Unlocking Sustainable Energy Levels with ADHD (text version)
Strategies and Insights
How are your energy levels today?
Are they above or below 9000?
Come with me for a journey through our next iteration of the ADHD self-assessment series. This post as you may have gathered from the title and opening question is all about determining and maximising our energy levels. We will be answering questions such as:
What is my {energy levels}?
Do I feel {energised} and {motivated}; or
Am I experiencing {low energy} and {fatigue}?
How can I increase my {energy levels} and be more {motivated}?
It all starts with a spark.
Say we have a car, nothing fancy, just a run-of-the-mill-get-you-from-a-to-b type deal:
Okay, maybe it’s a gas-guzzling demon from hell with a massive supercharger that inhales air faster than ten Dyson vacuum cleaners. Just like this car, our bodies need “fuel” and oxygen to run (and perhaps a sprinkling of water). Inside this particular car is a fuel tank:
Fuel vapour ends up in the engine and to start the car {motivation} we need three things: (thanks dad!)
fuel {food, etc.}
oxygen {same as us!}
ignition {our reason for getting out of bed in the morning}
The fuel and the oxygen are brought together in holy matrimony creating the prelude to the glorious combustion. All we need now is the spark.
It’s all {motivation} from that moment until the fuel runs out, something breaks, or you stop for a rest. Our bodies, while in some ways can be related to this car, there are of course many differences—I’ll keep it simple because I’m neither a biologist or a brainiac. Keeping with the car metaphor, let’s discuss some more.
When a car has fuel it has the potential energy to drive. Same can be said for our bodies, though not always. There are times when we are well-fed (full of {fuel}, {energy}) yet we don't feel like we have the energy to do what we want to achieve. Why is this? We have the fuel, so why is our body not using it like it should be? Sometimes with gas-powered cars, dirt and other contaminants may end up in the fuel tank. These dirt and other things make their way through the fuel lines and end up clogging the fuel filter. If the fuel filter gets clogged, it doesn't matter how much fuel you have in the tank, if it can't get to the engine, it’s useless. With our bodies this analogy could take many forms—chemical imbalances, depression, no purpose, many things can get in the way of us being able to use our fuel effectively. Technically the energy is there waiting to be tapped but there is a disconnect. If the fuel is unable to reach the engine for a long period of time other parts of the car start getting affected. Maybe rust starts building up on the brake discs and it becomes more difficult for the wheels to turn, requiring more initial energy to get started. Much the same as us, the longer we allow issues to get in the way of our energy levels, the more difficult it becomes to get motivated.
I have been described as having “low energy,” meaning I’m not always super enthusiastic about every little thing. I have quite a high threshold for what gets me super excited. There are various reasons for this, some physical, some mental. This doesn’t mean that I can’t get excited about something—of course I can, it’s just that the conditions for my excitement can be quite specific and require a lot more energy than a neurotypical person. Sometimes it may seem that my level of excitement is completely mismatched with the current situation—this can go both ways, whereby I can seem under- or over-excited. Of course this can create social issues as most—if not all of us with ADHD have experienced at one time or another in our lives.
What about you? How are your energy and motivation levels day-to-day? Does it take a lot for you to get motivated? Do you feel like you’re constantly conserving your energy for the excitement that never (rarely) comes? Share it all in the comments and let us know what drives you.
The Spectrum of Energy
Our energy levels exist on a spectrum. Low to high—yes, that is most definitely, without a doubt, the most scientifically and technically valid nomenclature available—don’t worry about looking it up, we have much more important things to discuss, like, how much energy do we exert taking a poo? Taking a poo or doing a poo? Taking sounds weird, you wouldn’t catch me reaching in to...we’re getting sidetracked. This spectrum of energy, so it ranges from low to high—what exactly is happening between these two points? What should we look out for if we want to gauge our energy levels? Why are we thinking about it in the first place?
Our bodies are complex things—I'm sure you have all heard someone refer to themselves as either “mentally” or “physically” tired and chances are you’ve experienced it yourself. These two descriptors can be seen as two different areas where energy is used within our bodies. They can be filled or depleted with different fuels and from different sources. Whether your physical or mental self is energised or depleted will be expressed with varying symptoms.
What are some characteristics of our different energy levels?
