[HN Gopher] I built an ADHD app with interactive coping tools, n...
___________________________________________________________________
I built an ADHD app with interactive coping tools, noise mixer and
self-test
Author : digitalions
Score : 88 points
Date : 2025-06-26 14:05 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.adhdhelp.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.adhdhelp.app)
| digitalions wrote:
| Hi HN! I've built ADHD Help, a simple yet powerful web app
| designed to help manage common ADHD-related states like anxiety,
| procrastination, irritability, overwhelm, hyperactivity, and
| distraction.
|
| The app offers:
|
| Interactive Coping Techniques: Immediate guided steps for calming
| anxiety, managing procrastination, and handling emotional
| overwhelm using CBT, DBT, and mindfulness methods.
|
| Ambient Sound Mixer: Customize and layer soothing background
| noises (nature, white noise, cafe sounds) to enhance focus or
| relaxation.
|
| Quick ADHD Self-Test: A quick screening to help identify ADHD
| symptoms.
|
| Curated Blog: Practical articles, personal insights, and
| evidence-based advice on living better with ADHD.
|
| Would love your feedback and thoughts!
|
| Check it out here: https://adhdhelp.app
| Communitivity wrote:
| Great idea, and I'm looking forward to trying this out!
|
| Each person with ADHD is affected a little differently, based on
| anecdotal evidence from family and friends. What are the
| available customization options?
| digitalions wrote:
| Thank you! For now, there are customization options only for
| background sounds. But in the future there will be an
| intelligent system for selecting self-help techniques. And you
| can take a short test to find out your current state.
| OccamsMirror wrote:
| You know, a lot of ADHD will be reading this at night.
|
| Why no dark mode?
| shironandonon_ wrote:
| have you tried Dark Mode in a browser like Brave?
|
| I use that on mobile so the referenced website, HN, and 99.9%
| of the web is in dark mode by default.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Dark Mode in a browser like Brave ... and 99.9% of the web
| is in dark mode by default.
|
| I turned on Appearance -> Brave Colors = Dark. That darkened
| the browser components but not web pages, inc HN.
| drakythe wrote:
| Immediate thoughts:
|
| - Neat.
|
| - Those images on the blogs look potentially AI Generated, which
| I'm personally turned off by. Others may vary.
|
| - The first blog (by you?) is _very_ long, also "ADHD as
| Superpower" is somewhat of a trope that I, and others I've spoken
| with, aren't happy to have as a bullet point of why ADHD isn't
| the end of the world.
|
| - Anyway, clicked on the "Procrastination" mood button and oh
| sweet lord there are so many buttons on this page and why do they
| have "likes" counted in the corner?
|
| - The web developer in me admires the automatic resizing blocks.
| The user in me doesn't like that the buttons jump around as I
| click on them. E.g. I clicked on "breath loop" and the interface
| totally changed an I wasn't actually sure how to get back to
| where I was (Figured it out: Musical Stimulation), additionally I
| know there _was_ a button below breath loop but its moved and I
| forgot which one it was. I'd suggest categorizing the buttons and
| either hiding them in drawers or collapsible sections so there
| aren't quite so many immediately visible. And then I'd suggest
| keeping the controls for each technique in the same place on the
| screen and just highlight which technique is selected from the
| buttons, instead of dynamically moving the controls around. On
| any user interface I interact with regularly I don't even see or
| read them much anymore because I just know where the buttons I
| want to interact with are. On this page the buttons are
| constantly moving around, and I'm only on desktop, I'm sure its
| different on a phone but I'm almost scared to look (I looked, its
| good, but the constantly changing height of the scrollbar is a
| pet peeve of mine, so its functional, I just don't like it). If
| you don't want to move the controls to a consistent spot, I'd
| suggest giving the movement a bit of an animation (maybe with an
| option to disable it?) so people can at least get a feel for what
| is happening when they click a button instead of an instantaneous
| change that is impossible to track with their eyeballs.
|
| - I don't love the "Atmosphere" button being in the bottom middle
| where text/images appear from the content, feels messy.
| jaysonelliot wrote:
| The AI generated images were an immediate turn-off to me as
| well. Whatever one thinks of the aesthetics, they're a huge
| signal that I'm looking at a product that's focused on
| monetizing me.
