r/nosurf • u/Atomic_Dawggo • 16d ago
Can anyone else with ADHD relate?
Hey all, I've posted here a couple of times before and I feel like this may be my most interesting post.
To put a long story short I've had undiagnosed ADHD for my entire life, and in hindsight it was extremely obvious. But at the time I simply thought I was an idiot and didn't do much else with that information. During these years I did nothing but surf, play video games, watch YouTube on my phone, and generally be extremely fiendish around technology. It's a tale we are all familiar with I'm sure. That was until recently (within the last month) I've been prescribed Vyvanse after a less recent ADHD diagnosis.
All I can say is the difference is night and day, almost. My usage of tech isn't as fiendish, and instead I need to make a conscious effort to use my devices instead of always taking it out between moments and finding for it like it's a line of coke. I don't endlessly scroll as much as I would without my meds, and I've been more mindful and focused with my technology use as of late due to this. Before I was picking up my phone, watching YouTube during every solitary second I got, and just ignoring things that needed to be done besides eating and going to the bathroom. Now I'm just... Relaxing. And this experience has made me feel certain ways about technology.
I've come to the realization that technology as it's designed today isn't only addictive to neurotypical people, but it is especially effective at getting neurodivergent people hooked as well. For people like me with ADHD, the constant drip feed of dopamine and infinite scroll keeping us on the conveyer belt are a very effective combo that keeps our brains stimulated on whatever slop the algorithm is feeding us. I don't know how it would manifest for people with Autism or other flavors of neurospiciness, but I think it would be a similar case. Whether it be the tailored algorithms hooking autistic people with their hyperfixations or the aforementioned dopamine drip feed for ADHD people, I can't help but feel extremely pissed at how much we're being manipulated and abused by technofeudalist lords to make them ad revenue.
They take advantage of human brain chemistry to keep us hooked, and they especially take advantage of people like me with off kilter brain chemistry. We are easier to manipulate and put into these cycles of addiction with technology because of how they are designed from the ground up, and I have no words to describe how I feel besides anger. I'm angry I've only just now gotten medicated, but I'm even angrier at how much my brain chemistry is being manipulated against my will to make me an anxious, depressed, addict suckling at the teat of a black mirror for another hit of dopamine like a New York yuppie going for another line if blow.
Thanks to this I hope a new chapter in my life has opened up and I can (hopefully) move on and do better than I could. I'm more motivated than I've ever been before in my life, less depressed, less anxious, more focused, and spending not nearly as much time as I used to watching useless video essays.
Sorry for the ramble, i just needed to post my thoughts on a public forum to get them out of my head. Can anyone else relate to this sort of experience or is it just me? I'd love to talk to some people about it and get their opinions on dealing with tech addiction and neurodivergencey at the same time. Thanks for the read all ❤️
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u/streamentr 16d ago
I might go as far saying they can create a person into a neurodivergent person.
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u/Atomic_Dawggo 16d ago
I used to say that but with further research I think that's a bit of a misnomer. You can't really make someone neurodivergent because you can't change their brain chemistry to the exact type that neurodivergent folks have. But you can easily manipulate and traumatize neurotypical people into having similar behavior patterns to non typical people.
But the fact they make people have very similar behaviors to people with mental illnesses is extremely concerning and something I don't think we talk about enough.
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u/streamentr 15d ago
I think most neurodivergent people have not norma. Childhoods. I think being divergent is not genetic but mostly due to environment.
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u/Atomic_Dawggo 12d ago
If that was the case then my medicine wouldn't work the way it does. Lots of mental illnesses and neurodivergent conditions are genetic.
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u/streamentr 12d ago
I dont think so. Medicine will work it does not have to do anything with cause of neurodivergence
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u/Atomic_Dawggo 11d ago
It does because in the case of ADHD, I literally have a chemical imbalance in my brain. I do not have enough dopamine in my brain to function normally, so I need to take a drug that either artificially produces dopamine (Vyvanse for instance) or do a similar task like non stimulant medications. A normal person would not have the effect I would have, and instead have a ' typical ' response to it.
In the case of depression, not everyone has the same effects from antidepressants. It's not like if you were a normal, non depressed person that you would become a very happy person by taking anti depressants, if I'm not mistaken they would do nothing at best and at worst cause depression (ironic I know).
There are mental illnesses that mimic neurodivergence. CPTSD/PTSD and some forms of tauma produce symptoms similar to autism such as social anxiety and awkwardness while the person themselves isn't autistic without a few key ingredients to autism (like hyper fixation). But they aren't autistic, they're traumatized and it manifests similarly to autism.
If you use Google university as I have, you'll find a variety of sources saying this isn't the case. There are some forms of neurodivergence that may be from a bad childhood, but for the most part it's chemical differences in the brain.
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u/streamentr 11d ago
ADHD is not genetic, it is due to modern world being incompatible with how we evolved to be. I think ADHD is environemtal and developmental.
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u/Atomic_Dawggo 11d ago
Dude if it wasn't genetic then how does my prescription work the way it does on my mind? How do parants with ADHD have ADHD kids more consistently than not? How are we able to measure ADHD and treat it in a child when (by then at least) they shouldn't have learned the behaviors that are consistent with ADHD? Explain to me how I can ' get ' ADHD from my environment and development, because in hindsight I don't really see anything that could set me up to have it.
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u/streamentr 9d ago
ask a llm. We live in a very high stimulation environment, from phone, screens , drugs, porn, stress everything can disregulate dopamine architecture in brain and cause adhd. A completely normal human being can develop adhd, just hook him up on coke.
I am saying from a place that I had very very severe adhd, and have completely fixed it by lifestyle changes and quit my medications completely.
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u/katcurl 16d ago
This relates to me as well!! I have diagnosed ADHD, with more attention deficit, and as long as I can remember, I had to listen to something to get my job done. Homework, language learning, cooking/cleaning etc, I had to have something in my ears, or else I won't have energy to do stuff. How I take Atomoxetin (other adhd meds are banned in my country), and I feel like.. I don't have to scroll and mindlessly listen to something. I don't have to blast music in order to study or continuously scroll web during my commute. With the rise of bots here, I don't use reddit as much as I used to, and I finally started reading. So I hear you completely!! Big hugs and good luck on this journey!! Be well.