So you think you have ADHD or you’re just bad at planning?

Our brains can work differently, and ADHD is a feature of the nervous system's functioning, not just an inability to manage time. Neurobiological research shows that people with ADHD process information and react to the world differently due to the peculiarities of certain brain regions. It's important to understand that this isn't a disease that needs to be cured, nor a deficiency to overcome, but rather a different way of perceiving and interacting with the world. With the right approach, many ADHD traits can become advantages: the ability to deeply immerse in interesting topics, creative thinking, noticing details that others miss.

How the ADHD Brain Works

In ADHD, the connection between the striatum and prefrontal cortex - brain areas responsible for working memory and attention - functions differently. This affects how we process information, perceive speech, and maintain attention. Interestingly, in adults, anatomical differences in brain structure become less noticeable.

One of the key features of ADHD is the functioning of the dopamine system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger between nerve cells. In ADHD, certain parts of the brain lack sufficient dopamine, and people unconsciously seek ways to increase its levels, for example, through starting new projects or seeking vivid experiences.

How to Know if I Have ADHD or Just Absent-Mindedness?

For ADHD diagnosis, two key aspects are important: attention characteristics and manifestations of hyperactivity or impulsivity. Symptoms must appear before age 12 and be present in at least two areas of life.

Attention Characteristics

Attention difficulties manifest in numerous everyday situations. Errors often occur due to carelessness - not from lack of knowledge, but from rushing or distraction. While writing, letters may switch places, even if the person knows the correct spelling perfectly. One might forget about a regular call that happens at the same time for many months.

Maintaining attention on a single task becomes a real challenge. It's difficult to watch a movie without checking the phone, or drive without background music. Even in direct conversation, a person might "drift away" into their thoughts, causing others to often complain: "You're not listening to me."

Special difficulties arise with following instructions and completing tasks. Following step-by-step directions and finishing tasks becomes a real challenge, especially when the initial interest has faded. Planning multi-step tasks and organizing daily affairs turn into a serious problem.

There's a characteristic physical aversion to tasks requiring prolonged mental concentration, such as filling out documents. Important items are regularly lost: keys, documents, phone, glasses. Any external stimulus can break concentration - while some people need absolute silence, others are helped by background noise. Constant forgetfulness in daily affairs leads to missed meetings and unfulfilled obligations.

Hyperactivity and Impulsivity

In adults, hyperactivity manifests differently than in children. It's a constant internal restlessness, expressed in continuous movements: fidgeting, foot tapping, inability to sit still. In situations requiring immobility, such as meetings or performances, there's an acute need to stand up and move around.

Internal tension creates a feeling as if there's a constant "motor" working inside, demanding movement and action. Quiet leisure activities are difficult - there's always a need for activity. Being "on edge" becomes a familiar background to life.

In conversations, excessive talkativeness manifests, especially when tired or stressed, when speech becomes fast and jumbled. It's difficult to wait for one's turn in conversation - there's an urge to answer before the question is finished. Impatience shows in all waiting situations: in queues, during conversations, in everyday communication. Involuntary intervention in conversations and affairs of others often occurs.

In adulthood, hyperactivity often transforms into internal anxiety and worry. Mental health specialists observe that when a person with ADHD wakes up, it feels like all the surrounding space is attacking them - they need to do this, need to do that, remembering countless things that need to be done that day. All this forms into a kind of anxiety that people often simply describe as 'I feel unwell'.

Unlike regular anxiety, which is often connected to specific fears or thoughts about the future, anxiety in ADHD is more like a physical state of constant internal tension. It can manifest in unconscious movements: foot tapping, walking during phone calls, frequent position changes. For example, many find themselves immediately standing up and starting to walk when talking on the phone. While sitting is possible, it's much easier to wander around the apartment during these moments. After checking the step counter, it's sometimes possible to easily walk 5-6 kilometers around the house in a day.

Why Usual Approaches Don't Work

When a person with ADHD can't start an important task, it's not about laziness or lack of willpower. Mental health experts note that ADHD more often causes problems with executive function – that is, with motivation and willpower. A person might want to, be capable of, and not particularly worry about it, but simply cannot force themselves to start working.

It's important to understand that ADHD significantly differs from ordinary procrastination. With anxious procrastination, people postpone tasks due to worrying thoughts about possible failure or excessive workload. With ADHD, the mechanism is entirely different – the brain processes information differently and reacts differently to tasks, especially those that don't spark immediate interest.

Attention in ADHD can be imagined as a spotlight that's difficult to keep on one point – it constantly moves, catching first one thing, then another. This doesn't mean you can't concentrate at all. Rather, your brain requires a special approach to work organization.