|
| The overall design is unfocused and cluttered, just the exact
| thing I don't need as someone with ADHD.
|
| I don't think I'd use this.
| nerdjon wrote:
| Not only that, but it would also raise significant concerns
| about how any of the recommendations, treatments, blog posts,
| etc are made. Like are the different people for those blog
| posts real people?
|
| This is particularly concerning for a tool like this, you
| already took shortcuts on images why should we expect
| anything less for the rest of the app? Has anyone that knows
| anything about ADHD actually ever looked at anything this app
| is saying?
| digitalions wrote:
| The blog is written by real people. So do the techniques.
| I'm just a bad designer so I decided to generate the
| pictures. But actually I have diagnosed ADHD myself and all
| the techniques are all I've collected all my life.
| drakythe wrote:
| Be that as it may, it _does_ still raise questions about
| the content and sources. If you're a bad designer (I'm a
| pretty terrible artist/designer myself) then I urge you
| to source your images from someplace ethical. Try
| unsplash, or google free stock images, or go on fiverr
| and pay an artist who won't use AI (if you can find one?
| I haven't tried to user fiverr in a while)
| digitalions wrote:
| Thank you. I didn't even know people were so negative
| about AI pictures.
| brulard wrote:
| Not all people. HN crowd specifically
| bubblemoth wrote:
| I opened the first blog post and I'm fairly certain most
| of this post is generated by AI.
|
| I'm not trying to be mean, but it makes it difficult to
| trust any content on this site.
| 56544562 wrote:
| It makes it impossible. The content gives off the feeling
| that it will "take" and grab more than it will "give" and
| release.
|
| ADHD, to me, always, even before the diagnosis, felt like
| a valve that doesn't open for no reason and due to the
| build up pressure, some other valve with different
| "filters" releases whatever mixture of thoughts and
| actions to compensate.
|
| Children's sugar-induced behavioral roller coasters have
| a similar characteristic. And this website looks like too
| much candy without there being any candy.
| taco_emoji wrote:
| > The blog is written by real people
|
| Sorry, I don't believe you. The way that the initial post
| has identical paragraph lengths with headers on every one
| is extremely uncanny. The prose is very dry, repetitive,
| often written in passive voice, and completely lacking in
| personality.
| brulard wrote:
| What? He should have paid an illustrator on top of doing
| everything else? I actually prefer AI art to be used,
| because more of the resources likely went to the essence of
| the product.
| digitalions wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback. I'm a bad UI designer. But I've
| already found one and will make the UI better soon!
| npteljes wrote:
| One of the file name is "1750927062274_ChatGPT Image Jun 26,
| 2025, 11_33_18 AM (1)" - so yes, +1 for AI.
| digitalions wrote:
| I'm just a bad designer so I decided to generate the images.
| :)
| npteljes wrote:
| I don't blame you for it, as it's cheap, fast, and fits the
| context better than what can be provided usually. If you
| find that people are turned off by it, and want to act on
| it, I suggest stock images from places like Pixabay. They
| are royalty free so it's not much of a pain to use them,
| and there is a lot of good ones on the site as well.
| Downside is that they will probably be disjointed, like,
| every image will be its own style, which detracts from the
| unity of your website, but the upside is that you get rid
| of the negative associations with AI. Random idea, but you
| can use classical art as well, as they are all in public
| domain now. Then you could have the cohesion back: art, and
| humanity, which would fit the content well on a meta-level
| too.
| jedimastert wrote:
| I concur on the AI generated images. There is frankly
| significant overlap between folks who struggle with ADHD and
| folks who are direct harmed or displaced by the use of AI
| generated images, I think you would be better off without
| images at all.
| dlivingston wrote:
| > There is frankly significant overlap between folks who
| struggle with ADHD and folks who are direct harmed or
| displaced by the use of AI generated images
|
| Can you expand on this? I don't see the connection.
| rockemsockem wrote:
| To add some variety, I think the images look fine.
|
| Idk wtf is wrong with these people whining about AI generated
| images.
| npteljes wrote:
| OP not a publicly established personality, and the website is
| new too. So, they have a lot to prove, credibility chief
| among them, especially since the topic is mental health.
| Users discovering that some of the things are AI generated
| leads to a thought that maybe more, subtler things are AI
| generated as well - like the texts on the website. AI output
| is currently distrusted, and the companies' treatment of the
| authors of their training material is frequently questioned.
