Adderall for focused practice?

[Tommy Grand]

I've found that adderall (amphetamine salt) is a great help in situations requiring intense focus. Does it work well for learning a piece of music?

[Charlie]

Tommy,

I've no idea never having used adderall. I can tell you than centering helps me focus. As an aid to centering, I practice square breathing, a technique I learned from practicing yoga. I also use this technique in my billiard game.
Why would anyone
think that a drug would give them what they can't accomplish by just being still?

Charlie

[Tommy Grand]

Would you suggest "being still" instead of glasses to address nearsightedness?

[dsi1]

On Friday, September 23, 2016 at 10:58:15 AM UTC-10, Tommy Grand wrote:
> I've found that adderall (amphetamine salt) is a great help in situations requiring intense focus. Does it work well for learning a piece of music?

The act of reading requires intense focus. I started playing again because I needed to divert my mind away from what was going on in my life. Stress had created a fire in my belly. By learning pieces, the fire cooled down and vanished. Perhaps reading is too easy for you. It is not for me - thank god. :)

[Matt Faunce]

You wouldn't bump into things. You still might with glasses.

--
Matt

[Charlie]

>
> Would you suggest "being still" instead of glasses to address nearsightedness?

No, I wouldn't. Would you suggest a drug for nearsightedness?

Meditation is a good way to deal with lack of focus. Square breathing gets the mind into a meditative mode.

I recommend you try it instead of the american mindset of take a drug and it will cure whatever ails you.

Focus takes discipline. Meditation is a very easy type of discipline.

Try it and let me (us) know how it works for you. :-)

Charlie

[Matt Faunce]

Tommy Grand <howar...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've found that adderall (amphetamine salt) is a great help in situations
> requiring intense focus. Does it work well for learning a piece of music?
>

When I moved from Chicago to Flagstaff I quickly realized that my
concentration problems had been largely due to the inadequate sleep I was
getting in that noisy city. Ambien might be the better drug for ya.

--
Matt

[Steven Bornfeld]

On 9/23/2016 4:58 PM, Tommy Grand wrote:
> I've found that adderall (amphetamine salt) is a great help in situations requiring intense focus. Does it work well for learning a piece of music?
>

Adderall and other amphetamines have a paradoxical effect in people with
ADA/ADHD. It would keep you awake, that's for sure. But it is NOT
supposed to help focus in people without ADA/ADHD. There may be
individuals who do not fit the profile, but that's the conventional wisdom.

Steve

[Tommy Grand]

It sure has helped me a lot. I've been doing some research on numerical solutions to inverse Laplace transforms, which is a hard problem for me. Prior to Adderall I would rather quickly grow discouraged with the seemingly endless complexity. Now i stay up all night plugging away.

[dsi1]

Speed - it's not just for long-distance truckers anymore. Well alright.

[Andrew Schulman]

You needed solutions to inverse Laplace transforms? Why didn't you just ask me? You could have saved the money you spent on the Adderall.

Andrew

[Tommy Grand]

My old man tells me they used to use liquid speed over in Vietnam to stay awake on watch. Some kind of product called Obesotol, with a picture of a fat broad on it.

[Steve Freides]

There are a lot of people - OK, a lot of us - who have ADD but are
undiagnosed because we're old enough to have missed the medical
profession discovering this. That's not necessarily a bad thing, btw,
but that's another discussion entirely.

Tommy, welcome to the club?

-S-

[Tommy Grand]

Steve have you tried amphetamines?

[dsi1]

I'm pretty sure that speed won't help me in learning a piece although it might make me play better or at least think that I play better. I'd settle for either one. :)

The Koreans are hooked on crystal meth. It probably helps them survive in North Korea. For the South, it probably helps them rack up huge scores in video games, which they are also addicted to. The stuff is getting popular in China too. Breaking Bad indeed.

[Tommy Grand]

You should try it. It helps you concentrate, not give up, and come up with creative solutions. No kidding. Consider how Bob Dylan's albums were excellent during his amphetamine period then went to total dogshit when he quit.

[Matt Faunce]

Are amphetamines all he was taking? You might need a little somethin' more
to help you with those Laplace transforms. I know I would.

--
Matt

[dsi1]

I won't try it. I got my mind set up just the way I want it. It's like finding the perfect setup for your guitar. Speed would be like throwing on an extra string. I spent the last 15 years getting my mind to quiet down so that's a pretty ridiculous proposition - for me.

[wollybird]

On Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 1:55:57 PM UTC-5, Tommy Grand wrote:
> My old man tells me they used to use liquid speed over in Vietnam to stay awake on watch. Some kind of product called Obesotol, with a picture of a fat broad on it.

That was Obeseitol.
Adderall has a different effect on non AAD people than ADD afflicted people. It's a cocktail of amphetamines, and not the gnarly type we had in the 60's.
It will help you to stay up all night to practice, if that's what you want. I doubt it will affect concentration much.

