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ADDessories, accessories for ADD ADHD

Unseen Shiny Things

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I’ve been working with some data regarding various mental health things and trauma. (Think big data, not understanding therapy.) It seems that many people with an alternative neural structure get triggered into their various less than optimal status by external events. Something like panic attacks is the quintessential example. Most panic attacks are triggered by an external stimulus.

That may not sound out there at all, but what if many other mental states are triggered, or even partially triggered by external events? Those of us with ADHD talk about losing our focus or being distracted. These are obviously external events, but what about the ones that aren’t so obvious?

Distracted by Distraction

There have been many studies showing that depression and ADHD are common comorbid conditions. Yours truly probably falls into that bucket. Now, depression we are taught is a continuous state, possibly caused not by stimulus but by brain chemistry. It seems that our brains have a tendency to produce low amounts of serotonin or produce excessive amounts of the chemicals that clean serotonin from the body. Either one results in less serotonin than optimal. This condition may cause depression.

But the brain is nothing if not a reactive beast constantly inundated with so many signals and stimuli that it must frequently block or discard them entirely to function properly. For example, as you sit there, what does your shirt feel like on your back?

If you are like many people, it feels like nothing, and yet the fabric of your shirt is touching your back, and you know that your back can and does feel things. So, how do you explain that your shirt feels like nothing until you bring your attention to it?

Which brings me to my points. First, could ADHD periods of distraction be caused by not properly excluding outside stimuli. Do I, as an adult with ADHD, receive and react to more stimuli about, say the update icon on my WordPress editor, than I should. Should my brain be throwing that away as irrelevant as the feel of the shirt on my back, when instead it draws my eye and my attention and throws me off of my work cataloging cool day trips from Denver for a future project?

Second, if depression is an ongoing constant depleting normal levels of serotonin, could the triggering of ADHD actually be that there is too little serotonin to please the brain about external stimuli, and so, that update icon shoots through where a serotonin pool should have stopped it with a nano-sized splash and bounces instead into my brain where it demands processing?

serotonin adhd

None of this is scientifically backed. I’ve been sloshing through what may or may not be useful data that in some cases includes various mental health factors. Without math, we see what we want to see, and I see a lot in the data that is not only not causation, but not even correlation.

There. I have typed. My brain should be mine again for at least a while.

Happy Election Day to you who are fellow Americans.

Psst

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Is ADHD a Superpower?

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If everyone has a superpower, is ADHD my superpower? – Boy, people in America sure don’t like to admit that there might be something wrong, or at least non-standard with themselves. No matter what you have going on in your life physically, emotionally, or mentally, there is a certain segment of society waiting to tell you that it’s all good. You are fine, always have been, always will be.

ADHD Is a Superpower

There is a scene in Top Gun (original, not Maverick) where fighter pilot and training school commander Viper tells Maverick, who was just in a plane crash that killed his copilot and best friend Goose, that he isn’t there, “to blow sunshine up your ass.” I can appreciate that. While there is never a reason to be down on someone, it’s not like there aren’t people in this world with advantages and disadvantages. Or, as Syndrome says in the Incredibles, “When everyone is super, no one is.”

If it makes you feel better to claim ADHD is my superpower, then do it. No one is stopping you. If you want an objective opinion of how ADHD affects people in this world– not how it “should”– then you need to look at both the advantages of ADHD and the disadvantages of ADHD.

adhd superpower

The Advantages of ADHD

So, how is ADHD a superpower? It turns out that there are many advantages to ADHD, especially when you are aware of how it affects you and deal with it accordingly. The concept of super focus has been beaten into the ground by the why ADHD is a superpower side.

Super focus is an advantage, sometimes. Unfortunately, many adults with ADHD can’t direct their superfocus. That is, they can’t sit down at a desk and go, “Super focus on this task now.” That just isn’t how most ADHD brains work. If they could, there would be a lot less people out there looking for ADHD treatments and answers. When super focus aligns with your goals, or even just your free time, it is a glorious and wonderful ADHD advantage in life. Stories of ADHDers picking up a new hobby and mastering it in just days because of near constant, dedicated, focus are legendary. So are stories of ADHDers super focusing right through the date they were supposed to go on, pick up time for the kiddos, or even just bedtime.