| So, this way, discovering AI content erodes trust, of which
| the author didn't have any to begin with - because they are
| just starting out!
|
| So that is why AI is a deal. Looks-wise they are good, and
| they fit their context very well. But they do communicate
| much more than that, and that makes them iffy for many.
| b0a04gl wrote:
| ui feels too stateful per interaction, every click shifts layout,
| adds/remove elements, resets focus. that's expensive for working
| memory esp if im mid-task. layout stability might need to be
| treated like a cognitive affordance, otherwise good going smooth
| captchas wrote:
| I would like app developers to please stop trying to monetize
| ADHD. This one doesn't seem as predatory and snake oil as most of
| the others, but, kindly refrain. Our neurodevelopmental condition
| is not your cash cow.
| mh- wrote:
| As someone in their 40s with ADHD, I'll offer a counterpoint.
|
| I'm happy for people to try to make a business of this if the
| tools are helpful.
|
| I've had a successful career, so I obviously had to develop my
| own strategies for managing it. But I'd be very happy if my
| kids didn't have to spend 20 years figuring it out for
| themselves. Monetize away.
| al_borland wrote:
| Strategies can be shared for free as well.
|
| Ryder Carroll is a good example. He created the bullet
| journal through trial and error to manage his own ADHD. He
| shared it for free. While he did write a book and partnered
| with a company to design a notebook (due to popular demand),
| he still gives away everything someone needs for free, and
| will be the first one to tell people you don't need a special
| notebook.
| impendia wrote:
| Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. I'd be happy to
| pay a modest bit of money to _buy_ a simple app, and see if
| it helps -- but I 'm very reluctant to sign up for a
| subscription.
|
| Perhaps ironically, the _less_ the app claims to do, the more
| likely I am to be interested.
|
| I've only signed up for a paid mental health app subscription
| once -- and that was an app designed by a well-known
| psychologist with both an M.D. and a Ph.D., and even then
| only after reading his book.
| mystified5016 wrote:
| Yes, exactly. A one-time purchase is great because ADHDers
| can impulse buy it and be done. A subscription is an extra
| mental burden I don't want or need.
| npteljes wrote:
| Would you like to elaborate why you feel this way?
| digitalions wrote:
| I have ADHD myself. Honestly, I'd like to make a service that
| will help everyone. To do that, I need money. I think that 5
| dollars a month is not so much nowadays.
| spinlock_ wrote:
| But why would it need to be subscription based?
| rockemsockem wrote:
| Presumably the person is doing work on it on an ongoing
| basis..... This isn't that hard to figure out
| parpfish wrote:
| i'm less worried about people monetizing it than I am about
| people pushing a lot of bad self-diagnosis memes based on
| nonsense criteria ("if you sleep with your arms in this pose,
| you have ADHD (and maybe autism)!") or just describing
| completely typical events as a meaningful symptom ("if you ever
| procrastinate, you might have ADHD")
| theonething wrote:
| I don't understand this sentiment.
|
| Sure, there might be people out there selling snakeoil, but
| that's the case for every domain. Does that mean we nobody
| should try to make apps to solve domain problems at all? Of
| course not.
|
| So you're asking everyone to stop monetizing ADHD. So the two
| alternatives are make the apps for free or don't make them at
| all. The former is not realistic or sustainable and later gives
| up potential upside.
|
| I mean, do you think all ADHD apps will just be bad and are
| just people trying rip off ADHDers?
|
| I think a more reasonable premise is yes, just in every domain,
| there will be snake oil sellers unfortunately and it's up to
| the consumer to watch out for those. But there will also be
| genuine people who are trying to solve this problem and that
| will potentially give people a lot of value for the money they
| pay for it.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| I used it as a distraction from something I need to accomplish.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Is the self test for people who know they have ADHD? Because
| there was no option for what I'm currently feeling.
| digitalions wrote:
| I have ADHD myself. I do a lot of my service based on my
| experience and the experience of others with ADHD.
| drdaeman wrote:
| Aren't those kind of tests... how I'd put it politely?... less
| than meaningful?
