appetite will return in force and unless you're careful you'll not only gain back the weight you lost, but a substantial amount more, which can greatly increase the risk of diabetes. For many people that amounts to having a good number of years chopped off their lifespan.
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If you have trouble sleeping (which I did while on a similar medication) they can prescribe a sleep aid, or you might want to try Melatonin.
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The sleep trouble is mostly only if I take it too late in the day. Today for example - I'm taking it at 1130 and that should be okay. If I take it at 2 pm otoh, then yes there is definitely sleep troubles.
I don't know what Melatonin is, so I'll go google that now. Thanks for the suggestions.
It's just a sleep suppliment, but one that you shouldn't take before speaking to your doctor even though it is OTC.
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Can't stress this enough; I turned to melatonin to be able to sleep semi-normally after quitting drinking. It works, but if you end up using it long term, you will very likely need help from your doctor to stop taking it without side effects. I would not suggest large dosages higher than about 3mg & would not suggest using it for more than a week or two at a time.
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If you used marijuana chronically for an extended period of time and then suddenly stopped, then that was the reason your dreams were so extreme.
You can use Melatonin as a sleep aid, but I would try sleeping naturally first. It's better to not have to rely on any chemicals to help your body sleep.
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This is something that I always wondered about.
I agree that everyone has varying abilities to focus, but I do not think that the difference is as extreme as some people put it.
I think it has more to do with what you find interesting and desire to do at the time. My brother, who cannot focus on his work for *****, can also spend entire days doing computer programming stuff/anything that is not his actual work. But here's the kicker, and a very important thing for people to realize- What he does in his spare-time are what other people do for a living. But I bet you a billion dollars that as soon as that actually becomes his work and no longer his hobby/spare-time stuff, then he'd lose interest.
I think a lot of people operate this way.
To be entirely honest, I don't think anyone possesses the ability to focus on something that they do not want to do at the time.
And from that comes a bunch of things that would probably sound very demeaning to others, and as such I won't write it here.
As someone diagnosed with ADD 'before it was cool', I can honestly say there is a pretty extreme difference in the ability to concentrate, at least at first. For me, it took about four or five years of martial arts (self-discipline) and some ADD medication before I could manage myself in a classroom effectively without medication. As an adult, it's really not that big a deal for me anymore, since I've learned to cope, but as a kid it was a problem. I think it's something that everyone can learn to manage with self-discipline, the problem is that many of the kids getting diagnosed with it either don't have it and just lack self-discipline, or don't have the self-discipline aspect incorporated into their treatment. This is because it isn't really an attention deficit (as you point out) but a lack of adequate stimulation to maintain attention. The snail's pace of information given in the classroom, even in advanced classes, would be physically uncomfortable for me, leading my focus away. I would feel like my skin was crawling and that the teacher was trying to punish me by moving through material slowly. It's a weird feeling, and I've since learned to manage it.
I think this is the biggest misunderstanding people have (even those getting prescribed the medication, which I think the vast majority don't actually need) is that it isn't focus that's a problem, but filtering what requires focus. People with actual attention deficits have it because we need a much greater volume of information to keep ourselves occupied. If I wasn't getting it through my class, suddenly the number of holes in the ceiling tiles was critical information that absorbed all my focus. Something that requires self-discipline and focus, like martial arts or sports, is a good way to train yourself to cope with it. This pops up for school kids a lot because they're probably not in an advanced enough class or aren't being taught in a way that's accessible to them. Our one-size-fits-all approach to education is very detrimental to those of us who learn at a much more rapid pace. It also seems to happen to people with other learning disabilities (like dyslexia) for the same reason - they're capable of more but their learning disability means that they can't access more.
In the case of your brother, Magicware, I understand what you're saying but I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion. Programming is a very stimulating activity requiring a lot of brain power, and I think he'd probably be just as happy doing it as a job as in real life. I loved doing Graphic Design as a hobby and ended up loving it as a job, too.
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It's the way his mind classifies the activity that causes him to either be bored of it or genuinely engaged with it. Like how some people love reading, but others hate it with a passion and cannot stand it.
Regarding the rate of speed of information in a classroom- I'm sorry, but I call bull*****. I'm currently taking a certificate course for an EE-related job. I've learned everything that we're going over right now from my father, and as such there's literally nothing new for me. Plus, the teacher moves at a snail-pace. He teaches a subject matter that should have been done within 30 minutes for an hour, largely because he operates on the (necessary) assumption that no one knows wtf he's talking about and so people need to have it drilled into their mind so that they don't go messing things up later. Yet, I am focused for the entire 4 hours. Know why? Because I know perfection is the only way to guarantee my first interview goes well, and that my starting pay will be high as a result of it.
