I'm trying it now. Other than making my heart jump out of my chest occasionally I don't really understand what it does. It doesn't seem to actually _do_ anything for or to me. I understand that happens to about 20% of people, so I'm just going to try work my way through the available options to see if anything works.

Used to self-medicate with copious amounts of coke, pepsi and red bull and fast food. Bit of a mixed bag that.

Actually on the subject of secrets and coke, I stole like 200 cans of it from a place that used the honor system. I needed my fix and couldn't stop myself from doing it. Always confused me why I behaved that way and why I couldn't stop. When I got diagnosed a lot of things like that just started to make sense.

I was given medication as a kid and this was my experience as well, I’m personally not convinced it helps.

What does help me quite a lot (ordered by effectiveness):

Regular daily exercise (this one is surprisingly effective)

Avoiding certain foods (sugar, red dye)

Having at least some moderately mindful side project (building kits, reconfiguring your wm, working on OSS etc.) I play ukulele, but I would call noodling mindless so be careful with that

Avoiding mindless stuff like YouTube/reddit/HN (heh)

Getting dragged off to actually go do things by eg your girlfriend (I feel bad because I’m usually upset at her when she does this, but I’ve told her many times that it does actually help me, that must be confusing.)

IMO: if you let yourself be impulsive it puts you in an impulsive mood and makes giving in easier, I’m not saying this stuff is perfect but it’s the best I’ve found.

Interesting! Different things work for different people.

Though having said that, exercise and good sleep hygiene are almost universal panaceas for almost any mental or physical problem one might have.

They might not cure you, but they sure help make almost anything at least slightly easier to bear.

I only got diagnosed with ADHD at age 30, and was already doing exercise etc. Some low dose medication really helped me. Including giving me the mental spare capacity to tick off more of the other items on your list.

Interesting. For me, nicotine (and methylphenidate) work quite well, and it's caffeine that just makes me jumpy without actually helping me.

I was about writing that I have tried medication and for me it doesn't help against that, but this was some seriously interesting reading!

There's lots of great material on Gwern's site!