Difficulty level – ADHD
With support and education, it is possible to come to the understanding that ADHD has many advantages in addition to its disadvantages, and there are many successful people with this diagnosis in the world. For example, world champion swimmer Michael Phelps, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, JetBlue founder David Neeleman, Barbie director Greta Gerwig, actors Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, Zooey Deschanel, Emma Watson and many other people with this diagnosis live and build successful careers.
Many of them, when it came to ADHD, said that it eventually became their strong point. After all, it is not about lack of self-discipline or laziness, but simply about a different mechanism of brain work. And if you know what to do with it, then all the difficulties can be leveled out or even turned to your advantage.
I am writing this article for everyone who has problems with procrastination and distractibility. The methods I will tell you about can definitely be useful for you, even if your case is not so clinical.
Notes from Therapy: Techniques That Helped Me Beat Procrastination
The flip side: what are the strengths of ADHD and how do they help in IT
How ADHD Works
ADHD — is a neurological disorder. According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), its classic symptoms are severe absent-mindedness, impulsivity, and sometimes hyperactivity.
People with ADHD have a disrupted frontal lobe dopamine regulation mechanism: if you imagine the ability to regulate attention as a scale from “being in the clouds” to “super concentration, there is nothing but the current task”, then an ordinary person has the ability to control their movement along it. But for a person with ADHD, this is extremely difficult. Our frontal lobe is very “lazy” and gives us dopamine only in two cases: high interest in the activity (carrot) or high stress (stick).
I'll show you an example – watch your hands:
Alice – No ADHD
Alice saw a tumbleweed of dust on the floor.
Alice did the cleaning.
Alice's brain released a little dopamine to reinforce the positive outcome.
Two weeks later, Alice cleaned again: she knows that after cleaning, her brain will give her some dopamine and she will experience a pleasant feeling of completion.
Alice's apartment is always tidy – there is no stress in Alice's life.
Bob has ADHD
Bob saw a tumbleweed of dust on the floor.
Bob did the cleaning – Bob's brain didn't give him dopamine.
Two weeks later, Bob sees dust again, but he can't bring himself to clean because he knows he'll get nothing but physical fatigue for it.
After two more weeks, the tumbleweed on the table turned into a cockroach under the sink. Bob's brain produced adrenaline and Bob finally cleaned up.
Next time, Bob won't want to clean again, but he'll force himself to (Bob's brain will release adrenaline again) because he's stressed about the potential return of the cockroaches.
Bob's apartment is clean, but every two weeks he gets very nervous.
Sure, we're all Bob sometimes. But the difference between Alice and Bob is that his whole life is like that. He has trouble keeping up with regular cleaning, he loses his glasses once a week, and he forgets to move his tickets every day.
What problems does Bob face at work?
Without external stimuli, it is very difficult for Bob to pull himself together.If the task does not have a deadline or Bob is not visited by a manager with a reminder, the task will most likely not be completed.
His literally everything distracts: Bob has a terrible time keeping focus during calls. If he listens instead of talking during a meeting, he often realizes afterwards that he has remembered literally nothing. This can be aggravated if the meeting was with a camera and microphone on: most of his brain's RAM is eaten up by the fact that he has to follow not only the conversation, but also try not to fidget or twirl anything in his hands (people think that in this case Bob is not listening to them, but in fact it is just the opposite).
Tasks can also suffer. If something was discussed only verbally, but no ticket was opened, then Bob too often forgets about them. Out of fear of forgetting even his own ideas during conversations, Bob often interrupts his interlocutors. Because of this, communication in the team suffers, and his colleagues' attitude towards Bob worsens.
If Bob could “catch” hyperfocushe will work very productively all day and most likely close a ticket for a week in one day. But closer to the evening he will not even notice how bad he felt – he worked so hard that he forgot to have lunch or go to the toilet.
And every time Bob tries to share his problems, he hears: “I have exactly the same thing, I just need to try harder!”
If you have recently encountered similar problems, for example, when moving to a new team or company, it is worth looking for an answer in something on the surface: you are tired, the tasks turned out to be uninteresting, or personal problems are draining all your energy.
But if this was the case at school, university, and at every job where you tried yourself, it is natural to think that the problem lies deeper – in your head.
How is ADHD diagnosed?
ADHD is a diagnosis that can only be diagnosed by a psychiatristIf you suspect that you have it, it is better to consult a specialist to confirm or refute this hypothesis.
