Programming as a cure for A.D.D.?

&#62; I never noticed or accepted that I had mild A.D.D. until a few months ago and around that time, I started thinking about methods to work with it.<p>Not to be rude, but it's unclear whether the author has had an actual professional diagnosis. ADHD is one of the most commonly self-diagnosed conditions, and also one of the most commonly <i>mis</i>diagnosed conditions.<p>It doesn't help that ADHD is much more difficult to diagnose in individuals (particularly adults) who perform well in other metrics (IQ, etc.), as they oftentimes have simply developed compensatory mechanisms - these same mechanisms which have enabled them to have success also make a diagnosis much more difficult, even for professionals.<p>&#62; It’s nice. I can let the A.D.D. run wild when I’m thinking about a problem or how to solve it but when I sit down to solve the problem, I force myself into that zone and try my hardest not to let anything in while I check mini-task after mini-task off on my list.<p>'Hyperfocus' is common in individuals with ADHD, but this doesn't sound quite right - hyperfocus isn't something that can be turned on and off easily. With ADHD, focusing on programming is a challenge as much as anything else is.

There's a lot of investigation that has been done around ADHD and the ability to "hyperfocus". Dr Russell Barkley has an interesting insight on this phenomenon.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfkg0VWx3rM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfkg0VWx3rM</a><p>I'm not certain that I agree with him in full. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in my early 20s. The ability to deeply focus on a project was helpful to me as well. I certainly don't think that we can call it a "cure" for ADD, but it can absolutely be a positive byproduct.

I do my best work when I take stimulant medication. I simply do not get as much done without it, and even then I find it can be ineffective. With programming I often lose track of what I'm doing and end up off task without even realizing it. I can have a low tolerance for working on things that do not interest me, finding it almost physically impossible to apply myself. Somehow amphetamine salts make me feel more engaged with things I might otherwise find dull.<p>I should note that I was tested for ADHD and the results indicated that I actually didn't have it, even though the symptoms of inattentive ADHD seem to describe me perfectly.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to put my perspective down for once.<p>I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was about 7-8, by advice of a teacher. If I had to put a severity to it, I'd guess severe. When I was in young, it was a physical feeling of pain in my stomach when I fought against the urge to stand up and walk around. Before I was diagnosed, I literally couldn't write my own name without help, because I wouldn't sit and do it. After being put on medication, I basically got straight A's and B's through to high school.<p>Half way through high school, I started to hate the medication, I was depressed and tried to take myself off them secretly. Within the first week, most of my teachers started raising eyebrows and the school called home to see what was going on. After a few trips to the paediatrician, psychologist, and agreeing to weekly therapy at the school, I was taken off the medication.<p>It got pretty grizzly. One of my teachers would routinely send me out of the classroom for entire periods because he figured I wasn't going to learn anyway, and I was disrupting everyone else. I started to struggle in classes I loved, which got incredibly frustrating, I remember clearly knowing the answer to a problem in math class, but struggling to actually write it down, or being in music class (I was the school bands drummer), and struggling to to finish a single song because I couldn't help standing up and stepping away from the drum kit half way through.<p>It was devastating to me to find I couldn't do these things I knew I was good at without the help of the medication I fought to get off. I'd get off of school and just walk around town. Somehow, one day, I ended up walking into the local TAFE/Curtin (This is in a town in Australia), and for some reason started looking at their class lists. One of the admin's started talking to me, and convinced me to go talk to one of the teachers, who convinced me to give it a try.<p>Being a small town, the classes were basically empty, so I was almost one on one with the teacher, who let me work through at my own pace. I ended up powering through all the work for the Certificate III and Certificate IV pretty quickly, and he asked me to enrol in the Diploma (For those that don't know, here in aus a Cert/Diploma is under an undergraduate degree), introduced me to the teacher, and she gave me the entire course load in advance, which I also powered through.<p>They called me in and sat me down and told me I should apply for an undergraduate degree program in the city, and wrote letters of recommendation for me. I did, not really expecting anything to come of it (Remember I was about 14-15 at the time, and still attending high school, and basically failing), and after a few weeks of frantic phone calls, and incredible support from my amazing parents, I got accepted.<p>I ended up graduating just after my 18th birthday, with an award for grades.<p>I think about it pretty regularly, what my life would have been like if I hadn't discovered programming via TAFE. I'm 100% certain I could not have finished high school without medication, with high enough marks to get into Uni. And even if I could have, I probably would have assumed that my body would fight me every step of the way just like high school, and opted not to go. I wish I could tell all the people who are in the position I was in at that age, terrified of the future, feeling trapped in a body that won't let them be normal, that, hey, maybe there ARE things you can do. I've described programming as a 'blind spot' for my ADHD. And if I have a blind spot, maybe others do to. I'd like to hope that everyone has something they can do that helps them feel better.<p>I still struggle with ADHD, I still have trouble sitting through a movie, I get frustrated at myself at the drop of a hat, hell, to be honest, theres a part of me that's proud I managed to type this story out in only one sitting. But I can program, and I honestly feel like that saved my life.

