Are There Strategies to Stay in a Positive Frame of Mind If You Have ADHD?
This article aims to explore strategies to assist a person with ADHD or ADD to identify negative thinking/ ideas and to turn their minds around to start thinking positively again.
One great skill a person with ADHD can learn to have is to employ brainstorming to help him or herself to find ways to counter negative thinking.
Brainstorming is not an exclusive activity utilised in the business world, one can also apply it in a personal capacity.
One of the advantages of an ADHD mind is that this technique engages their innate creativity and ingenuity to identify and create solutions.
How do I start? Stop and think why you are feeling negative or down.
Did someone mention a criticism about you or about your work at home? Is your desk at home in a state of utter pandemonium to you and others and you don't know where to begin sorting it out or do you perceive that you have so much to do that you don't know where to start? Isolate what caused your negative thinking sprawl and employ brainstorming techniques to counter this paralysing behaviour.
If left to run its course, it will sabotage your day and what you wanted to achieve.
If you do not want to think about it right away- DO SOMETHING.
Find activities that will jump start you and mobilise you away from your feelings of paralysed inactivity.
This activity list can be: • Making a list and then prioritise what needs to be done as important, have to do and can be done later • Take a blank sheet of paper, find a quiet spot and start mapping out ways to resolve your problem, e.
g.
I feel bad about a document I delivered at work and don't know how to fix it.
Start by asking yourself some of these questions and writing it on the blank sheet: o What is the worst that can happen? o What if the worst happens? o What did I do that I can improve on? o What can I do differently? o What did I learn from this? o Why did I react with the emotion I felt? o Is there a different way to react? • Go for a walk or an hour in gym or start a short play session with your son or daughter.
Now what? Move forward and examine what you wrote down or what you thought of.
Take a good look at it again, even in your mind, and you will force yourself to take a different perspective on what it was that caused you to feel down or negative.
ADHD is not the cause of what happened, you are and what you did.
That is the great news about it.
You can change your behaviour and your thoughts.
If you feel overwhelmed by an activity or a task and don't even want to attempt by identifying the different steps or parts to it and realise that you were brave enough to take it on, others declined the challenge.
Now, tackle it head on, and get done.
What works for some is to have some kind of reward afterwards, e.
g.
a special movie or trip with a friend.
This also inspires you to stay focused on getting it done by a date and time linked to the reward, that will follow after you delivered the job.
If you feel negative that you have not accomplished anything, take that blank sheet of paper and sub divide the space in family, career, spiritual, play and personal growth.
List underneath each heading what you have accomplished or what you have done to change your own life and other's lives for the good.
Review this list next time you feel this way.
One great skill a person with ADHD can learn to have is to employ brainstorming to help him or herself to find ways to counter negative thinking.
Brainstorming is not an exclusive activity utilised in the business world, one can also apply it in a personal capacity.
One of the advantages of an ADHD mind is that this technique engages their innate creativity and ingenuity to identify and create solutions.
How do I start? Stop and think why you are feeling negative or down.
Did someone mention a criticism about you or about your work at home? Is your desk at home in a state of utter pandemonium to you and others and you don't know where to begin sorting it out or do you perceive that you have so much to do that you don't know where to start? Isolate what caused your negative thinking sprawl and employ brainstorming techniques to counter this paralysing behaviour.
If left to run its course, it will sabotage your day and what you wanted to achieve.
If you do not want to think about it right away- DO SOMETHING.
Find activities that will jump start you and mobilise you away from your feelings of paralysed inactivity.
This activity list can be: • Making a list and then prioritise what needs to be done as important, have to do and can be done later • Take a blank sheet of paper, find a quiet spot and start mapping out ways to resolve your problem, e.
g.
I feel bad about a document I delivered at work and don't know how to fix it.
Start by asking yourself some of these questions and writing it on the blank sheet: o What is the worst that can happen? o What if the worst happens? o What did I do that I can improve on? o What can I do differently? o What did I learn from this? o Why did I react with the emotion I felt? o Is there a different way to react? • Go for a walk or an hour in gym or start a short play session with your son or daughter.
Now what? Move forward and examine what you wrote down or what you thought of.
Take a good look at it again, even in your mind, and you will force yourself to take a different perspective on what it was that caused you to feel down or negative.
ADHD is not the cause of what happened, you are and what you did.
That is the great news about it.
You can change your behaviour and your thoughts.
If you feel overwhelmed by an activity or a task and don't even want to attempt by identifying the different steps or parts to it and realise that you were brave enough to take it on, others declined the challenge.
Now, tackle it head on, and get done.
What works for some is to have some kind of reward afterwards, e.
g.
a special movie or trip with a friend.
This also inspires you to stay focused on getting it done by a date and time linked to the reward, that will follow after you delivered the job.
If you feel negative that you have not accomplished anything, take that blank sheet of paper and sub divide the space in family, career, spiritual, play and personal growth.
List underneath each heading what you have accomplished or what you have done to change your own life and other's lives for the good.
Review this list next time you feel this way.
