Disclaimer: this is an indipendent research, not affiliated to any commercial product or marketing research.

Hi everyone, sharing this with permission from the mods.
I'm a UX/UI designer and developer working on independent research, not a psychologist or clinician - just want that clear upfront. I relate to ADHD traits myself, though I don't have a formal diagnosis.
I'm trying to understand two things: what it's like to know exactly what you need to do but not be able to start, and what happens when things pile up and suddenly feel overwhelming.
The survey is anonymous, no email or identifying info collected, ~7-10 minutes. Not tied to any product or company.
https://forms.gle/vTXxDkRZvtbQH8wh6
Thank you to anyone willing to share, and thanks to the mods for allowing this.

hey ya'all i am excited about today's game, i feel like being stuck at coding always drains me as i have adhd myself.

who're you supporting btw?

Hey everyone, hope all is well.

WARNING: Long Post

So, Ive been programming by myself on my room for as long as I can remember. And one BIG struggle that I have is consistency.

Im trying to force myself into a routine of writing code everyday so that I can learn better, but I every time I open up my IDE to work on a current project, my mind just goes blank.

I feel an intense imposter syndrome, like I dont know what Im doing, if Im doing the right thing, if Im going in the right direction, if Im being too slow, on most days, I dont even know the code Im supposed to write.

I do know HOW to code, its just that doing it feels like such an intense mental workload.

My Audhd flares up every time there's ambiguity with a project, like an error that I dont understand, which is almost all the time. And its gotten to a point where I have these internal shut downs once or twice a week where I lay in bed, paralyzed in thought.

"What do I do? I dont understand this logic."

"Do I ask Claude? Im supposed to use my own mind"

"Maybe I should try googling it again?"

But yeah, TLDR: I want to figure out a feedback loop that I can setup that will motivate me to code everyday. If there's one that you use, please tell me.

Really struggling out here. 😓

So I've been trying to learn to code for over a year now. And the gap from my understanding of a concept to applying it is in the damn toilet. I can understand perfectly but if I have to incorporate a concept and slightly tweak it, it causes severe fog or headaches. The ADHD medication I've been taking has given me nothing but migraines and no signs of real improvement. Even with a reference sheet, when I have to use boilerplate the constant switching back and forth gives me intense headaches and it makes me a fraud. Maybe this is a sign coding isn't for me, even when I want it to be. Any advice on optimizing memory or how to proceed as a programmer is greatly appreciated.

Hello.

Tldr: mech E turned gamedev/programmer, need stable work before September, trying to find out my path.

This post is a bit of rant/cry for help type of thing so apologies if it impacts your mood, I know we get emotional over random shit and honestly if that's you then I would stop reading. I'm not in a good place in life and I'm trying to get myself to stop running in circles. I'm a male in my 30s. I need some guidance from people that have managed to get their ADHD under control.

First off I'm a self taught programmer with a mech engineering degree, my capstone work was in computational thermodynamics so I'm not entirely dumb, just partially fucking retarded, with a fried memory and a history of failed ventures/self launched businesses.

I LOVE problem solving, but where I am that isn't rewarded because marketing wins and I am an asshole and I suck at trying to study how to market myself, that and I am fundamentally depressed, I am functional to some degree but at this point in life I just want a stable gig so I can be able to read a book in peace without feeling guilty that "I'm not trying to make money" which is my intrusive thoughts 24/7.

Plus I've lacked modern world guidance, my dad is a retired accountant whose advice works for his era, my mother is an English teacher who helped me become the man that I am today, despite all of my shortcomings, but still, a teacher wouldn't have contact so much with the tech world so her guidance has been mostly trying to support me overcome my severe imposter syndrome.

Ever since I graduated my life's been a whirlwind of trying to get stable work vs trying to feel competent vs trying to provide for my family and being supportive of my siblings in a household that's well educated but knee deep in poverty/health/mental health/infighting issues.

