Adult ADHD: What is it, how to work with it and how can psychology help you

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that is often associated with childhood. However, many adults continue to show attention deficit-related signs and symptoms that greatly interfere with activities of everyday life and even deteriorate their self-esteem and psychological health. In this article we will look at what ADHD is and discuss how to mitigate its impact on daily life.

Our brain only has limited resources to perceive and process the world around us, and nowadays we live in environments that are overloaded with stimulation and information. We have to cope with an infinite number of demands: work, leisure, social life, personal life, partners, children… in addition to a myriad of self-imposed rules that can sometimes overload our cognitive capacities. We also have a significant social pressure towards productivity, in which it seems that if you don’t do anything with your free time you are wasting it or not taking advantage of your life to a 100%.

I don’t know about you, but personally I find it more and more difficult to get myself to carry out complicated tasks or tasks that require concentration for long periods of time. There always seems to be something better to do, something more urgent, or distractions that prevent me from doing that deep work that brings me closer to achieving my goals.

In this context of information overload, there are more and more communication channels and entertainment media based on immediate gratification. In almost all media and platforms, the consumption of ever shorter and faster content is encouraged, and our attentional capacities are progressively being reduced: it is increasingly difficult to focus on a task, to stay organized, and to avoid the distractions that are bombarding us from all sides.

A study conducted in Canada showed that people’s average attentional span went from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015. The concept of the «goldfish effect» appeared, comparing our attentional span to that of a goldfish. We live in an increasingly distracted world, in which the most precious resource, your attention, becomes the most important currency.

It is not surprising that, more and more frequently, people with a poor self-concept related to their «lack of motivation», «lack of concentration», «lack of organization», «lack of productivity» or similar concepts come for counseling.

In sum, a person diagnosed with ADHD usually faces problems related to inattention that make it difficult for them to sustain a continuous level of effort, to know when to start and stop their actions, problems with procrastination, with the management of their tasks or personal life, a tendency to be impulsive (among others), which generate great difficulties in almost any area of their life.

And these problems do not only affect their work or their projects: They eventually find it difficult making friends and maintaining friendships, keeping a job, finding a long-term partner, and even regulating their emotions, all of which ends up creating a sort of vicious circle that is difficult to escape from.

Certainly, such difficulties end up being perceived as a personal failure and a lack of motivation or the well-known «willpower» that creates an immense distress. Many adults who are diagnosed with ADHD have grown up with comments such as «he/she is very lazy», «he/she is daydreaming”, «he/she is in his/her own world», «he/she is absent-minded» which, after being repeated over time, are internalised and become part of the self-concept.

But what if I told you that the root of all these difficulties lies more in your environment than in your brain?

Very often people who are diagnosed with ADHD think that because their brain works differently, they will not be able to improve their attention/motivation/memory in any way, or that there is nothing to do but use prescription drugs. While medication can be a great help (always consult your psychiatrist), we have a lot of room to improve our quality of life, our productivity, and ultimately our self-esteem, through the environments in which we live.

Just think about it: We live in environments (virtual and non-virtual) that are carefully designed to facilitate some behaviors and prevent or reduce many other behaviors.

These are only a few common examples. Most definitely, the whole world around us is generally designed by other people, and there are certain cues that indicate that if we do «x» thing, it might have more or less pleasant consequences, and therefore we tend to do it more often or less often.

This first step is tremendously important, as it can help us alleviate some of the guilt and discomfort related to our self-esteem: we change the focus from «I am good for nothing», «I can’t finish anything», «I am lazy» to «What can I improve in my system so that I have less trouble doing this?» «What specific actions can I implement in my daily life to try and improve this situation»… And this is a major step forward.

The second step is putting our hands to work: becoming increasingly aware of how, when, and where are those «stimuli» that trigger our behaviors, and how the consequences of our actions either favor or decrease the likelihood of us doing the things we want to do.

Once we have made this thorough analysis of our habits, our routines, the systems we use to manage our time and our projects (work, family, personal, etc.) we will have much more information on how to try and modify them. Thus, we become the «designers» of our own environments (both virtual and non-virtual) and we will have many more tools to get closer to the type of person we want to be, and act in a way that is more in line with our values.

Psychology is the science of behavior: psychology professionals are therefore experts in the study of how certain psychological problems arise, how they are maintained over time, and the necessary techniques to modify them and reduce your discomfort.

Together with you, your psychologist will make a thorough analysis of your current situation (which goes far beyond the ADHD label), in order to create a «tailor-made study» of the difficulties you are experiencing in your daily life.

After that first assessment stage, again together with you, you will set some goals and get down to work to make the necessary changes that will get you where you want to be. The benefit of working with a psychologist is that in general they will guide you throughout the process, prioritizing the changes that will have the most impact on the rest of your problems, and designing a progressive and organized intervention program so that it does not seem like an impossible task from the beginning. Step by step, always taking into account your preferences and priorities, to generate and consolidate the habits you want to change.

In short, attention is the first gateway for all the important information that our body processes. Only the information to which we pay full attention ends up being consolidated and stored. Furthermore, knowing that we live in a world with more and more distractions, adults with ADHD experience great difficulties in all areas of life (work, personal, social, couple, etc.) that end up generating great frustration and deteriorating their self-esteem.

Consulting with a psychology professional can help you better understand why the problems you experience originate and are maintained, and will allow you to implement specific strategies to improve them.

Alejandro Sancha is a General Health Psychologist and Clinical Neuropsychologist. He also has a postgraduate degree in child and adolescent psychology. He has experience with various psychological problems (anxiety, mood disorders, stress, ADHD, rehabilitation in acquired brain injury, among others) and works from an evidence-based perspective. His passion for understanding human behavior led him to dedicate himself to the clinic, being very important for him that his clients feel comfortable from the beginning, understanding how their discomfort originates and how it is maintained today, in order to generate the necessary tools that allow them to achieve the greatest possible well-being in their lives.