Other ADHD advantages include the ability to process many streams of thought or data at the same time. The ability to multitask and being able to change activities instantly are all advantages. The ability to get there faster, when you can stay focused on getting there at all.

The Disadvantages of ADHD

Of course, there are plenty of ways ADHD is not a superpower. The inability to keep track of time is a big one that often goes hand and hand with that super focus superpower. Poor organization, inability to follow a conversation, blurting out words in the middle of someone speaking, and forgetting what you were told just minutes ago are all disadvantages of ADHD.

For some (me) the biggest disadvantage of ADHD is procrastination. In some ways, procrastination is the opposite of super focus. Not only are you not focusing on what you need to be, you may be unable to focus on anything. In this case, the ADHD mind rejects any one thing taking over focus for fear that there might be something, more fun, more interesting, or even just shorter than the activity you want to focus on.

Missing meetings, missing deadlines, starting, but never finishing projects are all classic ADHD disadvantages.

Why Is ADHD a Superpower?

There is a need, especially among children to ensure that the various differences between people, including themselves, do not make someone defective. The idea that someone can’t do something goes against human nature, thus it is critical that ADHD is not perceived as a limiting problem.

In many ways this concept is completely valid, but just like someone with poor eyesight may need glasses, or someone with diabetes may need to avoid certain foods, it is important to understand that just because ADHD isn’t a defect, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything about it.

Obviously, people with ADHD can and do live in society without any treatment or medication. Indeed, many adults diagnosed with ADHD were only recently diagnosed, after spending decades without any idea. Typically, however, many people find relief in knowing that there is something different about them AND that they can now take steps to manage or understand themselves better.

If you want ADHD to be your superpower, go right ahead, but don’t disregard the options that may be available to you just because of an ideal.

Best ADD Tip Ever – The Only ADHD Advice You Need *

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best-add-tip-adhd-secret

Are you ready for the best ADHD tip for overcoming ADHD symptoms? It is surprisingly easy, and once you see how this powerful attention deficit disorder tip can be for managing ADHD at work or school, you’ll want to use it all the time.

Is there a catch?

Well, did you see that asterisk up there? That means that there is a catch.

Overcoming Distraction to Get Work Done and Be Most Productive

The key concern when it comes to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is how constant distraction can be overcome in order to be more productive at school, more productive at work, and more productive at home. All the other ADHD symptoms are sort of secondary. If ADDers could just get a handle on increasing productivity in the face of having ADD, everything else would be a little easier to manage. (If you were as productive as you are capable of at work and around the house, do you think it would matter as much that you occasionally tune out or interrupt your spouse during conversations?)

To become more productive and improve your standing at work or improve your grades at school, the person with ADD needs only do just one little thing: keep working.

See, I told you there was a catch.

adhd graphic

However, hear me out. For those of us with ADD, the symptom of distractibility is one that keeps us from focusing properly on important tasks. When a major report is due the next day, we find ourselves intrigued by something else entirely. When this happens, there are only two choices. One choice involves using all of the ADHD tips and ADD tools that one can muster to overcome one’s natural tendency to have attention wander from the important tasks at hand, to those of lesser importance, or even no importance at all. The second choice involves just going with the flow or allowing the mind’s attention to wander as it sees fit.

* The Catch: (That asterisk does indeed mean that there is a catch. Typically, it means a footnote, which is where some company uses really small fonts to explain how they are going to screw you over, and therefore cover themselves legally by “disclosing” the information that you need to realize that the whole thing is a scam. Here on Addessories, we have no reason to trick our fellow ADDers, so this explanatory asterisk is in full-size font type.) The catch is that in order to follow the path of least resistance and give into your mind’s typical urges to find ever more interesting things to focus on, you have to keep working longer than you would if you went the other route.

How much longer?

That is the essence of the catch. You have to keep working until you have finished that important task. That major report, or that semester-long project that you just started and is due tomorrow, must be finished before you stop working, whether that takes four hours or thirty-four hours. You’ll find that you are happier along the way, but the destination will end up being much further away than it should have.

Whether or not this is a good ADD trick for you depends entirely on whether you are the type of person with ADD who finds the journey more important than the destination, or whether you are the type of person with ADHD who finds crossing the finish line the most satisfying.

Which one are you?