Programming seems like the kind of thing that would increase your focus over prolonged time spans. I'm surprised meditation isnt mentioned more often when talking about ADD. I feel this is the most obvious thing to try if you feel your capacity to focus isn't as great as you would like it to be.<p>Try it out, just sit in a quiet room for five minutes and try to focus on your breath. It'l probably last a good 3 seconds, but keep trying it works like a muscle.

This is funny because this relates to me so much. I know exactly what you mean when you say when thinking of a solution, you let your "ADD" (mind you I'm not diagnosed so take what I say with a grain of salt, I would like to get it checked though) go and have several attempts to solving the problem in your head, I do the same exact thing.<p>A problem I have though is that I can be focused when actually programming but then I can lose it just for a second and then the last 15 lines of code is just chinese to me even though I wrote it myself.<p>Another problem is simple math within a more complicated problem. For example, I'm still at university and when taking an exam for say, linear algebra and have to multiply matices, I could be stuck on like 22+17 and for some reason I can't get 9 out of 2+7, it's a weird feeling because I know it's correct but I guess something in my mind doesn't feel confident about it.<p>Also I fall asleep when I force myself to focus. Interesting courses that I'm excited to actually learn, I end up passing out in lecture regardless of the amount of sleep I had.<p>Then reading is annoying also I can read lines over and over again, I see the words, they go in my brain but nothing logical comes out.<p>I still love programming though =P

Thanks for the write up.<p>Can I ask, how much do you think the non-ability to focus on a task it is about procrastination and how much is about your ADD?<p>For example, I am doing my PhD now, and find it very hard to focus on actual research, instead losing time to procrastination (I'm looking at you, HN!). After hours, I also tend to have several different projects running at once, for which I struggle to prioritize and get any single one finished. However, when I'm at my paid job as a developer, I focus just fine. Given the other anecdotes here, I would expect a clinical diagnosis would show that I have signs of ADHD, but I would attribute them to laziness on my part.<p>I don't want to comment on your case specifically, but my fiancé is doing her PhD in psychophysiology, and more specifically, natural treatments for ADHD, and there is certainly a perception that ADHD is somewhat over diagnosed. I am interested if you would have attributed a different name (e.g. procrastination) to some of the behaviours you discussed before hearing about or being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

As an individual who has struggled with severe ADD, i've followed scientific and medical journal research in the field. New research, involving brain-scans of intelligent ADD and non-ADD brains, shows a specific recall disorder. Basically, when an ADD brain wants to concentrate on a single task (reading/listening to a lecture for example), other regions of the brain are called upon and interfere with focus. This is why many ADD/ADHD individuals like myself, hide in the corner of a quite library, with ear-plugs, because sounds/visual-stimulation/other thought process is amplified. With a non-ADD brain, non-recalled regions, unrelated to the requested task, drastically lower activity levels.<p>Check it out Journal of Psychiatric Research: A. Cubillo et al. / Journal of Psychiatric Research 44 (2010) 629–639<p>"Reduced activation and inter-regional functional connectivity of fronto-striatal networks in adults with childhood Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and persisting symptoms during tasks of motor inhibition and cognitive switching."

