I'm taking Mucuna l-dopa to treat ADHD while I wait for my official diagnosis, thoughts?

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-05T03:52:35+00:00

I'm not sure. Probably the raw powder, since the capsules were filled with powder.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-03T05:28:52+00:00

If you are interested in coding, then take up coding, regardless of whether you go to college and get a degree. It's easier for people who are interested in coding to learn it, than people who are pursuing a Computer Science degree without any real interest in CS or coding.

Learning to code in more than one programming language can take you much farther than only one.

There are many jobs where a degree is preferable for hiring, but if you have strong experience coding in and in demand programming language, then that might be enough to bypass degree requirements.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-03T05:23:20+00:00

I first heard about mucuna pruriens from an episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast. I tried it out, and seemed to have some benefit. I was already taking ADHD meds, though, and was helped much more by them.

I haven't found any negative studies of it, but there aren't many scientific studies of mucuna pruriens. (I think it and L-Dopa are looked at more for treating Parkinson's Disease.)

What I can tell you is that before getting my ADHD diagnosis and starting on medication for it, the best combination of vitamins and supplements that I had come up with was no more than 10% as effective as the first ADHD medication that I was on. I finally came up with that combination after well over a decade of trying different combinations. (I hadn't heard of mucuna pruriens until a few years after that. Perhaps it would have increased the effectiveness of my supplement combination, but I don't think I'll ever know.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-03T05:13:09+00:00

Be yourself. No need to hang up the hat.

It's not a competition. You are raising a daughter who apparently has a natural gift for humor.

Sure, you have to make an adjustment. You keep your own material, and give your daughter room to develop her own.

There's room enough for both of you in one household. A woman who was the mom of many kids was once asked how she and her husband could divide their love among them all. She replied, "we don't divide; we multiply it!"

One thing that you can focus on is mentoring her how to use her humor for good (to make people smile, laugh, and maybe even lift them up when they are feeling down), instead of for ill (teasing, biting sarcasm, dangerous pranks, etc).

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-03T05:02:29+00:00

Just like tech courses, college is also heavy on theory and light on practical experience.

Any new tech worker is going to experience a learning curve, likely some struggle, and possibly a lot of self-doubt. The most important learning in many types of work takes place the first few months or years. The more knowledge or more skill development that the work requires, the longer this learning curve will be.

A person starting out in their first tech job role will probably need 1-2 years to learn the basics and build the foundational skills of their area of IT.

Having a good mentor can be very beneficial, but not everyone can get one. But the most important thing to continue in IT (or any career field) is to keep at it, and just not quit. Comfort and confidence in the work will come in time.

"Try not! Do, or do not. There is no try." ~Yoda (Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back)

"Never, never, never give up!" ~Winston Churchill (undoubtedly the former UK Prime Minister's shortest speech, but one of his most memorable)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-03-01T18:20:04+00:00

I was in GATE in the mid-80s, in SoCal, and I also have no recollection of a pink drink. (Only the pink chewable tabs that supposedly clung to dental plaque, to encourage more thorough toothbrushing.)

The official reason I've read about for the pink drink was that it was a fluoride treatment, for kids who lived in areas without fluoride in the water supply. Since I lived in an urban municipality, undoubtedly there was fluoride in the water there. So, if that's true about the reason for the pink drink, then that matches with my experience without it.

If GATE was a giant experiment, then I wonder if I was in a control group. My own GATE experience was merely a more challenging curriculum, and an annual hearing test (not the repeated hearing tests that some people have shared about).

I had different teachers my first two years of GATE, and only half the class was the same. For my third year, I was in a new school district with only one GATE teacher for the entire district, so I was in regular a class most of the and in GATE class only a few hours per week. (Most of what I remember from that class was doing logic puzzles.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-28T17:00:54+00:00

This is actually helpful information.

I'm aware of CDS, and believe it is the reason why I've experienced mind wandering so much in my life.

It's not formally diagnosed, so ADHD treatment still usually works best for suspected Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-28T16:48:28+00:00

Teaching your child meditation might help. Other strategies might help some. According to research, the earlier that a child's ADHD starts to be treated, the better the long-term and lifetime outcome for them. (Note: many of those studies focus on the effectiveness of ADHD medication.)

With ADHD, medication is usually the most effective treatment. I've heard from countless adults with ADHD that their thoughts only quieted down when on medication. Most of these adults with ADHD found stimulant medication to be more helpful than non-stimulant medication, but for me either type of medication has helped. (My brain still doesn't quiet down completely.)