ADHD is a complex thing. Now scientists agree that diagnosis requires preliminary analysis intensity and regularity symptoms. In other words, if you lose your glasses once a year, then everything is fine, but if it happens so often that it significantly affects your life, then this is a reason to go to a specialist.
My journey has been long: many doctors in Russia consider “growing up” the only treatment for ADHD — for a long time, this diagnosis was given only to children, and it was believed that they would outgrow their symptoms over time. Therefore, there are very few doctors who specialize in diagnosing ADHD and working with adults.
I had to wait four weeks for an appointment. I was very afraid of forgetting something and wrote out all the “family memes” that could have been symptoms in childhood in advance. Their list with brief explanations took up two pages.
The conversation with the psychiatrist began with the question: “When do you think this started for you?” After telling me about problems with homework at school, college, constant loss and damage of things due to carelessness and much more, the doctor clarified only a few nuances from my medical record – the verdict was unambiguous.
How ADHD is Treated
The global practice of ADHD therapy is stimulants of various groups, as well as talk therapy with a psychologist or psychotherapist. In the Russian Federation and other CIS countries, only one drug for ADHD is currently available – Strattera (atomoxetine). But it is expensive even with IT salaries 🙂 and is not suitable for everyone. Personally, this drug did not suit me and I focused on therapy with a psychologist.
Most often, therapists who work with ADHD use techniques cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). According to the latest research CBT significantly improves the quality of life of people with ADHD – in essence, this method helps to create and reinforce new, more useful and effective habits, taking into account the specifics of this diagnosis. Within the framework of CBT, patients try to establish an interaction between their thoughts, feelings and actions, and also master skills that allow them to cope with difficulties.
A year and a half ago I started seeing a CBT therapist and in my experience it really does help!
How CBT Helped Bob (and Me)
So, Bob got tired of constantly stressing over things that seemed normal to his life, went to the doctor and got a diagnosis. Bob decided to start working with a therapist and see how it would affect his life.
At the first session, Bob talked about small, similar taskswhich one of the managers throws at him every couple of days. The flow of these tasks seems endless, Bob often forgets about them. When a lot of such tasks accumulate, a disgruntled manager writes to him, Bob gets stressed and sits down to do them late in the evening.
The therapist listened to Bob and suggested trying to make a game out of boring adhocs. Now, immediately after the manager writes with another task, Bob creates a reminder in the calendar, enters all the input data, and, having sat down to do the task at the appointed time, turns on the timer and tries to fit into the allotted slot. If he managed not to get distracted and do everything in the designated time, Bob will reward himself with something that gives him dopamine – 15 minutes of browsing shorts with cats, eating dessert or ordering coffee at the nearest coffee shop on the way home.
This idea inspired Bob, he installed a beautiful application on his phone with pomodoro timerwrote a list of potential rewards. When the manager came to him, he immediately answered him, created a slot in the calendar, quickly did everything in the evening and went to drink his cherished sweet coffee.
After a month, interest in the new process began to wane, but anxiety about this type of task decreased – a proven system appeared. It became easier for Bob to work, he stopped staying up late in the evenings, and the manager at the review rated Bob's work higher than before. Everyone is happy.
The therapist helped Bob rethink his routine and habits by understanding the peculiarities of his brain:
add support elements (calendar slot and task notes in the moment) and games (finish before timer runs out) where Bob was too bored and anxious to start;
add external stimulation (favorite music and reward) for things that are easy to get distracted from and where you need motivation to continue.
In this story, Bob is me a year and a half ago. All my life, I faced similar problems, but my efforts were not enough to solve them, and they appeared again and again. After the diagnosis, I began to look at these situations differently. For example, I recognized that it is difficult for me to complete routine tasks on time. If you do not recognize this as a problem, you will not be able to find mechanisms for solving it – instead, you will simply torment yourself with feelings of guilt and shame.
At the same time, the diagnosis is not an excuse, it simply makes these problems visible and helps to find solutions. It explains why it is difficult to do certain things. This does not mean that different demands are made on me, but only that I have different mechanisms for achieving them.
My Notes from Therapy: First Aid
Stop trying to be the person you think you should be (like a model student or a super organized boss) and allow yourself to be who you really are. It is better to anticipate failures, rather than be surprised by them and suffer about them. For example, after the diagnosis, I came to terms with the fact that any format of homework is something that I will not be able to do regularly due to my characteristics, and I looked for an English school for myself taking this into account.