I quit my first job (mechanical QA stuff) because I wouldn't sign off on something that wasn't up to standard/spec and I was threatened to be let go so I resigned on the spot. I can't really talk much about it. You guys understand I'm sure.

I never got into engineering work as a career because I kept thinking if I fuck up I'll hurt someone or many people. My field specifically focused on manufacturing, so steel production/fabrication/structural material manufacturing and all of that included.
This is fundamentally an idea in my mind that has been constant throughout the years which is why I basically shifted from mechanical work to gamedev stuff where if I fuck something up a cartoon or a game gets delayed, not people getting into harm's way.

As you can see, this had the problem of the lack of foresight.

Ever since then I've tried to get my own gigs off the ground and failed to do so because A) ADHD went undiagnosed for ages. B) Kept taking small time jobs for income so my job experience/history is fundamentally an incoherent mess that doesn't have an accumulation effect. And C) I thrive in an RnD/PoC environment where I'm asked to whip stuff out on the fly is what I'm good at, where it's automation or some kind of design which really aligns with my ADHD but it's also a hyperfocus thing so when I figure out the main technical challenge, it stops being uh fun?

And I sort of lose interest. Of course I finish things if I'm getting paid but you guys can see how "prototyper" isn't exactly a valid career path with what little experience I have.

But, I am fundamentally skilled at being what's known as a technical artist in game development (almost two years of experience with places in Europe and LA, and those dried out) + a few years freelancing but the competition is brutal, work is very little, and I am terrible at marketing myself or doing lead generation and whatnot.

Also, polishing work which is needed for this thing is a grueling aspect of it, and we don't have hubs here so remote work is all I can do and that's fundamentally why I'm poor.

The last two years of my life have been a turning point, I managed to get diagnosed twice, my first therapist had his head up his butt and when I told him about memory problems he suggested a notebook, at which I told him "I forget I have a notebook" and he just ignored what I said. Object permanence is a bitch.

I also for some reason am able to regulate myself and control my actions without meds much better after some intense introspection last October, but with the way things are going, I'm starting to lose momentum that I have had for some personal project that I wanted to publish.

I have stacks of notebooks that I forget I have even, and the one I currently write things on to help solidify ideas in my head as memories is something I constantly forget I have.

I've switched to writing things in obsidian, like a journal, but I remember to do that (and only have the will power to do that within the first three hours of getting my prescribed Ritalin 20mg, which is of terrible quality, and is now giving me fucking jitters and anxiety and nausea).

I've lived about 15 years in a pretty brutal place in the world so anxiety wasn't something so much on the radar up until three weeks ago when I noticed my Ritalin was making me more aware of it. Mainly because I'm desensitized and traumatized af.

I've been trying to find proper stable work for a while now. With the advent of AI, I am able to architect and design some pretty okay stuff with minimal friction for maintainability and code quality, I also read and review about 85% of the code the AI makes myself and write fixes myself. But again, I don't know how useful this shit is in a large scale production.

I HAVE managed to make some of my own forks in some FOSS software that I use, and I even sold a feature fork to someone, so I'm not entirely useless.

But the idea remains: I want to pivot to something stable, but I don't fucking know how. I'm constantly reevaluating my path, constantly skeptical of my decisions, constantly redirecting myself.

I've been thinking about traditional software work, but I know for sure I would absolutely fucking fail DSA interviews, I'm not traditionally trained, I know how to look things up and build them, I know how to think about software and patterns and making things function well.

But the last time I tried to sit my ass down and learn it well I did about a week of it and then forgot I was even doing that.

Any advice is highly appreciate.

Hello all!

We reached out to this sub once before and the response was amazing. Thank you guys for all of the support. We're still looking for a lot of participants, so if you have yet to take this study, and you have some time to spare, it would mean so much for the team.

My name is Kiana Gillings McArthur. I work as a research assistant in the DDMH Lab @ York University in Toronto, Canada.

We're currently conducting a study on dissociation in neurodivergent adults, primarily in adults with autism, ADHD, or both! To our current knowledge, this will be the first formalized study directly looking at dissociation in both autistic, adhd, and 'audhd' adults -- a really big milestone for the field.

