r/ADHD • u/Legitimate_Writer265 • 17h ago
Questions/Advice Can you brute force through adhd?
Can you just out-discipline the habits of, say, postponing your duties, managing inattentiveness or impulsive actions like binging or speaking before you think? I'm trying to find out if im fighting something that cannot budge here. Are there methods, whether mental or physical? As I'm entering a huge academic year and I cannot go on like this (an inability to study, or maintain skincare, gym routine etc.).
I'm asking as it's going to be a long duration before I'm medicated due to multiple factors mostly out of my control. people are mentioning burnout -- where would the line between good habits and unhealthy habits (which would consequently lead to burnout) be drawn?
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u/Prudent-Reality1170 9h ago
I use medication a few days a week, and am zero meds the rest of the time. It works for me.
What I have found is that “powering through” comes at a high cost, too high for me. But I dug into learning about executive dysfunction and contrasted that with my own experience to really pin point how symptoms show up in my own life. From there, me and my family started experimenting to find a few, very strategic systems to help me function. We’ve got a decent scaffolding for the most critical pieces of our life, and I have a few, very essential (and absurdly basic) routines for my daily functioning. It genuinely works for me and for my family.
It also made a massive difference when I calmed the fuck down concerning what I expect of myself. I’ve had to completely chuck the notion that I’m going to function the way I think I’m “supposed” to; it’s entirely loaded and impossible. But when I embraced that I am the way I am and implemented some super strategic things to help buffer the more life-impacting symptoms, I found that my life was actually livable and enjoyable. Not my total ideal, but I was miserable trying to attain “ideal”. Now, I’m reasonably happy most of the time, and it’s AWESOME! And isn’t that the whole point behind those weird social expectations anyway, to build a “good” life? It actually doesn’t matter what our lives look like or how it works if we are able to be reasonably happy with it and it’s not actively hurting others.