That's the best scam. Just say "Oh, ok. Thanks for the ride then!" and get out. It's either a free ride, or the reader magically starts working. They legally have to tell you the reader is broken before the ride. Once I did have a driver try to run my card and it failed multiple times, so I called dispatch and gave them my payment info.
Same thing goes if they don't turn the meter on. Also a free ride. If they don't turn the meter on, ask them to right away. Or, wait until the destination and agree on a reasonable price or simply walk away.
If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off. Though, I will do this after a busy event if we can agree on a price that's cheaper than ride share surge pricing and not outrageous. It's gotten so bad that if one does just turn the meter on at a busy event I give them a huge tip and say thank you for not pulling that crap.
> If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off.
The only time I'd do that was if it was the difference between a round-trip and just dropping them off, usually I'd just shut off the time part of the meter and wait for free. Or if something went wrong I'd give them the benefit of the mistake like if I forget to change the meter off airport rate or something. Other times I'd just give someone a deal because they obviously could use the money more than me and I felt bad for them.
Though...flat rates did make for some better rides since you can take whatever route you want and not worry about people complaining you're taking the long way to run up the meter. A couple times I had people "hardball" me over a flat rate (like "I won't pay a penny over $80 you dirty peasant") and I'd always make sure the meter was well over whatever high price they randomly decided on to make them feel better about their negotiation skills.
Usually whenever someone would ask for "the best price" I'd just say "whatever the meter says when we get there" and leave it at that unless they were doing something unusual like multiple stops over a long time period or if they were super determined and I was in a good mood.
MSI is one of the best museums - you can often find free or heavily discounted tickets as well. Most employers in Chicago have access to a benefit program where you can get free tickets by scheduling in advance online.
If you haven't been, highly recommend a visit. Especially if you're brining kids - hard not to have a good time when you can walk into a water vapor tornado.
In Chicago? Like, in the city proper and not the suburbs? I've lived most of my life in Chicago, and it's basically unheard of to get pulled over for a traffic violation.
Lately, blatant disregard for traffic laws in Chicago has gotten so bad that it's a little terrifying. It's become a common thread on the r/chicago subreddit with regular posts pointing out how bad it's gotten and how police never stop anybody.
EDIT: Wanted to point this out b/c I think it's a larger problem in general of people not following rules of the road, not isolated to specific cities.
If you have having issues with sleep, talk to your doctor about it. The last period of burnout I went through, sleep was a major issue. I could not sleep, no matter what. The stress and anxiety from work would keep me up or make me have trouble falling back asleep whenever I did wake up in the middle of the night. The only answer I could come up with was to eat an edible and drink some whiskey. It helped me get sleep, but terrible, horrible quality sleep.
Eventually, I had to go to my doctor and deal with it. They gave me a few different sleep drugs to try, and I found one that worked extremely well at not forcing me to sleep like a sedative, but helping me fall asleep and to stay asleep. Using the sleep meds and strictly enforcing my work hours plus a 2 week vacation was all that saved me (at this point I didn't care anymore, I simply got done what I could in 8hrs and the rest could fuck off).
It took about a month of 8hrs minimum per night of good quality sleep, but man did it make a big difference. After that everything mostly fell back into place. I've since kept the more strict work hours and have taken on a role that actually has me learning new things vs. grinding out mass amounts of tedious but important work. I do work too much still, but I cap it ~ 50hrs a week and take as much flexibility as I can with it. No meetings until 10am and I was online until 8pm the night before? Cool, I'll be in at 10 and will hit the gym before work so I have more family time after work. No more bending backwards to get everything done.
Can you share what sleep meds helped you? Are you still taking them? My primary care doctor is not a big fan of sleeping meds. He also told me they are designed for short term use.
Sure. Belsomra seems to work the best for me (tried another drug in this same class, and the generic of Ambien I believe). The Belsomra class of drugs block 'wake receptors' vs. making you feel tired and putting you to sleep. There's more to it than that, but that's what I was told and it seems to be accurate. The Ambien made me feel terrible the next day, and the other drug gave me a sensation in my limbs that I didn't like. Hard to explain, but it felt like heightened sensation or something like that.
Both my primary car physician and myself aren't fans of sleeping meds either, but I absolutely needed something to help me sleep at the time.
