How can someone with ADHD reduce their symptoms day to day?

RestlessSeeker

Hi everyone,

I'm curious about your experiences and views on ADHD. I'm not asking about the medication side, but more about everyday life practices.

How can a person with ADHD reduce their symptoms in daily life? What helps with things like getting distracted, leaving tasks unfinished, forgetfulness, struggling to focus, or the opposite, getting so absorbed in something that you lose track of time? I'd especially love to hear about: techniques and habits that have proven effective, helpful exercises, useful physical accessories or tools, and apps or software that make life easier.

I'd also like to ask the reverse: what are the things someone with ADHD should absolutely avoid, the ones that make things worse? In other words, habits or traps to stay away from.

I thought it would be useful to see both what works and what to avoid in one place. I'd be glad if you'd share your experiences.

Emilee

It's probably boring, but I find practising the skills to be the most useful. Some things slowly become habits (others take a little longer to stick!). It's building the neural pathways in your brain and repetition will eventuallllly help.

For example when I get home from work, I don't sit down until I've started dinner or tackled whatever household chore needs doing. If I sit down, even to use the toilet, I end up losing myself in my phone or losing the motivation to get things done. I've genuinely cooked entire meals still wearing my coat because I knew if I took it off and sat down, I'd stop.

I also repeat little mantras to myself, such as:

• Put it away, not down. If I put something down, that job feels "finished" in my brain, and I probably won't come back to put it away.
• Even five minutes counts. This helps me get started on things AND keep going when I'm feeling overwhelmed.
• Future me will thank me. I use this one when I'm trying to finish tasks I reeaally don't want to do.

RestlessSeeker

Thank you @Emilee . What I take from what you said is that we almost need to take a kind of "Brain Training 101" course. After all, what you're describing is building new habits through repetition, just like practising a skill.

Your reply actually brought another topic to mind that I'd like to ask the group about: what about sleep? I think it's one of the least talked about but most challenging sides of ADHD. The difficulty of quietening the mind at night and falling asleep, or a sleep schedule that never settles and keeps drifting. Even when you're tired, the mind just won't "switch off", and bedtime slowly slips later and later.

Do you have any methods that work for this? What do you try to slow the mind down at night, ease into sleep, or at least build a regular sleep-wake rhythm? I feel like getting the sleep side in order makes everything during the day easier too.