ADHD/ND here, and I really agree with this one quote from this piece:
> those most affected by executive dysfunction require therapy to be more directive, specific and accountable; that is, processing of past trauma and relational approaches are not sufficient. What often does not seem like trauma therapy at all can lead to great strides forward if it allows individuals to obtain a greater sense of structure and mastery in day-to-day life tasks
I've spent so much time in therapy doing the whole "let's go through your childhood and your past" and it was just not effective in tackling what I really needed. It's remarkable how many licensed therapists just didn't know how to deal with this. I'm sure it's really helpful for some people, but outside of increasing some basic awareness about how my family of origin resulted in present-day behaviors, I definitely reached diminishing returns on that route.
As skeptical as I am of AI as an interventional tool for "reaching our most effective selves", I can't help but feel that if it can be wired up to do the appropriate "micro-interventions" that reflect OP's insight ("directive, specific and accountable ... to obtain a grater sense of structure"), we might see 'ADHD' become a thing of the past (at least for the people that share my phenotype of it). It's my hope at least...
Acceptance of the fact that I will always have executive function difficulties and there is nothing that can really improve it. It's not the realization I wanted to have, but it is one I wish I learned earlier.
If you can't help it anyway, would you rather have:
"non acceptance" and the workplace repercusions of the dysfunction.
"acceptance" and the workplace repercusions of the dysfunction.
In both cases the dysfanction and the repercursions are constant.
Accountability, mostly. Either by gamification, for example a simple small whiteboard counting how often I did y (or not, that would be a strike). Couple with someone holding me accountable it works wonders, throw in a "punishment" or reward...
Or, if that doesn't fit, deadlines (which maybe is just another kind of accountability...). Both made me finish my degree in time and with a very good grade (A in Americano?).
How to translate this into the workplace, I'm not sure. You might have a supportive workplace and can be open about it, which is what I did.
I have a friend, next alcoholic, she was recently reading through her old journals to try to figure out her life. What happened? She told me that she had a really strong impulse to start drinking again.
In my opinion, you gain nothing from looking at trauma or trying to see some psychological way to get out of it. The only cure is to forget about it.
Why is this complicated? If you can’t remember the trauma, how can you suffer from it?
Now we may have behaviors that were shaped by our trauma, but remembering our trauma, what does that do but reinforce the memory again and there force reinforce our trauma response?
All that has to be done is focus on your present date and your present reaction examine if that’s dysfunctional or not.
It really depends. If those are your best memories, sure - that works and actually helps to even go back to things you enjoyed as a teen - this btw, has been as an positive example for people that struggle with depression.
But if those are destructive memories, that you want to return to and that are at the base of your misery, then no - that is absolutely worst thing to return to, as there is nothing you can change there and the things that are affecting you are coming from that already. So, pretty much this is the reason why it is important for kids to have stable normal life.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I feel similarly
On a tangent, this makes me think about the explainability of ai models. In a way, discovering our childhood trauma and the way it affects us, is akin to searching for explainability
However, in practice, the best way to overcome whatever we want to overcome, might not be to first have an explanation of why/how it happened
> it was just not effective in tackling what I really needed.
That's how I would summarize my experiences with psychotherapy too. I think the only thing I have truly learned from therapy is what I feared most. There ain't much in this universe that can truly help with ADHD. Medications and other interventions barely move the needle for me. Seriously, I am at the point in my life where I am basically done fighting the condition. It's a Sisyphean effort that's mostly fueled by arbitrary societal expectations and my own egotistical desires and insecurities.
Unfortunately, but that is something I agree as well, as remembering traumatic events in past is paralyzing and affects more with age - maybe there is something to do with different chemical balance and lack of need to analyze past.
I have autism(high functioning version which is linked with ADHD) diagnosis and whenever someone is mentioning something from the past, I am adapting to it by mirroring it by remembering it and then dealing with it again. It just becomes a cycle of misery. It took me some time to realize, that it is best to not talk about your failures - there is nothing good from reliving them and it is much better to just concentrate on things you enjoy and love to do.
Any statistical case with story is anecdotal - it has additional value that it helps to understand cases. As no way specialists are able to figure this out without prior knowledge and experience and lacking those background stories and 100% failure from specialists in my case can be called as anecdotal, but that is a statistical fact that affects personally me.
Also, the story resonates with my observations that my parents had traumatic events, though I don't think that it is something that causes ADHD or neurodiversity, but rather stems from the fact, that people that are neurodiverse would experience harsher emotions and emotional trauma and give the same treatment to their children.
thoughtpeddler · · focus · HN ↗
> those most affected by executive dysfunction require therapy to be more directive, specific and accountable; that is, processing of past trauma and relational approaches are not sufficient. What often does not seem like trauma therapy at all can lead to great strides forward if it allows individuals to obtain a greater sense of structure and mastery in day-to-day life tasks
I've spent so much time in therapy doing the whole "let's go through your childhood and your past" and it was just not effective in tackling what I really needed. It's remarkable how many licensed therapists just didn't know how to deal with this. I'm sure it's really helpful for some people, but outside of increasing some basic awareness about how my family of origin resulted in present-day behaviors, I definitely reached diminishing returns on that route.
As skeptical as I am of AI as an interventional tool for "reaching our most effective selves", I can't help but feel that if it can be wired up to do the appropriate "micro-interventions" that reflect OP's insight ("directive, specific and accountable ... to obtain a grater sense of structure"), we might see 'ADHD' become a thing of the past (at least for the people that share my phenotype of it). It's my hope at least...
tom_vidal · · focus · HN ↗
hirvi74 · · focus · HN ↗
abstractspoon · · focus · HN ↗
jaktet · · focus · HN ↗
coldtea · · focus · HN ↗
If you can't help it anyway, would you rather have:
In both cases the dysfanction and the repercursions are constant.kuerbel · · focus · HN ↗
Accountability, mostly. Either by gamification, for example a simple small whiteboard counting how often I did y (or not, that would be a strike). Couple with someone holding me accountable it works wonders, throw in a "punishment" or reward... Or, if that doesn't fit, deadlines (which maybe is just another kind of accountability...). Both made me finish my degree in time and with a very good grade (A in Americano?).
How to translate this into the workplace, I'm not sure. You might have a supportive workplace and can be open about it, which is what I did.
jack_pp · · focus · HN ↗
Before psychology you had religion, even in the oldest form of Christianity, orthodoxy, you are not too dwell on the past, not to blaim others.
I doubt it really truly helps anyone to dig up the past
mrcsd · · focus · HN ↗
Noaidi · · focus · HN ↗
In my opinion, you gain nothing from looking at trauma or trying to see some psychological way to get out of it. The only cure is to forget about it.
glenpierce · · focus · HN ↗
Noaidi · · focus · HN ↗
Now we may have behaviors that were shaped by our trauma, but remembering our trauma, what does that do but reinforce the memory again and there force reinforce our trauma response?
All that has to be done is focus on your present date and your present reaction examine if that’s dysfunctional or not.
esseph · · focus · HN ↗
Because trauma affixes neutal pathways. You don't have to remember it to be affected, at all.
jack_pp · · focus · HN ↗
Does a car mechanic need a video of the crash to fix the car?
glenpierce · · focus · HN ↗
ethbr1 · · focus · HN ↗
Past trauma can often be the root.
Failing to recognize it and reprogram that part of your brain leads to patching over symptoms, which... causes other issues.
Where this breaks down for some people -- not everyone has trauma, or at least severe enough trauma to need to deal with it.
Some people act like assholes because they were hurt when they were young. Others act like assholes because that's just how they decided to act.
esseph · · focus · HN ↗
If you want to fix the code, you need to go to the right line.
coldtea · · focus · HN ↗
esseph · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6428430/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6428430/
<a href="https://aifs.gov.au/resources/practice-guides/effect-trauma-brain-development-children" rel="nofollow">https://aifs.gov.au/resources/practice-guides/effect-trauma-...
<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3968319/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3968319/
Adding to this, trauma extends to multiple generations:
"Intergenerational influences of paternal combat-related trauma on offspring behavioral and brain function"
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235228952500061X" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235228952...
"Exposure of Men to PTSD-Promoting Trauma Elevates Levels of Sperm miRNAs with Anxiety and Depression-Inducing Activities"
<a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.22.720211v1.full" rel="nofollow">https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.22.720211v1...
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
453yuh46 · · focus · HN ↗
But if those are destructive memories, that you want to return to and that are at the base of your misery, then no - that is absolutely worst thing to return to, as there is nothing you can change there and the things that are affecting you are coming from that already. So, pretty much this is the reason why it is important for kids to have stable normal life.
nico · · focus · HN ↗
On a tangent, this makes me think about the explainability of ai models. In a way, discovering our childhood trauma and the way it affects us, is akin to searching for explainability
However, in practice, the best way to overcome whatever we want to overcome, might not be to first have an explanation of why/how it happened
hirvi74 · · focus · HN ↗
> it was just not effective in tackling what I really needed.
That's how I would summarize my experiences with psychotherapy too. I think the only thing I have truly learned from therapy is what I feared most. There ain't much in this universe that can truly help with ADHD. Medications and other interventions barely move the needle for me. Seriously, I am at the point in my life where I am basically done fighting the condition. It's a Sisyphean effort that's mostly fueled by arbitrary societal expectations and my own egotistical desires and insecurities.
rightnutwingjob · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
idiotsecant · · focus · HN ↗
beecasthurlbow · · focus · HN ↗
453yuh46 · · focus · HN ↗
I have autism(high functioning version which is linked with ADHD) diagnosis and whenever someone is mentioning something from the past, I am adapting to it by mirroring it by remembering it and then dealing with it again. It just becomes a cycle of misery. It took me some time to realize, that it is best to not talk about your failures - there is nothing good from reliving them and it is much better to just concentrate on things you enjoy and love to do.
Any statistical case with story is anecdotal - it has additional value that it helps to understand cases. As no way specialists are able to figure this out without prior knowledge and experience and lacking those background stories and 100% failure from specialists in my case can be called as anecdotal, but that is a statistical fact that affects personally me.
Also, the story resonates with my observations that my parents had traumatic events, though I don't think that it is something that causes ADHD or neurodiversity, but rather stems from the fact, that people that are neurodiverse would experience harsher emotions and emotional trauma and give the same treatment to their children.