harnessing ADHD for good | ADHD Information

I have seen blips but nothing in any detail.
I have always been one of these people who have hyper-focused, never quite giving up until the project is finish. That might mean working a few days without any sleep but at the same time, without much clarity.   Now that I'm medication, I'm thinking about pulling an all nighter just for fun. There are so many thoughts that I have in my head that I want to start on and now that I can actually focus, it seems like I could be unstoppable. Clarity and hyper-focus - what a great idea!!!   How do you all do it?   [QUOTE=turbofish]I have seen blips but nothing in any detail.
I have always been one of these people who have hyper-focused, never quite giving up until the project is finish. That might mean working a few days without any sleep but at the same time, without much clarity.   Now that I'm medication, I'm thinking about pulling an all nighter just for fun. There are so many thoughts that I have in my head that I want to start on and now that I can actually focus, it seems like I could be unstoppable. Clarity and hyper-focus - what a great idea!!!   How do you all do it?  [/QUOTE]A White Russian, a little coke, a little ritalin, a little beer, a little pot, a cute chick, a lotta laughs, and a big mountain to ski the next day.

What did you have in mind?

An all nighter now 'n then is good for life.

Makes you appreciate sleep.

My favorite stayawake?

ProVigil.




NOT like that.  Sounds very unhealthy. Sufficient sleep is very important.Sleep is one of those things that I've always had a very difficult time with. What I was thinking about doing is taking a half dose of my meds through the weekend, supplement it a healthy dose of exercise, and get some coding done.
In retrospect, that is how I have always worked the past [sans meds] but with new found explanation of why I have always been that way along with knowing what "cleared the fog" in the past, I feel like my processor is finally wired correctly.
Ok, geekishness here but the way that I've been able to describe it. Lets say that you are zipping up some really big folders or defragging your hard drive.  Now try to open up Outlook, browse some web pages, look at a spreadsheet,... You can't get any of it done because this background task is consuming all of your resources. In the past, intensive exercise [I use to race bicycles] allowed my second processor to be switched on or in the case of defragging, loading applications on an additional SCSI - I could still get things done. Without it, my resources were always stuck on being maxed out - it couldn't process any additional information.
Armed with this information, I can't wait until I give my brain a really good workout.
I have been taking ambien for a few years so that I could sleep. Otherwise, all I could muster would be about 3 hours. THAT is what I want to get off of.

I'm starting therapy for ADD soon (by this kick arse center in MD) and am on adderall, and I can say that the combination is helping me to turn ADHD from a disorder into an advantage.  The hyperfocus ability is something I've taken for granted all of my life.  I never had any idea that it wasn't "normal".  Now I'm hoping to learn to harness it.  I find that on adderall I can still slip into it, but I also have a bit more say in whether or not it happens (as opposed to pre-meds when it just happens or doesn't on its own).  But I also find that I still don't have a great skill set for focusing it and for getting out of it (in fact, getting out of it has been a little harder than it used to be.  Before my head would just abruptly switch gears on me, and it would knock me out of it.  Now it seems less likely to do that, so I need a new system for reminding myself that I'm obsessing again and to look at how much time has passed!).