Start with Creating the Right Environment

The workspace should be organized to minimize distracting factors. This doesn't mean sitting in an empty white room – it's important to find your own balance. Some people with ADHD, for example, are helped by background white noise or certain music. Others need absolute silence. Experiment and note what works specifically for you.

Space Organization

People with ADHD often face the issue that what's not in their field of vision seems to cease existing. Therefore, it's important to organize space so that important things are always visible, but without creating visual chaos. A good strategy can be creating work zones where each item has its specific place. Items shouldn't be hidden in drawers – it's better to use open shelves or transparent containers. Important documents, keys, wallet should have their permanent places, preferably in direct line of sight.

Time Also Needs Special Organization

Long work periods are better broken down into short intervals. Working for 15-25 minutes followed by a short break often proves more productive than trying to sit for several hours straight. It's important to use a timer – external time control helps structure work and reduces anxiety about how much time has passed. Electronic calendars with reminders become indispensable helpers. It's important to consider the peculiarity of time perception with ADHD – it often seems more stretchable than it actually is. Therefore, a good practice is planning with a buffer – allowing one and a half to two times more time for tasks than seems necessary.

Working with Complex Tasks

Large projects often cause a state of paralysis in people with ADHD – the task seems so enormous that it's impossible to even start. Here works the principle of "eating an elephant piece by piece." Any large task can and should be broken down into maximally small, concrete steps. For example, instead of "write a report," it's better to write: "open document," "write title," "make a three-point plan," "write two-paragraph introduction." Each such micro-step requires minimal effort, which reduces resistance to starting work.

Using Strengths

ADHD provides not only challenges but unique advantages. The ability to quickly switch between tasks, notice details others miss, generate non-standard ideas – all this can become a serious professional advantage when properly applied. Hyperfocus – a state of extreme concentration on an interesting task – can also be a useful tool. It's important to learn how to use it: create conditions for its occurrence when needed, and know how to exit it when switching to other tasks is required.

Before turning to medication, it's important to establish basic aspects of life. Research indicates that many ADHD symptoms can be intensified by certain habits and lifestyle:

Sleep Hygiene

Sleep deprivation significantly intensifies ADHD symptoms. It's important to establish a regular sleep schedule and create proper conditions for rest.

Screen Time Excessive use of smartphones and social media can substantially aggravate concentration problems. Sometimes it's necessary to temporarily abandon social networks to evaluate their impact on symptoms.

Work-Life Balance

Long working days (12-15 hours) can significantly intensify symptoms due to brain exhaustion. For people with ADHD, it's especially important to monitor the balance between work and rest.

Waverox Mindtracker can work as your personal fatigue detector by monitoring your brain activity patterns and alerting you when signs of mental exhaustion appear, such as decreased focus. Instead of pushing through until you're completely drained, the device can notify you to take breaks at optimal times, helping you maintain steady energy levels throughout your workday.

Alcohol and Other Substance

Use Often people with ADHD start using alcohol to reduce anxiety or restlessness. However, this creates a vicious circle: use intensifies symptoms, which, in turn, create a desire to suppress them.

When Professional Support is Needed

Working with ADHD characteristics is a process, and sometimes it needs professional support. If existing strategies aren't bringing desired results, if difficulties seriously affect quality of life, it's worth consulting specialists. Modern ADHD help includes not only medication support but also special skills training that helps better organize one's life.

These are group sessions, usually 8-9 meetings, where people learn to cope with different aspects of ADHD. The program includes work with impulsivity, anxiety management, understanding others' emotions, financial planning, and creating working organization systems.

The peculiarity of these trainings is that they provide specific, practical tools. Specialists recommend taking such training even during the diagnostic stage — this provides basic self-help tools while work continues on clarifying the diagnosis and selecting treatment.

Mental health professionals note that skills training for people with ADHD "is useful for almost everyone – it teaches basic things about planning, organizing oneself and one's space." Such programs provide specific tools for working with one's characteristics and help find individual strategies for life organization.

Some studies indicate that neurofeedback training (like the one we use in Waverox) can lead to improvements in attention and reductions in hyperactive behaviors. A review noted that approximately 80-90% of individuals with ADHD may benefit from this treatment. Additionally, practitioners report enhanced self-esteem and academic performance among participants following neurofeedback training.

It's important to remember that ADHD isn't something to "defeat" or "outgrow." It's a feature of how the brain works, with which one can learn to live in harmony. Instead of trying to force yourself to work "like everyone else," it's worth finding your own special approach that takes into account the peculiarities of your perception and information processing.

Each person with ADHD finds their own set of working strategies through trial and error. What works excellently for one person might be completely ineffective for another. That's why it's so important to experiment, try different approaches, and carefully track what works specifically in your case.