ADHD is a serious issue on the self-actualization path.

[The Don]

Hi there.

My working memory doesn't work well. When I'm trying to articulate my thoughts, I find it very difficult. I just can't think properly. I'm blocked.

ADHD is a serious issue because ADHD is correlated with poor working memory. Executive functions just don't work properly in a person with ADHD.

When I'm trying to retain information, I find it difficult as well.

Is there a cure for ADHD?

I struggle every day to develop my social skills. I want to be able to articulate understanding.

[OctagonOctopus]

ADHD can be an effect with many different possible causes. The ones that I know of are: unresolved trauma, a diet that doesn't work for your body, and a lack of proper fitness. Dealing with these resolved ADHD for myself. 

[IJB063]

@The Don Hey Buddy,

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 15, I think there is a lot of studies showing that diagnosing for ADHD is wrong

It seems to me that ADHD is in many ways is just the medicationalisation of boredom - just look at the definition given by the American Psychological Association - ADHD is 

"The constant search for stimulation, restlessness, sensation seeking behaviour, fidgeting, difficulty maintaining attention and the inability to concentrate on anything that requires sustained effort"

Its generally just an excuse to drug misbehaving boys in school with stimulants like zoo animals - to make it easier for teachers and the schools

Here is an interesting video on the topic - Push through the gag and the start, it just goes on for about a minute

My first post on this forum is similar to your post actually

I think the cure for boredom is something that actually interests you and dopamine detox's 

Just a dopamine detox a few trys

Note -Look into Simon Baron Cohen's work (Sasha Baron Cohens cousin or brother I think)

Edited March 29, 2020 by IJB063

[Hansu]

@The Don

Hey,

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was young, and I also thought I had a shitty memory. I always told myself that my memory is shit, and I began to believe in that idea

Names, numbers, things to do, conversations... They always seemed to escape me. But I think the reason for this was that I never tried to remember things because of my ADHD. When I began to focus on remembering things, suddenly my memory began to improve and nowadays my memory is better than the average Joe's. I can remember conversations almost word to word, I can remember phone numbers with 30 seconds of memorization etc.

Try making a decision that you will remember things from now on. You will remember names, numbers, conversations, whatever you need to remember.

Also try to become interested in things you want to remember, because it is common for people with ADHD to be unable to focus on a task that they find boring; Hyperdistraction for things that are boring and hyperfocus for things that are interesting. I think that also plays a part in good memory for people with ADHD, being invested in the tasks at hand.

Best of luck!

Edited March 30, 2020 by Hansu

[Leo Gura]

Yes, it's a serious problem.

I'm not well versed in it. If you want to cure it, buy all the books on it you can and do all the research and then start testing various solutions until something sticks.

[tenta]

Practice more, and that's not that much of a social skills problem

[Pallero]

See if this helps
 

 

[StarStruck]

Same with ADD. I did some research on it and the only valuable thing to do (in my perspective) is to use CBT. Try to google on ADD ADHD CBT.

[R-Type]

I'd say we're living in times where most people get some degree of adhd due to poor diet and constant media stimulation. My capacity to focus, learn and articulate myself was pretty good throughout my childhood and adolescent years but that has totally flipped into the other direction. 

My first guess would be to unhook ourselves from compulsive eating and constant media stimuly. 

[intotheblack]

Listen to talks and and read books from

Dr. Gabor Mate

[intotheblack]

 

[kieranperez]

I’ll give a crack at this.

@The Don All I will say is just going to be based on my own experience. I don’t know what will work for you, I don’t know what won’t work for you, I don’t know your life history, etc. Take what you will from this.

First off, ADHD can be a bitch for a lot of people but first, it might be best to address your emotional relationship with this first by addressing the very fact that you don’t need to fix it. There is no ladder of things you must fix in your life. No such demand exists. I can tell you I created a lot of unnecessary suffering by making this a bigger deal emotionally through should statements. Leonardo da Vinci had ADHD so there is no necessity for you to get rid of whatever shit you’re dealing with. So please keep that in mind. 

ADHD, as far as I can tell (as it likely is the case for me), seems to very much stand as a developmental issue, particularly for guys with aggression that was never integrated. Aggression that isn’t integrated from a physiological standpoint seems to lead to a lot of neuroses in the body that touches on a lot of Freuds work (fixations, oral fixations, neurotic bodily compulsions, etc). As far as I can tell, to address this issue at merely a brain level misses the point. A big issue with ADHD at the level of the brain is serotonin production. Where there’s more efficient and regulated serotonin production, the body-mind is less irritable as a state experience which is what ADHD medications (which I was put on at the age of 6 till I was 22) are trying to do, roughly speaking. What’s not addressed though is the question “what is it that’s inhabiting serotonin production?” That question, as I have found at minimum for myself, is not one that can be solved at level of brain but rather at the level of mind and body (so to speak - don’t get lost on these ideas of levels. Just make the distinction between mind and brain as they aren’t the same. Brain could be seen as simply the receiver of mind). 

I can tell you that for me, my ADHD stems from a lack of feeling of safety and security in my body and also a lot of aggression that wasn’t never allowed given the mess of the traditional school system and post modern value structure and the way I grew up. The most important emotions I’ve had to work on big time is anger and fear. If you want to use chakras, we would be looking at the first 3 chakras. If you want to see it from a reichian body-mind/therapy perspective, we would see stuck energy or dysfunctions of some kind in that same area through the stomach. Use whatever lens you want. Just trying to give you an idea of what you might be looking at and some avenues of exploration that might be worth considering. 