They absolutely are for short term use. I haven't needed the meds again since, but I have a prescription filled in case I experience insomnia again. If I do, I'll likely do a sleep study as well to rule out any other issues.
Thank you for sharing! I don't understand the short term use though. I know multiple people taking sleeping meds for 20-30 years and they are doing fine. They are all old but still. One of them is 91 and he has been taking the meds since his 60s.
Exactly the same for me. I'm currently in the "I know I should be doing X but not being able to bring myself to" cycle on a piece of a major project. It's not hard work, I know how to do it, but I just cannot do it.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and have avoided the medication my whole life. Recently, I decided to try Adderall. It's like magic to be honest, and has helped tremendously in multiple ways. I can focus on a single task, less pain in getting started on tasks, can actually stay focused, can listen without the draining mental effort to force myself to, and am less forgetful.
But for some reason, this one project has put me right back in the same old 'cannot do this' state even with the Adderall.
You understand incorrectly, and you are propagating a harmful stereotype (which makes medication harder to obtain for people who need it).
Aderall has vastly different effects on people with ADHD vs. the rest.
The best I can say is the Adderall makes us feel the way you feel normally. To us, it feels like magic. The ability to switch from a task you're engaged in? The ability to do something that you need to do and want to do - and even enjoy - when you want to do it? Magic.
Any sources for your claims, I've read the opposite?
> Many double blind studies over the past 40 years have uniformly agreed that stimulants such as methylphenidate, dextro-amphetamine, as well as other substances, are very effective in the treatment of 70%–80% of children and adults with ADHD. One of the myths of ADHD is that ADHD children show a paradoxical effect of being calmed by stimulants, while “normal” individuals are stimulated by them. However, studies have shown that the activity levels are decreased and attention levels are increased by stimulants in individuals with and without ADHD. The difference is that since the levels of hyperactivity and inattention are much higher in ADHD subjects, the improvement is relatively much greater, giving the impression that they respond, while non-ADHD subjects do not.
I also have ADHD, and I feel like the medication benefits are vastly overstated. To use an analogy, I was lead to believe that the medication is as effective as opioids for severe pain, but my experiences have been about as effective as Ibuprofen for severe pain. I've tried many different formulations, brands, drug classes -- many of which multiple times at multiple dosages, and I don't feel "magical" yet.
I still take some meds because they're better than nothing, but I am starting to wonder if people are just being overly hyperbolic, and I had too great of expectations.
Medication doesn't have the same effect for everyone. I was lucky in the way it worked for me, perhaps.
The point is, just experiencing this month of calm and ability to do things helped me overcome a lifetime of learned helplessness.
I am more effective now without Adderall than I was before I've had it, simply because I can catch myself getting into the brain fog and using e.g. the help of my partner to break out of it.
Speaking of Ibuprofen, it feels like magic to me too. I've had 100+ degree fever from COVID booster, my whole body was aching, I felt cold, but putting my socks on (which I had in my hands felt like an immense chore). Ibuprofen cleared that within an hour.
Was it "severe" pain? Let's say, I've had worse. But Ibuprofen took me from 100% non-functioning to mostly-functioning. Magic.
In any case, I feel like what you wrote does not contradict what I said.
Let's use glasses as an analogy. Arguably, prescription glasses can be used by people with good vision either to resolve finer print, or to resolve text much further away. The laws of optics work the same for them.
However, we would say that the effect of wearing glasses is drastically different for people who need a strong prescription vs. people who do not.
As they say, size (of the effect) matters.
>The difference is that since the levels of hyperactivity and inattention are much higher in ADHD subjects, the improvement is relatively much greater, giving the impression that they respond, while non-ADHD subjects do not.
It's like saying that giving food to someone who's starving is the same as to someone who's eating well. The effect is the same, the response is different.
Those who don't live in constant brain fog don't really get to feel how Adderall helps with that.
Anyway, my personal experience with Adderall is written up here:
I'll be glad to look to sources to back up my claims (or stand corrected and learn); but can you help me out and say what it is that you want references for? I struggled to understand where we're disagreeing, though we'd perhaps use different words to talk about the same thing.
> Speaking of Ibuprofen, it feels like magic to me too. I've had 100+ degree fever from COVID booster, my whole body was aching, I felt cold, but putting my socks on (which I had in my hands felt like an immense chore). Ibuprofen cleared that within an hour.
