I've always had pretty severe ADD.
That's not a bad thing by any means. Learning about lots of different fields has given me a huge pool of knowledge and ideas to pull from. But what ADD does do is it kills my implementation. It is very difficult for me to sit down and implement any of the many ideas that I have.
Steve's approach, shutting the door to his cave, works for me sometimes. I think it's a good solution. The problem for me though is that I work in an office every day with a bunch of loud, friendly, sociable people. I tend to get very little done during my time there (ironic, huh?) as I am constantly pulled out of focus by small distractions and conversation around me.
I have after-hours access to the office, so I can stay late and continue to work, but after already being on the computer for eight hours during the day, it's not that much fun to stay on-line all night too and continue to more work on the computer.
Normally, I am very much against medication. I don't like the idea that people should look for answers outside of themselves. I think many drugs can cause negative, even violent behaviors. Disassociation is not the same as emotional well-being. The effects of coming off a dissociative drug can be
unpredictable, to say the least. I don't take any meds; the only time I have was when I took Ritalin for a brief time in college.
Speaking of taking Ritalin, that was a pretty interesting experience. I realized that focus is a constant trade-off. I also realized that I'm pretty lucky that my default setting is distraction.
For example, I got really great at solving complex calculus problems while taking Ritalin. In theory, I probably could have always solved them. But being in a classroom, even one where most of the people are being quiet, is very distracting to me. I would generally get so distracted that I would just skip the longest problems so I could watch the other students or look out a window.
Once I started taking Ritalin that changed. I would number crunch every last thing on the page. Then, and I had
never done this before, I would double check
all my work. I would redo every last equation to make sure it was exactly right.
That type of focus made me great at math. It also made me terrible at English.
Strong writing is all about flow. It's about carrying an idea through to a logical conclusion. When I would write a paper while taking Ritalin it would have no flow. Each sentence would be
perfect. In fact, read independently, each sentence would express it's very own perfectly unique concept, completely apart from the rest of the paper. You just wouldn't want to read a whole paragraph at once! Let alone ten pages of sentences that didn't interrelate.
I wouldn't even realize anything was wrong with my writing until the next morning, when the effects of the drug had wore off and I would re-read a paper.
Conversations are also a flow. Ritalin would sometimes gave me a slight stutter in conversations because I would over-focus on a thought before I could finish saying it.
The slogan should be: Ritalin! Great for math equations, but don't try writing English papers on it..
Drugs like Ritalin and Adderall are trade-offs. You're definitely giving up a part of yourself. Specifically, you're giving up the part of yourself that has an overwhelming curiosity and wonderment about life. You're trading it in for a very narrow, focused perspective for a few hours. And during that time, and because of that focus, you tend to get a lot done.
At this point, it's a trade-off I'm willing to try again.
Over the past two years I've tried very hard to stay focused on several long term projects I want to complete. I've broken them down into incremental steps. I've written schedules, I've said affirmations, I've visualized. And I've been moderately successful. But the spot where I constantly fail is staying on task when completing the to-do lists I have set for myself. Day to day distractions consistently take me out of focus.
Unlike Ritalin or Adderall, Provigil doesn't have amphetamine, so I suspect the effects will be a bit different. I'm pretty sure that my results will end up very similar to those posted in the
original link though. I'll keep you all posted.