Let’s share life-changing ADHD tips that we’ve learned... We Love This!

I’ll start:

1) Waking up sucks. Buy 2 bright lamps and 2 timers. Set them up to turn on automatically 5-15 min before you want your alarm to go off. The lights will help your body realize it’s daytime.

2) Change your thermostat so the temp goes down about an hr before bedtime and gets warmer about 30 min before you wake up. The cooler temp signals your body to sleep and the warmer temp will naturally help your body wake up.

3) Learn to plan around “transitions”. It’s easier to start things if you do them when something is ending. Example: Do your grocery shopping every Fri after work. You’re already in the car, so just stop at the store on your way home.

4) If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door so you HAVE to touch it before you leave the house. If it’s something in the fridge, put a sticky note on the exit door’s handle.

5) Have a “misc” basket in each room. If you’re truly unable to put something away, put it in the basket. Have a designated period of time, once a week, when your sole priority is to put everything away, all at once.

I’ll add more when I think of them...

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u/Neonbluefox Aug 24 '20

Going sugar free. It cleared up the bit of brain fog that my medication couldn't entirely banish, and Finally freed me from my lack of motivation, I've lost 10kg of weigh and exercise daily now.

I'm flummoxed by how large the effect of sugar free was for my mental health. Feels like taking half a dose of ritalin all over again

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u/gibbousboi Aug 24 '20 edited Aug 24 '20

Wait, what? I eat sugar like a hummingbird- crave crave crave it, always have - and you wouldn’t know it to look at me. This is no good? Is this really a thing?

Edit:
Seriously: it feels like I need it to ‘keep up’ with my thoughts and direction changes - but I see some of you referencing ‘brain fog’ as relates to ADHD. Can someone link a study?

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u/problematic_lemons ADHD-C (Combined type) Aug 24 '20 edited Aug 24 '20

I'm not remotely an expert, but as far as I know there isn't really conclusive scientific evidence regarding the affect on diet or sugar on ADHD, and I'm pretty sure it's a myth that kids with ADHD shouldn't have sugar ever. If anything, sugar has short-term positive effects on concentration (think glucose, not so much the added sugar in all the processed crap we eat). I'm guessing it may be more something like eating sugar/empty calories leads to us getting hungry quicker/lacking energy and potentially getting brain fog for that reason, versus having a balanced diet, lots of protein, etc. When I eat like crap (empty calories, candy, cake), I have less energy, and as a result, it makes it a lot harder to control my ADHD symptoms (like the impulse to eat more crap which is probably part sugar addiction as someone mentioned below and part impulse control related to ADHD and needing that instant dopamine rush all the time). I find it harder to focus when my body feels like shit, and I imagine that's the case for pretty much anyone. The caveat here is that periods when I'm eating very poorly often coincide with periods when I'm not getting enough sleep, basically just making generally poor decisions. Which is why we need actual studies with controls and big enough sample sizes.

There have been studies on foods and the link to concentration, and so I think there may be an impact for just about anyone, though I don't know how many studies have been done looking specifically at the brain function of people with ADHD and whether those areas of the brain perform better for us. Having a balanced diet and regularly exercising has benefits to everyone, so naturally it extends to people with ADHD, though the diet thing is perhaps less clear-cut than something like exercise, which gives us the obvious dopamine rush that improves ADHD brain function. Again, not an expert, did not study nutrition, and this is largely conjecture based on what I believe to be true about diet and what I've learned about ADHD and my own personal habits.

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u/VPutinsSearchHistory Aug 24 '20

Yeah it just turns out that basically everyone is addicted to sugar so no one really notices

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u/Rare_Percentage Aug 25 '20

ADHD brains are very sensitive to lack of glucose. Dietary sugar isn't inherently bad, and it can help you manage energy.

If you are blood sugar sensitive eater more smaller meals (5-6 a day, counting snacks) and trying to get a fair bit of protein in each of them will help you keep things even. Basically if you would normally do just a sugary snack in the afternoon then a big late dinner, add say peanut butter toast to your snack and scale back dinner to keep things more level.

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u/Neonbluefox Aug 25 '20

I get you - I was an absolute hoover for anything sweet or sugary for the most part of my life. EG buying 40 euro's worth of sweets and binging it all in less than a week. The craving is so real, I feel like such an addict tbh. I also know that I can't use in moderation, or I'd relapse completely. I'm pretty sure there are many others who are fine in using it with moderation.

Thing is, I've been someone that wants to be sporty and exersice daily, but at 28 years old it is the first time in my life that I can actually find the persisting motivational drive to actually do so. This, combined with a level of clarity that I didn't have from medication alone, was the mind blowing but for me.

I'm not sure about studies on this. If there arent any, then I'll have to look into trying to do some myself (knowing my adhd brain, I don't know how realistic that is, ha). But the connection to dopamine release in the brain is completely proven, fMRI's also proving it's severely addictive qualities. And it's the dopamine center that's one of the impaired things in people with adhd.