Structured Success

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Routines are so fickle for most people with ADHD. Even the smallest changes can completely destroy our routines. This can send us back to square one and require us to rebuild them seemingly from scratch... over and over and over and over and over 😵‍💫

How non-ADHD people pull all-nighters: This task is so important. It'll be hard, but I get it done before I go to bed. How ADHD'ers pull all-nighters: …oops… and it's 5am again

Therapists aren't a one-stop shop for all your psychological wellness needs; they should be one member of a multifaceted team. Other members can include psychiatrists, social workers, mentors, or coaches. It's about diversity of approach, skills, and knowledge to support you

One does not simply deep clean the house with ADHD. One must first step around the mess until it gets unbareably urgent, so we can fall into a hyperfocus-fueled cleaning binge

However, you also have to be willing to forget things sometimes. If we don't purge tasks and notes from our memory systems, it is going to eventually become overwhelming to us. This is true whether that system is writing things down, visual cues, or "I'll remember it"

Having a flaky working memory, the way that a lot of ADHD'ers do, means that we need to do something to externalize that. This could be the much maligned advice to "write it down," but it could be visual cues in our environment, or practising memory techniques

Ultimately, co-regulation is ANY strategy where we work together towards the shared goal of regulation. Working together to use strategies to change our behaviour, prevent distress, and work towards goals helps us all. It brings us closer and strengthens our sense of community

Listening deeply to what's going on for another person encourages us to slow down and reflect as well. It not only supports the other person's regulation and emotional processing, but it also supports our own (18/19)

Co-regulation offers us a way to build community through mutual regulation: working together to support everyone's functioning, we can build strong connections built on mutual support. ...but what exactly does that look like in practice? Let's talk about 5 specific examples (🧵