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 17, after many years of living with it. I decided I would not take drugs for it. I was afraid I would lose my creativity and that kind of stuff. I started rescheduling my tasks so the most boring ones would get the time of the day I would me most inspired. It helped for a time, but I couldn't stay in the same place for too long. After some years frequently changing jobs, friends and hobbys, I finally found my place. I've been programming since my childhood. Sometimes, ADHD helps (giving ideas on how to solve problems), some other times, it gets in the way, making me lazy to solve some repetitive problems. After 4 or 5 different jobs, I found one where it doesn't get repetitive. I work in projects that last around six months. Each project uses a different language, with different teams and tools and routines. It's been like heaven. After I started working here, my whole life improved. I stopped growing tired of people and could finally keep the same friends for a long time. I even started a serious relationship.

I don't know about programming being a cure for A.D.D. or the like as it depends upon the programming enviroment (scripting better than compiled I'd say).<p>I learned early on with a ZX81 and I can say one thing I did learn a bit more patience with the wobberly ram pack and loading/saving times.<p>Though I worked in a nice quite bedroom with no distractions and that is a big factor.<p>I would say that doing martial arts - well kendo helped me alot on many levels. Has nice culture and attitude compared to some of the other martial arts or at least how they are taught. Also `Do` being the way or as apposed to `Jitsu` suffix, which is the art of killing; Does highlight its more zen like mindset. Also knowing what distracts you and how it distracts you and controlling the distractions helps as well.<p><pre><code> But like anything and anybody - if it works for you then it works nomatter what other people say and stick with your comfort level.</code></pre>

At a tangent, Zack previously talked about the Single Application Mode in osx Lion. Its appears to not work in Mountain Lion. <a href="http://zackshapiro.com/post/26300586593/single-application-mode-my-favorite-hidden-feature-of" rel="nofollow">http://zackshapiro.com/post/26300586593/single-application-m...</a>

