How To ADHD CH. 3

How to ADHDAn Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It)By Jessica

McCabe

Another Insider's Book Review, Summary, and insights Chapter 3

HOW TO (HYPER)FOCUS

Jessica’s first focus on ADHD research was focus. This caused her a lot of trouble and shame. She was called out on it in class, it caused her to miss events, and she became tired of fighting it. She did learn how to pretend to focus in class and lessened the embarrassment a little. 

 She was told throughout her life to focus and pay attention as if it were something she could actually make a choice and do. Focus was not a verb but a noun in her mind. Focus was  “ an elusive unreliable creature I attempted to capture over and over again”. The “Focus Beast” was mischievous and liked to play hide and seek. She tried casting spells and charming the beast only to have it backfire. Eventually, she did find a magical potion which lasted four to six hours, stimulant medication. The potion was wonderful yet it presented problems. Once the potion kicked in she had to be careful with her focus or be focused on one thing the entire four to six hours. 

WHAT JESSICA LEARNED

Diagnosis: Attention Deficit Disorder

Seems to mean: in order to function properly brains need a full tank of attention so hers was a few quarts low.

What it really means: The tank is full of attention. The problem is the lack of ability to regulate that attention.

The ability to control focus is a top -down attentional control. This uses the prefrontal cortex of the brain which may develop slower and with impairments in an ADHD brain. We have to close our eyes, doodle, move, and other things to help us find our focus. That does appear like we aren’t paying attention to others.

It’s like somebody left the door open

ADHD brains let in everything. We do not have the ability to shut out what others can ignore. Our attention all on its own jumps around without control from our environment to our negative thoughts to our great ideas and whatever comes in the door of our brain.

Sometimes, focus is more like a tunnel

The door shuts and won't let anything else in. Hyperfocus is the flip side of attention jumping. A lot of ADHD goes undiagnosed because of this. People think we can focus on what we want to. It is not a choice, it sucks us in and we are stuck. Dr. Russell Barkley says it is an inability to pull away from it even if we don’t want to be doing it. It can be beneficial at times when a deadline is looming. We can get it done at the cost of our ability to have brain power the next day.

Our Ability to focus is interest-based

The ADHD brain is understimulated, meaning the neurological signals and processing, stimulant medication stimulates the process to work better. Having an interest in something also helps stimulate the ADHD brain. We have a hard time paying attention to learning or doing what we’ve been asked to do if it’s not interesting. We care and want to learn or do what is asked of us. It is not a choice, it is brain structure. Our default network, a lot of different parts of the brain, differs from typical brains. This keeps the door open for distractions and rapid thoughts. We are usually better divergent thinkers because this cognitive process generates creativity. It is spontaneous,not by choice, with numerous unique ideas. Jessica notes that she found her favorite explanations of ADHD while doing this research, “chronic mind wandering”.

We often aren’t sure what to focus on

We have a harder time in prioritizing tasks. We can’t distinguish the important tasks from the noise. Our divergent thinking brains give us more options. Things stand out as urgent which may not be important. We focus on that. When the options become overwhelming we go into decision paralysis and overwhelm. Narrowing down choices uses convergent thinking using logic and facts not creativity and ideas.

 She added a note on multitasking in this section. Multitasking is  something we may do to help get past the boring tasks that do not require a lot of attention, such as watching a video and folding laundry. It’s when we do harder, more important tasks this causes problems. Multitasking is not focusing on more than one thing at the same time. It is switching focus from one thing to another rapidly. While refocusing, we may even forget about all the things happening and make mistakes. While we think it's a time saver, the mistakes usually require more time to fix or may beyond fixing.

There’s a lot of noise

Our environment is super distracting, neurotypicals have a hard time focusing, which would be an attention deficit trait. According to Dr. Ned Hallowell if you are attention challenged and go to farm and find peace and quiet without being bored you do not have ADHD. If you show up at the farm and get so bored you build a carnival you are one of us.

The Toolbox

Boost the signal and decrease the noise

Create clear cues- reminders in our line of vision, to do and move not to do out of sight

Lay down the tracks- think through the order before starting, make lists, review calendar, visualize your day before getting out of bed

Fight distraction with distraction- use one distraction to stimulate your brain so you will not look for another such as music, T.V., fidget

Practice non judgemental redirection

Practice mindfulness- when you are aware of going off task bring attention back to the present moment in  a nonjudgmental curious way like noticing the way you hands feel

Install some bumpers- visual reminder of doing and not doing, physical barriers to bump into as reminders to stay in the area of focus

If stuff pops, put it on paper- when something pops up in your thoughts write it down rather than doing it then

Make space for (hyper)focus-and install guardrails

Create conditions for hyperfocus to happen- create time and environment for focused work

Establish a cutoff time- set timers or alarms to stop, get a drink, eat, ect.

Leave yourself “breadcrumbs”- when it is stopping time write where you are and what the next step is

Move your body

Exercise- working out can increase focus by an hour

Alternate seating- standing desk, under desk treadmill, yoga balls, stationary bike chair, ect.

Go to another room- move to another place to focus

Rest your brain

Take brain breaks- short walks, short off task moments 

Plan time away- schedule time away, lunch plans or longer recharge time

Break from self regulation-let your brain do what it wants

Aim for balance with focus and a wandering brain to protect creativity and get things done.

This ADHDer's insights on Chapter 3

This chapter review took time for me to write because I hyper focused on the information presented. I wanted to know more about the parts of the brain involved. I totally identified with Dr. Hallowell's farm example. I love peace and quiet. I may not build a carnival but I would definitely make changes.

One thing that resonates with me and I wish it could be the lack of ability to regulate where our attention and focus goes. When I was teaching in early intervention, parent became upset when the members of the team working with her non verbal child referred to it as a choice not to speak. Now I get it! When our brains' work differently it is not a choice we get to make. Our brain simply does not make the connections for us to self regulate. Sometimes, we can make the choice to redirect. I have used most of the strategies in Jessica's toolbox. They work.