Do you take ADHD medication?

General discussion about learning languages

Do you take ADHD medication?

Yes.
5
8%
I used to.
1
2%
No, but I probably qualify.
19
29%
No, I don't believe in medication for that sort of thing.
8
12%
I'm not bothered by a wandering mind.
32
49%
 
Total votes: 65

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luke
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Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby luke » Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:33 am

Some symptoms of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder seem rather common.

I'm curious if you all feel like you may have some symptoms, and if so, what you do?

With that in mind, we have a new poll:
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby jmar257 » Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:53 am

I don't; in kindergarten or 1st grade my teacher recommended it to my parents because I didn't pay attention (although she noted I always got things right when called on!) and they did not put me on anything. Looking back, I'm thankful. While I don't think ADD/ADHD is fake, I think it's vastly overdiagnosed; your 6 year old boy preferring to run around outside to staying inside doing busywork is actually good and not something they need to be fed drugs for. Although I have known kids who are legitimately in need of medication to focus, that number is way less than the number of people I know who have been prescribed Adderall/Ritalin/etc.

Anyway, enough soapbox. I did take some of that stuff occasionally in college, and have also used the bodybuilder's EC stack (ephedrine + caffeine, has a very similar effect). Nowadays I stick to good old caffeine (coffee or the occasional energy drink) and nicotine (very sparingly, and I use nicotine pouches such as Zyn or Velo, as they seem to be the safest method). I actually really enjoy nicotine for more cerebral tasks like work or studying/reading, whereas I find caffeine better for physical stuff (moving, manual labor, etc.). I definitely have trouble focusing at time and nicotine has been a huge help in getting me to channel my energy and kind of give me tunnel vision on a certain task. I probably shouldn't recommend it, I'm not really a smoker (beyond the occasion cigar) or dipper or anything, but I enjoy it and benefit from it and think the risk is very low with this method of ingestion.
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby zenmonkey » Sun Jan 30, 2022 4:57 am

No, and it's pretty clear I don't have a condition related to ADHD. But I do multitask (currently watching Netflix and have language study books open) and for certain types of activity like programming or data modeling I can't stand to be disturbed because it "breaks the worlds I've spun up in my mind".

At one point I'd get bored studying only one language. Scanner? Something else?

Never used Ritalin, etc. Just pizza and coke. :lol:
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby Iversen » Sun Jan 30, 2022 9:15 am

I don't see medication as poison, but when I don't need it I don't take it - and my mind is not wandering around unless I allow it to do so.

But I do switch alot between tasks - like right now where I write here while watching TV with subtitles and no sound, and in a moment I'll continue to listen to music from my computer. It would be boring just to do one thing.
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chove
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby chove » Sun Jan 30, 2022 9:49 am

I've wondered if I have ADHD, because I find it difficult to do one thing at a time. I can't watch TV without knitting so that I have something to do with my hands, for instance. But when I was younger I could manage a bit better (spending a few hours at a time on university essays, etc), so the lack of focus may just be side-effects of one of my medications that I'm on for various reasons. In a way I'd prefer it to be ADHD though, because that's a specific thing that's treatable (I think?).
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby MisterVimes » Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:59 pm

I do take medication for ADHD, after having received the diagnosis at age 23 (after many years of suspected ADHD + intense denial on my part). I've also had therapy for it, to teach me practical coping mechanisms and strategies. As far as I know, a combination of both is considered best practice (pills don't teach skills, etc).

Medication has a very clear effect for me, as it makes my brain a lot... quieter. I can follow a train of thought, I have less trouble stringing words into a sentence, and I'm able to process more of what's going on around me. I personally didn't start taking meds simply to combat a 'wandering mind'; I started taking them because I experienced many of the symptoms, to the point of frequent emotional breakdowns during high school.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding passive-aggressive (I feel like I might be), that is not my intention. I just care a lot about people understanding what ADHD actually entails. One last thing I would like to point out: yes, many (most?) symptoms of ADHD seem like things everyone experiences. What makes it ADHD is the frequency and intensity of the symptoms, to the point that it impairs one's life in multiple areas.
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby boon » Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:54 pm

I suspect I have ADHD, and I've done a lot of learning about the subject. But I haven't got a formal diagnosis for various reasons, and I've never tried medication for it.

How does ADHD (in my case) affect how I go about learning a language on my own? I think a more neurotypical person might look into various methods, then pick one and stick with it until they've got what they want from it. Then they'd move on to the next method. So for example they might work through an Assimil course, then a Teach Yourself course and so on.

As for me, preferably, I like to have several courses to hand. I'll start one, probably get bored or annoyed with it before too long, then move on to another one. That one will also become boring or annoying fairly quickly in all likelihood, so I'll start another one. Or maybe I'll come back to the first method.. and so on. This approach might seem odd and inefficient to many people, but it does work. I also learned to type this way - I downloaded several different typing tutor programs and hopped from one to the other until I was a good typist.
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby mick33 » Sun Jan 30, 2022 10:41 pm

I don't have ADHD, so I don't take any medication.
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QueenBee
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby QueenBee » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:52 am

To all of the people saying "I can't pay attention sometimes, maybe I have mild ADHD?" - the honest answer is, probably not.

People with ADHD don't always have trouble concentrating (as counter-intuitive as that might sound). When they're deeply interested in something, they can hyper-focus on it for hours with the level of zeal and attention usually associated with autists. And of course, being distracted or distractible alone isn't a disorder - a person can feel distracted on some days because they're tired, or have something else on their mind. Or they might feel distracted during a particular activity (e.g. watching TV) because it's more passive than the rest of their day, so they feel the itch to also do something else (exercise, knit, whatever) while watching TV.

If the rest of your life is relatively functional, and you just get distracted once in a while - the chance that you have ADHD is low.
Last edited by QueenBee on Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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QueenBee
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Re: Do you take ADHD medication?

Postby QueenBee » Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:09 am

Anywho, about me - I have ADHD and don't take medication.

I tried at one point (as an adult), and while it was amazing and helped me a lot... it also triggered another (much bigger) health problem that I have a genetic predisposition to. That health problem isn't active right now and doesn't affect me, but taking ADHD meds would trigger it. So I am left to deal without medication.

I try to manage ADHD "naturally" - I run a lot, eat clean, etc. But it's a struggle. I have previously been fired from jobs for being disorganized and unable to keep up productivity. I'm doing much better now and working consistently (at age 30), but I feel like I'm "behind" (compared to "normal" people) when it comes to organization, not being impulsive in social settings, and more I'm doing my best to learn and get better.

Wrt language learning - my ADHD could be the reason why I refuse to take classes and only sparingly use "traditional" (grammar-heavy) sources. I find both of these things deadly boring and cannot focus on, or bring myself to care about, either. So I use immersion very heavily from the start (YouTube is my friend ;) ) and use the grammar sources more like a dictionary, to look up sentence structures that I encounter in the wild. My method would probably look horribly chaotic to an outsider, but you know what? I went from zero to fluent (between a B1-ish and B2) level in Hebrew in about 1 year 3 months. So clearly, what I do works.

I just wish that other areas of life (like the workplace) were as flexible as language learning - where, as long as you get it done, nobody cares how you did it. But alas... not yet.
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