Entry 1 - The Cognitive Focus

What is ADHD?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting both children and adults. It is characterized by hypersensitivity (amplified responses to emotional or physical stimuli) and impaired executive function which include inattention (the inability to focus), hyperactivity (inappropriate and excess movement), and impulsivity (quick actions without consideration of consequences) (American Psychiatric Association 2022; Neurohealth).


On a biological level, ADHD is associated with low levels of dopamine and norepinephrine between areas of the brain that control emotional responses, behavior, and executive function (Kanojia 2023). These chemicals are important contributors to the brain’s reward system and regulation of mood (Thomas 2022). Therefore, they are essential in driving someone to action. With ADHD, the brain is almost hardwired against completing the right task at hand.


ADHD is a lifelong condition. In the words of the American Psychiatric Association, it is considered a “debilitating disorder,” with impacts that reach all aspects of one’s life. It is not uncommon for those with ADHD to have low self-worth and high sensitivity due to struggles with daily functioning, social relations, and/or less than desired achievement. Therefore, it is imperative that those with ADHD are adequately equipped to learn the skills to manage their symptoms effectively so as to live the life that they deserve (Cleveland Clinic 2023). 

So What Can We Do? 

The cognitive side is at the root of ADHD and inaction is simply one of its symptoms. Inaction can simply be described as the inability to perform a desired task. Inaction can be attributed to lower levels of dopamine as mentioned earlier, leading to a struggle to be motivated. Additionally, frequent distraction in people with ADHD can elicit inaction due to an overwhelm of information (Cleveland Clinic 2023).


Without a cognitive approach, behavioral changes we make have less ground to stick. Working with ADHD starts with laying this strong mental foundation. What this means is reflecting powerfully on our priorities and mindset. By taking an inward focus first, we can later supercharge our behaviors and better prepare for inaction.


In my personal experience, I’ve been building my cognitive coping mechanisms through a long process. Since being diagnosed 5 years ago in high school, the strategies I attempted to employ hardly stuck because I neglected the cognitive side. Without having realized my priorities or a growth mindset, my attempts lacked substance and sustainability. As a result, my mental space spiraled downward, putting me in a worse place than previously.


As I’ve developed more as a person, I’ve been able to continually discover and discern more positives from a cognitive approach. In the past year, and especially in my adjustment to transferring to UC Davis, these strategies have been instrumental to my progress. I am excited to share them with you in hopes that you may find something of value on your own ADHDventure.

Successful Through the Mind

Strategy #1: Meditation

Meditation has been used in communities worldwide for thousands of years and has taken on many definitions as a result. In this post, I will be referring to meditation in the sitting, mindfulness practice connotation. With modern research and medicine, meditation continues to hold strong as an effective mental health intervention. In an interview with the director of UC Davis’ Attention, Impulsivity, and Regulation cohort, Dr. Julie Schweitzer, evidence suggests that meditation is potent in those with ADHD as well along with great emotional regulation.


Medication can help with both an overload of thoughts and emotions due to hypersensitivity - common experiences in those with ADHD (ADDA 2023). By sitting with yourself free of distraction, meditation puts you in a space to become cognisant of recurring thoughts. 


For negative thoughts that arise, it is important to question the situations that cause them, then let the emotion go. This can almost feel like breaking free. For other thoughts, meditation can be used to discern their relevance to your goals and priorities. If some future event or scenario is popping up in your mind more than others, take note of it!

Personal Application:

A couple weeks ago, I stayed inside all morning, in bed, and scrolling on my phone making my head feel super cloudy. For me, constant streams of stimulus like social media keep my brain racing. In these scenarios, I find meditation to be most helpful because it resets me by creating stillness. After a while, it almost feels like the dust settles on my thoughts.


Research supports this as well. With multiple benefits from reducing stress, supporting emotional health, and increasing self-awareness and attention, meditation covers a wide range of positives (Ajmera & Thorpe 2024). Recent developments have even shown a change in brain activity and improvement in symptoms in clinically depressed patients (Powell 2018).