Do One Thing – Overcoming ADHD Once

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Depression and ADHD are comorbid indicators. They often go together. Adding the apathy of not wanting to get started on anything, along with the inherent procrastination that comes with ADHD, and sprinkling on a top of distraction just waiting to happen and it is no wonder that many adults with ADHD find it difficult to get things done.

There are many methods of time management out there for people ADHD. They range from great ideas like Eating That Frog to dumb ones, like blaming everything on perfectionism. The reality, however, is that you are unique, you always were. You were unique before you realized you had ADD, you were unique when you started treating your ADD, and you’re unique now, when you are living with ADHD. It’s not wonder then that other people’s solutions don’t work for you. You need your own unique solutions to living with adult ADHD.

Just because you need to build up your own unique ADHD tips and tricks to get through a life that requires you to things and to do them on a schedule doesn’t mean that other ideas won’t work for you. You just have to find your arrows and load them up in your quiver, metaphorically speaking.

Sometimes, the stock photography gods smile upon you 🙂

Do One

One method that with my ADHD that I am tinkering around with is the idea of doing one thing. Similar to the concept detailed in Eat That Frog, the idea is to commit to doing one thing from a list of dozens or even hundreds of things. Unlike the eating that frog, where you jump in with the worst, or most dreaded task of the day, I’ve had some success working with my brain instead of trying to force it to do something it doesn’t want.

As I arrive at my desk each morning, or even upon returning from a trip to the coffee pot, or from lunch, I often find that my brain looks around and has one thing that it wants to do. Many times, that one thing is something productive. Rather than trying to save that motivation and harness it later, I jump in with both feet.

My brain feels like finally cleaning up my desk? Let’s clean my desk.

My brain feels like writing that technical writing proposal? Let’s write the proposal.

My brain feels like rescheduling the dentist, ordering my meds, or filling out this month’s writing calendar? Let’s do those things.

My brain feels like writing an article on doing one thing? Hey! Inception!

How To Do One

If I were trying to turn this one idea into a book, as so many time management, and organization self help books are wont to do, I would add a swear word and start writing the 150 pages of backstory, history about myself, and obtaining the epiphany that goes into turning an idea the length of a pamphlet into a 300 page book that you can stick on the shelf at Barnes and Noble (irritation Segway!) A name like Do One Damn Thing! or maybe One F*cuking Thing!

You’ve seen the books. You know what I’m talking about.

Instead, let’s just keep it real among fellow adults with ADHD, or those of you without ADHD who have reached the intelligent conclusion that if it works for people with ADD, imagine how well it would work for someone without ADD.

The secret to how to do one thing is to let yourself. Give yourself permission to do what your brain wants to do. Often, you will find that the one thing is not what you should be doing, or what would the the most productive thing you should be doing. That is okay. You can come back to that thing later. Heck, if if works for you, promise yourself that that will be the very next thing you do.

The point of doing one is to harness your motivation if only for a moment. Finding motivation with ADHD can be really, really, hard. Give yourself permission this one time each day (or a few times, however, you want to use this) to enjoy the motivation. You will find that much like procrastinating forward, doing one thing results in more things being crossed off your ADHD to do list than fighting against it. After all, a list with 30 things on it gets shorter whether you cross off #1 or #28.

Me?

Well, I broke my own rule.

My brain wanted to clean up my workspace and I was going to let it, but then I thought about what I was doing and got distracted (nach) by the thought of writing up an article about using your motivation to do that one thing and here we are. Writing about ADHD when you have ADHD is a nonstop adventure in inception.

Try doing just one thing and let me know how it goes for you.

BTW, I ended up cutting and pasting a bunch of what I originally wrote here into a new article where I have noticed that I can write for clients about the same topics I write about for my own websites much faster. The differing factor that I’m noticing is that I write their stuff in Word and then just send it off to them. Maybe, just maybe, there is something about writing inside of WordPress that stifles my brain or otherwise slows it down.

It might also be that without thinking, even in the back of my head, about linking, SEO, keywords, length, or finding stock photography that my brain just cranks out text further. So, I’m trying something that I am very, very nervous about. I created an “In Progress” folder where I can do the Just One Thing when it is writing something.

My fear, which I’m sure that many of my adult ADHD tribe can relate to is that many “in progress” things end up becoming “never finished” things when our ADHD brains move on. But, I crave more success than I have been having and doing more/getting better requires trying new things, so here we go.

As always, wish me luck. I do the same for you.

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