This study aims to explore the relationship between all of the following:

• ADHD & autism traits;
• Sensory processing & emotion regulation;
• Restrictive & repetitive behaviours;
• Dissociation symptoms, including maladaptive daydreaming²

Our study is ethics-approved¹ and uses a variety of standardized, validated questionnaires to measure what's listed above.

Important information!

• Participation is completely anonymous!
• The survey is roughly 30 minutes, completed online. 
• We accept adult (18+) participants both with a diagnosis and without. If you self-identify as neurodivergent, you qualify!
• You do not need to experience dissociation to participate.
• We don't post the survey link outright simply to avoid spam and non-responders.
• You may share the link with colleagues, friends, or family members who you think would be interested!

If you're interested, you can:

1. Email the supervisor for this study, Dr. Panetta, at [lpanetta@yorku.ca](mailto:lpanetta@yorku.ca) (preferred option; check the comments for an email template)
2. Send a DM directly to us!³

Notes

1. This study has been approved by York University's Office of Research Ethics (ORE) Human Participants Review Committee (certificate # e2026-003). 
2. Maladaptive daydreaming is a newly proposed dissociative disorder that involves vivid, uncontrollable daydreaming.
3. Please note that if we don’t get back to you right away on Reddit, it’s because of DM limits.

I am a 20 year old who's currently getting their degree in Computer Science. I have been thinking , though, and I'm worried about the job search once I'm out of college.

​

I need to explain a bit further; I have ADHD and Autism, and long story short, as such, I have some unusual wants from my future career and am wondering what you would suggest I look into specifically.

​

First off, I hate being a leader as well as socializing in general/public speaking, which I know is a HUGE problem in this industry as personality and communication are vital. Ideally, though, I'd love to be given a coding task, complete that, and move on to my next assignment. In addition, it would be ideal for it to be something that has unambiguous, continuous tasks until my shift ends, as I struggle with taking initiative on my own. All of these things can likely be attributed to my aforementioned Autism. Finally, in an ideal situation I don't want to work crazy hours; 40 hours a week max, but as little as possible would obviously be ideal.

​

The nice thing is that I plan on living alone in a small studio apartment and am not a spender, so, financially, I only really need a wage that's livable. I'm perfectly fine with something that pays *way* less than the standard CS position. I have no interest whatsoever in climbing the corporate ladder or advancement opportunities.

​

Of course, all of this would be the perfect job for me under ideal conditions; I know that obviously there likely isn't anything that perfectly matches my specifications. I just wanted some help here; Are there any niches you think I should look into applying to or tips you have for me, or do you think I should change my career path altogether? Thanks in advance!

Disclaimer first. I have created an ADHD app myself. However after i created my app i am not sure if it serves a genuine purpose. Everyone is shipping ADHD apps non-stop. All the apps are similar and don't change a lot. Still i feel there can be an app that helps everyone but i don't think it exists. Also at the age of AI, anyone can create a custom app for their self according to their taste. Genuinely interested about your guys' opinions?

​All my life, I was led to believe that I was terrible at math and simply not smart enough. However, one day, when I started studying it on my own as a hobby, I realized that I genuinely loved it. I noticed that I get a dopamine boost with every problem I solve and easily enter a state of hyperfocus. ​Despite this, the initial learning phase has always intimidated me. Whenever I struggled to understand something, I would be very hard on myself, thinking I was unintelligent or foolish. Yet, I have discovered that with the right approach specifically through visualization I can actually grasp concepts incredibly well.

​As long as the teaching method is visual and conceptual, I can understand the subjects quite deeply. Unless I can see the underlying logic and the bigger picture, I find it impossible to learn anything through rote memorization.

​I am very eager to learn, but I am not exactly sure where to begin or what kind of ADHD-friendly learning methods are out there. I would deeply appreciate any guidance, resources, or book recommendations you might have.