As somebody who has adhd, recently started getting medicated, became a programmer and turned my life around 180 degrees. Ill take the time to answer misconceptions about adhd.<p>ADHD is not primarily an attention disorder. Its primarily a motivational disorder. There are 3 types of ADHD recognized in American Psychiatry with a closely related disorder called SCT. ADHD-Hyperactive, ADHD-Inattentive, ADHD-Combined, Slow Cognitve Tempo.<p>To understand what causes these disorders, im going to have to summerize basic neurology fundamentals. The brain produces a chemical called dopamine that just about runs the entire show upstairs. When you accomplish a task, and you feel good about yourself; thats because dopamine will stimulate your brain with reward signals. When you look at the dishes and say "Im going to do that today." Its because you have dopamine to motivate you to get stuff done. Even sex and orgasms is directly related to dopamine release and stimulation.<p>The thing about dopamine is that it is stored inside a dopamine "bank" where dopamine is also generated by exercising, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, ect. This healthy lifestyle allows for a healthy amount of dopamine to accumulate in the brain.<p>The way dopamine leaves these banks to do work in the brain is by these cells called neurotransmitters that are responsible for fitting into the molecule sized "keyhole like doorways" to basically grab and push dopamine out.<p>After alot of dopamine is released out to act as messengers between neurons via the synapses, some of it is collected up by norepinephrine transmitters to be carried away and converted into adrenaline. (Adrenaline is where the "hyperactive/impulsive" aspect of the disorder comes in btw.) And of course any excess dopamine/norepinephrine that isnt carried away by other transmitters to other parts of the body is recollected back into their banks for future use.<p>In a normal healthy human, this all works wonderfully.<p>However in all the ADHD disorders and SCT disorder somewhere in this system is one or more types of neurotransmitters acting... disorderly. Basically they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Sometimes it is a problem primarily in the dopamine neurotransmitter department with not enough being brought out or too much being carried away which causes too much norepinephrine to be produced. Sometime its too little dopamine, and not enough norepinephrine (SCT). Sometimes its just the norepinpherine transmitter. This is the reason why different ADHD medications work on different ADHD patients. Adderall might cause too much dopamine out, where ritalin just stops to much dopamine from being carried to away. Sometimes straterra works which only affects the norepinephrine. Its a complicated disorder to say the least.<p>Which is why people say ADHD is commonly misdiagnosed. This is very true. Sometimes its depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder. Sometimes its just a kids bad diet and sleep habits, therefore they cant produce enough dopamine the natural way in the first place. (happy meal kids) ADHD doctors get a bad rep because they are giving kids speeds when in reality the parent is the disorder, not the childs brain. Its just highly complicated for a psychiatrist to know. Parents say fix my kid, and this is all the info they get to work with. Once a month, 15 minutes, "fix my kid", sign a pharmacy script that will be a hundred bucks. Happens like that all the time.<p>However what people dont realize, is that the reality of adhd is very very underdiagnosed also. More people live today, struggling everyday to make the best out of their lives, than there have ever been people misdiagnosed with ADHD period. People dont accept mental disorders exist, and that you need to get help for them.<p>The other problem with ADHD that people dont understand is that it is highly common to not only have ADHD but to have comorbid disorders like depression and anxiety either caused by the adhd, or completely unrelated to it requiring their own individual treatments.<p>Considering those disorders are linked to the same brain mechanics it is highly likely somebody who gets diagnosed with ADHD, thought they didnt have it when the perscriptions didnt fix all the problems despite the fact they do have adhd. They are likely to jump from anti anxiety medicine, over to Prozac, etc. The fact is this is a really hard to treat disorder because of the many different variations. Its complicated enough to justify the there are no two cases of ADHD that are the same. Its hard to diagnose something so broad and ETHICALLY treat it. For this reason, sometimes people seek help, hate the medications they get put on and try to fend for them selves again. I feel sorry for these people because their psychiatrists failed to help them. :(<p>Here is my personal story regarding ADHD. (btw calling it "ADD" was thrown out like 20 years ago. Let it go people.)<p>Im somebody who has/(d? who knows/cares) an IQ of ~145 growing up and dropped out of school. I can read perfectly fine. I also have and understand a sophisticated vocabulary. However I cant "read" without my medication.<p>I can not force myself to focus on what im supposed to think about. I can read a paragraph over and over again and not remember what I just read to the point that I just give up. I havent passed an english class since the 4th grade. I was the kid who was just "a lazy son of a bitch, fucking off all of his potential." growing up.<p>People didnt understand. I didnt understand, because no matter what I did, I could not motivate myself to do what I really wanted to do. People with adhd fail, because they dont have the ABILITY to succeed. "So try harder.", You dont understand. Its literally like asking a double amputee to try harder at running in a foot race. (okay... little tink tink is an exception. :P) Sometimes ADHD feels like a cage you are confined in that you constly feel unaware you are there in the first place. Sometimes the mind is like a hurricane where you think 90 mph when everyone else is driving in the slow lane. When we speak our mental thoughts have to be put on loop over and over when we want to say something fluent and slow, only to forget in the middle of the sentece what the entire conversation is about.<p>I always thought this was just normal for some people like me. I was never diagnosed as a kid because my intelligence allowed my parents and teachers to blame the school's material for my failures. "I was bored". Which is true, I was, but that didnt mean I didnt want to succeed I dropped out of highschool because I was tired of failing there. I thought perhaps the answer was out in the world, however things didnt get better. I could hold a job either. I was depressed for along time, not having an answer, until my brother said I acted like my Dad. That I had adhd.<p>At the time, I didnt want to think I had a "disorder". So I never looked at myself like that. Then I started reading about it adhd, watched dr russell barkleys talks (i saw somebody mentioned him. :) ), scheduled an appointment to see a psychiatrist and 2 years later i'm a software developer working on compilers and web servers. I study operating systems, graphic pipelines, use linux/unix (flex). I finally feel, successful after getting help for the first time in a long time. In fact, out of most of the people I know right now. Im heading towards a much higher pay job then them. Im already working free lance and making twice what they make in college a month, every 2 weeks. Its alot of hardwork to make up, but Im driven to succeed because 19 years of failing was horrible.<p>Look, Im going to be straight forward. There is no "cure" to adhd. Some people grow out of it because the human brain doesnt stop growing until sometime in your 20s, however people with adult adhd are stuck with it forever. I will grow into an old man with this disorder. My dad is an old man with ADHD. People learn how to manage by self medication.<p>Hyper focusing is a form of self medication via stimulating meditation. We can still think just like everyone else. Its just we do alot more thinking. Different stimulating activities grab different people. Video games, music for me, racing dirt bikes, sports.<p>Its just that these activities are not voluntary, nor are they experiences I would compare to programming because alot of reading and focus to fine detail is involved; which are traits most effected by ADHD.<p>For example when Im not on my medication, I cant work. However when im on my medication I can read a text book in two weeks. Its a black and white difference. I cant say that you are not the exception. (little think think?), but medication would be the metal prosthetic legs in this adhd footrace regardless.<p>I hope everyone understands us better if you actually read this. And pardon me if its full of grammar errors. I tried my best to proof read. (which ends up in me adding to it and making it worse. Lol) I wrote this without being on my meds btw. Which is why I wrote an essay. :P