High Energy Characteristics
When in an “high energy state,” we may feel as though we are physically lighter—like we actually weigh less. Our senses may feel heightened, we’re more alert, ready to go. Perhaps we feel a strong urge to get moving—to get out and do things. Mentally, we have a clear mind—forgetting, albeit temporarily about our good friend, brain fog. We can visualise our thoughts, instead of seeing just “snow” like on old TVs when the channel wasn’t tuned correctly—or all thoughts jumbled on top of one another like crabs in a bucket clamouring to be free of the chaos. We are full of optimism and feel as though we could tackle anything that comes our way. Our focus is zeroed in like a finely calibrated laser. We have so much drive, if we went on all fours our arms and legs would turn into wheels. We are full of innovation and our ideas are brilliant. Then the inevitable crash comes.....
Low Energy Characteristics
Physically, we feel heavier, we feel SLUGGISH and we may even feel physically exhausted like we’d just finished running a marathon. Mentally we have a lot of trouble concentrating, our focus is all over the place, our minds are a scattered mess. We may feel like everything is overwhelming us. Maybe there’s even some anxiety sprinkled in there as well, or worse (depending on how you look at it), apathy, feeling not much of anything even toward your usual interests. You’re “just not feeling it”. When we are in such low energy states it can have a knock-on effect, which can permeate to other areas of our daily lives–hindering our productivity, motivation and personal well-being. If we allow it to go unchecked or untreated for too long, it can have detrimental effects on our lives.
Balanced Energy Levels
The state of being “centered”, balanced. This is our “sustainability state”—this is the state which is the best for longevity. Our long-term health and well-being love this state the most. A candle that burns brightest burns out fastest—a candle that doesn't burn at all gives us no light–a candle that burns at the optimal temperature gives us enough light to see and will provide light for as long as we need it.
What Impacts Our Energy Levels?
Three main culprits are responsible for our overall energy levels:
physical health
mental health
environment
Physical—borne out from the Latin “physica,” where all those brainiacs from way when we’re out and about learning themselves about all the stuff we can touch and smell and see and all that, all the things out in nature—where no one ventures anymore. Our physical health is kept in-check by all the stuff we put inside our bodies—maybe I should reword that—all the food and drink we consume as well as some other things like smoke or the occasional bout of harmful radiation from that one time going for a brisk walk through Chernobyl—no? Okay, maybe not the last one. The quality of the stuff we put in our bodies can directly affect our energy levels. If we dump a cupful of sugar down our gullet it’s not the healthiest move, for example. Interesting fact—did you know there is a common misconception about “sugar crashes” and by common misconception I mean it’s something I thought. Sugar crashes are not this:
—eat a boatload of sugar → our bodies burn the energy from the sugar super quickly → our bodies say, “that’s enough tomfoolery for one day, let’s rest”
No, the reality is that these “sugar crashes” are more about how a person’s body RESPONDS—so while one person may get a “sugar crash”, also known as “reactive hypoglycemia” from binge-eating some sugar, another person may not—unfair, right? So in the case where the unlucky person is seemingly experiencing a crash, what’s actually happening is that after blood-sugar level in your body spikes your body begins reacting to this sudden change by pumping out an excessive amount of insulin—the stuff that pops glucose on its back and paddles it down the bloodstream to cells in the body. This cheeky insulin is pretty good at its job so when your brain calls an emergency meeting, it overreacts and sends out way too much insulin. The insulin carries all the glucose (energy for the cells in your body) god-knows where, leaving your body’s cells essentially glucose-less—and when there is no glucose to help power your cells, your body “crashes”. The moral of the story is make sure you give your body nice, clean, healthy fuel to help maintain a balanced energy state.
physical mental health
I’m sure many of us come up with a million excuses not to exercise, go to bed on time, or go to the gym and strengthen the muscles around our joints so we’re not plagued with recurring pain and issues (that one seems pretty specific, huh?). As people with ADHD, we may feel the need to “feel productive” every day—the reasons for doing this will vary from person to person, though they may be things like:
feeling guilty over not feeling productive enough during the day
making up for that 2 hours spent researching something you didn’t need to be researching in that moment
forgot that you have something due the next day
remembered something you’ve been putting off for the past 2 months
If any of these sound familiar, leave a comment telling us how many of these you’re guilty of, and if I missed any, I’m sure I did.