Below is a guided meditation taken from Sam Harris, an accredited neuroscientist:


  1. Sit comfortably with good posture

  2. Close your eyes and begin breathing

  3. As you breathe, become conscious of how the breath is coming in (your nose, mouth, or chest)

  4. Your mind will inevitably wonder, and when it does, mercifully bring your attention back to your breathing

  5. As you continue breathing, pay attention to other sensations that capture your mind (ex. tingling at your feet, the sound of the wind) or thoughts that drag your attention away

  6. Keep note of the thoughts and feelings you observe as you keep returning your attention

  7. Repeat for as long as needed


Strategy #2: Self-Evaluation for Values and Priorities

The whole struggle with ADHD is doing the right thing at the right times. By attaching our values and priorities to our actions, we make productive tasks and behaviors more sustainable and easier to complete (Kanojia 2023). Self-evaluation is essential in figuring out what these values and priorities are so we can apply them.

 

Observing recurring thoughts in meditation can be extremely helpful in distinguishing what is important to us. But even without meditation, self-evaluation can be done by allocating distraction-free time to reflect and write out our goals and values. Using this knowledge, you can begin categorizing actions based on urgency and importance according to the values you defined. 


When we attach an integral part of our identities like our goals and values to the “right tasks,” the value of the “wrong tasks” begins to fizzle out (Berkman 2018). For example, because I valued academics and have an assignment due tomorrow, I would categorize it as a high priority. However, using the same values and situation, a task like checking my phone would be of low urgency and low importance.


A self-evaluation of strengths is also helpful here - this is something that comes throughout trial and error. If I know I do better with my phone in a different room or when I ask more questions, leverage it!

Personal Application:

The New Year always puts self-evaluation at the forefront of my mind. However, now two months removed, listing my values and priorities continue to ground me. This year, I’ve outlined three priorities: Software Engineering (SWE), Modeling, and Dance. 


Whenever I feel like I veer out of direction or get distracted, I sit down and write these priorities out and reflect on whether my actions align with them. Then, I write about the steps I can take to act in accordance with what I have listed out. For example, for SWE, some ways I live this value out is by understanding my Computer Science coursework, networking, and building projects.

Strategy #3: Mindset

Nowadays, the word “mindset” carries a certain connotation. The first thing that may have come to your mind is the ever so popular “grindset” or “grind mindset,” where an unrealistic level of work is glorified. In building a truly productive mindset, a lot more mercy is required.


As mentioned in the beginning, ADHD brains can work against productivity leading to procrastination and distress. Continuously experiencing disorder in completing tasks can cultivate a reliance on high stress situations to get things done such as the day before a deadline. Eventually, these situations may begin to feel inevitable. The first step in reversing this pattern is taking a mindset of prevention and preparation, rather than letting disorder take over. (Kanojia 2018). For example, “what small steps can I take now” vs. “I will do this later.”


In a more generalized approach, a growth mindset that embraces challenge is found to be consistent in high-achievers (Mofield et. al 2019). Focus on doing better, not the best (Kanojia 2023). Additionally, we can use what we already learned about the importance of identity to leverage our mindset. Specifically, by defining ourselves as something, we create a stronger anchor to the actions that follow the idea. For example, this reframe is as simple as viewing yourself as “trying to achieve your goals” vs. “achieving your goals.”

Personal Application:

This strategy hits home for me. For almost all of my academic life, I’ve been a huge procrastinator. Hearing Dr. Kanojia talk about the ADHD inclination to chaos was extremely validating for me because I saw myself in every experience he mentioned.


Because of these experiences, I created a similar mindset to what he mentions. A “push it off until I can’t anymore” mindset to avoid the struggle as long as possible. 


