How to build habits with ADHD? Practical Methods

Individuals who grapple with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity/impulsivity Disorder (ADHD) face challenges of habit formation. But have you ever explored how to build habits with ADHD?

It is often perceived as a childhood condition but recent studies underscore its persistence into adulthood. The distinctive traits of impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention pose hurdles to establishing routines.

This blog explores practical strategies to empower individuals with ADHD and illuminate a path toward successful habit development for those managing ADHD.  

What is ADHD?

Attention deficit-hyperactivity/impulsivity is an abnormal or medical condition characterized by a lack of attention and an impulsive or reactive nature. It is an unexpected property in an individual’s development.

ADHD is believed to be expected in children, but recent studies show that it is also present in adults.

Most children and adults show some specific symptoms of this disease. It is, however, said that ADHD is a regular or continuous process. It is most common in children but can last until adulthood.

Symptoms of ADHD Patients  

Many symptoms characterize ADHD. You need to know about various symptoms before developing habits with ADHD. Some important symptoms are given as:

Impulsivity

ADHD patients are very impulsive. They make decisions very quickly while ignoring the consequences. They cannot regulate their emotions and feelings. These patients often act according to emotional guidance.

Hyperactivity

ADHD habit formation can be challenging because itis a medical condition in which the individual has a high tendency for anger. The patient often becomes angry at once due to trivial things and can come into fighting.

Sensitive

As a result of hyperactivity and reactive nature, patients with ADHD are susceptible. They have abnormal sleep patterns. They need an explanation for each thing or matter. They become angry because mostly they are state conscious. Eventually, sensitivity leads to difficulty in habit formation with ADHD.

Inattention

Individuals with ADHD face the problem of inattention. They lose focus and cannot stay organized. While dealing or performing one activity, they jump into another. They cannot stay concentrated for long. Inattention makes it difficult to form a routine with ADHD.

Reactivity

When you ask a weird question or anything irritating them, they respond very quickly. ADHD patients are highly reactive. Thereby, they have a low level of tolerance. Besides, they are too talkative.

How to Identify Symptoms of ADHD?

Identification of the symptoms mentioned above is necessary for habit formation with ADHD. Consider the following scenario and try to find out the symptoms of ADHD.

Scenario: My friend Toni came into the kitchen and asked for the meal. Before the meal, his younger sister offered him her doll. Toni became harsh and scolded her. When I asked Rani why she did it, she replied that it was to amuse him, but Toni had left the kitchen table.

Symptom: Did you try? That’s great. Here! You can easily identify the inattention and hyperactivity of Toni.

Impact of ADHD on Habit Formation

Habit formation requires a sound mind and heart. To develop any habit, you should be mentally and bodily healthy. Similarly, the time required to develop a habit also depends on health conditions. ADHD characteristics pose difficulty in developing habits with it.

ADHD has some negative impacts on building habits. Studies show that patients with ADHD have abnormal or disturbed sleep patterns. Their sleep quantity is often less than that of ordinary people. In addition, they are less happy than their fellows. 

• It shows that ADHD reduces both sleep and happiness, which marks an unhealthy body. As a result, these patients find it challenging to build habits with ADHD.
• As habit formation needs concentration, due to inability, people diagnosed with ADHD take longer to do so. They cannot maintain focus.

5 Methods: How to Build Habits with ADHD

If Patients with ADHD face problems in forming habits, then how will they build it? They cannot stay focused and attentive, so their habit-building capacity is shallow. However, there are specific procedures and methods through which they can overcome this difficulty.

1.      Adapting habits to ADHD characteristics

Adaptation may become a successful method for building habits with ADHD. This involves:

a. Short and Focused Routines

As an ADHD patient, you can build habits by selecting short routines. For example, you can choose a less time-consuming routine, such as learning to eat correctly. Following a quick routine will help you stay focused.

b. Incorporating Variety to Prevent Boredom

ADHD habit formation is easy when you use different varieties of the same activity. ADHD Individuals feel bored when they perform any activity for a long time. When you face such an issue, quit your present activity and opt for another interesting one. You can also choose two or three activities to maintain interest consistently.

For example, my friend who had ADHD was reading a novel for the exam, but after twenty minutes, he was facing the problem of inattention. I recommended that he listen to a video lecture on the same novel, and he followed it. The result was fruitful as he read and watched a lecture, gaining benefits through variety.

c. Allowing for flexibility in the routine

Follow a flexible routine for as long as ADHD is present. Don’t stick to just one plan. You can make a schedule, but if you miss any activity, move on and do it again.

2. Breaking Down Tasks into Smaller Steps

For ADHD patients, it is essential to remain organized and maintain focus. For such a fact, you can start building small habits. Divide all the habits into different categories and begin with small ones.

While performing any task, break it down into small parts and then commence. If you do so for some time, you can also build habits with ADHD. 

Large tasks often overwhelm people, especially ADHD patients. They need to perform each activity step-by-step, as suggested by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits.

In this way, they can successfully make any habit with ADHD. Breaking down habits into small parts saves time and energy, leading to a consistent and progressive habit routine.

3.  Think About the Consequences

As part of the abnormal condition, ADHD causes patients to make impulsive decisions. But you can avoid it as:

a. Consider Your Future

Making any decision has a direct impact on your future. Always bring your upcoming time into the mind and then act. Through this practice, you can think and hence choose the correct option. Repeating such behaviour for a specific period will automatically become a habit.

b. Who Will Suffer?