|
| First of all, it's not really well done: there are no control
| questions, no inverted questions, no consistency checks (like
| re-phrased duplicate questions) or anything a well-designed
| self-test must have. All answers are obviously ranked,
| introducing perception biases. Questions like "how often do you
| interrupt someone" or "how often you were told" or "did parents
| notice" are highly culturally-dependent. The childhood
| questions do not discern between younger and older ages (where
| behavioral differences are drastic), and likely to introduce a
| skew based on one's age and long-term memory function (which,
| AFAIK, ADHD does not directly affect). To me it looks like
| nothing of value would be lost if the whole test would be
| replaced with a short description what ADHD is and then a
| single yes/no question "do you think you may have some of the
| described symptoms?"
|
| I would understand something like ANT, which (as I understand
| it) tests way closer to actual brain behavior, than those
| distant derivatives smeared over social prisms, self-perception
| lenses, and dice rolls of life's [pseudo-]randomness.
| MichealCodes wrote:
| Awesome tool, thanks for caring about the well-being of others!
| digitalions wrote:
| Thank you!
| RankingMember wrote:
| I concur with the other comments about AI-generated content, so
| let me hit you with some positive:
|
| I like the idea, and I like that the website gets right down to
| business with the "How are you feeling?" at the very top. It
| reminds me a bit of https://youfeellikeshit.com/ (which I mean as
| a good thing). You might actually want to crib a little bit of
| that site's minimalism. I also like that you're not asking for
| the user to signup right off the bat.
| digitalions wrote:
| Thank you. I didn't even realize so many people wouldn't like
| these pictures. I think they really fit the articles.
| RankingMember wrote:
| It's not that they don't fit, it's that AI-generated images
| are commonly used on spam/scam sites, and thus have that
| inauthentic/low-effort stink to them. It casts a shadow on
| the rest of site that says "is any of this authentic or am I
| reading AI slop?". You might do better to have someone do
| some scribbles for you on fiverr.com imo.
| rockemsockem wrote:
| Personally I think these people are over-vocal, insane, and
| unlikely to pay you in the first place.
|
| I see no problem with AI generated pictures, but there's a
| really loud minority who find them ethnically untenable
| largehotcoffee wrote:
| Spend one minute "embracing imperfection"...
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| > I built an ADHD app with interactive coping tools, noise mixer
| and self-test
|
| Remeber kids! Self-medication with the Voight-Kampff test is
| dangerous and can lead to the serious consequences including ,
| but not limited to:
|
| depression personality disorders suicide thoughts obsession with
| a wooden minutae giant meta-corporations hunting for you overall
| quality of life decrease, including death
|
| Please consult a doctor before using the test!
|
| (somehow the last words of the post title gave me this reaction)
| tsavo wrote:
| A repost from three months ago to re-ignite engagement.
| zargon wrote:
| It didn't get any attention last time. I give them a pass for
| trying again.
| thrashh wrote:
| I don't have ADHD but I did the test. My answers would vary with
| amount of sleep:
|
| 4 hours/night - Poor executive function, can't figure out what
| order to do things in, lose keys and random things, forget to
| lock doors and not even realize it
|
| 6 hours - Mild executive dysfunction, never sure if I locked the
| door but I did
|
| 8 hours - Zero problems
|
| 10 hours - I've never actually experimented
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| Selling supplements to vulnerable people seems scummy to me.
| phren0logy wrote:
| I'm a psychiatrist, so I obviously have a bias, but I have been
| pretty alarmed by the caviler attitude to the diagnosis and
| treatment of ADHD and Autism-spectrum disorders.
|
| This is not specifically directed at this product launch, rather
| a general observation, but we have evidence based instruments to
| aid in diagnosis (that still requires a contextual clinical
| interpretation!) and evidence about what works and what doesn't.
| Most of the stuff I see is pretty squarely an evidence-free
| affair. Wether it's a cash grab or a well-intentioned effort,
| both can be harmful.
|
| Marketing interventions to a specific diagnosis with known
| treatments should not be taken lightly. Non-medical interventions
| can be effective, and therefore they can be harmful.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| What are your thoughts on the QbTest? Is it rigorous or is it
| incomplete for diagnosing ADHD?
| phren0logy wrote:
| I was not familiar with it until now. At a quick glance, it
| looks like it has some overlap with the CPT. But generally
| speaking, this is going to give a snapshot in time in one
| setting, which is helpful, but just one part of the picture.
