I suddenly get the impression there’s a correlation between engineering and steroid use. That’s why they say it’s a male dominated job, because our guys here dominate their coworkers in their roid rage
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Also moving with severe ADHD here, impacting my business and previously my job in finance. Caused me to spend 6 years on a 4 year degree, but managed to graduate.
Ritalin - for me it works only if used occasionally and makes me “high”. Allows for cramming a lot of work / studing in a tiny amount of time. Such as skipping lectures for an entire semester and them cramming in weeks of studing the night before. Repeatable for 2-3 days at most, and dose needs to be doubled and then trippled for day 2 and 3. Taking weeks long breaks allows the system to reset and procedure to re repeated nrxt exam. Perhaps it spikes really high in my body, but theres no way in hell this stuff can be prescribed to kids. Its cocaine in a pill. Its hard drugs, and scheduled as such.
Modafinil - did nothing for me, many trials of actual pharma product.
ADD is absolutely a diagnosis, despite the internet gallery who insists otherwise. One cannot focus on a task, the mind wonders and off you go looking for more interesting things to do. Stuff doesnt get done.
The issue lies within the dopamine system, in terms of keeping the current task rewarding.
I have found mindfullness meditation usefull in increasing attention and in increasing perceived pleasure from a task. (and there are studies available to prove prefrontal cortex size increases, and dopamine receptor density increases amongst others) . I believe this is the only long term sustainable solution to the problem - but by definition its really hard to start meditation in the first place for one who had ADD!
Lastly, I must mention the honeymoon period when I started TRT, adjust doses, start a blast etc, the ADD completely vanishes during this time! This lends further credence to the honeymoon being dopamine driven rather than the BS theories of you having both exo + endo test in the honeymoon.
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Nothing helpful to add here, just wanted to say that this sounds like the story of my life! Never stayed at a job more than 3 years (almost always 2) because I get insanely bored and can’t motivate myself to keep going. First few months of a new job are great, interesting, learning stuff meeting new people, new challenges, as soon as that’s gone I struggle.
I too am in a job I really want to keep, I’m confident of my ability to do it and do it very well, just struggle every day to focus even on little things, that was something I hoped TRT would help with that it didn’t. I think mobile phones have a pretty big negative impact as well.
Also struggled to focus at school but could cruise by without much struggle, dropped out of Uni before I even really started. I was very similar, give me a test anyday, don’t give me projects.
If you find a miracle pill let me know!
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I took vyvanse which is a prodrug to D-Amp and it helped with restlessness, focus, concentration, but did diddly squat for motivation! What good is is focus and concentration if you have no desire to use it for anything productive.
I believe you when you say it helps you. And I’m certain it helps many many people. I’m just putting it out there so people realize they might have to try different things before they end up with what’s right. And don’t be afraid to find 2nd or even 3rd opinions and if you’re not satisfied with results and have given things enough time and trial and error to find something. Granted if you have access to quality healthcare which requires decent health insurance.
Man, I really thought this thread was dead. I guess an old thread can find life after all. I have read though all the posts here. I have made note on Rx drugs mentioned here for further research. I used to treat myself with caffeine, but that no longer works well, and I don’t want to be consuming a gram of caffeine.
On the topic of these diagnoses being a made up thing for people who have issues behaving, concentrating, etc… I don’t think it is a matter of will power (should say needing to try harder), and I think there are quantifiable differences in focus time between average and these people (including myself). I am not certain if we can tell that with a brain scan or not. ADD / ADHD is also found much more frequently in families that have children on the autism spectrum (4X the rate). My brother has a really bad case of autism (before it was prohibited, they transported him in a straight jacket).
As an update, my current job seems to be happy with me. I got a good performance review, a bonus and good raise (given Covid, IMO any raise would have been good). Maybe I can make this work without more drugs?
Financially, I have always thought of my career more like an NFL player (by this I mean how an NFL player should act financially). I don’t know how long I’ll stick with it, or if I get let go. I have tried to live below my means as a security measure for my concentration issues.
A few people have mentioned wanting TRT to help with their ADD/ADHD issues. I feel you on that. I am now leaner with more muscle with the same concentration issues I had before. It maybe did help a bit for a month.
@galgenstrick while I don’t necessarily agree with you on if we can or will be able to tell in the future if someone has these conditions. I don’t think it matters. We can measure performance and see differences. Maybe it is will power, but I don’t think it is crazy to think that will power is genetic (or at least will power capacity).
I think you made some good points though. I have thought about perhaps switching to something I enjoy more, that maybe fits my personality (concentration levels) more. I have always been able to fix cars. I have thought about going independent with that and working out of my garage. It is really tough for me to give up a high income though. It has been in my mind that I should stick to engineering until I can’t anymore (hopefully, with a big nest egg of investments), then do the independent mechanic thing.
A couple of you posts on current life and technology had me thinking you were about to buy a secluded shack of a cabin in Montana, and start your life’s work on a anti tech manifesto, haha. I can recommend you a good starting reference “Industrial Society and it’s Future” LOL. I actually read a good portion of it, and though some of it is insane it is well written and makes a few good points.
@lordgains engineers are weird. At the regular gym I went to, not a lot of engineers. I am now going to a more hardcore gym, and it seems 1/4 people I meet there are engineers. When I rock climbed it seemed like engineers were way over represented. Mountain biking was the same story. I think as far as hobbies go, many engineers prefer difficult things. We also tend to believe we are experts in things we are not experts in. Sure we tend to understand things better than average, but we aren’t as good as we often think. I think some of this comes from a belief that engineering is a very difficult degree to get, and that if one can make it though, they are smarter than most. This idiot made it through. I know there are more engineers in the pharma section, that haven’t responded here.
I took a 60k/year pay cut to leave engineering to do something I enjoy. I apprenticed in the trades, and started a business doing something that actually matters to me, and not reporting to anyone else (except my wife, lol).
I’m not saying these diagnoses aren’t a real thing. These are real symptoms, but are result of, or triggered from our upbringing and society. Just because you can’t focus on a project, or can’t keep a job for more than 2 years doesn’t mean you’re defective, perhaps it means you are more intelligent and less of a robot than everyone else.
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I can relate. The hardcore section of my gym is full
of university educated people. One studied physics, one maths, one history, one pharmacy and three are high school level teachers (in Germany the systems different). All of them lift damn heavy in their spare time. Some of them eat over 500 lbs squats. Not really engineers but I don’t know everybody’s degree there. But point being, it seems in heavy lifting very intelligent people are over represented. I don’t know why this could be or if it’s even a correlation. Just the gym I go to is like that. Would be interesting to hear from others.
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Guys who earn their living with their brains have a lot of pent-up energy that can be released at a gym where guys that have to use their backs to earn their living are dead tired at the end of the shift. Just my thought on why we see more professionals/doc/eng/desk jockies.
On the subject of hardcore gyms. I avoid them like the plague. The last thing I want to look at, smell, or listen to is a bunch of hairy men’s grunting. My gym has none of those. It is wall-to-wall eye candy and all the big weights, heavy machines are always open.
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Makes sense. Most guys I’m friends with who work manual labor don’t do other sports. But one I know who’s pretty build and goes to the gym regularly. Also his caloric expense is so damn high.
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