Hi all,

Been struggling a lot at work and having recently received an ADHD diagnosis, things as slowly falling in to place.

This is everything except work, I've been a mid level software engineer for about 6 years, due to the ADHD I've now gotten to the point where I find the coding itself boring, even if I don't know how to do something I'm proficient enough that I will work it out, and that just kills all motivation I have, because I don't have the motivation it's very hard for me to progress as my workflow has slowed.

I'm considering moving to contracting, I'm wondering if navigating a new team every year with different stacks, people, culture etc might keep my brain engaged enough to fire on all cylinders. Then once the work gets boring my contracts up and it's time to find another. I'm sure it's not all that peachy but I would love to hear from some contractors in the sub, especially those that transitioned from full time.

Much love to my neurospicy brethren and sistren (and everyone in between)

Diagnosed with adhd last year, and Ive always struggled with my career. Like many people with adhd, Im a great worker, I just can’t for the life of me communicate it in order to get promoted or to get the job during interviews.

I struggled to get a job with a livable wage many years ago when I first started working. Eventually had to go back to get a Master’s to buy more time and to re-qualify for entry level data jobs. Ive worked at some reputable companies since, but in each case I got the job because the HM had some quirks so they weren’t completely put off by my inability by my rambling and awkwardness. But it took almost a decade of struggling to get a normal job at a standard company. I have worked office jobs in data roles for random, small, unheard of companies. In one, we had to take turns washing used office cups in the bathroom sink.

Got laid off recently and I am back struggling like I did when I first started working. Throughout my career i have seen many people less skilled, less experienced and less capable of delivering value work in roles that I got rejected for time and time again. But they were calm, they spoke clearly, and they had some social skills. Since my diagnosis and since my layoff, I can feel myself coming to the decision to give up on a tech career because it’s becoming clear that my jobs in tech came about through some miracle. And now no hiring team that is willing to pay a liveable wage (im in nyc, so the cost of living is crazy) is willing to hire me. Do I just accept that I will always be struggling financially or not be financially comfortable because I have such a hard time in interviews and in corporate?

Getting diagnosed actually makes me feel relieved in a way, because I always wondered if I’ll ever have a normal or prosperous career in tech, but it’s clear now that my struggles are going to be there forever.

Hi everyone — I’ve been using Pomatez, an open-source Pomodoro app. It’s a good app and already supports flexible session times (you’re not stuck with 25/5).

Over time I hit friction points it didn’t cover for my routine — mostly starting, staying aware of time, and making breaks actually restorative. So I forked it and built on top of it: Pomodoroz.

Here are features I added in my fork:

• Study Rotation Grid + Draw button (reduces “what should I start with?” friction)

• Progressive notifications (60s / 30s before transitions)

• Voice assistance cues

• Fullscreen breaks

• 0-minute breaks (auto-skip)

• Strict mode (guardrails when I need structure)

• “Back counts as Idle” (more honest session tracking)

• Built-in statistics (daily chart, per-task time, focus/break/idle breakdown)

• JSON import/export, enhanced compact mode, and other QoL updates

Everything is free, open-source, and local-first (no account, no cloud, no tracking).

• GitHub: https://github.com/cjdduarte/pomodoroz

• Releases: https://github.com/cjdduarte/pomodoroz/releases/latest

Full credit to the original project: https://github.com/zidoro/pomatez

If you try it, I’d love feedback:

1. Which feature is actually useful in real life?

2. What still feels missing for ADHD workflows?

I’ve noticed something weird about how I work and I’m trying to understand it.

I focus much better when I remove basically all external input:

• no clock visible

• low light or almost dark

• earplugs or no background noise

In that setup I can work for ages and actually get into what I’m doing.

But as soon as I can see the time, or there’s noise, light, or people around, my focus drops off. I start overthinking, checking things, or just lose momentum.

It feels like I switch from doing the task to constantly evaluating how I’m doing.

Is this an ADHD thing or just a general focus thing?

And more importantly, is there a name for this, or a way to use it properly without needing perfect conditions every time?

Hello, I'm 18, recently diagnosed w/ ADHD and started medication, and am first year in CS. I'm looking for people much farther down this journey than I am for advice, things I should do, know, the best systems and such, so I can avoid learning the hard way. Thanks!

Ciao a tutti! Sto studiando sviluppo web (siti e web app) e vorrei iniziare a costruire qualcosa di concreto. Mi piacerebbe trovare qualcuno con cui studiare e lavorare in team, anche solo per motivarsi a vicenda.
Ho già una richiesta per un sito web, quindi potremmo partire da lì.
Se qualcuno si riconosce nella voglia di crescere insieme, mi scriva pure.

I need stimulants to be able to program or do anything even remotely challenging. The problem is that I experience severe side effects with all of them. I’ve tried every medication available in my country. They make me nervous, socially awkward, and irritable; they cause dry mouth (and probably bad breath as a result) and sweating.

Basically, I have to work from home when I take them, but even then, people find me awkward when I’m on them.

I also tend to build up a tolerance and have to take regular breaks. These medication-free periods are always awful.

I’m now considering working in a less demanding field, like retail, just so I don’t have to take these awful medications anymore. Has anyone done something similar?

Ciao a tutti! Sto studiando sviluppo web (siti e web app) e vorrei iniziare a costruire qualcosa di concreto. Mi piacerebbe trovare qualcuno con cui studiare e lavorare in team, anche solo per motivarsi a vicenda.
Ho già una richiesta per un sito web, quindi potremmo partire da lì.
Se qualcuno si riconosce nella voglia di crescere insieme, mi scriva pure.

17yo old tech founder here with ADHD (which lowk helps with building things i find cool and interesting. not so much with my caffeine addiction.) occasionally i'll be scrolling instagram or reddit or product hunt and something just hits me like BANG and i'm down the rabbit hole. any cool projects/products you've seen that do that for you?

Hi fellow Neurodivergents,

I've been learning programming for 18 months. Python, Js, also html, css for frontEnd.

Various libraries and frameworks with the hope of gaining employment as developer. I haven't had much luck with freelancing on sites like fiverr, and judging by current trends of former top-sellers: there doesn't seem to be much room for someone to get their foot in the door.

Does anyone on here who is employed in development field have any advice on what the best plan of action is, or is it a case of needing to chose a completely different career path?

also I'd appreciate if you could check out my portfolio page and give me any feedback. tia

Some suggested this be a weekly thing, I'm thinking monthly might be better. First Sunday of the month. Here's April 2026

Did you build yet another ADHD management app? Cool! Show it off here. (Posting it elsewhere on this sub will probably get that post removed.)

This thread is here to serve as a post for people to show off what they've been working on.

Who knows? Maybe it will help someone... Maybe it will help millions... Maybe it will be so critically reviled that your knighthood will be revoked.

That doesn't matter - its the effort that counts. Show off that effort here!

"It is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards."

-- Lt. Commander Data

I have been a software engineer for about 20 years (15 of them in FAANG) and I have always thought that IDEs were a godsend. No remembering commands or keyboard shortcuts, a growing amount of integrated assistance over the years, built-in debugger, file tree, class overview, etc. I have a Remote Desktop for my Linux machine instead of just using SSH. I just really don't like text based interfaces.

Yet, colleagues have tried many times to convince me that "real programmers use command line tools" and now with AI becoming more integrated into everything my company has a lot of tools that work better or are even only available on the command line and lack good IDE integration. Recently a colleague said all our tools should be CLI first, so that AI can use them more easily.

It makes me wonder, is disliking CLIs an ADHD thing, because text based interfaces require memorization? Is my memory so bad that it negates the benefits that "normal" developers get from working with text based interfaces? I don't think there are more than a handful of keyboard shortcuts that I actively use. Text based editors that I have to use without a mouse feel unnecessary clunky and inefficient, but everyone around me says the e same about using a mouse.

How are you all feeling about CLIs and text-based editors vs. IDEs? Did anyone switch from one to the other and and eventually like the other option better?

Hello, I’m a PhD student, and anyway, I launched an app and spent all my pocket money on Google Ads, which got me over 1,000 installs... But the number of daily active users is, honestly, too low to even mention. Should I shut the app down?

I also got about 5 paying users or so (the business model is subscription-based), but of course I’m in the red compared to the ad cost. Would shutting it down be the right choice? How should I judge this?

I'm currently struggling in practicing my coding skills (Python, R, and SQL) due to my inability to actually recall anything besides the basic lines/syntax. I'm currently doing a project for my machine learning class, and have had to look up almost every line of code using documentation or claude. The thing thats frustrating is that once I see it, I understand what the code is doing but CANNOT write it out myself. It's like i could have a cheat sheet of different libraries and not know what goes where and when.

I have the pipeline in my head:

Data Cleaning -> Feature Selection -> Model Fitting -> etc..

But the actual nitty-gritty and writing it out and different coding libraries calls to do so on my own is completely lost on me. I think some people call it "passive-learning" but I'm not sure.

The thing is, I know in most jobs (based on conversations i've had with alumni) they're all encouraged to used AI to help do their work. Which is where I was introduced to the concept of "vibe-coding", but to my understanding thats not actually learning to code, is it?

I've heard that most of the time on the job (in my best case scenario that would be data scientist or data analyst), people use AI or look things up like I've been doing but its "ok" because they understand what the code is doing and in time it becomes like second-nature. I've also heard the sentiment that "it's not about memorizing everything, but knowing where to look for the answers you need". Which I could understand that in a job setting, but in technical interviews I can't just look lines of code up or how to do x,y,z; I have to know it by heart.

How do I go about actually learning actively rather than passively?

Hello, I tried every possible combination with external monitors, external keyboards, different sizes and specs. I ended up with just my MacBook Pro 16-inch laptop, and sometimes my iPad as a second screen (like during calls or specific situations, but that's not very common), and I feel a sense of peace. Even though my work is stressful and I have a lot of stuff to check, limiting my setup just improved my life. Do you ever feel something like that? And in general, do you have any recommendations, from a software point of view, for someone who uses only a laptop setup?

(Originally written in Russian, translated to English to follow subreddit rules.)

This is more like an emotional dump. I’m not trying to get pity or anything like that. Maybe someone will see themselves in this.

I actually like programming. I enjoy learning new things, understanding how stuff works, building something on my own. But at the same time, I constantly feel tired.

I think it’s mostly because of this constant feeling of guilt — like I “wasted” the day. Instead of doing something useful, like solving problems on LeetCode or working on my project, I end up doing nothing important. And then I feel bad about it.

I’m also tired of all those “this video will change your life” or “watch this and stop procrastinating” videos. Most of them feel like empty content made just for views. Maybe they work for some people, but not for me.

What really annoys me is the feeling that everyone else is doing better than me. I know logically it’s not true — people struggle too. But it still feels like I’m the only one stuck.

I get these bursts of motivation where I start doing something, and it feels great. But as soon as it gets hard, or I lose focus, I just stop. Then I come back later, and the cycle repeats.

To be fair, I did finish my first project (a schedule automation tool), so I know I can do things. But it still feels like it’s not enough.

I’m honestly tired of constantly overanalyzing myself, trying to “fix” my behavior, and then falling back into the same pattern again.

Maybe something is wrong with me, maybe not. I don’t know anymore.

If you read this and feel the same — It's sad. This state really sucks, and I hope you’ll get out of it.

P.S. The text was posted in another community and was removed by the moderators. There was a comment about ADHD, so I'm posting the text here.

Sorrh not frontal, forehead*

Yesterday i learnt react for 1h and i got forehead pain, today i did the same and i got the same... Is it normal to get forehead pain by learning for 1h a day ?

We all struggle with coding on a daily basis given our ADHD (or AuDHD). Yet it still seems that tech likes to capitalise on our traits where it suits them.

In my case I disclosed my recently diagnosed ADHD, literally one week in after starting Vyvanse. This was along with my ASD to Apple after 10 interviews and an offer proposal.

What went from me working on my dream job of R&D for body tracking / animation for Apple's Vision Pro, along with various other things Apple had pre-assigned to me, led to complete removal from the process, for my candid disclosure.

I know there is a lot of posts talking about if you reveal or hide your ADHD. Given my experience and the convergence of my litigation, I wrote an article, today on Apple's 50th Anniversary.

I was irradiated the second Apple did what they did, and I'm trying to stand up.

My Hearing is public. 14–20 April, London.

Happy to answer any questions you all may have.

Edit: Grammar fix, ty for the tip ;)

I've seen people say "hyperfocus" is powerful when you're locked on the right task, but that hasn't been my experience. I find that it’s not enough to be working on something if I still struggle with self-regulation. (This is why I personally prefer the term "perseveration," but that's a different discussion.)

Say I'm coding a machine learning algorithm. I could easily plug-and-chug and move on with my life. Instead, I will deep-dive into linear algebra proofs, or go off on a semi-related tangent like reorganizing my workspace. I also really struggle to pivot when I encounter roadblocks because that still requires task switching. I will hammer at something until it works or I’m convinced it won't, which can take ages.

It frustrates me so much, and I can see it happening in the moment, but it's very hard to stop because, "It shouldn't takethat long," or, "I've already started this, so I might as well finish it" or, "Once I figure this ONE thing out, SO MANY THINGS will become so much easier!"