Damn, I should have tried that. I got laid out after shot #2 and #3. I just ended suffering through it for about 24 hours both days after.
I like your analogy and it does convey a good point.
Perhaps, I can word it my initial point like this. It's suspected (or perhaps merely just a product of combined statistics) that 10% to 20% of people who suffer from ADHD do not benefit from any of the mediation types - MPH, AMP, M. AMP, or the various non-stimulant formulations. So, what then? Do they not have ADHD then? What analogy would you use for them? What advice would have for them?
As ADHD as I am, I am not sure living 2/3 of my life (so far) untreated could accurately be described as "brain-fog." I have had brain-fog before from various other things, and I wouldn't use it to describe my symptoms, at least not on a daily basis. On days I go med-free, then sure, but I attribute that to the sudden withdraw and rebound-effects.
I think a huge problem for me was not the 'spacey' feelings or lack of attention, but that my attention was too good. My mind is like a Ferrari with no steering wheel. It can go fast, but there is no controlling it.
If something really attracts my attention, I can laser in on it to the point I cannot pull myself away be it video games, a topic I enjoy, etc.. (Hyperfocus, yes I know)
This a symptom medication does not improve, but actually makes worse. I guess I have to take the good with the bad. A doctor told me, "if you can find me 'the perfect' (no negatives) pill, then found a pill that doesn't do anything at all."
However, hyperfocus is my Icurus Complex. I basically cannot do any meaningful work it out, but alas it flies me too close to the sun where I can barely doing any meaningful work because of it.
Perhaps I had too high of expectations for medication. Maybe deep down I wanted something that made life easier, and not something that made life better.
To be honest he is somehow right. It's magic for everyone but for people with ADHD (like me or you) it gets us to the level of normal people. For normal people is giving them nearly superhuman focus. I don't think the theory that stimulants are working somehow very different for us than for normal people is valid. But that of course is my opinion.
This so much. I rarely attempt to communicate the experience of ADHD because it's rarely worth the effort but one of the times that I did to a good friend I was met with an affectionate "so you're a bit of a retard" and it's hard to argue otherwise.
The best I can come up with in terms of analogy is manual focus (like on old-school camera lens) vs. autofocus
* Manual focus may not be very sharp, but you can change it instantly, and get within the ballpark every time.
* Autofocus is very sharp... but not necessarily on what you want to capture. If it's not shiny enough, autofocus never locks in on that subject. If a bird flies past the window while you snap a photo of the blackboard, it will focus on the bird, and the blackboard comes out blurry. Since it's automatic, you can't just focus where you want to; you need to trick the circuit to work properly.
While I have never taken that specific stimulant, nor been diagnosed with ADHD, my partner is diagnosed, and I'm... somewhat familiar with the topic, let's say (though she's prescribed something other than Adderall). You may have read SSC[0][1] on the topic, but I'll leave it here in case you haven't, or for others.
>While I have never taken that specific stimulant, nor been diagnosed with ADHD
...you are not qualified to make statements of the sort, and I urge you to listen to people who have been diagnosed with ADHD and do take Adderall.
Another, fascinating thing to consider is that you may have ADHD. I was one of those people who said things similar to what you just did, because I had no idea that everyone, in fact, did not have the same struggles. How many of the posts in [2] do you find yourself relating to? If it's more then a dozen, consider getting an assessment (and reading up).
>You may have read SSC...
No, I have not. Thank you for linking it. If you read it, again, you will see that he reaffirms my point: that there are serious risks associated with Adderall taken by people who don't have ADHD, while it is an effective tool for people with ADHD (though, like every medication, it does not work for some, and can have side effects).
Please read what I have to say about ADHD medication, Adderall specifically, here: [1], and compare and contrast with SSC's "Summary" section.
Additionally, I should add that the introduction part of that article sounds like a failed attempt to describe a complex disorder to laymen. Part of it are not correct.
Psychiatrists are not infallible. I can go at length addressing which parts you shouldn't take, but let's say, the take-away from that article is in the summary, and please read what I have to say about it, and see how it compares with your experience of stimulants being taken by non-afflicted people.
