Your Guide to Managing Your ADHD

Living with ADHD can sometimes be a lot. As an adult with the disorder, you might better understand your needs and tendencies, but that doesn’t mean that they’re always easy to manage. Whether you’ve just recently been diagnosed with ADHD or you have been living with it for a while and you could use a little more help in dealing with it, here, we’re going to look at some of the different approaches you can take, both with the help of medical professionals and the tips you can utilize at home and in your daily life.

Finding The Right Medication With Your Doctor

First and foremost, you should talk to your doctor about what medications are available. There are many effective options, but not all of them are going to be right for you. There are both stimulant and non-stimulant options, for instance, which can affect people differently. Typically, you will work with your doctor to find not only the right balance, but also try out different dosages while you keep track of your mood, sleep, your ability to focus, as well as any unintended side effects that might have to be mitigated. Keeping an open mind and honestly communicating your experience with the medication you’re prescribed is the best approach to ensure that you’re moving in the right direction.

Taking The Therapeutic Approach

Just as, if not more, important than medication is getting the help that you need in better understanding and managing your thoughts and emotions, as well as the behaviors that they can translate into. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most widely used and effective types available. CBT for ADHD typically revolves around not just emotional analysis, but building practical mental skills, such as managing any negative self-talk, mitigating overwhelm and mental load, as well as developing strategies to address common challenges like procrastination or easily losing track of time. A lot of people living with ADHD struggle with low self-esteem because they have spent years feeling out of step with people around them, but CBT can help reframe their experiences in a way that can prove genuinely helpful.

The Power Of Routines

The right approach with your healthcare is best implemented alongside a host of lifestyle changes, and one of the most helpful habits you can pick up is creating a structured routine. Consistent daily habits and listing out how your day is going to go ahead of time can help reduce the mental energy it takes to make decisions, allowing basic tasks to become more automatic. Routines work better when they’re built around existing habits. For instance, if you brush your teeth every morning, then you can easily make the next step, taking your medication, or you can get into the habit of preparing tomorrow’s clothes before you go to bed. Some flexibility is necessary for when plans need to change, but realistic and personalized routines can make it a lot easier to get through much of your daily needs and tasks without feeling like you’re wasting a lot of time figuring out what to do next.

Organizing Your Life

For people with ADHD, having the tools to help them sort out and organize their lives can be greatly helpful. External tools like planners, digital calendars, reminder apps, and timers can help you not only mitigate the consequences of memory lapses or a slip in time awareness, but they can also make you generally more mindful of it, as well. This can include, for instance, using visual planners for long-term projects to ensure that you always know your next objective or using timing techniques like the Pomodoro method to make sure that you’re splitting your time well between essential tasks. Consistently using organizational tools helps prevent missed deadlines, forgotten appointments, and last-minute stress, making for ean asier daily flow to life.

Minimizing Distraction In Focused Spaces

If you’re having trouble with your focus in your home office or any other space where you need focus, then there’s plenty you can do to minimize distractions. Having designated spaces, be it for work, relaxation, reading, or otherwise, allows you to better design those spaces around their purpose. Reducing visual clutter not related to the task and cancelling out background noise with noise-canceling headphones can help you avoid being distracted by external stimuli.

The Importance Of Maintaining Your Health

Although ADHD might feel like it’s largely in your head, it’s actually deeply connected to your physical health. For instance, making regular time for exercise can help boost dopamine and norepinephrine, both of which can be beneficial for attention and motivation. Even a short daily walk before you sit down to work can help you get into it with a boosted mood. Diet also matters a lot, as balanced meals with proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbs ensure that your energy levels don’t flag too easily, as this is when your attention can really start drifting away from the task at hand. Exercise and diet aren’t cures, by any means, but they can help manage your mindset to a greater degree than you might suspect.

Limiting Alcohol And Sugar

Just as consuming the right things can help you mitigate some of the symptoms of your ADHD, there are things that can make it worse, as well. For instance, alcohol can not only increase impulsivity, but it may also interfere with your medication, making it less effective in general. Meanwhile, high sugar intake can cause a momentary spike in energy, but it will be followed by a crash that can worsen your focus and even make you feel a little emotionally unstable after the fact. Dopamine-seeking behaviors are common in people with ADHD, which can make it very easy to slip into bad habits. If you find safe and healthy ways to get that dopamine, like through exercise, it can help you avoid the issues mentioned here.

ADHD is a condition that can present differently from person to person and, as such, often requires a very personalized approach. However, the points above can help you start to find the strategies that work best for you.