I don’t agree that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a symptom characterised by a ‘deficit’. It was termed ‘Attention Deficit Disorder’ (ADD) and ‘hyperactivity’ has been added as a further categorisation of neurodivergence. We idealise equanimity, stability, and balance and have found that regularity is good and disruption and extremes are dangerous. 

Look at the most common symptoms of ADHD: 

• Forgetfulness

• Impulsiveness

• Problems with prioritising tasks

• Difficulty with time management

• Trouble with multitasking

• Paralysing stress regarding meeting deadlines

• Restlessness and hyper-activity

• Difficulty planning in sequential ways and creating and sustaining a routine

• Inability to tolerate frustration/delay

• Volatile, easily-triggered temper

• Emotional fluctuations

• Interrupting oneself or others while speaking so train of thought is lost

• Difficulty in consistency, follow-up, and follow through

• Intense difficulty with stress management

• Chaotic actions described as spontaneity

• Lack of forethought and preparation

• Losing track of sentences and not being able to sequence trains of thought in an organised way

These symptoms draw a profile of a person who is under siege, who is experiencing a high volume of incoming prompts and bids for their attention. This is not a divergent experience! We all live in a noisy world. 

Our nervous system is exactly like an electrical system that burns out because it is experiencing surges and extreme variations that it is not built to handle. This is why we use machine terms to explain it: burnout, surges, flare-ups, breakdowns. Some people regulate themselves more effectively than others, but emotional regulation is a life skill and can be learned by most people. 

The volume of information, the cacophony of opinion, the tables of statistics and data, the words and numbers are all part of living and working in a technologised world. The pressure to keep up, to stay tuned, to keep engaged, to remain in the loop, to respond in a timely way, to perform to expectations, is immense.

The biggest identifiable symptoms of ADHD – distractibility, volatility, impulsiveness, forgetfulness, a mind that jumps from one idea to another, the inability to finish one activity before moving to another, interrupting others when they are speaking, or not finishing our own sentences – are all greatly intensified by the competing demands on us, every day. 

There are ‘digital detox’ remedies available, to help filter and control the incoming traffic and select what we respond to and when we respond to it. But when we talk of ‘processing’ things, we need to understand that we are human beings, not machines. So we can stop reacting to external prompts and recalibrate the way we think about ourselves and the way we structure our lives.

ADHD needs to be recognised as an inadequate term for the real and complex problem of how we live in an often chaotic external world. 

Dr. Gabor Maté  in ‘Scattered Minds’ asserts that ADD is not an inherited illness but an impairment which is a delay to development, which can be remedied and reversed. This is a crucial reframing of our understanding of the condition. Because if it can be remedied through behavioural retraining, issuing of medications can be reduced and those with the condition can be empowered to have greater direct engagement with their own healing and progress.

People showing symptoms of ADHD can often learn ways to manage their lives better and reduce the stress they feel. While it is important to remove stigma, shame, and judgement from the diagnosis, it is possible that some people cite the diagnosis as a justification for behaviours that are clearly damaging or destructive, and this is counterproductive. It makes you feel better about yourself in the short term, but does not address the problem.

Once the patterns of dysregulation, disorganisation, or stressful symptoms or a sense of being personally overwhelmed and chaos are identified in a person’s life, restructuring daily life can be undertaken in quite simple ways. The only proviso is that consistency and repetition are important to maintain the new system of doing things, and increasingly replace chaos with calm. 

Packing a school bag or work briefcase the night before; making a rule that no food is kept more than one day after it is first cooked; keeping your keys and wallet and reading glasses in a designated drawer close to the door so you know exactly where they are; sorting out all important ID documents and sealing them and keeping them only in one place for security; sorting out your clothes seasonally so the warm weather clothes and cool weather clothes are in separate sections; sorting them into daywear and nightwear, exercise wear and workwear; and getting extra items like batteries, superglue, soap, and toothpaste and storing them in one cupboard instead of all over the place.

When shopping, knowing exactly what the household already has in the cupboards before you shop saves time and money in buying unnecessary items which are duplicates of what you already have.

Looking for things in a hurry is a very stressful experience, so becoming more organised and keeping things you need consistently in places that make sense to you relieves stress.

Dealing with the cards we are dealt in life is always a lifelong activity. It’s always emotional. But it’s also physical, because sorting out the contents of our room and our home is connected to sorting out the contents of our minds. Deciding what to keep and what to throw out or give away is a very human thing and it needs to be done quite regularly to prevent buildup.

Our fast-paced, externally prompted lives often don’t allow us time to implement ongoing self-care. Yet that care and attention is the source of everything: it is the absolute core activity which adds value to our lives. Food, drink, sleep, activity, shelter and support – both physical and emotional solace.

I have a simple suggestion to get started: Start from where you are. English poet John Donne stated in his poem ‘The Sun Rising’: ‘This bed thy centre is/These walls thy sphere.’ Make it your mantra. Start with clearing everything except pillows off the bed where you sleep at night. Then clear everything off the floor of your room and find storage containers and drawers for it. Clear your central space.

Then radiate outwards, clearing every room in your home. Make decisions about what to keep and what to throw out or give away. Bring yourself up to date and locate yourself in the moment. Make choices based on present day realities. Then keep going!

It’s worth noting that consistency is very reassuring to our parasympathetic nervous system, sending us the message that all is well. This need for consistency cannot be supplied by the chaotic external environment, or reliably offered by other stressed human beings. We can create consistent routines in our own lives: supportive and productive activities that we do every day, which encourage in us a feeling of wellbeing and indicate that we are progressing in a good direction.

The spaces of personal peace created by these relatively simple and practical everyday choices, both physically and emotionally, are a great remedy for hyperactivity and a solace to our overwhelmed response systems. 

(The writer is an educator, reviewer, journalist, writer, and editor. She was awarded First Class Honours in English Literature from the University of Sydney and holds a PhD in English Literature from Monash University. She is an English language and literature teacher and a literary mentor to emerging writers of all ages. Her poetry and short stories have been published in journals and anthologies in Sri Lanka, Australia, India, and Italy. She is the Consultant Editor for the South East Asia Leadership Academy [SEALA], Content Editor for New Ceylon Writing, and is a columnist and contributing writer for several national print and digital newspapers.)

(The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.)