Status Updates From ADHD Unpacked: From the hos...

"We think it is vital to include a measure of personal success and well-being to any priority list… when you are building a task list to get something done, it is important to include questions such as these:
1. Is that task or activity something that will make you feel better about yourself?
2. If it is, it should be a higher priority. ls it something you tend to do well?
3. Is it something you tend to enjoy doing?"

"…might have heard that many people do the exact opposite. This is sometimes called ‘eat the frog first’, where if you do the most difficult thing at the start, the rest of a task is easier. Of course, this might work for some adults with ADHD, but in our experience, this is a classic example of strategies that aren't designed for the neurodivergent ADHD community."

"With some people with ADHD (including both of us), it sometimes helps to start the day with a task that is ‘low-hanging fruit’. By picking an easy win, and trying to complete it, we can give ourselves a little ‘bump of dopamine’ because we have achieved something (we know it isn't really just dopamine). This achievement can then be used to kickstart our day, so we might tackle other more difficult tasks. / You…"

"Many adults with ADHD struggle to figure out the order in which to do things and where to begin in the first place. It isn't as simple as ‘do them in order of priority’ if you don't know how to choose the priority."

"…incredibly overwhelming. / The simple act of logging onto the computer or opening that bill in the first place can feel impossibly hard. So we hide from it. Or we put it off. We do this for many reasons, but usually people struggle with completing tasks due to issues with prioritisation, procrastination or perfectionism."

"…productive and genuinely intend to get those tasks done. / Dr Russell Barkley, the godfather of ADHD research, sometimes calls ADHD ‘Intention Deficit Disorder’ because there is a gap between what we intend to do and our actions (known as the intention-action gap). For example, we may fully intend to pay our tax bill, but when we go to fill in the forms, something stops us and that simple task can suddenly feel…"

"ADHD & the 4 Ps: prioritisation, procrastination perfectionism and productivity /
Of all the issues that ADHD causes, engaging with tasks that *we want to engage with* is probably one of the most frustrating. People often wrongly assume that we never want to do those tasks or we are being dishonest when we say we are planning to do them. The reality is that we can often struggle, even if we do want to be…"

S.M.A.R.T:
* Specific: know what a win looks like. Make this as small a task as possible.
* Measurable: Will you know you have won? (Tidying up is never measurable; emptying a dishwasher is.)
* Achievable: Are you able to do this task?
* Realistic: Even if you are able, is it realistic for you here and now?
* Time-bound: Do you have time? Do you know how long it will take? Have you assigned time to this?

"We've talked a few times about breaking tasks down. It is very useful to make a task clearly ‘winnable’ by knowing exactly what tiny thing you have to do first (that IS the task, the next step is a second task). You also have to be clear how to do it, and know whether it is actually realistic. There are no rules for this but we quite like the S.M.A.R.T goal model where you make each task for the S.M.A.R.T acronym."

"…productivity barriers and start to write [S.M.A.R.T] goals in line with their different way of doing things."

"…problems with all of this. / Problems with prioritisation, perfectionism and procrastination arise because of the differences in the brain's executive functions. We know that all of those executive elements of our brain that direct our ability to manage tasks, focus attention and control our impulses can lead to decreased productivity. But with the right strategies and support, adults with ADHD can overcome those…"

"If you want to be productive and get something done, you have to know why you are doing it and what to do first. You also need to have a measure of success clear in your head. Perfect is the enemy of good, so you need to know what constitutes a good-enough job. Even if you know what to do first, you need to be able to start that task and then persevere until that job is finished. People with ADHD often face…"

"…emotional response that affects them, if they don't feel it is appropriate. This is natural. However, it is also completely valid for somebody with ADHD to not have complete control over their emotional responses. This can easily create a situation in which there is friction with no blame to attach, leaving both people feeling frustrated and rather negative."

"…are plenty of opportunities for emotional dysregulation. It is also easy to see in this context that if people don't understand ADHD, or don't know that a colleague has ADHD, they could be frustrated or upset by an emotional response that they either didn't predict or that they don't think is appropriate. / This is where it is important to say that it is absolutely valid for people without ADHD to be upset at an…"

"In the workplace, emotional dysregulation can manifest as overreactions to feedback, difficulty handling stress and perceived unfairness, and challenges in teamwork… For most of us, emotional dysregulation can hamper career progress and job satisfaction. If you think about most work- place environments, whether enduring annual appraisals or receiving feedback on work that is produced, it is easy to see that there…"

"…you have argued a point quite strongly that you no longer care about. It can sometimes make it harder to advocate for things you do care about in the future. This feeling of shame and regret can be particularly difficult to deal with for people who are undiagnosed with ADHD, as they are less likely to understand the reason for their response."

