Thread by The Autistic SEND Mother Uncut
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- Aug 9, 2022
- #Mentalhealth
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ADHD “hacks” a thread. I wasn’t diagnosed ADHD until I was 40 so by the time I was diagnosed my autistic brain has already put in place lots of “props” to support my ADHD and stop me sinking over the 40 years. I didn’t know that’s what I’d done but I had! Here follows a few
1. Do things straight away! Procrastination and memory are not the friends of the ADHDer. If I don’t do stuff straight away I will either a) forget or b) it will turn into a huge bogeyman in my head crippling me under the weight of procrastination !!
2. Save the best till last! Do the sh*t things you don’t want to do first! This is for two reasons a. You need a full executive function tank to do things you don’t really want to do! (Beginning of the day) b. Procrastination messes with time blindness and makes it feel like . .
things will take much longer than they really will take. Time blindness is very real for someone with ADHD. Procrastination only makes this much much worse
3. Zig zagging and circling is ok - you don’t need to do things as the “crow flies” but there must be “rules” to the zig zagging! My rules are “don’t stop” - “don’t zig zag out of range” so say with cleaning - flit about by all means but don’t for eg“pick up your phone”
4. Phones! Put it somewhere to charge and don’t pick it up until you are finished! It’s the only way to not get lost in some kind of social media internet black hole 🥴
5. Visual reminders. I have these little boards dotted about my house! My son laughs at me and says I have dementia 🤭 In a way I do! Think of something you need to do? jot it down at once (it will be gone by the time you get downstairs) 
6. Use objects like bread crumbs (visual reminders) If I’m running out of meds I put my tablet bottle on my desk so that later when I sit down at my computer I see it and remember I need to order them (visual reminders can be just objects not lists or words)
7. This one is kind of sick & twisted 😬🥴🤭Doing stuff you really don’t want to do DOES produce dopamine if you do it! You still won’t like doing “said thing” but you will be so pleased with yourself that you did do it that this has “feel good dopamine yielding powers” by itself 
8. Add in dopamine to boring tasks! Play music, buy yourself really nice cleaning equipment. Change your dinner plates (obvs don’t cause yourself financial ruin) but try to find ways to put the dopamine into the very mundane and extremely boring!!
9. Old school: write stuff on your hands 
10. Systems and Routines. To be honest on the face of it I look like this super organised person! I am not! My head is like spaghetti junction really 😂 I am basically held together by systems and routines which have been refined and adapted over nearly 5 decades!
11. Use “demand avoidance” in reverse gear! Eg “I will not not be beaten by whatever (house cleaning, paperwork). There’s a Jamaican saying “we run tings, tings na run we” 😜 I use that obstinance, arrogance in reverse gear against my ADHD and it works a bloody treat!!
12. Simple things. Put stuff by the front door! Put stuff in the car the night before rather than relying on dodgy morning memory! Have to post a letter put it on the dash of your car so you see it next time you get in the car . . . “breadcrumbs” init 🤭
13. I realised about 25 years ago that if everything has a place you can’t lose stuff! It’s almost impossible! Tidying is not tidying for the ADHDer it’s actually memory control!! Systems Systems Systems!!
14. Email. Have different accounts for different stuff. Eg asmushopping@gmail.com for shopping Johnnysend@gmail.com (for Johnny’s send communications) it makes finding stuff so much easier !!
There’s loads more - some of them are so old that I forget that they are props for my ADHD. Each one only in place after experiencing painful consequences. I’m only really motivated by painful consequences tbh & I don’t learn by other peoples mistakes either! 😂 
Final addition to this thread which is important for anyone under 25 to understand (it will be this group who will be more likely to say that this is impossible or too hard). They are dead right for anyone under 25 it will be much much harder. This is because of this 1/2 
Well I truly believe it is due to this simple fact anyway! The frontal lobe is crucial to doing loads of this stuff. Look into it. I was literally a red hot mess until about 23 truly 🙈 By 26 there was a massive clear shift so be kind to yourselves in that way please ❤️ ❤️ 
