Understanding ADHD and Impaired Motivation
Anyone can be unmotivated to do something. But when you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, you are wired to have trouble getting things started or following through.
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ADHD it’s a brain disorder where you struggle with attention, concentration, impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity. You may not have all of these things but you can have some. With the inattentive type, you don’t have the hyperactivity and only have the focus and concentration problems.
But a symptom that’s not talked about much is impaired motivation. And this is a huge problem with ADHD. It’s a symptom that causes conflicts with others and can affect how you think about yourself. You can have something you need to get done and it just feels physically painful to break through the inertia to do it. And it may not even be that much that you need to do. But if your head isn’t in it, those five steps seem like a thousand. And the people in your life who are affected by your failure to follow through with something can conclude that you’re just lazy and unreliable.
But it’s not lazy. It’s a brain problem.
Researchers have seen through Positron Emission Tomography, which is a brain scan that people with ADHD have a disruption in the dopamine reward pathway in the brain.
Watch the video for more details on the dopamine reward pathway and how it affects you motivation. Here’s a summary of the tips:
Low motivation with ADHD is partly caused by inadequate dopamine in your brain’s reward pathway. To overcome this, you can do things to make tasks fun and interesting, make them more urgent or challenging and make them feel fresh and new. I gave you some examples of using a timer to create urgency, doing the task in a new location, working alongside a body double and breaking up the tasks into timed segments using the Pomodoro technique or some version of it.
Here’s a quick reference for Pomodoro technique.. Click here to download.
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Do Activities You Enjoy
Make time to do activities you enjoy, such as reading, painting, listening to music, or spending time in nature. This can help you manage stress and improve your mood.
To get more tips for dealing with depression and understand this illness better, watch my educational videos on major depression.