[Steve Freides]

Tommy Grand wrote:
> Steve have you tried amphetamines?

No, I've never tried any medicine, approved or otherwise, for ADD - I
function quite well, and one of the aspects of this - for me, anyway -
is that my concentration is and always has been superb. My problem,
such as it is, is the inability to focus half-way on something. I
practice well. E.g., when I was a student, I never took notes, never
studied, and always did well in school. I was always intensely focused
on what was going on and, to this day, still don't know how to study for
anything - I either I know something or I learn something and then I
know it, or I decide not to pursue it - there's no middle ground for me.

-S-

[Steve Freides]

I am completely with you on this one - meditation is good for what ails
all of us, ADD and otherwise.

-S-

[Steve Freides]

I can't bear to listen to him sing, sorry. I think he's a wonderful
poet, though.

-S-

[Learnwell]

On Monday, September 26, 2016 at 10:46:03 AM UTC-7, wollybird wrote:
> On Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 1:55:57 PM UTC-5, Tommy Grand wrote:
> > My old man tells me they used to use liquid speed over in Vietnam to stay awake on watch. Some kind of product called Obesotol, with a picture of a fat broad on it.
>
> That was Obeseitol.

Would that make you obese at all?

[dsi1]

My brother-in-laws picked him up hitchhiking and gave him a ride to his home in Pittsburg. He told them he was a singer and sang for them. My brother-in-laws thought it was awful. They didn't believe that he could be a singer and when they got to his house, he showed them his new record with his picture on the cover. By that time, they didn't give a crap if he was a singer or not. :)

[Charlie]

> I am completely with you on this one - meditation is good for what ails
> all of us, ADD and otherwise.
>
> -S-

Steve,

Meditation is, in fact, amazing. I have been practicing yoga for 8 / 9 years now and have learned at one point that, while doing yoga, I was neither aware of external input nor was I aware of internal input: I simply was. I could induce this state of 'just being', if I wasn't in fact actually doing yoga at the time, by practicing the yoga technique of square breathing. In stressful situations - dealing with an idiot, competing at the pool table, performing on the guitar etc. etc., square breathing centered me. I became aware of me, neither internal nor external input: I simply was.

Anyhow, yes, meditation is amazing...no drug needed. And I do enjoy a good pint buzz now and again.

Charlie

[David Raleigh Arnold]

What if you change your mind about how you want to
play it? If it works, you're SOL. Regards, Rale

[wollybird]

if you take it with adderall

[wollybird]

so long as you like presto, it's all good

[I. M. Rowin]

"Tommy Grand" wrote in message
news:45424dfd-2314-4a00...@googlegroups.com...

"I've found that adderall (amphetamine salt) is a great help in situations
requiring intense focus. Does it work well for learning a piece of music?"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/adhd-drugs-no-help-homework-211247405.html?ref=gs

I.M.

[mrma...@gmail.com]

I got some meditation goggles recently. They're opaque and they blast little colored light beams into your eyeballs while you listen to some kind of music that's synchronized to the light show. Only used them once so far.

[Tommy Grand]

Dang

[dsi1]

Obviously, this piece was written by and for people that have an agenda i.e., they were totally not addicted to Adderall.

[dsi1]

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 7:41:28 PM UTC-10, mrma...@gmail.com wrote:
> I got some meditation goggles recently. They're opaque and they blast little colored light beams into your eyeballs while you listen to some kind of music that's synchronized to the light show. Only used them once so far.

VR Goggles are going to change everything. You can be in some rat-hole of a room and experience laying on some tropical beach on a balmy night. Why go to a movie when you can put on headgear and have a widescreen experience? The number of hikikomori will explode. Headgear might replace cell phones. Things are gonna get interesting.

[John Nguyen]

VR somehow didn't work well for me. I got dizzy, kinda light-headedness, very quickly. My mind must be trying hard to make sense of all the action while my body is at a standstill. Weird. But I did fine in a 3-D flying simulator with all the real rolls, yaws, and pitches. Go figure!

[dsi1]

I get carsick playing video games so it's definitely a clear and present danger - for me.

[Steve Freides]

Is that the stuff with basil and pine nuts? It's _yummy_.

-S-

[wollybird]

pesto unless you mean Jimmy Pesto

[dsi1]

Absolutely not. That's "pesto." He's obviously talking about the American company that makes small appliances. They're most known for their line of pressure cookers and waffle irons. Since nobody cares about pressure cookers, he must be referring to waffle irons or waffles. Who the hell doesn't like waffles? I'd kill for one right now.

[wollybird]

terrorists like pressure cookers

[dsi1]

We have a terrorist in our midst? This explains a lot. :)

[Curmudgeon]

Or the magical incantation "pesto-change-o"