ADHD/ADD is an imagined disease, created by those who do not understand how a person who can process more information than they, operates.<p>The teaching system and the work system does not understand the abilities and natural ways of acting of these people, and this is why we feel so hard to adapt to the old systems.<p>It is natural evolution of the human being, being suppressed by those who want to keep us in control and medicate it away with feeling blocking chemicals.<p>But it is a great skill. The ability to see things differently, to process more information at once, to build systems inside your head. Embrace this side of you. It is a great power, and medication only suppresses it.<p>Learn to master it and you will become a master of yourself, and you will not need medication. Meditation &#38; Yoga are the one methods that work for me, without any external help. It takes self-discipline, but it is definitely worth it.<p>I have suffered with this way of thinking for my whole life, and I could not understand why I could not fit in. I struggled through my teen years, finding peace only in creating new things, usually in front of the computer.<p>I have always somehow understood that the medication traditional doctors give is not right for us, but I had a long period where I used to medicate myself with cannabis. This worked for a while, but after about 3 years of doing this, I knew this was not the way. I had become addicted, was suffering when I didn't have any and always was thinking about the future and when I would get my medication.<p>At the same time thought I started doing kundalini yoga and learning the skill of meditation more and more. The finding of kundalini yoga was a blessing, as first time in my life I felt I had true power within me, without needing any help from outside.<p>I struggled with letting go of cannabis for a long time, but finally I managed to do it. Now I've been totally sober for 7 months and feeling better than ever. I have replaced meditation with medication, and focusing on the inner strength instead of outer strength.<p>This has allowed me to focus my ever wandering mind<p>I am a programmer by day and night, and meditation and yoga really helps me concentrate and keep my mind clear even during stressful times at work.<p>Find your inner strength. Throw away your medication. Throw away the limiting factor of identifying with ADD/ADHD. It is only an invention of those who do not experience it themselves.

One sure thing, have A.D.D? turn noprocast on in HN + do an arduino hack to kick you every time you check stackoverflow for new questions

ADHD is too bad to read through all these posts here, but I used to take ADHD medication (concerta) for around 6 years, once I started programming I stopped and I've never looked back. Learning to program not only drastically increased my earning potential, but has freed me of life constrained by medication. +1 for writing this article.

Huh.<p>I'm actually getting tested for ADD on the recommendation of my therapist (the preliminary answer seems to be that no, I do not have ADD). I most emphatically cannot work while I have a TV running. In fact, I can't even seem to program and listen to music at the same time.

I wish the author would have given some examples of how programming had <i>cured</i> his ADD, e.g. examples of reduced symptoms of ADD in various life situations after programming.

Is this a real condition or just Americans inventing up diseases?