"…emotional responses, this adds even more difficulty in establishing and maintaining relationships at any level. Saying or doing things that may be regretted later on is often not received well by others… / In our experience, we often have strong emotional reactions that seem very real at the time but then lose significance minutes or hours later. This can be frustrating when…"

"The challenges of ADHD and emotional dysregulation can cause serious social and professional difficulties. Problems managing, interpreting and expressing emotions can result in conflicts, misunderstandings and social isolation. It is difficult enough to navigate personal, familial or professional relationships when you have the core symptoms of ADHD, but when you add in unpredictable and ‘socially inappropriate’…"

"…time (we can't easily do that, and it probably isn't very healthy to suppress the feelings themselves). It is more about managing our emotions effectively. It is far more important to start to acknowledge, understand and interpret our emotional responses (and their triggers) in more constructive ways."

"…response we have doesn't match our own personal expectations and values. That can be an incredible source of shame. Whether it is road rage or an argument with a partner that feels very important at the time but not so important later, this can be inconsistent with how we see ourselves and who we want to be… / Emotional regulation isn't really a question of trying to suppress or control our emotions all of the…"

"…because emotional regulation is important for many reasons. Chief among those are the maintenance of both personal and professional relationships, coping with stresses throughout our lives, and also the general effect of those emotions on stabilising our mental health… / Expressing emotions differently to the expectations of society is a problem for many of us, but it is far more problematic when the emotional…"

"…and usually very differently to the way in which we respond to other apparently less important events. Responding emotionally in a way that is expected in your society is called having a predictable emotional response. In ADHD our emotional responses are often far less predictable and often not seen as ‘socially acceptable’… This lack of control or predictability over emotional responses can be problematic…"

"…experience in a ‘socially acceptable’ and flexible manner. This emotional regulation is a major part of human society but the words ‘socially acceptable’ do a lot of the heavy lifting in that last sentence. The way in which people are expected to respond to life's events is, to a large degree, a social construct. We are expected to respond emotionally to some events (such as a wedding or funeral) in a certain way…"

"…they find personally significant. The emotions we experience are thought to have three components: our subjective experience (the thing that we respond to), a physiological response (how our body reacts) and a behavioural response (how we behave). / We all have emotional reactions many times every day. Unlike most other animals, we have a higher ability to manage and respond more appropriately to an emotional…"

"How most people respond to something emotionally isn't something they are always consciously aware of. But if that emotional response doesn't seem to be consistent with the majority of people, you could say that you were having emotional dysregulation… Emotions are often confused with hormones, feelings and moods, but these are different. Emotions are generally how people deal with issues, people or situations…"

"…our ‘bandwidth’ is limited, so our brain must select to which information it allocates our attention—and it isn't always perfect at this… Everyone can get distracted, but this 'filtering' of information is usually more difficult for people with ADHD… This is because of those differences in our brains, especially in the parts that do the filtering of those distractions and select or switch what we pay attention to."

"…this torrent of data to focus on… Our attention is therefore split between those things happening around us in our environment and the biological stuff going on inside us (such as how fast our heart is beating, or if we are dehydrated). We also have to pay attention to what goes on in our thoughts. In any case…"

"…become overwhelmed despite plenty of room for memory left on the hard drive. / When it comes to what the brain can and will process, there is simply too much information coming [in] for us to handle. Our brain has to deal with a metaphorical (hopefully) tidal wave of information every second, bombarding it from both inside and outside our body. …it requires a powerful system to ‘select’ which information from…"

"While the human brain truly *is* amazing, with a massive memory capacity, it *does not* have unlimited ‘bandwidth’ to take in or process information, just like a smartphone or computer. If your laptop has ever frozen even if it still has memory available, or you have ever had to restart your phone to get its apps to work properly, then you understand this problem. This issue is often because the processor has…"

"…phone call and Janet saying, ‘Hi’, at some point in this seemingly simple, multi-step process, there is likely to be a moment when things grind to a halt as the brain just says, ‘No!’ We never know which task is going to overload the system, even tasks we have done before with no problem. Even tasks we usually enjoy."