Slowing Things Down

[CFKane]

I was finally diagnosed with ADHD last year at 48, though I’ve had it most of my life. I run my own event production business and do almost everything myself. Unfortunately I get overwhelmed with all of my responsibilities and my coping mechanism is to shut down because everything seems to be going so fast in my brain. I’m currently on 54 mg of Concerta, but it doesn’t seem to be doing a great job and I’m waiting to speak to my psychiatrist about changing. In the meantime, I’m looking for ways to slow down my brain so I can see the things that need to get done without the overwhelm. Any tips and tricks would be appreciated.

[Netjester]

FYI. Being overwhelmed and shutting down is not an ADHD response. That's a freeze response to anxiety that is most likely triggered by PTSD due to trauma experienced as a child. ADHD is something you will need to accept and acknowledge, so don't expect miracles. What you can expect is to understand how your brain works and why it does what it does. That alone will help you overcome many obstacles.

For the freeze response, I recommend reading The Body Keeps The Score. It will explain quite well why you respond to things the way you do. It's just not about the freeze response but all responses to stressful/anxiety filled situations. I felt the book was life changing.

BTW, trauma can mean lots of things. Most childhood trauma that elicits Fight/Flight/Freeze responses come from things like divorce, molestation, physical trauma like a broken arm or leg, bullying, loss of a loved one, etc.. If you choose to read the book, you will see what causes what.

I know people say they want to slow things down, but what you really want is to be able to process what's firing off in your brain. To be able to process all that is going on, you need to establish a strong connection to your pre-frontal cortex. You can only do that when parts of your brain are occupied, such as the Opiate/Reward center. If that's busy, then your neurons will pass that by and build a path to your PFC. So keeping your reward center satisfied is where you start. How do you do that? Things like exercise, meditation, yoga, etc... Medication will help with that too. Stimulants, Naltrexone, Nmenda all work well to keep other parts of your brain satisfied.

Good Luck

[Knitting20projects]

That sounds like a common ADHD scenario to me. Being overwhelmed, then paralyzed because unsure how to prioritize your to do list of tasks. Difficulty prioritizing is a common problem for people with ADHD. Don’t give up. ADDitude website has many webinar videos (also available on their YouTube channel) about strategies to manage your workload with ADHD. Best wishes! You can do this.

[Mamamichl]

Meditation helps me the most. Doing it multiple times a day. Calm app and loóna app have been helpful. Some people write it down, but it doesn’t help me.