Adult ADHD and Balance

Balance really is the key to life. Balance your life, your career, your significant other, and your children. Balance your attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. We're at our most successful and most functional when we have achieved the best balance of things. Today, I'd like to talk about how things get out of balance in the first place for those of us with adult ADHD. At least, this is how I view how our scales tip to and fro'.

Balancing Adult ADHD at School

I've been thinking about how hard I work during school to stay calm, aka anti-hyperactive. I may not always be consciously thinking about not shouting out in class or resisting the urge to race around the room, but I do know that it's what my head is doing. If you look at the drawing and see the scaled marked "1," this is how I feel my head is when my impulsive thoughts are building up and my orange circles of concerted attention and patience are fighting it off. Sometimes, like in number 2, you need special blue power blocks to overpower a small number of impulsive thoughts. I think of number 3 as someone who is "normal. " They might have passing thoughts, but don't need to work very hard to keep the inattentive/hyperactive scale balanced.

The thing is, though, our orange balls and blue blocks are limited with adult ADHD. We don't have an infinite amount to combat our endless inattentive/hyperactive behaviors. What happens when our scale tips and we don't have the orange or blue to level ourselves off?

Imbalance and Adult ADHD

Sometimes, what happened to me the other day happens. I was at the pool having a class and, without thinking, I splashed my classmate. It was completely unintentional on my part and I had zero ability to stop myself or even think about my actions before or during them. I felt horrible. I felt bad that I splashed someone, but also that my scale got tipped. I was focused so hard inside because I was in water and doing what felt like games (even though it was a class). So, my scale tipped and I splashed someone.

When these things happen, first off, own up to it. I apologized several times and then had to use the Emotional Freedom Technique to allow myself to move on with my night and not get so down on myself. Sometimes, though, these things just happen. We can't always have enough items to balance off the scales. If we did, we'd be masters of the universe and we're simply mere humans.