| As the makers of the test note, it still requires a clinical
| interview and rating scales to arrive at a diagnosis:
|
| > Should QbTest be used with other measures?
|
| > It is not meant to be a standalone tool for diagnosing
| ADHD. Instead, it has been designed to be added to the
| assessment process along with a clinical interview and rating
| scales.
| cameronbedard wrote:
| What do you think of what the app is trying to accomplish? I
| see it as a attempt at self intervention or helping someone get
| started.
|
| You mentioned evidence about what works and what doesn't. As
| someone who struggled with ADHD, I am curious about your
| thoughts on the app intentions or goals.
| jamestimmins wrote:
| Curious about your thoughts on homebuilt AI tools for dealing
| with ADHD side effects. I've identified a handful of habits I
| struggle with but want to do, and thought processes that can be
| challenging. I've planned to plug these into an LLM to have it
| do midday checkins about how I'm feeling and then respond in
| line with what I want to focus on.
|
| Never occurred to me that something focused on symptoms instead
| of treatment could be harmful, but I suppose it's worth
| considering.
| phren0logy wrote:
| I don't know your tools, but if you aren't recommending them
| to others for money, then we're already in a different
| category.
|
| But succinctly, if something can help you form habits, it can
| probably help you form bad habits.
| lawlessone wrote:
| bear with me for the tangent. And don't take what i say here
| as a reason you shouldn't try tools or try to build your own
| tools.
|
| I used to try the Pomodoro technique it worked fantastic
| ...briefly.
|
| Once the novelty wore off I stopped using it. It turned into
| an extra task I needed to do in order to do other tasks.
|
| AI would probably follow the same trajectory for me unless
| you make it impossible to turn off.
| pjfin123 wrote:
| How is $5/mo a cash grab? Psychiatrists charge more
| rimunroe wrote:
| Something can be a cash grab even if it's cheap if it doesn't
| do something effectively or is just trying to take advantage
| of people in need
| lawlessone wrote:
| scaling.
| lawlessone wrote:
| scaling.
|
| Psychiatrist charges one person more. But if you can charge a
| million people $5 dollars you'll make a lot more.
| vaindil wrote:
| I both agree and disagree with you. I think neurodivergence has
| become a bit "trendy" lately, and some people have latched onto
| these labels when they may not be clinically appropriate.
| However, these evidence-based diagnostic tools aren't perfect.
|
| My sister was properly diagnosed with ADHD several years ago,
| and she encouraged me to get tested. My tester, a PhD
| psychologist who specialized in neuropsych testing, said the
| evidence was borderline, but ultimately refused to give a
| diagnosis because I did well in high school and that's unheard
| of in "true" ADHD. I promise I'm not exaggerating--I have the
| report to prove it. He completely ignored that I never had to
| pay attention in school because it was so easy for me, and I
| only started to run into problems in college when the material
| got more difficult.
|
| Thankfully my psychiatrist disagreed with that and started me
| on medication anyway, and since then I've actually been able to
| understand why I am the way I am and work through my issues. (I
| found out a year later that my parents actually had me tested
| in first grade and I was diagnosed then, but they intentionally
| kept it from me my whole life.)
|
| I know this is just one anecdote, but it's a common discussion
| point online that mental healthcare like this isn't always the
| most accessible. I think well-intentioned research and self-
| diagnosis can certainly have their place, depending on one's
| circumstances, and as long as care is taken to avoid
| unscientific information.
| keeganpoppen wrote:
| i had a very similar experience as well... who knew that you
| can't have ADHD if you do well in school, even if school
| (even college) was easy enough to not ever need to dig deep
| in the way that you have to do every day in real life (if
| you're ambitious, anyway).
| hirvi74 wrote:
| I constantly read people that have experiences like this,
| then on the other hand, I know countless people that lied
| about having ADHD and received treatment with virtually no
| issues at all.
|
| I do not advocate for drug-seeking behaviors, but I find it
| wild how there are such contrasting diagnostic experiences.
|
| I wonder if professionals would be less adverse to
| treatment administration if patients were more willing to
| trial non-stimulants first?
| brulard wrote:
| Same here. No ADHD if you are not failing miserably in
| school, work, etc. Doesn't matter that you struggle every
| meeting understanding what's going on as you have trouble
| listening to one sentence from beginning to the end.
