ADHD requires some work to manage and if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by that, believe me you are not alone. Working with your ADHD takes time and if you’re going to manage it while living your regular adult life it is going to take a little bit of education and support. It isn’t impossible at all, you just need to know what pieces of your life you need to focus on to make things flow a bit more smoothly. Here are some ways to make that happen for you!
Have a doctor you can trust
Treating your ADHD is one of the most important pieces of thriving with ADHD in adult life. Contrary to popular belief this doesn’t always mean medication. You need a doctor or therapist (preferably both) you can trust to treat you so that you know you’re getting the best care for your ADHD possible. The doctor should be someone who listens to you and respects you, and that respect should go both ways. Forming that relationship gives you someone to support you in your treatment. I wrote this post about finding a doctor who is right for you and it will help you identify the attributes a great doctor will have.
Clean up your space
This is a big challenge for many of us with ADHD. Keeping a space tidy can be a serious strain because it requires so much executive function. There are ways to make it simpler, like leaving cleaner and paper towels in every room, for instance. You can also use it as your time to catch up on a podcast or phone a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. This turns it into a coworking session for you which can power you through the things you need to do. There are many ways to attack cleaning up but ask long as you put the effort in you’ll get some usefulness out of it.
Keep yourself fed
It can sometimes feel impossible to keep yourself fed. That’s because much like cleaning, getting into the kitchen and cooking a meal requires a lot of executive function. You have to have the required items for your meal, the attention span to combine them, and the time awareness to pull them out of the oven or off the stove at the correct moment. To say this is a challenge is an understatement. Many of us wind up leaning into delivery services to stay fed but this can really put a ding in the wallet. To help with this particular challenge I suggest you read this resource about how to cook when you have funky executive function. If even that feels like too much you can always dig into my list of 100 foods to eat when you can’t cook. That post will give you a list of foods to combine to make easy meals with minimal cooking.
Manage big emotions
Emotions can show up bigger than expected when you have ADHD. Those emotions can lead to frustration for you if you aren’t doing something to manage them. For starters, working with a therapist to manage emotional regulation can be incredibly helpful if you haven’t already started that work. Being aware of things like rejection sensitive dysphoria and how it can effect our emotional wellbeing is also an important factor to be aware of. Do your best to learn everything you can about emotional regulation and you’ll be doing well.
Lean on community support
It is an important part of managing your ADHD in adult life to find community support that will work for you. Community is a place where you can go to get and receive advice, learn more about the ways ADHD effects you, and most importantly see that you are not alone in your struggles. I often say that when you get into community with people with ADHD you find out for the first time that you are normal. You get to see people talking about relatable struggles to the point where you feel like they are telling your story or have set up a camera in your house! Community support allows you share your troubles with people who are living the same life as you and can let you in on how they are working through those problem.
Educate yourself about ADHD in adult life
There are many resources online and in person for you to learn more about ADHD. Some places you may want to begin are with the wonderful resources provided by the two organizations that are made for people with ADHD: CHADD and ADDA. Both of these organizations are chock full of webinars, groups, articles, and events for you to learn even more about your ADHD and move the needle forward on how you manage it.
Learning to manage ADHD in adult life is complex because we’re still trying to live life while we’re learning. Take your time and lean into each piece as well as you can. Life will begin to ease up as the pieces fall into place. You’ve got this!
Until next time,
René
If you’re looking for a wonderful way to keep up with learning consider joining my BGLK membership site! For $ 7 per month you get access to a set of mini courses that will help you learn more about adulting with ADHD. Join here to start the mini courses!
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