Here’s what I’ll share as far as what’s worked for me and more importantly, what I think is worth keeping in mind if your goal is to work on this...

First and foremost, this takes time. This will not likely just go away in a matter of months. There are likely deep Unconscious emotional barriers that you may have to work on exploring. These barriers are built towards certain aims you want to have for the sake of self-preservation that hide deeper desires.... let me emphasize the most important part in that: everything you experience as a subjective 1st person experience (not talking about external conditions... necessarily) you experience because you want it. The key here is deep emotional honesty. Allowing yourself to be with what it is you desire in you body mind is important and learning to accept and embrace it for what it is. If you experience anger it’s because you want to experience anger... but you may experience anger to hide the deep care you wish to express but you’re in conflict with those 2 desires and are afraid to be vulnerable. So that conflict of 2 desires must be reconciled. This is what therapy is for.

Further, no amount of just following techniques blindly like it’s some machine that does something for you and something is supposed to happen is going to do it for you. Psychedelics, therapy, breath work, etc. doesn’t mean anything if you’re not involved in your own process. All of such practices are a stimulus to get you moving but if you’re not moving, then it’s pointless.

I would also like you to keep in mind that your progress towards a greater and more effective experience in your own body-mind will may be directly proportional to how much you change in your life. Emotional honesty will be that guide as there is no set in stone formula or checklist that must be followed or mechanical hierarchy. Your life will unfold as you do, and you will unfold the you are (emotionally) honest with yourself. Everything you do and have ever done or experienced in life is based on what you want so you might as well get clear as to what’s driving you.

Lastly, given that I know there is this misnomer, I would like to share that ADHD does not mean you can’t get enlightened or become conscious or even meditate. Let me make this very clear as someone who not only has lived life with full blown adhd and has now had multiple “enlightenment experiences” (such a can be rather misleading and I apologize) but as someone whose teacher is one of the most accomplished Zen teachers on the planet that had ADHD so bad he used to shoot up methadone as a kid in the 60s to stop his craziness (this teacher will remain nameless), I can tell you that can become conscious of your true nature while still having this going on as the Truth is not bound to a state, experience, etc. Greater consciousness does allow for a powerful way of dealing with these issues so the heart of this stuff I’ve found can be dealt with in consciousness work (depending on how we hold what that means in practice). It might just end up being the case that the more conscious “one becomes”, the more your adhd will settle down. Certain patterns of mind may or may not remain, but at a certain, it will be rather irrelevant. What you are is not your mind so it doesn’t really matter whether the mind is noisy or not. Like going out to play basketball while there’s construction going on. When you’re trying to learn certain skills, such noise can be an obstacle to being able to pay attention to learn new moves but eventually it'll just be background noise that won’t make a difference. 

I would also like to share this video from Jordan Peterson. This video, for me, explained so much of my own life that it was honestly shocking. There’s definitely merit in what he has to say here. Whether or not this will apply to you, I don’t know.

All the best. 

Edited March 30, 2020 by kieranperez

[Thought Art]

@The Don I was diagnosed with adhd at like age 6. 

You can work on your memory. Look up exercises for focus and memory, look up Ryder Carroll (invented the Bullet Journal Method) He has ADHD too. You aren't alone! message if you wanna chat more about it.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Thought Art

[MsNobody]

 

 

[SamueLSD]

Just remember that ADHD doesn't change the One that you are.

You might need to put in some extra effort, but eventually you will find clarity. OCD used to make this work feel impossible, now I am going better than ever.

[Chumbimba]

I have ADHD and started taking vyvanse last week, should I stop ?

[Chumbimba]

I get a lot more done and have more fluidity of thought when I am on it. My genius really shines. 

Its like Steve Jobs vs. Kevin from the office when I am not on vyvanse. 

I really need help with this

[Javfly33]

4 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

I have ADHD and started taking vyvanse last week, should I stop ?

@Chumbimba Has it been diagnosed to you or are you self-medicating?

Either way, you should start researching safer long-term solutions. I don´t know how serious your ADHD is, but be adviced, regular use of amphetamines has been more than proved to not be very healthy on the brain, precisely.

 

[Chumbimba]

@Javfly33 I have been diagnosed since the second grade. Its really crippling to the point where I feel really dumb most of the time. 

[kieranperez]

4 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

I get a lot more done and have more fluidity of thought when I am on it. My genius really shines. 

Its like Steve Jobs vs. Kevin from the office when I am not on vyvanse. 

I really need help with this

Don’t expect that effect to last. It doesn’t. No one can say how long it will last. Sometimes that can last for a couple years but eventually your brain chemistry adapts to that and eventually your brain cannot function without the external stimulus. Similar to the problem people face when they rely on sleep medication to fall asleep. Eventually you can’t sleep without needing sleep medication and then your sleep problem continues even with the sleep medication because the root issue was not addressed. Although I won’t make a promise, I’d bet money that effect at some point or another won’t last. I know what it is you speak of given the fact that I was on EVERY ADHD medication until I stuck with adder all from the 5th grade till I was 22. It doesn’t last and it just suppresses other aspects of mind and brain. Read my prior comment.