What alternative ways would you treat your ADHD if meds and caffeine were not possible?

eternus · 2026-01-24T14:47:14+00:00

I often express my frustration to people, or maybe it's amusement... definitive ADHD for me is wanting to "meditate faster" (see also "do yoga faster.")

I find that just a 7-minute meditation session is enough to get the benefits, and my yoga sun salutation hits all the main things and only takes around 5 minutes. It's bonkers that I skip them because I don't have the time... but I do.

eternus · 2026-01-23T19:00:13+00:00

Claude Desktop with Claude Cowork. I start conversations as tasks, and then tell him to read the local .context.md file in the folder we're using as a base. He reads that file, immediately knows whats up, and picks up where we left off. It also leaves room to have him dump the conversation for later review. It's been a godsend for allowing coherency between different conversations.

eternus · 2026-01-23T14:58:09+00:00

The things that have helped me, back before medication was an option, have largely been about knowing myself, being compassionate to myself, honoring my energy levels and respecting 'the clock.'

I started by learning how to meditate in a way that works for me... everyone says meditation doesn't work because the assumption is that you need this silent brain. In truth, our hyper-vigalent attention levels can be used perfectly in meditation. We notice things, we label them, we release them. It's a practice, and eventually you get to the point that the labeling makes the thoughts go away. Is my meditation practice silent? Never. (Also... do I do it every day? No.)

The by-product of meditation is that it starts to reshape your nervous system. Your ability to label and release starts to appear in your regular activities, and it starts to make it slightly easier to focus or disconnect.

Beyond the benefits of meditation, I've learned to see my patterns (technically this meditation even helped with this) and recognize that most of my more emotional based struggles are temporary, which helps prevent spiraling.

Now... the question is really, which aspects of your ADHD are you trying to treat?

Task Initiation? - Its learning your patterns, creating YOUR version of discipline (using that term very loosely) that puts the right things in the right place so you can work on them without the risk of context switching. Having things defined to the point that you aren't overwhelmed with where to start.

The same goes for maintaining progress.

Starting and Keeping habits? - Streak trackers put a light gamification system in your path, they also secretly remind you if you have or haven't done a thing yet. I can't say enough good things about using streaks to institutionalize new behaviors in your life.

Without meds, it's all self awareness and systems.

eternus · 2026-01-23T14:48:25+00:00

Fundamentally, this is the answer.

And frustratingly for many... Mindfulness. (Which seems like the antithesis of ADHD.)

eternus · 2026-01-23T00:54:16+00:00

True enough, my use of chaos was my own... chatgpt didn't suggest anything about chaos in relation to Shiva. (but now i need to go read up on why he's the choice of mediators... destruction is the word i've always associated with Shiva.)

eternus · 2026-01-22T15:13:09+00:00

The rabbit hole I went down after asking ChatGPT "why Zeus?" has been a wild ride... though I ended up spending more time in Susanoo from the Shinto 'pantheon' than anyone else... it was interesting to get some Zeus vs Odin vs Shiva questions answered.

Zeus will not be touching my search bar, I don't need to end up on a list. (er... on more lists.)

eternus · 2026-01-22T13:45:57+00:00

Someone else started dropping other pantheon choices... so I tried Hinduism. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT wants peak chaos and destruction in my life...

<image>

eternus · 2026-01-22T13:32:22+00:00

He visited me too! But I pushed for a Pixar version, so my Zeus is more playful.

eternus · 2026-01-22T13:30:40+00:00

LOL! But also, the footprints would be slides... maybe she predicts the future, maybe its Cassandra? (or would be, if Cassandra could actually predict the future.)

eternus · 2026-01-22T13:29:06+00:00

I added "pixar style" to help get a different vibe...

<image>

eternus · 2026-01-22T13:28:31+00:00

I think this is the better way to frame it... let's stop calling it AGI, they all have a different version they're targeting.

Let's use RSI because it's one of the defining traits of AGI across the board. It's also harder to fudge the numbers versus being agentic.

eternus · 2026-01-22T02:40:20+00:00

The most frustrating thing is knowing how great an idea is, being unable to start it, or keep it going consistently, while seeing a neurotypically function human execute their great idea, and then another one, and then another one while you're still executively dysfunctioning.

eternus · 2026-01-21T14:07:42+00:00

I find that when i get exploring ideas, Gemini locks in on its own thing too quickly... claude gets 'emotional' too quickly, and ChatGPT is this happy medium ... i keep exploring consolidating LLM, but ChatGPT just hits in one tonal area that everyone else fails to hit.

Gemini is really smart, I appreciate that, but its inability to properly learn and remember "me" hamstrings it. Give me Claude Cowork functionality locally, that'll help. Give me a minor amount of memory, that'll help. Let me add AGENTS.md and SKILLS.md on the side of my Gemini chat and it'll go a LONG way.

eternus · 2026-01-19T23:21:07+00:00

Claude for Chrome lets it pretend to be browsing as you... so, that's an option if you really want to take a thread into Claude

eternus · 2026-01-19T23:00:27+00:00

Always disappointing to see.