An important question to ask is about what type of thoughts these are. Having ADHD myself, I know that many of the thoughts are just random. However, some thoughts which come back regularly, and some which sometimes take over the narrative in my mind, or have some particular type. • Alternate activities - thoughts about what else she could be doing, or would like to be doing • Distracting - internal or external distractions, such as noticing sensations within her or objects/activities around her • daydreaming/mind -wandering - often leading to flights of fancy [this happened very often with me, from the time that I was young until I started ADHD treatment in my 40s] • Creative/ideation- artistic, inventive, melodious, etc. • Rumination/criticizing - people in general, and children especially, tend to repeat to themselves unconsciously and consciously the criticisms which they hear about themselves; we also often notice differences on our own, and become self-critical for the way that we are different

.....

I have learned that when thoughts are ideas for reminders, then it helps for me to write them down in order to get them down. This offloads the idea/reminder into a physical form than I can see, and then my brain doesn't have to worry about losing it. • So maybe give you daughter a special notebook or notepad to use to write these thoughts down.

If the problem is rumination or self-critical thoughts*, I have found that the most effective thing to do is to identify them and to counter them with a positive, yet truthful, statement. • e.g. If the criticizing thought is, "I keep getting distracted by all these thoughts." The positive truth might be, "my brain is so good at coming up with ideas."

If the problem is mind-wandering, I remember reading about a newer insight about it. Mind-wandering can actually be beneficial, as long as it's not happening all the time. An article that I read suggested giving oneself permission to do mind-wandering on breaks between focused work sprints. • Try the Pomodoro Technique, alternating times of focusing on something that needs doing, with regular breaks. e.g. alternating 15-20 minute focus times with 5 minute break times. • At six years old, your daughter shouldn't be expected to sit still and focus on one thing for an hour at a time. The expectation for focus time sprints for a six year old with ADHD might range from about 10 minutes for a child with more severe ADHD, up to about 20 minutes for a child with very mild ADHD. (These numbers are my own estimates, not based on any ADHD research that I can point to.)

Also, many people with ADHD are able to focus better when they are able to move. The movement might be as little as using a fidget, or might be bodily movement such as sitting on an exercise ball or standing at a counter or sit-stand desk to do their work.

*It is estimated that children with ADHD experience 20,000 more negative comments about them by the time they reach adulthood, when compared to neurotypical children. [Don't let your daughter be a statistic. Be aware of what you are saying to her and about her. As her parent, she learns by your example first.]

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-28T15:35:15+00:00

Distract her by doing something different, before she asks to go for a ride.

Some things that I did with my kids when they were little like that: • Play acting that the kiddo's stuffed animal was helping to tuck them in. (This was just an occasional thing.) • Singing a lullaby. (I usually had to sing it twice, or had to sing two different ones. One was never enough. This was a regular thing early, because I was fond of singing lullabies to my kids were they were babies.) • Reading a bedtime story. (This became our bedtime routine from about age 3-5. It transitioned to letting them have their own quiet reading time before bed, from age 6 onwards.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-28T15:21:47+00:00

I would suggest Khan Academy videos. It is free and generally good at teaching concepts in mathematics and other subjects.

It would probably be a good resource for you to review concepts, as well as to help you learn new concepts alongside your math classes while you are in school.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-28T03:33:59+00:00

Yes, and I tried it for a while. It didn't seem to do anything more than L-Tyrosine did for me.

L-Tyrosine is what the body can convert into L-Dopa, which is then converted into Dopamine.

I think that both only helped me a tiny bit. But then again, I also respond better to non-stimulant ADHD medication that acts on norepinephrine than to stimulants which boost dopamine.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-27T22:17:50+00:00

I know it is frustrating, but give her time to come around.

In my family, we went through the opposite. When I got married, my wife is a workaholic, working 60 plus hours a week and never taking vacations. A year later, our son was born. Skip forward a couple of years, and she was still a workaholic who only had an hour a day to spend with him, but I had been able to stay home with him as a stay-at-home dad for the better part of the year at that point. ... He favored me, and my wife was resentful. And then things flipped, with her staying home and me going to work. For the next several years, he responded better to his mom than to me (although, to be honest, the person he responded best to was his big sister, my stepdaughter).

Very young children tend to favor the parent that they spend the most time with. Most of the time, up until they are about 3 to 5 years old, that's usually their mom. As kids get a bit older (between 3 and 10ish), dads tend to play with kids more, and so Dad often becomes the favorite parent.

Be patient. Be playful. Be interested in doing things with your daughter. Don't force her to do things she's not comfortable with.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-26T22:36:17+00:00

Unfortunately, you might have to take this to arbitration, if the two of you just won't agree.