Another technique for building habits with ADHD is to think about the ill-fate. You will face all the suffering if you do anything wrong. Due to hyperactivity, patients often become angry, which causes some misfortune. To avoid it, you must think before you act.

4.      Create and Find a Supportive Environment

Environment plays a vital role in shaping our personality. Man is the product of the environment. A person can form good habits during ADHD by living in a supportive atmosphere.

a. Conducive Home Atmosphere

Home is the first place that shapes your body and mind. Parents play a significant role in whatever you want to do or become. There are two cases in such a situation.

• Firstly, parents should make the home a best friend for their ADHD child to encourage them to develop habits. They need to make things easy for the kids and motivate them throughout.
• If the patient is an adult, it is their responsibility to be friendly with each person in the house. When there is such an environment, the patient will have low stress. Hence, it can help them follow the routine and build habits with ADHD.

b. Sincere Buddies

Friends always matter most in your life. When talking about ADHD, your company can help you develop better habits. As patients with ADHD talk too much, so for a check on you, buddies can remind you not to speak and when to talk.

5.     Creating a Routine with ADHD

You can create a daily routine with ADHD to build habits. A proper schedule is essential for reminding yourself of the time for any activity. It will help you stay organized and focused. The following ways can be acted upon:

• Stay on track: Patients with ADHD lose attention and get away from the task. To avoid such a scenario, you must make and follow a list.
• Act with a smile: Don’t take any mess-up too seriously. Stay positive and laugh at your positive self. Try to avoid negative emotions. Show more sympathy to yourself and make a smile a remedy.
• Your health matters more than anything: Give particular worth to your well-being. Don’t allow anything to rule your health condition. Generally, when developing habits with ADHD, patients only focus on the routine and avoid physical activities that can cause health issues. So give time to your health. Only then can you form habits.
• Reward yourself for progress: Always motivate yourself and think about the results. Rewards keep you on track and are the best tools for a long-lasting impact.

Why is Habit Formation Important for ADHD Patients?

Habit formation is essential for patients with ADHD. If you remember the symptoms such as inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, etc, all of them show some resistance in growth and development. To combat this resistance, patients must develop habits with ADHD. The importance is given as follows;

• It is necessary to remain focused while performing daily activities. If a patient fails to do so, his abnormality will last longer. As a result, it is vital to form habits.
• To avoid accepting failure, start building habits and say goodbye to ADHD.
• Living an organized life is everyone’s wish. A patient with ADHD finds it extremely hard to stay organized. Only forming habits can help you come out of this disease.

ADHD Inability to Form Habits

Why individuals who have ADHD cannot form habits? Some of the top reasons for this inability are given as follows;

Interruption

In everyday dialogues and discussions, the others listen when one member speaks. If someone has a question or confusion, they ask it after the speaker completes his point. However, ADHD patients are often seen as interrupting. They ask a question in between the conversation.

Due to their impulsive nature, they cannot wait for their turn. They cannot regulate their emotions, which eventually causes interruption. They come into action without proper ideas and knowledge. Thus, interruption leads to the inability of ADHD to form habits.

Talking

It is one of the most common symptoms of ADHD. These patients talk very often but unnecessarily. The reason is that they tell whatever comes into their minds. They don’t listen to others but only want to speak to anyone.

Talking may be a coping method for ADHD patients. They even share all about themselves, such as secrets, with whoever they find. This points to their impulsive nature.

Procrastination

Due to the inability to remain organized and focused, these individuals often miss deadlines and fail to build habits with ADHD. They drag their work to the last minute. Procrastination is caused by forgetfulness as well. Their memories cannot retain the tasks, so they don’t act on time.

Time management is a central problem in ADHD. The patients cannot utilize their time but wait for the right moment. While waiting, they then lose attention and need to remember things. ADHD individuals should stop bad habits like procrastination permanently to develop good habits.

Some other reasons are:

• Forgetfulness: ADHD patients forget things. It is because they don’t listen to others and pay attention. Due to impulsivity, their brains do not retain complete information.
• Unable to follow a routine: The patients often fail to fulfil commitments because they need to give attention.

ADHD Daily Checklist for Adults

A daily checklist can work as the best coping tool for ADHD adults. A checklist includes important tasks, names, and dates. It shows the patient what to do and when.

• Carrying a small notebook in your pocket is one way. Keep a modern-type notebook with yourself and mention all the essential things and names if you need help memorizing them.
• Next, make a list of things in the notebook. Please keep it simple.
• You can divide the list into two sections—one for immediate things and the other for longer ones.
• Buy a notebook that you can carry everywhere.
• You can also use your phone as a notebook. Write all the things in the notepad section—mention the date for each thing and activity.
• Mark your calendar and alarm on the phone. Also, write the same in the notepad list.

Apart from this, an ADHD daily checklist for adults can be made in notion. These checklists will definitely help you to build habits with ADHD.

Conclusion

If you want to build habits with ADHD, incorporate short and varied routines, adapt yourself to ADHD traits, and foster a supportive environment at home and with friends. The daily routine is very important because it suggests you stay on track, maintain a positive mindset, prioritize health, and utilize rewards for progress.

Various symptoms of ADHD can hinder habit formation, like interruptions, excessive talking, procrastination, forgetfulness, and difficulty following routines. A concise daily checklist is proposed to address these issues, encouraging individuals to use small notebooks or phones for reminders and alarms.

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