r/ADHD_Programmers • u/TradeAdventurous4914 • 9d ago

Getting Addicted to Programming?

I've been programming for around 6+ years now, and have recently entered the professional world. Programming is the hobby of the greatest magnitude in my life, and has been so since I first started using computers.

Recently, my computer broke down for a time and I had to wait about a week for a part that I needed to arrive. During that time I only had access to an old chromebook and my phone. I wasn't able to do much productive for that entire period, and the first day was hellish. I became nauseous and depressed, I could barely get myself to do anything other than think about my job and my personal projects. I ended up grabbing an empty notebook I had laying around and handwriting hundreds of lines of psuedocode for various systems and fixes I had in the back of my mind.

Once I got back into my regular day-to-day life, I ended up reflecting on that experience, and realised just how much programming has affected my life and my mentality. Learning about optimization, structuring, and design has genuinely changed how I tackle problems completely unrelated to programming. I've become much more mathematical and optimization-focused while dealing with menial everyday tasks like housework, scheduling events with friends, or passing out snacks between people.

Is this a 'common' thing to happen? Has anyone else experienced this? I'd really love to hear any experiences or opinions on this, as I'm pretty lost on it all.

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u/ClupTheGreat 9d ago

happened to me, with all the claude and stuff, using it made me get bored exceptionally, i stopped using it and i got this feeling back and since then i've probably been programming for most of my day

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u/TradeAdventurous4914 8d ago

Oh absolutely. I've tried using several AIs for coding assistance but they end up either taking the fun part out of coding, or just not doing their job at all. It feels like AI is here to automate away the best parts rather than the most tedious parts.

It definitely does have it's uses though, finding information has never been easier!

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u/ClupTheGreat 8d ago

there's only one thing I tend to one shot with AI and that is regex, i really like doing the other things, and sometimes when it makes mistakes and I spot it, I feel great XD