ADHD: the “I’ll do it my way, when I want” can’t stand the concept of a routine, but then actually needs and is healthier with it.

Routine is “scaffolding” for the dopamine deprived brain.

It’s a healthy constraint that our wide open meandering mind needs to:

Start stuff

Complete stuff

Feel in control

Feel that things are manageable

Get results and be proud of our work.

And yet… the seduction of having a wide open space to do what we want is really compelling.

But when we get that.. guess what… we mega focus on the wrong things. Procrastination can set in. Negative rumination can start up and not stop.

The concept of Routine is not an easy pill to swallow with a brain that is forever searching for sufficient neurochemicals to function.

But it’s actually a happy place for us when we can reflect and observe our productivity and achievements levels with the scaffolding of routine.

And that achievmeent is then a source of dopamine in itself

AND - it’s important to have a wide open playing area for ourselves regularly. So we can get that fix of spending wonderful hours going down research rabbit holes, or whatever makes our brains content