| fwsgonzo wrote:
| Same for me, except I'm nearing 40. All my brothers have it
| to various degrees, and since I have a job and doing OK, I
| cannot be helped. It's extremely annoying that access to
| medicine is gated by the personal opinions of professionals
| (and that the medicine is jail-worthy to begin with).
| Specifically, I was denied because too old, in writing.
| ndndndnd wrote:
| they once told me "if you had ADHD the assessment paper you
| filled out at home would have come back all crumpled up and
| dirty"
| ndndndnd wrote:
| In my (anecdotal but decades long) experience, psych folks tend
| to be overconfident in their methods and tools and evidence. As
| if studies provide ironclad proof that your way is the best and
| only way to go. That hasn't been my experience at all and it's
| pretty easy to find a crapton of neurodivergent folks that
| would agree.
|
| I am biased too but I have endured a lot of anguish putting my
| faith in psych professionals. The vast majority of progress
| I've made over the years has come via discussions with other
| folks like me. But you claim it's unsafe? It's been more
| effective (and safer) to find my own way.
| lawlessone wrote:
| I don't know what to think about it anymore myself. it does
| seem like a trend.
|
| But at the same time as someone diagnosed in my 30's that meds
| really helped. i'd feel like i'm pulling up the ladder on
| others.
|
| The neurodiversity at work trend does irk me a little,
| especially when people start talking about so called
| "superpowers" and their benefits to the company.
| hirvi74 wrote:
| > _start talking about so called "superpowers"_
|
| I cannot stand people like that.
|
| I am not trying to be all 'woe is me', but ADHD has had non-
| stop negative impacts on my life from childhood through
| present time. I am in my 30s too (diagnosed in early 20s and
| treated since), and I've basically just given up on life.
| thisislife2 wrote:
| Thank you for sharing this. I have often been very cynical
| here, and elsewhere online, about ADHD, especially amongst
| adults. Most of the cynicism stems from the capitalistic nature
| of modern pharmaceutical companies - it literally seems like
| they are trying to create a market for their "ADHD" drugs
| through online social marketing - _" You can't concentrate on a
| task? Must be ADHD."_, _" You don't feel like doing something
| productive? Oh, that's ADHD for sure"_, _" Do you frequently
| procrastinate and feel guilty about? Yup, that's ADHD"_ and so
| on ...
|
| The issue I have with "ADHD" in general is that there are so
| many other well-recognized and researched causes that more
| satisfactorily explain many of these behavioural issues - like
| depression and / or anxiety - than "ADHD". There are even
| personality disorders that can cause such long-term behavioural
| issues - for e.g., Avoidant Personality Disorder or even
| Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (both stemming from
| anxiety issues), and they can be more correctly and confidently
| diagnosed than the cluster** that is "ADHD" (whose diagnostic
| criteria has been already revised multiple times in the
| Diagnostic and Statistical Manual).
|
| Alan Schwarz, the author of the book ADHD Nation has
| investigated the ties between pharmaceutical companies and
| doctors:
|
| > "The six-question screening instrument that was endorsed by
| the World Health Organization was devised by doctors with a
| very long history in ADHD research," he says. "These are,
| generally, men who have been enriched by the pharmaceutical
| industry in order to churn out research and churn out things
| like this that merely expand the ADHD market. "What we've seen
| over the past 10 [to] 20 years is a constant enthusiasm on the
| part of the ADHD lobby to get more and more adults to consider
| the possibility that they, too, have ADHD," Schwarz says.
|
| (Source: _Adult ADHD Can 't Be Diagnosed With A Simple
| Screening Test, Doctors Warn_ -
| https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/29/5276546...
| ).
|
| I am not against self-help or personal research. But please
| note that it is very easy to be mislead by such things and very
| easy to misdiagnose your symptoms. Even the professionals have
| a tough time with this!
| ndndndnd wrote:
| I'm neurodivergent and honestly this comment causes me pain.
| lawlessone wrote:
| Maybe your experience is different to mine but the amount of
| hoops i had to jump through to get medication didn't make it
| seem that way.
|
| And i was lucky in a way as I have family that they could
| also interview about my behavior to help confirm the
| diagnosis.