What are your credentials? Why should we trust your blog post over some random post on Facebook or Reddit?
I am not trying to be rude or anything. I am just more likely to believe a medical professional's opinions on medical topics than a non-medical professional.
With that being said, that doesn't mean you cannot still be right. I'm just curious for my own personal reasons.
I do have an ADHD diagnosis confirmed by multiple people who do, and a PhD in math as a baseline for avoiding making false claims.
You should trust my blog because about 50% of it is quotes/art from ADHD advocates (with and without credentials), and the rest is details of how it applies to me.
I'm speaking there as a member of a community.
My blog has three kinds of information:
* My personal experience. This is obviously 100% true, as I'm the primary source on that.
* Relatable illustrations/comics, made by ADHD advocates, and relatable memes, taken from ADHD communities, which indicate that my experience is shared by many other people, and help you understand it better.
You shouldn't trust my blog. It's meant as a PSA. It's there for one reason only:
For you, to see if you relate to many of these entries.
If you do, then this is a starting point for you to understand yourself better, and get help.
This blog is also intended as an aid for ADHD people to explain the condition to others. Many people have thanked me as it helped them to that end.
Guess I'll add a testimonials section one day.
Finally, of course you should trust the opinions of medical professionals. You'll find that I'm either linking those, or if you look them up, they corroborate my experience.
However, again, this blog is not meant as a diagnostic tool or an authoritative source. It's for other undiagnosed people with ADHD to learn about what it is that they have.
I was one of such people. I learned about ADHD from memes. I'm passing it on.
Sorry for the delay. I tend to lurk more than I tend to contribute, and I still haven't investigated any methods for alerting myself if someone replies to a comment I made, assuming it's even built in.
To preface my reply, I must say that I was also diagnosed, albeit not until my early 20s. People tend to think I am intelligent, but I would argue I am just tend to luck out more than others, or at least, I am not as intelligent as people think I may appear. I just have a ridiculous strong long-term memory. Not "total recall" levels, but definitely above average.
The doctor that conducted my psychoanalysis said I had the strongest long-term memory he has ever seen, but I also went to college in a small town, so perhaps his sample size should be considered, or perhaps he was just trying to boost my confidence.
I find you math PHD to be impressive. I am probably average to low-above-average. Good enough to make it through a comp sci degree (mostly unmedicated), but I feel like my critical thinking skills would fail me before I reached PHD potential. I hated math growing up, and my significant other was a math major who now tutors children in the same school system I grew up in. It was a rather affluent area (excluding my middle class family), and the school system reflected that. However, she said she can understand why I struggled in school growing up with the way they still teach students, so maybe weak fundamentals are partially to blame. But look at me, I am already getting distracted. ;)
Regardless, your lack of medical credentials does not mean much in a world, where credentials may have some positive correlation with domain knowledge, but the relationship is definitely not causative e.g. I've met many medical professionals in my life, like any other field, that baffle me as to how they even made it that far into their field. I feel like many never read another journal or book the second they step out of med school. There is natural distribution to all elements of humanity, I suppose. But, that is just my opinion.
> * My personal experience. This is obviously 100% true, as I'm the primary source on that.
> * Relatable illustrations/comics, made by ADHD advocates, and relatable memes, taken from ADHD communities, which indicate that my experience is shared by many other people, and help you understand it better.
For both these points, how do you mitigate confirmation bias, or do you not even try? I have yet to read your blog, but I will when I have more time available. Confirmation bias is a problem I have noticed with ADHD material e.g. "I forgot my lunch on the way to work because I am so ADHD" implying that only ADHD people do this, or "I can barely focus on anything, but I sleep only 4 hours a night, do not exercise, and eat junk food all day." Again, those are things that ADHD can be attributed to ADHD, but any body in those same circumstances would ail the same way.
> However, again, this blog is not meant as a diagnostic tool or an authoritative source. It's for other undiagnosed people with ADHD to learn about what it is that they have.
But what do they have?
Im curious about your opinions:
Do you really think ADHD is a disorder or a set of naturally distributed attributes that cause disorder circumstantially based one's environment? While a reductionist might think the differences are semantical, I disagree. I believed the first option when I was initially diagnosed, and when I learned more about the condition.
However, as I have aged I am starting to believe the latter.
