Newsletter #5: Motivation deficits and internet use in ADHD, plus our new Facebook page!

OK, sometimes when you have ADHD you get behind on stuff. That’s kind of what happened with our newsletter. Starting this March, though, the ADaptHD newsletter is back, with one scientific study about ADHD, one noteworthy news article, and one coping tip each month!

One more piece of exciting ADaptHD news: we’ve got a Facebook page now! Follow us on there for up-to-date news as we post new articles and make changes to the site!

 

Study of the Month: ADHD Motivation Deficits and Excessive Internet Use

People with ADHD have been known to spend more time than they mean to online, and a newly published study sheds some light on why ADHD and excessive internet use often go together.

The study found that ADHDers tended to spiral into heavier internet use over time only when they had symptoms involving motivation deficits. These symptoms include a tendency to prioritize immediate rewards over long-term ones.

For ADHDers, that finding might make a certain intuitive sense: being easily caught up in tasks that offer short-term rewards can interfere with our ability to get stuff done, and one example of a potentially distracting task that offers immediate gratification would be … going on the internet!

 

Article of the Month: Being Diagnosed With ADHD in Your 40s

This month’s standout news article is from the Guardian, which ran a piece describing someone’s experience of living with undiagnossed ADHD, then finally being diagnosed and starting treatment in his 40s. Here’s a choice paragraph from the article:

Compared with my peers, my capacities for self-organisation were brittle, and small setbacks could knock me off course for a whole day (such days would end in self-recrimination). My work habits too often relied on last-minute crunches, a mixture of on-deadline miracles and over-deadline apologies. A knack for writing and quickly absorbing information had seen me through a postgraduate education and career changes, but my learning style was unsystematic and idiosyncratic, proceeding in flashes and leaps. Too much happened at the last possible moment.

For those who were diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood (or who haven’t yet been diagnosed for that matter!) the entire article is worth a read because it will probably feel eerily and insightfully familiar.

 

Coping Tip of the Month: Schedule Your Chores!

Thanks to procrastination, poor planning, and the motivation deficits mentioned above, ADHDers often delay tedious but necessary chores far beyond reason.

One way to break out of this pattern can be to create a regular schedule for certain tasks you struggle to get started with. Every Tuesday at 6 PM is laundry time! Such-and-such day of the month is the day to pay bills! Immediately after dinner is when all the dishes get done!

And so on. Having a preestablished routine to stick to can take some of the pressure off having to plan, decide and self-regulate in the moment.

 

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Image: Flickr/Jeremy Brooks