With increased distractibility, lists, paper notes, screenshots or any other artifacts can help – they will help to record the thought in the moment. Even if you are distracted, you will have a logwhich can be used to reconstruct the train of thought, so it is ideal to always have paper and a pen at hand and remember the keyboard shortcut for a quick screenshot.
With urgent tasks, use the principle of “take it on and finish it.” When you receive an email or an urgent message from a colleague, try to keep the thought of what you were doing before, so that you can return to it later and do an urgent task: reply to the message, start a task, or pass the “ball” on. If this is a live conversation, then literally ask the other person for a couple of minutes and do what needs to be done. If you do not save the artifact from an urgent ping, you will most likely forget about it. It is better to insure your RAM, which is always busy with something.
To avoid missing deadlines and finishing everything at the last minute, divide the task into “stages”. For example, write “rough draft”and not “the first paragraph of the final text.” This makes it emotionally easier to get down to work, and there is less chance that, with the task half done, you will understand that you have neither the strength nor the interest to finish it. A good addition to the “rough draft” would be external control. Agree to call your colleague a few days before the deadline to discuss the interim result. The adrenaline from the approaching meeting and the need to voice some results will appear earlier, and if anything happens, you will have time to polish the result.
If you don't have the strength to start, then it helps timer: Give yourself a clear and fixed time – this will add excitement to finish quickly and make the “incomprehensible” work more predictable and less stressful. But don't limit yourself: if by the end of the time you've gotten into it, you may be able to finish it all at once.
Since our brain loves dopamine, but regulates it poorly, you need to learn how to feed it additionallyso that you feel less like watching videos instead of working. Drinks with a bright taste, portioned delicacies, rhythmic music can greatly facilitate work processes that do not provide enough dopamine.
Remember that ADHD is also a tendency to overfocus and sometimes hyperfocus. These qualities can be used both constructively and destructively. Over time, you will understand how to enter this state, but remember the negative sides: getting stuck on the wrong task or remembering only in the evening that you should have eaten.
A boring but important tip: do it regularly physical exercise. Literally fill a slot in your calendar for them and stick to the plan. It helps get rid of excess energy, reduces noise in the head, calms down and gives the coveted dopamine.
What are the benefits of ADHD for the Bobs and their employers?
People with ADHD are good at anything that involves creative solutions. It is easier for us to come up with a concept or a plan of action because our brain is “hyperactive” and runs through many possible options at once.
As paradoxical as it may seem, people with ADHD perform better under high pressure: tasks with a pressing deadline, “everything is broken and needs to be fixed right now” – all this activates a very well-established mechanism for working under stress, familiar from childhood.
We still often procrastinate and get distracted, and working from home with flexible hours is ideal for us so that the specifics have a minimal impact on the results.
Working with a computer is both a blessing and a curse. Having a constant need for access to the Internet, it is quite difficult not to be distracted by something that gives more dopamine than the current task. But if you know that your brain works exactly like this, you can set yourself external restrictions in advance: a blacklist of sites, consciously not installing non-work-related programs on your work laptop, etc. As a bonus, we get logging of our actions: if you get distracted and lose context, the browser history and logs will help restore the process.
Thanks to hyperconcentration, if something really hooks us, we learn very quickly and well, which means we can master a new tool faster and better, especially if it has some very convenient or beautiful features.
What's the bottom line?
Over the past 1.5 years, while I have been in therapy and building new habits, the problems of procrastination, forgetfulness and inattention have begun to affect my life much less.
I really want everyone who suffers from this like me to stop perceiving it as a mystical curse: you can learn effective strategies, and your peculiarities definitely have a downside – a superpower.
I hope that my experience will resonate with you and you will be able to take some of the methods that helped me and feel better too. I will be glad to chat in the comments!
Useful links
“I’m interrupting because I’m afraid to forget what I wanted to say”: an episode about ADHD with psychiatrist Elisey Osin — A podcast with a psychiatrist’s analysis of how ADHD is diagnosed and treated in Russia, what it is and how it can manifest itself.
119 ADHD, Focus, and a Helpful Routine — A podcast about how to accept your diagnosis and build a healthy routine for yourself
“Why am I distracted?” — A book by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey. The history of the origin of the diagnosis and several cases of a practicing psychotherapist, the analysis of which may be useful.
https://adhdoers.com/ — The blog whose memes inspired the illustrations in this article