How are all these disordered people like Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, etc. able to be the best of the best in their Olympic sports medicated or not? How are you able to achieve a math PHD, but I struggled in Calc II? Maybe there is more factors in life that hinder one than just ADHD. (I'm not implying you didn't struggle in your studies or life in general, I am just using you as probably inaccurate example -- the idealistic image I have of you perhaps.)
I am not saying ADHD is "not real." All I am saying is that the way society is structures, and given the demands of society for a particular type of person, anything outside the scope is considered to be disordered.
For example, I am not particularly tall -- I am with the mean range for adult human males. While many professional basketball players are n + 1 standard deviations taller than the average person. If I were to be compared to them in a game of professional basketball, would I have Height Deficit Disorder? I would have a height deficit in comparison to the other professional around me, and surely might height would hinder my abilities and probably cause disorder for me during the game.
Am I making any sense? Society tends to swing towards whatever works for the majority of people e.g. boring and dull classroom setting tend to have a distributed effectiveness for different types of people. Some people thrive, some people survive, some people derive, and some are buried alive.
I have no problem focusing on this novel I am typing right now, but I also should be working, but why can I not focus on work? Is it because I have ADHD? Because I hate my job? Perhaps both?
Besides attention, what other human attribute isn't on a spectrum? Height, like we already covered, but also weight, intelligence, athleticism, strength, longevity, skin color, eye color, hair color, etc.. Do you get what I am saying?
I just often wonder how much ADHD is really a disorder, and how much is socially induced. I know the "Woe is me" type will instantly shoot my claims down with something absurd like, "I am so ADHD, if I were on a deserted island I would starve to death because I would be so distracted that I forget to eat until I die." Hyperbolic or not, if that were true, then I am sure evolution is just doing its job weeding them out of the gene pool, as dark as that may seem. After all, modern medicine thankfully allows us to "play God", so to speak, but let's not forget the Law of Unintended Consequences.
What bothers me most is that we allegedly have known about this disorder for how many centuries now? Didn't the ancient Greeks even notice it? I wonder how/if the "less advanced" societies noticed these attributes. Medicine even acknowledged it a century ago +/- a few decades. Obviously, science grows damn near exponentially, so many of those centuries accomplished less than we could accomplish in weeks currently, so I am not trying to say that we have had 1000s of years to solve this. I just wish we had more answers than we currently do.
All this time, and we still have no other reliable way of verifying the condition other than symptom-based diagnostics where the person doing the diagnostics might have an implicit bias -- every screw looks like a nail to the man with a hammer.
"But fMRI brain scans have shown difference in the prefrontal cortex and the nucleus acumbines in people with ADHD vs. a controlled population" Great, it's 2022 where's the diagnostic criteria? But wait, even much of the research claims the difference isn't significant enough to be used for diagnostic purposes. Then are the brains truly that different? Maybe it's a lack of technology? Who knows?
What is thefamous quote med school professors tell med students when learning about rare conditions? "Don't look for zebras, when there are horses in the room." Maybe when trying to find differences in the brains, human biases might create zebras. Imagine how damaging it would be if the research claimed there were no differences at all? Then what? The world of psychology might actually implode upon itself.
Perhaps I have a bias -- some axe to grind. But, real or not, there is disorder in my life. I do not care about naming conventions for my disorder, titles, identities I can cling to, all I want is to live the best life I can with my one and only chance. Sometimes the meds work, and sometimes they do not, but it's a small price to pay for a chance to improve my life regardless of whether ADHD is socially constructed or not.
Anyway, sorry if this is too long. It's easier for me to type than to read lol.
I will check out the blog, and if you haven't have you ever considered writing about how one can tell if their medication(s) are working well or not? Doctors act like I asked them to solve if N=NP when I ask that question. Not saying your blog is lacking without it, I just thought I would throw out a helpful suggestion. After all, life for many doesn't magically turn to easy mode once diagnosed, but for the lucky ones I suppose it does.
It’ll definitely stimulate everyone, adhd or no, but most people don’t have a brain fog that will be lifted by the meds. Nor do they have a plethora of other symptoms that amphetamine salts alleviate.
Sit for 5 minutes and try to count to 10 incrementing on the exhale. If you notice yourself thinking of something other than your body sensations like the breath or the counting, start from 1.