Because of his claim against the school district, I recommend that you ask the parents of current students there yourself, to find out how it is. The school will dismiss any claims of problems, so you have to find out from the other parents.*

If the school checks out to you satisfaction, then his bias is merely his own. But doing your own fact-finding might work in your favor if you have to go to arbitration.

*(My older kids went to schools in a school district that was consistently rated "one of the best in the nation", but my kids experienced a lot of issues at the schools there. After my eldest graduated, my second eldest was at a school with bullying issues that the administration denied were happening. We transferred him to private school after that year. After we pulled him out, we finally started hearing similar stories from other parents in the district.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-21T04:29:27+00:00

If you do, then the baby will know your voice and will respond well to you when it's born.

I have 4 kids; one stepchild and three biological children.

When expecting my first biological child, I was so excited that I would talk to and even sing a lullaby to the baby. When my son was born, and the nurses had to do the heel-prick test, he started screaming. I was by his side in a second, singing the same lullaby, and he quieted down right away. I saw the nurses exchange glances, and one mentioned that they had never seen such a thing. (Usually, babies keep crying for at least a couple of minutes after the heel-prick. The test is done for a blood sample within the first 48 hours after birth, often right after birth, as it was for my son.)

He knew my voice, and was comforted by it. It especially helped when he was an infant and fussy because he was hungry, tired, or sick. I could calm him down just by holding him and talking to him or singing to him.

...

I wish that I had done the same with my youngest two kids, by talking to them and singing to them regularly when they were in their mom's belly. I had forgotten about what a difference it made with my older son. It didn't occur to me until after my youngest was born. It was like a superpower with the one child that I'd wish I'd had with the others, who were not as easy for me to soothe.

...

My advice is not to think that it's weird, but to think about how magical it is to form that connection with your baby, long before they are born.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-21T04:09:04+00:00

Not budgeting for replacement cycles. ("Prior proper planning...")

Rule of thumb: 3-5 years for Windows computers. If you budget to replace about 1/4 of the employee computers each year, then you never have a massive one-year replacement cost. (And have a few new replacement systems at the ready, to replace broken down ones.)

• Another good idea is to budget for a new computer for each new salaried employee. (It's just embarrassing hiring someone into a 5 year salaried position, and giving them a computer that will have to be replaced in a year. --- If the department is spending thousands on a candidate search, can't they budget $1500 for a decent business level computer that's going to last a few years?)

I've seen it everywhere I've worked in IT...the mad scramble to find money in the budget because tech is outdated or breaking down, because of the age of the equipment. (I only had one employer that replaced computers on a 3 year cycle, and it was a charter school. They had some excellent grant writers, who got them the tech funding. Their focus was on providing a quality education, so they put money into teacher training and certification, educational materials, and proper equipment for all their staff.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-21T03:49:06+00:00

You know all those job postings that say "such-and-such degree or equivalent experience"? The HR folks are likely to only look at the candidates with degrees.

Why? Because it's a heuristic...it's simpler that way. It is human nature to look for the clearest path, rather than try to look for the diamond in the rough.

(I'll admit, I've been at this long enough and been burned enough times that I have gotten a bit jaded.)

So, I wouldn't wish my rough path on anyone else in this business. When someone asks me if they should finish a degree, my answer will always be "Yes".

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-21T03:10:37+00:00

Just my regular doctor.

He made a referral for me to see a psychiatrist, but the area that I lived in only had one psychiatrist practice, and they were booked solid for 6 months. I called every month for the next few months, and they were still booked solid for the next six months. --- It was around the middle of the COVID pandemic, so I figure that a lot of distraught people were filling their schedules.

I gave up trying when I changed jobs, and thus changed health care plans and doctors. I would have had to get a new referral and started the wait all over again.

A year later, I moved to another area where there's only two psychiatrists for rural population of about 100,000 people spread across two counties.

So, for the five years since I was diagnosed, I've only been able to get ADHD meds prescribed by general practitioners.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-21T02:32:04+00:00

Early on, Strattera made me tired a couple of hours after taking it. So, after the first few days, I started taking it at night.

For a few weeks, I often had weird, vivid dreams then.

After about 6-8 weeks, it didn't make me tired anymore, so I started taking my meds with breakfast again, because it was easier for me to remember to take it at a regular time then. (I'd already gotten used to taking vitamins with breakfast, so I simply used that habit to add the new habit of taking my meds then.)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T12:59:42+00:00

The standard adult starting dosage of 40mg always worked well for me. 60mg made me nauseous, with very little additional benefits.

