ADHD can make it a challenge to stay organized, which can allow clutter to pile up. While clearing out the clutter may seem overwhelming and impossible, try not to let yourself get discouraged. There are several strategies you can use to overcome the mess in your home and live a more organized, decluttered life.
If you or a loved one has ADHD, managing things and stuff can be overwhelming. Cindy Glovinsky, psychologist and author, explains that clutter is caused by impulsive actions that don't do a good job of compensating for a better solution.
Many adults with ADHD have cluttered workspaces and homes. If you work well in those surroundings, then it's time to make peace with your organized chaos. If not, learn how to prevent clutter from overwhelming you.
But many kids and adults with ADHD are the opposite — they're messy most of the time. And it can cause problems at home, school, and work.
“Cluttering is another behavior typical in folks with ADHD. Leaving items out as visual cues is a common way of compensating for an unreliable memory or inadequate time-management system, but to the untrained eye it can resemble hoarding,” she says.
One of the lesser-known ADHD symptoms an adult can experience is our difficulty to prioritize and organize. According to research, ADHD affects a person's executive functions, which include our organizational skills and ability to plan things.
Overwhelm is a feeling all too familiar to anyone with ADHD or neurodiversity. When you're constantly bombarded with stimuli and your to-do list seems impossible to manage, it's easy to feel like you're drowning. One of the best ways to combat overwhelm is to write things down.
Adults with ADHD may find it difficult to focus and prioritize, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. The inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic to mood swings and outbursts of anger.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can make it seem impossible to keep a tidy house. As a result, ADHDers might have messy and unorganized homes and find that the usual tips and tricks don't work for them.
It's not that those who are diagnosed with ADHD don't want to clean - they enjoy a clean space as much as the next person, but to get someone with ADHD to complete tasks that bore them is a feat in itself.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can affect someone's ability to focus on their schedule, tasks involving organization, and ability to manage their time. In particular, chores with ADHD adults can be challenging. We might feel overwhelmed with tasks, which can lead to stress at the mere thought of them.
Several ADHD traits can make it hard to maintain personal hygiene. Being easily distracted can make you forego things like taking a bath or brushing your teeth. Being sensitive to hygiene products can also pose a challenge. Of course, there are instances of being forgetful with activities that concern cleanliness.
People with ADHD live in a permanent present and have a hard time learning from the past or looking into the future to see the inescapable consequences of their actions. “Acting without thinking” is the definition of impulsivity, and one of the reasons that individuals with ADHD have trouble learning from experience.
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities. Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly. Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked). Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
Choose a paint color that is calming, like soft blues, greens, and purples. Or create a sense of relaxation with a wall color in a warm neutral, like beige and taupe. Bright, bold colors may be overstimulating for your child's sensory system, so opt for a muted shade instead as the main color of their room.
Conversational skills and humanity
Those with ADHD are often talkative , which means that they can spark an intriguing conversation in most scenarios. Another study highlights that people with ADHD may have higher levels of social intelligence, humor, and recognition of feeling, or empathy.
Untreated ADHD in adults can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. This is because ADHD symptoms can lead to focus, concentration, and impulsivity problems. When these problems are not managed effectively, they can lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, and low self-esteem.
ADHD burnout is often something a little deeper. It refers to the cycle of overcommitting and overextending that leads to fatigue in people with ADHD. It involves taking on too many tasks and commitments, and then the subsequent exhaustion that happens when we're unable to fulfill all of our obligations.
It is often characterized by feelings of overwhelming fatigue, reduced productivity, and a sense of hopelessness or despair. Those experiencing ADHD burnout may find it even more challenging than usual to initiate and complete tasks, maintain focus and attention, and regulate their emotions.
Emotional symptoms
Many adults with ADHD have a hard time managing their feelings, especially when it comes to emotions like anger or frustration. Common emotional symptoms of adult ADHD include: Being easily flustered and stressed out. Irritability or short, often explosive, temper.