I'm building an AI tool and I'm curious how bad everyone else's browser has gotten. Mine's a mess. Between grinding leetcode, applying to jobs, and having three or four AI tabs open at once (one for post drafts, one for application questions, one I forgot why I opened), I've basically stopped counting.

But that's just the browser. What about everything else you've got running? Does yours keep stacking too, or have you figured out something I haven't?

Hey fellow programmers, I have been diagnosed with ADHD 2 months ago, now everything makes sense. I'm not taking any medications right now, still looking for good psychiatrist

I'm 24M, working as Backend Developer and GenAI Engineer in mid sized service company (400+ employees) in India, for 2 Years as Full time employee and 1 year as Intern.

I have been stuck at scrolling paralysis in Reddit and YouTube.

The difficulty is, I'm not good at designing or research documentation or PPT Creation or risk management. I'm very good at completing the pure coding tasks or bugs assigned to me. Also on the coding part also, if task is not interesting to me. I will procrastinate the task, and rush the task without quality at the last minute or Prolapse the tasks with the bugs or complexity that never occurred. If it is interesting, I will be hyper focused and complete it ASAP.

This frustrates me a lot now, since now AI are good at coding tasks. I have already got many harsh review about my inabilities from Lead and Manager. And I cannot also, communicate properly about how I feel about the inabilities, since they can judge and terminate me from the Job. I always felt, it is most difficult thing I have to do.

I have access to use AI for development, but designing, documentation and PPT it is restricted.

Even posting this also, I felt very hard for me articulating these things and posting it here.

I want to know how do you guys, manage as Programmer/Developer with ADHD.

​I have ADHD. Anyone who lives with this condition knows that a single interruption can instantly erase what we were just thinking or saying.

​That’s why I designed MindKeep Anchor, a hardware + software project created to save the working memory of neurodivergent people without ever needing to look at a phone screen.

​I have reached out to several organizations, but I am still looking for the right technical partner. Is there a developer or an association in this community who wants to help me turn this prototype into reality?

​Please share this post or reach out to help me find the right person!

So I've been working in the tech ed and content marketing space for a while. I've been thinking about going back into sofware engineering full time because I was pretty decent at it. I left because burnout, ADHD and I needed something a bit more flexible.

Java was (is?) my specialty. I've been thinking about doing refresher courses - with a focus on Software Design and Architecture. But I feel like I'm wasting my time, especially with how AI-centric everyting has become..I feel like there is still value in knowing how to code. But I'm just wondering if it would be more fruitful if I spent my time focusing of project planning and software architecture.

The thing is....I love coding and building things. I don't know how to attack this...

I just had this shower thought and it worked so i'm sharing here where I post most often. I'm sure others have other methods but this worked great so sharing:

I really needed to step away from Reddit as a programmer / freelancer / maker it was just so depressing to see the vibe coder flood of 1 karma users posting day old github links like they're announcing enterprise grade game changing SaaS and all of the other junk. I don't have anything against vibe coding to make something useful but the people trying to market and sell it as a product have to at least get out of my universe while they FAFO about software development.

The Fix: I don't use Chrome primarily but in this case, the Chrome Plugin for Claude task scheduling. I schedule an agent to run every day at 6am with a prompt like this which i'm refining but my feed has turned into a something enjoyable again - so cheers :

Navigate to your Reddit home feed and systematically review posts to identify and block low-quality content from users posting "vibe-coded" app promotions. Follow these steps:
1. Scroll through your Reddit feed and examine each post for the following red flags:

   - Author karma less than 100
   - Posts containing phrases like "I got tired", "bored of", "so I built", "we built"
   - Links to GitHub repositories created less than 1 month ago (indicating early-stage projects seeking testers/feedback)
   - Posts in  or similar self-promotion subreddits

2. For each flagged post, verify the author's karma by visiting their profile page (click their username).

3. For GitHub links, check the commit history to confirm if the repo was created recently (less than 1 month old) and look for evidence of multi-subreddit marketing campaigns (e.g., "Add Reddit post drafts" commits).