The problem is, when we get stuck in this hamster wheel, we get caught in the bad habit cycle. This bad habit cycle actually leads to everything becoming worse. Yet in our hearts it doesn’t feel right, does it? We seem to have this impression that everyone else (neurotypical people) are these machines of efficiency who only take breaks at lunch time. This couldn’t be further from the truth, we are all human. Even machines require maintenance, they break down, they need energy flowing through them to operate. The difference is, machines don’t think, they don’t have a conscience—I’m sure one day there will be legitimate debates about this, for the meantime it still holds true. We put these thoughts on ourselves, which are oftentimes compounded by societal expectations and judgement, as well as the many stigmas associated with ADHD—and let’s face it many of these are myths anyway. The unfortunate thing is that people are free to spread their half-truths, myths, exaggerations as well as outright lies. The fortunate thing is we have complete control over how we react, if at all, to these. How do we do it? Great question, I’m glad you asked. I must forewarn you, it will take work, persistence and commitment. As with any effective treatment or learning exercise (for anyone, not just us with ADHD!), making it fun helps the information stick and helps create habits, creating dopamine (the fun one) releases leading up to the task instead of cortisol releases (the not-so-fun one). What actions can we take immediately when we realise what triggered it? It can be tricky and we may need to get a little “meta” in order to dig these out. Keep in mind, these triggers can take multiple forms—they could be actual physical sensations, shifts in our emotional state, or even changes in the way we think about things. Whatever form they take, it is important to note we are more or less on the lookout for signs we are deviating from our “norm” or our ideal balanced state. Let’s go over some steps to help identify when something's perhaps not quite right.
Look to your body
Oftentimes our bodies physically tell us what's going on before our minds register that something is amiss. Keep an eye out for the following:
increased heart rate (if the increase is expected, say during exercise then it’s perhaps not a trigger)
tension in the shoulders or neck (if you spend a lot of time in the same position or are less active this one may be more difficult to detect—it might be a good idea to stretch and if it is uncomfortable it could potentially be a sign—if it hurts don’t push it further)
stomach discomfort (you may be the type of person whose stress expresses through stomach issues-it may seem as though you have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) whereby you constantly seem to have issues with your stomach yet no doctor can narrow it down to a specific problem, so they slap the IBS label on you–it’s most likely being caused by stress)
headaches (are you the type of person who regularly gets headaches, or never much at all? Either way it shouldn’t be ignored or simply “put up with”)
All these points above can signal potential stress or discomfort from some type of trigger.
Check Your Emotional Responses
Pay close attention to sudden or abrupt changes in your emotional state. In particular, look out for these coming seemingly out of nowhere:
sad
irritable
unusually or “overly” happy
Recognising these can help identify the trigger. Once you recognise that something is out of the ordinary you can begin looking for potential triggers—fair warning, it’s important to be honest with ourselves, there are times the truth can be quite confronting or make us feel uncomfortable.
Monitor Your Thought Patterns
This one at times may be tricky to keep track of so stick with it! Keep an eye out for these:
increase in negative self—talk (do you have a habit of calling yourself an “idiot” or worse when you feel you did something wrong? Doing it more than usual?)
catastrophic or “doomsday” thinking (thinking that the worst is going to happen)
obsessive thoughts (these are the ones that seem to be playing on repeat, like a puppy who won’t leave you alone, but instead of a cute, cuddly, sweet puppy, this one is the annoying puppy from hell who won’t let you get anything done and you’re the only person responsible for them!)
The reason these can be tricky to recognise is because we might be so engrossed on the symptom, or struggling with them that we don’t fully become conscious—and once it’s over we are just so glad that it’s passed we don’t think to reflect on it, or life continues to happen and it gets left in the backlog and eventually forgotten about.
Environme(a)nt To Be Good
There are times when the world around us is causing disturbance so it pays to occasionally shift our conscious mind to whats going on external to ourselves, such as:
changes in lighting (too dark, flickering
noise levels (loud or distracting noises)
presence of certain individuals/people
time of day (our energy doesn’t stay the same throughout the day)
When we start consciously paying more attention to our surroundings we can begin linking changes in our mood and energy levels with factors in our immediate environment.
Recent Interactions/ Conversations
Have a think about the last few conversations you had with people—reflect on different aspects such as, the tone (was it relaxed, tense?), words used, topics of discussion.. as these could provide some clues. Pay attention to how you felt before and after the conversations.
Journal Yourself
Anytime you observe any of these changes, make sure you write them down! Let’s not forget that us folk with ADHD have some shortcomings when it comes to executive functioning. We should use all the help we can get—don’t feel ashamed, remember all the positives, creativity we are blessed with!
In later articles I will go into detail about which tools I use daily as well as those I’ve tried in the past that didn’t work as well for me, but might work for you.
Smash Out Some Hardcore, Gentle Mindfulness and Meditation
Focus on your breathing, try and allow your thoughts to come and go without judgement, disconnect yourself from any feelings you had at the time—as funny as it sounds, become an external observer to your own thoughts and feelings during the session. Practising this over time will give you better, more clearer perspectives about what is affecting you.
Use The Outside Force, Luke (substitute your name)
Many times others have a better perspective on some things relating to us—they are able to see things we can’t. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others. Ask if they've noticed changes in your behaviour or mood.
