I lost my job as an Amazon driver because my eyes move too much. They electronically track your eye movement and say it's unsafe to have me behind the wheel, despite the fact that I've never had an accident and no tickets in 20 years of driving. ADHD sucks. I'd go back to the warehouse but my scoliosis has done a number on my back.. life's so damn hard sometimes. Good luck, everybody. I hope we all make it.
1 month ago | 26
This would be amazing! I’ve never had a clinician that really accounted for tolerance levels, and hate that I’ve been pushed into a “one dosing guideline fits all” approach. :( A cursory glance shows it tracks eye movement, but I’d love to be able to tick off some other symptoms, like how often you’re late to something, or how much work you can do before you feel you need a break.
1 month ago | 4
I started a non-stimulant med a while ago and its affects are much more subtle than stimulants, to the point where I have trouble noticing in big ways if it's working, so a tool to track different things would be great.
1 month ago | 3
At my checkup last autumn my doctor asked me, when I had last taken a break from medication. I hadn't done so in a while because.. well.. life is hard without. In my Christmas break I had some pregnancy complications and was on bed rest for a few days. For two days I didn't take my medication and BOY WAS IT HARD... Even relaxing is hard without medication because my brain simply couldn't relax!! All I had to do was lay in bed for a few days and watch movies... It was so difficult to stay in bed because I got SO restless!! On day 3 I took my medication again and it was such a relief!! Finally I could actually relax and my brain wasn't constantly looking for stimulation. It was an eye opener for me (and also kinda nice to see that the medication actually works 😂😂 sometimes, especially in our day to day life, it's hard to "measure") (In the country I live in it's no longer advised to stop medication (methylphenidat) while pregnant due to the great results of recent studie
1 month ago | 15
Amazing timing - I just switched medication yesterday and my doctor wanted me to track my symptoms, so I've been googling and scratching my head, not sure how! I'll definitely give it a try!
1 month ago | 6
just convinced my parents to get me assessed!! wish me luck (sorry if unrelated but in general that sounds like an awesome tool regardless)
1 month ago | 50
Got an appointment on Monday already arranged, so perfect timing. Definitely going to bring this up! Thank you for keeping us updated.
1 month ago | 1
I just started a new med today! I'm going to bring this to my docs attention too
1 month ago | 5
Eye movement will reveal much about how the mind is working. Yes Please! This reminds me of a video we watched in Driver's Ed, where they had recorded from the perspective of a driver fitted with an eye movement tracker. The moving dot in the video represented where the driver was looking. It gave us an idea of how actively you have to pay attention to your surroundings. Some 30+ years later ... I still think about that video while I'm driving and looking at all the things that matter.
1 month ago | 2
I am totally onboard with this. Even though I know that the difference for me being off medication for over a year now is night and day. I'm a walking disaster. No worries, I'm seeing a clinician next week to get back on the right things. Carefully.
1 month ago | 2
I would think any potential measurable result would be a welcome addition! I feel like so much of the medication approach is throw it at the wall and see what sticks. I get why, but it's frustrating, too.
1 month ago | 11
Hope it helps, Brains. I don’t take any meds right now, but in times where I’m trying to build on my education or take on a job that requires focus, I’ll get reassessed, re-prescribed and probably need help stabilizing my moods, since those were the concerns last time.
1 month ago | 2
Hey there 👋 recently diagnosed with ADHD (after a lifetime of wondering why anxiety treatment alone wasn't cutting it) and always looking for more insight into optimizing my med regimen! I'm interested in trying this out but have a few questions for you: 1. Who has access to the data you collect from users? Are you sharing results with researchers outside of the iFocus team? Are the data you maintain/share fully anonymized or at least deidentified? 2. Is this something you anticipate seeking FDA clearance for? Curious which stage of development this is in. Thanks for any insight you can provide
1 month ago (edited) | 6
I'm going in for my assessment in April and this sounds like a type off test they are going to use for the diagnosis. It's an eye movement test on a computer and then I get medication and they repeat the test to see if it's the right medication/dose for me.
1 month ago | 4
Brilliant for children who can't articulate the difference.
1 month ago | 19
I'm not so sure, it would depend on how they track other things at the same time. How does this account for those with dyslexia?
1 month ago | 2
oh right, the eye movements.. ideally i would be more effective if something could actually look up my thought processes but yea, eyes might be enough. when i play chess it's so chaotic and ultimately a big chunk of intuition. It's enough for everyday competitive chess but i really think i can only become better if i get a better structure there. It's literally annoying to just jump in an erratic way through like 6 different objectives without a clear order and definition of done. but hey, while visualizing and calculating on a position i feel like i have less brain chatter, stuff just falls more into line, even though most of my thoughts become nonverbal then maybe i'll try it out, even though i had difficulties with texts/reading/understanding with like 14 or so today it's way easier, my brain became better at chunking if all fails, i still can do stuff paragraph by paragraph and make use of notes n stuff. happens very rarely though
1 month ago (edited) | 1
YESssss I just had a follow up appointment with my doctor about my Adderall. I told her I am not sure if I notice a difference except sometimes I get sleepy after taking it! This tool sounds super useful!!!
1 month ago | 1
How to ADHD
Hello, Brains!
Weeeeee’ve got a question for you!
Ever wish you could measure your progress with your meds so you could share it with your clinician? Or are you a clinician who wishes there was a decision-support tool that measures your patients’ progress in relation to their medication?
Why do we ask? Glad you asked!
iFocus is a tool being developed by ADHDers for ADHDers with the aid of leading clinicians and researchers — such as Dr. Parells, Dr. Sarah Cheyette, and Dr. Glen Elliot. It is a tool that tracks eye movement over a series of tests: 4 done without medication and 2 done with medication.
Research is still in the early stages, with the intent to do additional research studies in the future.
The tool is being developed with the intention of gaining an objective measure of on- and off-medication performance. Of course, this tool is still in development. As a patient, it should not be used to make your own decisions, but rather given to your clinician as an extra data point for them. Meanwhile, for you clinicians, this tool should not replace the current self-reporting process (in other words, it’s worth noting, but decisions shouldn’t be based heavily on the tool alone).
We’re sharing this with you, our community, so that you can try it out and so iFocus can see if there’s any interest for this tool to be developed further.
If you do try it out - iFocus would absolutely LOVE to hear your feedback!
Want to check out iFocus? You can check out their website here! >> ifocus.health
We’re excited to see new tools being developed and hope to see even more in the future!
<3 The How to ADHD Team
1 month ago | [YT] | 1,088