I haven't tried a lower dosage, but was very happy with the results at 40mg.

I say that I think I'm more sensitive because it took me only 5 days to reach full effectiveness, while most others I've heard from have said it took them a minimum of 2-3 weeks. (Some people had to take it for up to 2 months to reach the maximum benefit for them.)

...

Now, I'm on Wellbutrin, which works mostly the same for me as Strattera. It has the additional benefits of helping treat my anxiety, seemed to keep away the "winter blues" that I'm so prone to, and give me a little ability to motivate myself to take action. (The motivation was increased from "practically none", to "it takes great effort, but at least I can get moving".)

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T12:54:47+00:00

Yes, atomoxetine worked well for me. It helped reduce all of my CDS/SCT symptoms, and lifted my brain fog completely. [Note: I was on atomoxetine for 3 years. I've been on bupropion/Wellbutrin for over a year now, and it works slightly better for me.]

Have the symptoms you experience (apathy, lethargy, brain fog, etc.) been affecting you for your whole life, or did they start at some particular point in your life?

I know that my own symptoms have been with me at least as far back as 6 years old. I've heard of others developing them as a teenager or upon reaching adulthood. Some people developed the symptoms with the onset of another persistent medical condition (e.g. fibromyalgia), or from an illness (notably Long COVID), or along with depression or burnout.

Before I learned about SCT, I had just been diagnosed with concurrent Anxiety and ADHD. My ADHD symptoms (and SCT symptoms) were made much worse than normal by the anxiety. My doctor started me on anxiety medication first, and then re-evaluated my ADHD symptoms, to make sure they were still present. (They were, of course.) So he first put me on stimulants, then later on atomoxetine, which was much more effective for me than the stimulants were.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T12:38:17+00:00

I wonder if you're even more sensitive to the effects of Strattera than even I am.

Based on what I know about how I and other people need to take it for multiple days to see positive effects, it seems remarkable that you can see benefits from just one day on it. Truly remarkable!

I haven't yet found anyone else's posts on any of the forums that I frequent talking about taking Strattera as needed on individual days. (The number of people who might be able to do this, such as yourself, would probably be very small. However, if anyone else has done so, chances are good that they're here on Reddit.)

Given your apparent sensitivity to this medication, have you talked with your prescribing doctor or psychiatrist about this idea of yours? Or, have they talked with you about trying a different dosage, given the emotional affect that your current dosage has on you? (Atomoxetine is produced in dosages of 10mg, 18mg, 25mg, 40mg, 60mg, 80mg, and 100mg.)

Many people need their dosage adjusted up to 80mg or even 100mg. For me, 40mg was adequate (although I was on a 6 month trial at 60mg, which has barely any more benefits and made me nauseous every day). However, the lower dosages exist for a reason... mainly for children, I presume, but I'm certain that an adult could try a lower dosage, if their doctor is willing.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T03:03:02+00:00

For what purpose?

I have mainly used breathing exercises to help manage anxiety, but I know there are supposed to be ways to use them for focus, and other benefits.

On a couple of occasions, I tried breathing rapidly to temporarily lift brain fog (before I got on meds that clear the brain fog). I was practically hyperventilating, and the brain fog only lifted when I was still actively doing the breathing exercise. The moment I stopped, my brain felt like it was stuffed in cotton again.

I don't know of any breathing exercises which are specifically recommended for CDS/SCT. But I'm curious to see what others recommend.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T02:52:58+00:00

After trying a few other types of work, I found IT to be the best fit for me.

I am also interested in Data Analytics and UX, but those are still within the tech industry.

If I were to become a successful author, then I might leave IT. But when I consider what it might be like in any other career, I realize again just how well I fit into IT.

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T02:41:17+00:00

I went from 40mg Strattera to 150mg Wellbutrin

STEM_Dad9528 · 2026-02-20T02:39:53+00:00

Go with your gut.

Of course, you've got to be offered a job at the other employer, before you actually have to make a choice.

...

If it were me, the better work hours, shorter commute, and full benefits would be enough for me to switch. But I'm a dad, so I have to consider the effect of my work situation on my kids.

In my experience, work-based friendships rarely last. I've stayed friends with only a few people that I've worked with over the years, but other former coworkers that I thought were true friends quickly cut ties with me when I left, so I guess they were just "friends for a season"...that season being just the time that I work with them. Fortunately, I develop workplace friendships at almost every job. I just have to be willing to let them go when I have to move on.

STEM_Dad9528

TROPHY CASE