Go Pro—Seek Professional Help
If the above tips are not working for whatever reason—maybe you’re still struggling to discover triggers or if things are too overwhelming and you’re having a hard time coping, reach out to a professional. Because you could be reading this from anywhere, here are some great generic queries you can pop in to your favourite search engine:
“ADHD support services near me”“ADHD therapists in [your city named”“ADHD coaching services in/your city name]”
They should be able to offer you different tools and techniques and provide professional guidance.
NEXT UP: The FunSpection Games (The Introspection Chronicles)
Here Comes The Fun Parkt
It’s entirely possible you were feeling bored reading through all the points in the previous section—I know it’s not possible really, my pretend lawyer I just made up advised me to put that in. He’s a bit silly sometimes. This part is dedicated to tips on how to make implementing the advice more fun and engaging so they don’t all just feel like more monotonous, mind-numbing chores. Let’s “gederdone”—totally the official spelling.
Fun 1. Look To Your Body: Or How To Stop Worrying And Learn To See Our Meat Sack
Body Scan Bingo
Get a piece of paper or cardboard and make a bingo card with different physical sensations written on it—tension, headache, stomachache, etc.
NOTE: If you’ve never played bingo it’s literally just a table (a bunch of boxes) like this:
During the day mark off any of the sensations you experience with the time. Try and identify patterns (“Bingo” combinations) that match up with triggers or certain times of the day.
Fun 2. Check Yourself: Exploring Your Emotions
This exercise let’s you put the “art” in cartographer. We’ll be making a map of emotions for you to “explore”. Grab a large piece of paper or cardboard or tape four pieces of A4-sized paper together.
Divide the map into “regions” based on how you would categorise significant emotions in your life. For example, some of the areas might have names like, “Forest of Fear”, “Mountains of Joy”, “Rivers of Sadness”, and so on. At the end of the day, or more preferably at the time (whenever you feel a strong emotion), put a sticker, draw a symbol or mark in the region that matches with the emotion you felt. You can come up with a colour code or symbols to display different things like the intensity of the emotion, or other nuances of the emotion. Remember to also mark down the time it happened. Next to each mark write down a brief note about what triggered the emotion-it could have been a conversation, a task or something you were supposed to do, an event or maybe even a thought you had. At the end of the week put aside some time to fully “explore” your map. Look over your map at where you've travelled emotionally. Keep an eye out for patterns, what area you visit the most and the places you rarely go to. Go through all the triggers you wrote down and reflect on them—perhaps patterns will begin to emerge, especially about the things that influence your emotional state the most.
Fun 3. The Catastrophe Comedy Club
I don't know about you, but for me there have been occasional catastrophic thoughts where in the moment the thought seemed valid. Once some time had past I was able to see the utter ridiculousness of the thought when compared with the reality that actually occurred.
You can choose to try this one during a bout of catastrophic thinking, though when you first try it, it may be better to do after the dust has settled. First—when you catch yourself slipping into some catastrophic thinking, write down the thought. If you can manage, jot it down in the context of someone using it in an over-the-top stand-up comedy routine.
If you have a favourite comedian, even better. Doing it in “their” voice will take some of the pressure off you if you’re feeling self-conscious about doing the exercise. Next—write the “rebuttal” to the catastrophic thought. This mini comedy script will include the punchline. The point here is to “challenge” the catastrophic thinking using humour to point out how implausible it is, highlighting it through exaggeration. Thirdly—write down a more realistic outcome, or the actual outcome. Writing this down will help keep yourself grounded and link the catastrophic thinking to the more realistic scenario.
Finally—perform it! That’s right, pick a time where it’s just you and do your “bit” in front of the mirror, or record yourself if you prefer. Actually performing it out will help you to be able to externalise the thought and you’ll be able to see it from a different perspective. Example:
Catastrophic Thought: If I mess up this presentation, my career is doomed, over!
Exaggeration (comedic rebuttal): yeah, because we all know one of the most common career killers are mispronounced words, slide skipping as well as accidentally sharing your entire screen, exposing your embarrassing cat meme collection folder during a presentation. Not only would this totally kill your career but society would also cast you out to Antarctica to live out your days giving presentations about sand crabs, to penguins!
Realistic scenario / outcome: A couple people in the audience chuckle briefly along with myself over my pronunciation of “serendipitous” and everyone clapped at the end.
Fun 4. Detective Quest
This one is relatively simple—you’re a detective and your goal is find clues by analysing your surroundings in order to discover potential triggers. Pretend you are Sherlock Holmes and keep a small notebook and jot down changes in your environment and how those changes make you feel. You can break up each are into “cases” and reward yourself for “solving” them.