|
| Not to mention the medical checks to make sure I don't have
| preexisting heart issues etc
|
| It was a fight against my own feelings that "other people
| sometimes get these thing but not me" and then it was fight
| to get the diagnosis.
| hirvi74 wrote:
| What are your clinical observations and opinions on actual
| research backed treatments? I am mainly concerned about the
| efficacy of stimulants as a treatment as opposed to non-
| stimulants and psychotherapeutic interventions.
|
| Also, is there are evidence based instruments to aid in
| diagnosis, then why do those same instruments tend to magically
| be removed from care during the treatment phase?
|
| For the sake of analogy, if a patient were to be diagnosed with
| hypertension and an anti-hypertensive medication regiment is
| started. I imagine upon returning for a follow up visit, the
| patient's blood pressure will be remeasured in order to verify
| the efficacy of the treatment.
|
| For ADHD, I had to go through quite a significant diagnostic
| process before being given the green light for treatment. Upon
| returning for a follow up, the only methodology used to gauge
| treatment efficacy is being asked, "How is <insert medication>
| work for you?"
|
| I always try to answer the question honestly, but after almost
| 12 years of treatment, I still am not sure what to expect in
| terms of treatment. Are such questions truly the only
| evaluation of treatment? How can one tell if medication is
| working better than they realize or not at all? Perhaps my
| expectations are too high? Also, wouldn't some metric help
| determine if tolerance is occurring?
| lazystar wrote:
| > How can one tell if medication is working better than they
| realize or not at all?
|
| in my case, if i still have a job, then its working lol
| rendx wrote:
| The biggest quarrel I have with it is that even if you get
| clinically tested, at least in the cases where I asked friends
| who got tested, they did not even try to rule out other causes,
| like repressed childhood trauma/cPTSD. People might end up on
| potentially lifelong medication, where other treatment options
| and recovery may be available.
|
| see e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00922-8 ,
| https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adhd-linked-to-trauma
| doright wrote:
| What is even more insidious is if your own abusers adopt the
| clinical methodology and label you with a condition (ADHD in
| my case) such that you as a young person are incentivized to
| forget about the abuse they themselves perpetrated. I have
| lost decades of treatment to this exact phenomenon and it was
| completely iatrogenic.
|
| I no longer think any label suits my lived experience anymore
| other than "traumatized", which is something that happened to
| me (as opposed to "ADHD", which is something I am).
| checker659 wrote:
| As a late diagnosed ADHD person, I'd rather there be over
| diagnosis than under diagnosis. We don't understand the brain.
| There are a lot of us that suffer in silence.
| koksik202 wrote:
| Make the website version when open doesn't dim the screen
| 6d6b73 wrote:
| As soon as I loaded the page, I wanted to click on the
| Procrastination page..but I guess I can do it tomorrow.
| m_dupont wrote:
| Small piece of product feeback related to grammar:
|
| The landing page asks, how are you feeling? For which the
| possible responses are "Anxiety", "Procrastination" ...
| "Overwhelm".
|
| When a person says, I a X, X is always an adjective. One doesn't
| say "I am Irritability" one says "I am irritable".
|
| All of these options are nouns, except for "Overwhelm" which is
| actually only a verb but is being used incorrectly as a noun.
|
| The correct responses would be "Anxious", "Hyperactive",
| "Overwhelmed", "Irritable".
|
| Except for "Procrastination", which doesn't have any associated
| adjective. You might need to rephrase the whole header
| dlivingston wrote:
| This is going to sound like a shilled comment, but for the past
| week, I've been using Motion [0] to manage all of my tasks and
| scheduling. My lifelong weakness has always been so-called "time
| blindness", and I cannot overstate how much of a game changer
| Motion has been for me in keeping me focused and on-track. Both
| for personal and professional tasks. It really feels like I've
| just put on mental "glasses" and can see where I am and what I
| should be doing with clarity.
|
| It's only been a week, so maybe my opinion will change. Who
| knows. I'm half writing this comment as a historical record for
| myself to look back at in a year.
|
| [0]: https://www.usemotion.com/
| alienbaby wrote:
| an entire section of the ADHD test questions appear to assume I
| am school/college age :/
|
| My ADHD partner was actually quite relaxed at the time I asked
| her how she was feeling. That didnt appear to be an option to
| choose.
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