Throughout this past year, I’ve been pushing back against this mindset by reframing and habit. My personal mental reframe has been about the stress caused by procrastination: from “This feeling is inevitable” to “I don’t have to feel like this anymore.” While I’m not completely perfect, I’ve been starting tasks up to three days earlier at a time. It’s not perfect, but it’s progress. That’s the most important thing to remember!


Finally, one last strategy I would like to share is visualization. 

Strategy #4: Visualization

Advocated for by both Dr. Schweitzer in our interview and by Dr. Kanojia in his HealthyGamer video series, visualization is a powerful tool we can use to make decisions.


What is visualization though? Visualization involves envisioning yourself in different situations and fully immersing yourself each of these situations’ consequences to determine a course of action. It is definitely a more “out there” concept, but it draws on similar concepts to what we have already looked at so far! 


What it might look like to apply this would be something like immersing yourself in an imaginative world where you achieved something. This could be as small as getting an extra assignment done! Then, imagine an inverse scenario where you did not do your best. For example, getting on your phone that night or making multiple detrimental decisions. Comparing and contrasting the resulting emotions and consequences gives way to clarity, giving you more control over building the discipline necessary to achieve your goals.

Personal Application:

Dr. Schweitzer and Dr. Kanojia mention visualization in the context of rather big goals. Personally, I haven’t applied visualization in this fashion because the scope appears a little large to me.


Instead, I’ve been using visualization in everyday, small battles. For example, just this morning I ran into the dilemma of going back to sleep after making breakfast or coming to campus to get more work done. Recalling back to times where I have stayed in bed and probably pulled out my phone and contrasting it with the fulfillment that comes when I’m productive on campus made the decision easier. Now, I’m on campus writing this blog post for y’all!

Final Thoughts

Changing your mindset is not easy. It’s one of those things that takes a long time - but when you work on it, it lays a foundation that works for any situation. We have the privilege of holding the superpower to think. And as much as it can be scary sometimes, we can also use it to our greatest advantage.


Remember that this whole journey is a process! You are not alone in this. Try and see if anything works for you. If it doesn’t work - that’s okay. Learn from it and keep pushing. You got this!


If any part of this post resonated with you, please make sure to share this blog and bookmark the page to stay updated for future posts. I’ll see you on the next stop on our ADHDventure. 🙂

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2022, June). What is ADHD?. Psychiatry.org - What is ADHD? https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/adhd/what-is-adhd

Berkman E. T. (2018). The Neuroscience of Goals and Behavior Change. Consulting psychology journal, 70(1), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000094

Cleveland Clinic. (2023, February 22). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/4784-attention-deficithyperactivity-disorder-adhd

Cleveland Clinic. (2023, October 9). Feeling stuck? Here's how to overcome ADHD paralysis. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/adhd-paralysis 

Kanojia, A. (2023, October 19). The Curse of ADHD. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6K7yxaNaM 

Kreider, C. M., Medina, S., & Slamka, M. R. (2019). Strategies for Coping with Time-Related and Productivity Challenges of Young People with Learning Disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 6(2), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6020028

Harris, S. (2011, May 10). How to Meditate. Sam Harris. https://www.samharris.org/blog/how-to-meditate

Mofield, E., & Parker Peters, M. (2019). Understanding Underachievement: Mindset, Perfectionism, and Achievement Attitudes Among Gifted Students. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 42(2), 107-134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353219836737

NeuroHealth. (2022, June 7). ADHD & hypersensitivity. NeuroHealth Associates. https://nhahealth.com/adhd-hypersensitivity/#:~:text=It%20is%20an%20attribute%20common,overwhelmed%20by%20too%20much%20information.

Powell, A. (2023, November 9). Harvard researchers study how mindfulness may change the brain in depressed patients. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/

Thomas, L. (2022, December 29). How does ADHD affect the brain?. News Medical. https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-does-ADHD-Affect-the-Brain.aspx#:~:text=ADHD%20is%20associated%20with%20abnormally,on%20the%20task%20at%20hand. 

Thorpe, M. (2024, August 15). 12 benefits of meditation. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation 

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