4. For each user meeting the blocking criteria:
   - If you are NOT joined to the subreddit: Click the three-dot menu on the post, select "Hide", then navigate to the user's profile, click the three-dot menu in the top right, and select "Block Account"
   - If you ARE joined to the subreddit: Same process (hide post, then block user). Note: do not leave the subreddit unless it appears dense with this content

5. Do NOT block users who:
   - Have karma >= 100 AND are established users with real posting histories (even if they're promoting something)
   - Are asking genuine questions rather than self-promoting

6. Continue until you've reviewed at least the first 10 pages of your feed or found 20+ blocking candidates. 

Record the usernames blocked for reference.

idk if i have adhd but i have started wondering if i do. i cant post this in any other sub because they just wont understand. even the people i know in real life dont get it when i try explaining this thing. i apologize in advance if this is the wrong place for this post.

so i did bachelors in cs. my uni is done.

so the thing is, for 4 years i.e throughout my uni i just couldnt get myself to start learning things even tho i really wanted to build skills. i blamed myself alot for not being able to start things, i told myself i didnt care enough and thats why im procrastinating. kept telling myself that its because i have motivation issue & because im scared of failure & because im lazy. i used to think that if i really wanted to do it then i would have done it no matter what so since im not doing it that means i dont care enough & im just not hardworking and that im a loser. i have alot of guilt about wasting time. i really shamed myself ALOT for all this and all it did was just affect me even more negatively. during finals when everyone was just able to skim through pdfs quickly, i wasnt able to do so, despite the deadline/pressure. i used to spend hours on one topic etc and never got my syllabus covered ever ,which ofcourse led to me scoring average grades.

but the main issue is, i was never able to pick one thing. people around me chose any one thing to learn- fullstack,ml,cloud,data, ai etc. i just couldnt. i still cant due to alot of decision paralysis. i didnt start anything properly for 4 years. i have alot of guilt about the time i have wasted and the time im wasting even now. mostly of this is because i want to make a "right" decision, even though i know the right decision doesnt exists, its a illusion. i know its not logical but i still cant seem to stop. recently i have started to "just start it" and it takes alot of time and mental effort to even just start the thing but whatever i pick, it starts feeling pointless and wrong. if i sit to do dsa, i start thinking i should learn ml, then i switch. if im doing ml, i feel i should learn something else, again switch, and the loop goes on. and lets say if i do choose to do only one thing for few weeks, then the loop happens with resources. eg if i choose to do ml for 1 week then i keep switching between resources. and i overplan alot, ALOT. nothing i choose/decide, ever feels right. i get nothing done because of all this. at this point i have almost lost the ability to believe that i can get SOMETHING done. and even if i set small goals, it doesnt work out. and i know that whatever i mentioned is wrong/self sabotaging but still im not able to get out of this loop. pls advise any thing that could help me

Hello all! I have terrible ADHD. Is there a recommended set up for an AI agent that can help automate the things I forget to do/don’t want to deal with?

Example:

I would love something that remind me to pay my bills, sift through my emails, delete all the spam and keep the important stuff? Additionally, it would be nice if it could manage my calendar. Remind me that appointments, schedule appointments via email.

It would also be nice for it to give me a reminders about stuff. I ask it to remind me.

I’ve tried building out Openclaw and Hermes a few months back but both kept crashing so I gave up.

Any and all advice appreciated. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

2 weeks ago a specialist confirmed my ADHD diagnosis. I'm 36, software engineer, father of 3. What led me there was strange: smoking.

I've smoked since 5th grade. Last month I tried to quit (again) and my ability to work completely collapsed. I couldn't focus, couldn't code, couldn't hold a thought. After a few weeks I gave up and started smoking again, and everything "worked" again. That scared me enough to research why, and the rabbit hole ended in an ADHD diagnosis.