There are a lot of different meditation techniques and teachers, and they are as different as are sports and coaches: your body gets exercise, but that's the only common ground. But here it's the mind.
I can only tell you what I have done, the cost and benefit I personally experienced. I cannot make recommendations as it would be utter B.S.
I'm pretty good with my brain, but my attention was lacking to say the least. In search for a solution, I tried meditation on my own. I read books, and tried to sit down by myself.
I failed. Repeatedly.
Frustrated by what was the first time not being good with my head, I ask my doctor, who I knew was a Buddhist doing meditations retreats in caves, to help me find a teacher.
I insisted I wanted meditation only. No mantra or singing. No mythology or holly texts. No prayer or God. No offering, ritual or altar.
She told me the closest thing to what I was looking for was a course of "Vipassana Meditation, in the tradition of S.N Goenka".
It's a meditation technique that you learn during a 10 days courses. Shorter periods are NOT available as a beginner, and the 10 days are really necessary. I advice strongly against quitting in the middle of a course, for your own mental health, even if you believe you can. Once your are in it, you should finish.
You _will_ want to quit. Almost everybody does. Sometimes, I still do on the first day, when I start a new course.
The 10 days are not devoid of mysticism, religious undertone, etc. but they do teach you a technique that can be practiced as an atheist, or a practitioner of another religion, with minimal fuss. Keep in mind, though, that if you are scientifically inclined, the 10 days will grind your gears in many ways. After so long, it still triggers me sometimes, but I've being involved with those people quite deeply now, and I find solace in the fact they are benevolent and dedicated to helping.
I actually lived a year in one of the (numerous, almost 200 in the world) meditation centers, I dated one their accountant (!), and being part of a lot of their activities. They are just regular human beings, with the good, and the bad, but they really want to help, and they do. The accounting books are clean too ^^
The course is free, and you don't need to pay for the teaching, nor the accommodation, or the food. Ever. They will regularly remind you they need donation, and even tell you it's good for you :) I do donate, but it is completely optional, and some people never give anything. It's considered perfectly ok.
As for the 10 days course, it is _hard_. The discipline is strict:
- waking up at 4 am
- no food after 12
- you put any distracting object in a safe you can't access before the end, including your phone, books, wallets or notebooks
- you can't talk, do much exercise
- you meditate 10 hours a day
The hardest part is not the silence, the food or the sleep though. It's the meditation. Provided you practice correctly, it will be extremely challenging. Boredom, physical discomfort or pain, distress, depression, break down, sadness, etc. are only a fraction of the things you may, or may not have to face. And that's only what you can put words on, which is, to my surprise, only a very tiny part of the experience.
The cost, hence, is high.
It's even higher if you decide it's worth it for you to carry on with it daily. It takes time, and effort.
Also, it's a slow process. A steady one, mind you. My life has changed in ways I believe would have not been possible otherwise. Some progresses fade without practice. Some gains are for life even if you stop.
But I've been at it for some time now, and I will continue for the rest of my life. The trade off proved worth it for me.
The most obvious benefits that I personally experienced:
- my social, love and professional life have completely shifted. I had what looked like autistic traits, but they have melted. I'm considered an extrovert now.
- I am happier. It was not a straight transformation. I had depressive periods. But the trend on 15 years is that, all in all, I'm much, much happier than when I started. This by itself makes the technique worth it, as it leads you, little by little, to decouple happiness from circumstances.
- I know myself better. This means I accept myself more as I am, I have less illusion about myself, and also I live my life according to that knowledge, instead of hitting an invisible wall. If I'd share what I learned with you, you would think it's trivial, obvious things. But making them yours make all the difference.
- I'm more productive. It's a small detail compared to the rest, but a nice boost.
- I am more at peace with the suffering of our human condition. Less afraid of death, less angry with people destroying things, less depressed by the state of society. I forgive a lot now. Including myself. I'm ok hurting people too, which is strange to say, and not what you think would be the result of meditation.
In fact, I became less minimalist and more materialist with time. I don't look the stereotype of a wise, zen person. Also, some areas in my life I desperately wanted to work on didn't move at all. I eat too much, I still get angry for some things that are so superficial in retrospect. So be careful with expectations.
You can find more information about this particular technique and the related courses here:
