I have been using methylphenidate (MPH) for a while now. Looking back at my experience thus far with this drug, it struck me that there is a very good illustration of its effect: In essence, MPH facilitates a state similar to the well-known flow state, except that the threshold for stimulation is lower. I will describe this effect and my perception. The comparison with flow is not quite accurate as the effect of MPH I am describing is more of a superset of the flow state.
“Flow” is a psychological concept according to which you are so engrossed by whatever you do that you forget the world around you. Instead, you fully focus on the task at hand. A prerequisite is that you are given an optimal amount of challenge and stimulation. If the task is too easy, it is not engaging but if the task is too difficult, you get frustrated and may lose interest quickly, preventing you from entering a flow state. Also, there needs to be some amount of intellectual stimulation. Again, it should be neither too much nor too little in order to enter and maintain a prolonged flow state, albeit Zen monks who spend hours sweeping the grounds from left to right and right to left may disagree here.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most people experience “flow” in the context of playing video games. This is often the case whenever you spend a lot more time playing some game than you intended. However, time is a necessary condition for flow, not a sufficient one. I recall that I binged on GTA V, playing until the early morning hours. I was not in a flow state but simply wanted to progress the story. There were also times when I just wanted to plow through a less interesting part, hoping for the game to pick up again. I also was aware that I was staying up much longer than I perhaps should. In contrast, if you experience flow while playing a video game you close down your computer, only to be surprised by how late it already is.
I experience flow quite regularly. If you work on an interesting problem, you easily enter this state. Mainly it happens a lot for me when I write, but I have also had it happen during gardening or tidying up the house. With videogames it happens a lot less. I find modern games sedative more than anything, but there are a few classic games where I can easily get in the zone, as “flow” is also referred to more colloquially. Even without MPH, I think that my level of productivity is very high. Quite certainly, I have written more than the vast majority of people in the world, and I am also quite certain that I have written more than a lot of professional writers. In fact, I know guys in real life who LARP as authors but whose lifetime output is below the output of a few months for me, and I have more readers, too. I should perhaps remind you that writing is a hobby for me, not my main occupation. Obviously, quantity is not quality, but a lack of quantity does not necessarily imply that the quality is high. Nobody cares about poetry or short stories published in obscure literary journals.
When I write, I tend to enter a flow state when I work on a longer piece. This is without MPH. With MPH, I enter a state similar to flow more or less regardless of the level of intellectual stimulation or difficulty of a task. Anything I want to do is suddenly engrossing. This morning, I worked on a list of films I have watched, which is perhaps superfluous and probably not very meaningful, but it is meaningful to me. I sat down, worked on this for about ninety minutes, and then did something else. This is a pretty mundane tasks, yet on MPH it is straightforward. Household chores are also very straightforward on MPH. You just do what you want to do, and do it. In the past, I sometimes put on a podcast when doing household chores but the end result is that you spend more time this way, while not paying full attention the podcast either.
There is also an effect I think is best described as time expansion. Assume that in an MPH-induced flow-like state you productively work on a task. When you check the time, you realize that said task would have taken a lot longer without MPH. In fact, you just completed in half the time. My frame of reference is my productivity without MPH, and I have a good understanding of how long something should take. However, with MPH I often think that a task I just finished took a lot longer than it actually did, not because I was bored, which was not at all the case, but because I look at the output and have a good sense of how long this would normally take. Earlier today I published an article with 2,300 words, which took somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes, including a revision. However, when I checked the time, I felt that about three hours should have passed as that would be a more adequate amount of time, and compared to most people even that would be really fast. Perhaps do not take this too literally, but I certainly have the impression that an hour on MPH leads to an extra 30 to 45 minutes of productivity. With flow, I did not have this experience.
An entire day on MPH feels very long in hindsight, in the best possible way. Sometimes, I sit back in the evening, reviewing what I have done so far, and I am quite surprised. I even sometimes have the paradoxical impression that something I had done in the morning feels as if I had done it the day before already. I remember it as having happened much longer ago as the perception of time is stretched. Similarly, I often get up in the evening, thinking that it must surely be time for bed, and I wonder why I am not tired. Then I realize that is is only 8 p.m. As it currently gets dark early here, this deception is probably easier to fall into. I wonder how my perception will change once the sun sets much later again. The perception with regards to weekdays is similar, too. Today is January 4, and to me the first of January feels as if it is over a week away. My time perception in terms of the calendar is, in fact, a bit messed up at the moment. Today, for instance, I thought back to something I had done on January 1. Then I recalled that there was some other task I had to finish by January 15 and my first thought was that it is about time that I do it, not realizing that it is only January 4 today.
Did you go too a doctor and claim ADHD too get this drug? I have worked with Adderal addicts and found them too be highly unpleasant.
Yes, I went to a psychiatrist. He also assessed whether I have an addictive personality type. The verdict was that this was not at all the case with me. I have met people on ADHD medication, which I found difficult to deal with, primarily due to their inability to shut up.
On another note, I have heard that weigh lifters use bonner pills because it makes them less sore and improves blood flow. I wonder if the would get similar effects from doing running before hand or sitting in a sauna?
The effect of extensive cardio or a sauna visit before an intensive workout is probably counterproductive. In particular after having sat in a sauna, you will be inclined to lie on a lounger rather than hit the gym. In one of my previous jobs I had to do a bit of business travel and to sweeten the deal, they put me up in pretty decent hotels, i.e. four-star hotels. My favorite perk was the sauna. It was a great way to end the day.
“I have heard that weigh lifters use bonner pills because it makes them less sore and improves blood flow.”
Isn’t this what warm up exercises are for? Granted, a lot of people warm up like idiots.
But yeah, exhausting oneself with hard cardio before a weight workout is counterproductive. Ideally, you want your weight training and cardio sessions as far away from each other as possible to avoid/minimize the interference effect.
But if separation of sessions isn’t practical (I miss being able to walk to the gym…), doing weights first before cardio is likely the most beneficial route for the casual trainee.
One of the supposed perks of living in 3rd world countries is that you shouldn’t have much trouble getting prescription-only (in developed countries) drugs over the counter. Well, the two drugstores where I’ve asked about Ritalin tell me they require prescription (and both were out of it, so I didn’t have the option of pushing the matter). One of those was in the tourist town where I’m stationed at for work, where lots of gringos and euros come to do drugs guilt-free and stuff; apparently methylphenidate isn’t recreational enough, hah.
I guess I’ll have to go spend money on some shrink and see if he can diagnose me with ADHD. I liked it better when it was without the H, because no one who knows me has ever accused me of being hyperactive.
I also do not like the hyperactive component of the diagnosis. For some reason, ADD was simply folded into the ADHD diagnosis. I had to do assessments regarding hyperactivity as well, even though there was no indication at all this this would apply to me. Unsurprisingly, I scored zero on them. I wonder if that is one of the reasons for ADD no longer being a separate category. After all, if you are a psychiatrist and diagnose a patient for ADHD nowadays, instead of just ADD, you can charge for the extra tests even though they are not necessary.
@Aaron: I’ve never had an appointment with a psychologist/psychiatrist. I tried to fuck a psychology student once, that’s as close as I ever got. Unsurprisingly, they make a case study out of every interaction they have with the opposite sex, hence I now don’t bother with them. But I digress.
I guess my best bet here would be the slightly autistic angle instead of the hyperactivity, which is how I imagine you got the prescription. I attended an online course last year (fist time in my life I tried to juggle work and study at the same time) and definitely could’ve used some MPH. I’m of the opinion that I definitely have some ADD, without the H.
I have a hard time trying to focus but, when I force myself to do it for enough time, I tend to obsess with finishing the task even if I know a little rest would be more productive in the long run (here we colloquially call it “enllavarse”, i.e. to get “locked up” in the mind). I imagine this state is like flow’s evil twin, and it can’t be the healthy way to approach a task. This and the other autistic traits I’ve talked about before make me think I could get the diagnosis and the MPH.
I am not too dissimilar to you in this regard. You are right, I went to see a psychiatrist in order to clarify whether I am on the autism spectrum, Asperger’s to be more precise. However, because Hans Asperger was apparently an evil nazi, Asperger’s syndrome and autism were recently folded into one disorder, i.e. autism spectrum disorder, of which Asperger’s syndrome is the mildest form. A term that is used nowadays is “highly-functional autism”. In the course of assessing whether this applies to me, my psychiatrist checked all relevant comorbidities, and ADHD is among the most common ones.
My theory is, if you are considered “sick” in an unhealthy society, maybe you aren’t the one with the problem.
I guess the correct term is “maladjusted.”
“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society” -Jiddu Krishnamurti
Its a quote I first heard from one of the most insightful people I’ve ever met in the past. Wherever he is now, I hope he is living his best.
Aaron’s written before that one of the traits we men have that is both a strength AND a weakness is our adaptability. Aaron called it “Living in Shit Tier” if I recall correctly.
I put up with a whole lot of crap in my youth, that I put up with only because my higher ups managed to gaslight little goody two shoes me into believing that this is just the way things are supposed to be done. Only to later on learn that there are societies (Finland and Netherland’s much better education system and schooling environment/culture just for example..) that thrive at a much higher level than us, who don’t put up with such bullshit practices and procedures.
Maybe the boys that act up in school aren’t actually the problem. Its the schooling system that tries to turn them into feminized obedient drones at the expense of their creativity and potential to create innovation or even lead society to better pastures.