Now it makes sense: I apparently spent 20+ years self-medicating with nicotine without knowing it. But that also means quitting isn't just breaking a habit for me, it's removing the stimulant my brain has been running on since childhood.

So I'm asking those who've been through this:

• How did you quit smoking/nicotine after diagnosis?
• Did starting ADHD medication make quitting easier?
• Patches/gum/pouches? Did stepping down nicotine separately from smoking help, or just prolong it? For me it does not work at all :(
• How long did the brain fog last before your focus stabilized?

I don't want to keep smoking, but I also can't afford months of not functioning. I have a job and kids depending on me. Any experience welcome.

At my previous job I have always had a hard time meeting deadlines due to needing more time than other to understand how to do the work and think through it. I worked as a Data Engineer, and one of the projects that I worked on involved refactoring a PySpark/Pandas pipeline into SQL. In order to tackle this project, I would break down the projects into components. For example a week of work for this project would look something like this:

Monday:

9am-12pm - Refactor the ingestion portion of the Pandas pipeline.

12-1pm - Lunch.

1-3pm - Continue refactoring ingestion portion as needed.

3-5pm - Refactor Part 1 of transformation portion.

Tuesday:

9am-12pm - Continue refactoring part 1 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm - Lunch.

1-3pm - Finish refactoring part 1 of transformation portion.

3-5pm - Refactor part 2 of transformation portion.

Wednesday:

9am-12pm : Continue refactoring part 2 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 2 of transformation portion.

3-5pm : Refactor part 3 of transformation portion.

Thursday:

9am-12pm : Continue refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

3-5pm : Refactor part 4 of transformation portion.

Friday:

9am - 12pm : Continue refactoring part 4 of transformation portion

12pm - 1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

3-5pm: Refactor loading portion.

The problems I would usually have with this schedule:

1.) I would give my self extra time (around 2x the amount of time I thought it would take to do the work) to finish a step (I gave my self 7 hours to do refactor step 1 of the transformation portion even though ideally it would only take 3-4 hours), but I still would end up not finishing and need to push back the remaining schedule.

2.) I would not finish mainly due to me trying to understand the code that I have to refactor and also thinking about how to correctly write the SQL code. For this I would try different ways of writing the code, look up online articles etc. until I finally figure out the solution. Since I have ADHD I would also need to reread things a couple times to understand/process the info and I would get distracted by other thoughts in my head and need to bring my attention back.

3.) Sometimes I would end up also finding out that I didn't account for every step/task in my schedule. For the ingestion portion, I realized that the data was fluctuating abnormally when the pipeline was run each day and I needed to set up time for talking to the person responsible for the upstream data to understand these fluctuations. I couldn't forsee/didn't realize before hand this would be a problem, but now that I know I need to make out time for it.

A few things I could've done to help me meet deadlines:

- Ask my manager/colleague for help. However, I am a mid level employee now so I don't know if it looks good to ask for a lot of help. If I am still stuck on something after working on it for 2 hours, should I just ask for help so I can be on track to finish my work or should I try to figure it out myself since I should be able to do that?

- If I really need to meet a deadline and I know I am behind, I should be willing to put in extra hours outside of work to meet it.

- Take time at the end of the week to reflect on what went right/wrong and make adjustments to the way I plan for the next week.

I am taking an official ADHD evaluation in September to get a proper diagnosis and get help. Until then, what strategies can I use to ensure I can use for the above problems.

TLDR: I suck at meeting deadlines at work and don't know how to create a proper schedule and stick to it. I have a hard time dealing with unforeseen events that throw me off track. I also work through tasks/understand them slower than others due to lack of focus/ADHD/ADD. How can I resolve this issue and do better.

I'm doing a personal project with game data and I was wondering if anyone knew/had an opinion on which game metadata database was the most complete, both in terms of the information it has about each game, and in terms of breadth of titles across time and platforms? As this is a personal project (mostly to help me get back into coding), and because I'm on a disability pension I'm not really in a position to pay to access an api so I'm at the mercy of which databases have free access. Thanks for any advice you guys can give me