I have learnt a lot about ADHD since our daughter was diagnosed. I used to think it meant that people couldn’t sit still. Now I realise it is much more than that. My one-liner description is that is is about dopamine management or energy management..
My daughters brain works differently. For her to be motivated to do something takes a lot more effort than me. She used to feel lazy because we didn’t understand.
Now we know better and our communication has improved drastically as she feels safe to mention things that are hard for her.
We have been learning and experimenting together and our recent win has been the bathroom rubbish bin.
Before the bin used to have a lid on it and the rubbish never ended up inside. then we went away and the place we stayed at had a bin with no lid and throughout our stay the rubbish ended up in the bin.
That one extra step to lift the lid was one step too much. It involved using dopamine she didn’t have to spare.
So when we got home I removed the lid on her bin. Success all round. I’m happy the rubbish is in the bin. She gets the domamine hit from success, having a clean space and my praise.
We are now looking for other ways we can simplify those annoying extra steps that make life a little bit too complicated for her to succeed. Best of all she is excited to get onboard as she finds it making her life easier and she feel better understood.
Our goal is to organise and reset her room so that it takes no longer than 3mins to tidy up from start to finish.
If you would like me to come and see how we can help organise and simplify things for you – get in contact here.