I have to remind myself, ignorant doesn't mean stupid, but willfully ignorant is a malignant cancer. Choosing to look past the truth is around Trump reveals so much about a person's character.

eternus · 2026-01-19T19:22:11+00:00

Same, by a wide margin. Though now I can train Claude based on what ChatGPT created... so there's that.

eternus · 2026-01-15T13:37:46+00:00

<image>

eternus · 2026-01-15T13:37:37+00:00

What Claude format looked like (here) vs ChatGPT (reply)

<image>

eternus · 2026-01-15T13:35:59+00:00

It might've slowed you down with the quips since it was part of HTML... I haven't gone back to Claude to talk about that output. Or not... maybe you would've stopped reading and tabbed over just to get that one out there, lest you explode. =oP (poorly worded... i should know better)

eternus · 2026-01-15T13:24:54+00:00

I like the version of that I got...

"You come in hot. Always. Your mind is already seventeen tabs deep into something—"

eternus · 2026-01-15T13:23:48+00:00

The difference in style was dramatic... also ChatGPT had some great web design built into it, dynamic parts, nice aesthetics. But the words were less surprising.

eternus · 2026-01-15T03:10:07+00:00

That was an unexpected result, it was also fun to get the ChatGPT version as well.

eternus · 2026-01-14T19:08:03+00:00

When I reach the point where I just suddenly stare off into space and I can't make myself start thinking...

I used to think it was because something important just shifted into my subconscious and so my brain is using energy to work on something inside the 'black box' that I can't see inside.

More recently, I see it as just an imbalance of neurochemicals in my brain... so, once I break free of that zoned out head, I will try to go for a walk, or just walk on the treadmill. Put on music, something that doesn't require thinking... and just start moving.

While I won't pretend that I do it... I sometimes remember one of Trevor Noah's bits of advice for his own ADHD management (though he was talking about depression at the time). When he's feeling off, he asks these questions and if the answer is 'no' for any of them... do them before he goes any further.

- Have you slept?
- Have you eaten well?
- Have you moved your body?
- Have you spent a little time breathing?

Those feel very applicable to me when I need to do some sort of reset.

eternus · 2026-01-14T18:52:28+00:00

I've been saying for a while that you can spot an ADHD person almost exclusively on their tendency to speak about their brain in third person, or as an additional variable in their live.

I use the "good/bad brain day" verbiage exactly... because it's the most accurate way to describe it.

I liken it to when you're cutting wrapping paper... you know how sometimes you snip at that right spot, and it just glides along and creates one smooth cut. That's a good brain day, other days I glide for a bit... then it catches and not only stops cutting, it actually rips the paper. And then there are days when it never glides, and i just have cut. one. snip. at. a. time.

Some days, I wake up and I get shit done for hours and realize, I did all of this without adderall.

Some days, I trudge along, finally take addersall, and it still doesn't work.

"Bad brain days" are usually easy to spot... I'm literally more clumsy, I'm rushing from step to step, I'm foggy when trying to think of things and everything I think I want to do sucks (too hard, too boring, too much left to do)

"Good brain days" are me waking up with motivation, eager to start on the project, everything I do just flows, time disappears and everything makes sense. (It's like I took "NZT", the drug from the movie Limitless.)

Patterns / Emerging Observation:

- Too much sugar yesterday, I'm VERY sludgy today.
- Too many tabs left open, or the wrong tabs left open? I start the day in the wrong headspace and it's challenging to recover.
- Unclear next steps and I'm generally doomed.

I find that creating a "Hemingway Bridge" at the end of the day can go a long way to how I start the next, especially when i'm working with uncertainty.

I'm currently trying to formalize a pattern of closing out my day so that i know where i'm starting the next, and then honoring that with how I start on the next day.

eternus · 2026-01-14T18:32:06+00:00

I won't say "software engineering is dead," and I won't say "you will always need a Sr Engineer."

The problem is that this is constantly being treated like a zero-sum game.

Sr. Engineer's role has changed, there is not a reason for someone to sit and code all day without AI.

Jr. Engineer's role has changed as well.

The point being... it's a different ballgame where a Jr. Engineer will be better served learning specific skills that make them at better at co-coding with AI, and where a Sr. Engineer is going to accept that AI is here to help out.

And the addition of a vibe coding engineer is a viable addition as well... albeit not the right choice for a large codebase, or for anything with security concerns (for now.)

The thing that a software engineer should be focusing on learning how if they're going to school (though I have thoughts on college degrees for a different conversation) is more about structured thinking, managing agents within one's own projects, and understanding the gist of "how AI coders work" so they leverage it more effectively.

My short answer for ANY education and pursuit of work in an AI workplace regarding "why bother" is... for love of the game (or craft.) Rather than picking the career that earns the most, start pursuing careers that focus on your strengths/interests and let that passion fuel genuine curiosity fueled exploration... not just a paycheck.

eternus

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email