In other words, I am very motivated to do well, and as such even things that I already know do not bore me to death. In comparison, I've been very bored, to the point that I fell asleep, when I've taken college courses that repeated certain subjects that I've already learned in other courses.
The same is true in high school.
Now, this may very well be different from the experiences people with ADD have, and I know I'll never know what it really feels like. But, like you said, so many people lack self-discipline to begin with, especially young people. And motivation.
This is the entire basis of my thinking. People do poorly in high school and college because they're unmotivated, and "professionals" (to be entirely honest I consider the entire profession of psychology to be bunk for the most part, having taken numerous courses on it in college and seeing that most of it really comes down to the researcher's own bias coloring the experiments, the fact that no two people are the same mentally [which, incidentally, means that most of what I write here could be bunk as well] and vice versa- it certainly shouldn't be considered a science) are so damn caught up in their own thinking that they fail to see this.
But look at what happens to so many problem children when they're given something to focus on. They do well. It's not because that something is a miracle cure; it's just that they found something genuinely interesting that motivates them to obtain a certain goal.
I do not find anything wrong with your views. I think that you're right, and that they're even compatible with what I said.
If you don't naturally have focus then discipline can fill the gaps, but people who don't have focus may also have trouble disciplining themselves. I tried to solve my problems by addressing discipline, and that's why i joined the navy. They taught me how to follow orders but i didn't get true discipline out of it. This is why I equated it to blinders. It doesn't improve any skill so much as it eliminates some of the distractions. Being less distracted coincidentally also makes it easier to work on being more disciplined.
I very much doubt you could have gotten Einstein to focus on the inanity of linguistics while he was busy working on his math/physics stuff back in Germany.
But suppose that Einstein had a great passion for linguistics instead of math/physics. Then the opposite would probably be true.
Now, the thing I don't know is whether motivation is something that you can build on your own, or is it largely out of your hands. I would argue towards the latter, largely based on my own experiences. I am doing the EE-related job only because that is the only legitimate option left for me (unless I want to outright go back to school and spend 2-4 years studying something again) to make a good living. As such, I am very much invested in doing this.
At the same time, the same should have been true while I was studying in college. I had a very good reason to get straight As all the time, and yet I barely did the work.
Your mind works in weird ways.
I personally think it's because I've experienced a number of set-backs that made me realize just how ******* idiotic I was all this time, and I've just made my mind up not to be that anyone. In short- as consequences become more and more real; I become invested in doing things better and properly. I am now motivated to do things that would have seemed trivial or unimportant to me earlier.
Which is why I firmly believe that children should be allowed to make as many idiotic mistakes as they can early on and learn from consequences on their own, without their parents attempting to teach them everything. By the time you're in your early adulthood, then the consequences could be far too severe to learn from/make up for. Rather, parents should exist largely to give advice/provide support when the child asks for it. But heavy handed parenting seems like a no-no to me.
But this is off-topic.
Motivation is one of my favorite subjects.
I understand your dissatisfaction with psychology but don't hate psychologists. I feel that too many people sell them short for the times when psychology fails to conform to the scientific method. I don't think of psychology as a pure science. More like a science mixed with a religion. Of course there's a great deal of peer reviewed research that has been done in the field and I don't mean to offend anyone. I feel that religions have their purpose too, and it's okay to have faith.
When you talk about motivation i think about Maslow, and I think about michael Jordan. I feel strongly that what makes Michael Jordan a great basketball player is not necessarily some intangible element called "talent". Rather he was put in a situation where he could focus on his considerable interest in the sport, and his interest provided motivation which - combined with hard work and creative thinking - made him good at the game.
I think that interests can be cultivated. I didn't care about history until I was much older than the average high school student, and then it was a product of a new interest in politics which itself was a product of becoming a new parent.
Cultivqting new interests is a good thing.
I relate to the story about your brother. I can spend a week looking at my guitar, thinking about how i really should practice a bit. Then some other project will come up and all of a sudden the guitar is in my hands. It's partly avoidance and procrastination. Can you imagine a drug that makes it harder for you to get distracted by the guitar? That's adderall. It doesn't address root problems but it does help. You might think that it would be better to address the root problem but i strongly feel that accomplishment of tasks is the best way to fight procrastination. Procrastination (and depression as well imo) are a snake that eats its own tail. It causes failure, but is itself a result of failure and therefore self-reinforcing. Adderall doesn't necessarily help you finish any particular project but it does help you get SOMETHING done. The good feelings that you get from that accomplishment feed your psyche as you move to the next project. You procrastinate less because your mood and feelings of self-worth are more positive.
Come to think of it - mike myers explained this very well in one of the austin power movies.
"I eat because I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat."
That is what you're dealing with when you have problems with procrastination.
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