Fun 5. Cards Against Humility
After noteworthy conversations, create some index cards and write down key points as well as emotions onto them. Once you have a nice collection of cards, begin sorting them into categories or feelings. This is so you can visualise which types of interactions are energising (you get energy from them) versus draining (they take a lot of energy from you). Sorting these interactions and feelings provides a tangible way of reflecting on them and can really bring them to the forefront of our consciousness—making them less daunting at the same time.
Fun 6. Journal In The Jar-O
Write down all the journal prompts you can think of relating to sensations, thoughts as well as emotions on different pieces of paper. Get a jar, or something similar—it doesn't literally need to be an actual jar, and fill it with all of the journal prompts.
Every day take out one of the prompts at random. This activity is to help guide your reflection—you get to have a daily surprise activity and you don’t have to dwell on the decision-making as it’s already done for you, win-win! Creating a habit out of journaling using this method should make it feel less like a chore.
Fun 7. Make Mindful Moments Matter With Meditation
There are a couple of options for this one. First and easiest is to download an app such as “Remindfulness” and set the timing to be random throughout the day. Keep in mind (heh) this particular app is only available on the Apple App Store—I'm not sure if there is an equivalent app on Android. If you discover one, pop it in the comments—the main requirement is the ability to set a “random” timer to do mindfulness throughout the day. Alternatively, we can do it using more manual methods:
Colour Signals—assign different colours to different mindfulness activities—for example, when you see green you can take a deep breath and observe your surroundings. If having only a colour is too much, you can add another element such as when you see a green car.
Sticky Notes—place sticky notes at different places in your living /working areas with various mindfulness prompts. Each time you take a break or have a moment, follow one of the prompts when you’re near to it (if you’re using the pomodoro method you can use some of your break times to go through this activity).
Timers—set random timers to go off during the day to engage in mindfulness—word of warning, remember to label the timers so you don’t forget their purpose and do this so it doesn’t disturb others, as loud or alarms in general in the workplace might get under people’s skin!
Object Anchors—choose an everyday object as your “mindfulness trigger” so everytime you see or touch this object you are reminded about mindfulness.
Fun 8. Feedback Fortune Telling
Ask a friend or family member to write down their observations about your shifts in mood or energy on different pieces of paper. Each day, randomly draw one of these pieces of paper and reflect on it. This can give you some valuable insight into how other people see you. It also allows you to turn people’s feedback into a game of discovery and self-awareness!
Fun 9. Questing For Therapy
Get together with a therapist and with them create a set of “quest cards” for each session whereby the cards contain goals and/or activities to focus on. Each card should address a step toward understanding triggers or improving mental health, for example. This activity adds a layer of “gamification” to each session, making your progress more visible and also more rewarding!
That's a Wrap!
As we wrap up our navigation through the complex and sometimes draining landscape of energy management, particularly combined with ADHD minds, we can appreciate the difficulties in maintaining balance. The impact of our physical and mental health as well as the power of environmental factors shouldn’t be understated. These key “pillars” should be well looked after and managed so they can stay upright—like gears in a well-oiled machine they work in harmony to keep us moving forward at a good pace. If we neglect them we are likely to come to a grinding halt, sooner or later. We should remember energy is not infinite and everything has a cost, even if we don't know what it is. We’ve taken a different approach in this article in order to provide meaningful and actionable information, while at the same time injecting elements of fun and humour. If this content resonated with you, show your appreciation however you can and if you know anyone who would enjoy this type of content or would benefit from it, make sure to share it with them—do it now while it’s fresh in your brain and you have the momentum and the motivation! Don’t worry, I’ll wait until you’re done, then we can continue.
Seriously though, let’s summarise the key points to help them stick:
① Balance is key
Similar to a candle, allow your energy to burn at a steady pace—not too bright to burn out quickly, not too dim where it casts no light.
② Health and Environment Matter
Our physical and mental well-being, influenced by the world around us, are foundational to our energy levels. Invest in them wisely.
③ Mindfulness and Feedback
Engaging in mindfulness and welcoming feedback are not simply exercises but lifelines to self-awareness and growth. Allow this article to be more than simply mere writing on this virtual page packed with pixels, more than yet another piece of reading to be discarded as distraction fodder—let it be a beacon to help guide you toward a better you. We may never been “neurotypical”, but that doesn’t mean you should do all the typical things perpetuated by myths, half-truths and lies! If you need help, get it—do what’s best for you.
Until next time, as always, good luck, stay safe and be well.