2. ADHD CHAT- The Complexity and Cost of Procrastination

ADHD is a complicated neurologic condition characterized mainly by  difficulties with hyperactivity and inattention. A significant additional symptom is procrastination. It is well known an ADHD individual can do practically anything if they are interested in it. So, what's up? The answer is that they have significant difficulties when the task is not interesting to them. They tend to wait and wait and wait and wait and never quite get around to it, or do the task at the last minute. This is particularly noticeable in children in school, where many of the tasks are considerably less than interesting. The tendency then is to wait until the last minute and then pull an "all-nighter" to get the assignment done.

This approach has some unwanted and usually unpredicted side effects. Neurotypical children respond because a task is important. They have been told by their parents that they're supposed to get good grades so they can go to a good college and so on. The ADHD child is not impressed by anything other than what interests him or her. They don't respond to just an abstract concept like importance or what it will lead to a better college or some other concern that is not immediate. An added complication is that short term stress like trying to beat the deadline increases dopamine, which is the "feel-good" kind of neurotransmitter and also the cause many of the problems we see in ADHD. There's a problem with this because then the ADHD child tends to make a lifetime habit of waiting until the last minute and is typically not even aware of the neurotransmitter issues in his or her own body.

The ADHD child or adult is training himself or herself to wait until the last minute to perform a task, which causes a chronic inability to provide work that is done in a timely manner. This does not get an ADHD child or adult out of the loop of being at the mercy of his or her dopamine levels.

Training an ADHD child or adult to complete a task regardless of how interested he or she may be at the time usually involves some combination of behavioral and cognitive therapies. The behavioral method is basically that you break a larger task down into small tasks. Another behavioral technique is getting a reward - like an ice cream cone or something else pleasurable. The ADHDer says to himself or herself, "I will get a reward for doing this task." The cognitive method is that you figure out a motivator to do the work necessary to complete the task. It can also be just a cognitive approach - for example, telling oneself that doing this task won't be that bad. "I can do this for 10 minutes and it won't bother me that much." 

The thing is that you want to give them more control of their behavior than just responding to their neurotransmitters. This can be tricky and may require the assistance of a psychotherapist or coach, but it is important to have another option than just chronic procrastination and then rushing to completion.

ADHD Humorous Stories

As I mentioned in my podcast, when my children were being born, I did not know anything about ADHD. As a matter of fact, ADHD hadn't even been named yet when my children were being born. But I knew very early on that my son was going be a little more interesting than my other children. My son was less than a year old, just barely walking. I came into the living room, and there was my son, dressed in just a diaper hanging from one hand off the back rail of a Boston rocker and just sort of rocking back and forth. He was about a foot and a half off the ground, which I concerned with, but he was totally happy and giggling - very pleased with himself. This was just the first of many acts of derring-do that he participated in through the course of his life. (I'm  not sure but I think he may still be doing some of that sort of thing.) That was my first inkling that we had something a little different here!

This newsletter is separate from my podcast with different content. I'm trying to recognize that not everybody spends a lot of time listening to podcasts and some people prefer to read their information and some people want to do both.

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