Almost everyone I work with as an ADHD writing coach finds me because their brains with ADHD get overwhelmed. Now, when you have an ADHD brain, overwhelm can express in different ways. Maybe you get panic attacks or emotional meltdowns. Maybe you just start to feel a lot of resistance and the feeling of getting stuck. And yet others just start engaging in escapist behaviours, working on everything except the thing they’re overwhelmed by. Whatever way it expresses, though, the fact is that writers with ADHD get overwhelmed a lot. And that’s why I had to write this post in the ADHD Awareness Month miniseries, entitled “4 Hidden ways in which ADHD affects your writing life.”
So why do we people with ADHD brains get overwhelmed so easily? I’ll start with my own, general theory, before I go into three specific sources for this overwhelm.
Susanne's theory about under and overwhelm
One thing we know about ADHD brains is that they are constantly seeking the perfect level of stimulation. That means that every time you are understimulated, or bored, your brain starts looking for more stimulation. Any time you are not stressed out, then, your brain starts to overcommit to new projects and new ideas (or, if you’re teenage-me, create drama in your personal relationships).
On top of that, we are all-or-nothing thinkers. As a consequence, we get stuck in a cycle. We feel understimulated, so we overcommit to new things. Then, we end up overstimulated, and cut things back to the bare essentials. Until we are understimulated again. And so, the cycle starts again.
I think this is one of the main reasons why we get overwhelmed: because we always end up overstimulating ourselves. And you can see these same patterns in the three reasons why AHD writers get overwhelmed, which I’ll discuss below.
1. Decision fatigue
One thing that has a good chance of making someone with ADHD get overwhelmed is decision-making. On the one hand, we need to feel like we have decisions to make. If everything’s decided for us, our inner rebel comes out. But when there are many decisions, or we feel that the sky is the limit, we get in trouble. Decisions can really make a writer with ADHD get overwhelmed.
One other aspect to this is that for any decision we need to make, there’s one perfect choice. Only, we haven’t figured out what the perfect answer is yet, and until we do we can’t get started. Not only are there a million options to consider and choose from, then, but there’s also a lot of pressure on choosing the “right” option. And the worst part? We feel like everyone else would be able to choose the perfect option, except for us. Phew, if that doesn’t make someone with ADHD get overwhelmed, I don’t know what does.
2. Struggle to break things down
One other quality I’ve found that most ADHD writers share is that they struggle to switch between the big picture and the detailed view. They are perfectly capable of thinking about what their text needs to achieve. They are also good at creating a Table of Contents or an outline, and they are perfectly capable of writing single sentences. But the real challenge for them is seeing the connection between the two.
And this is one aspect of how we work that makes writers with ADHD get overwhelmed. When they’re in the weeds, writing their sentences, they get stuck on how slow things go and how much they still need to do – without seeing the bigger picture, and having a sense of making progress in the context of your entire text.
The way around this type of overwhelm is to break a project down into smaller tasks. This means creating levels between the big picture and the detailed view: exactly the things our ADHD brains struggle with.
3. Impulse overload
And that brings us to the third thing that makes writers with ADHD get overwhelmed: impulse overload. We feel there are so many things we need to be doing… And on top of that, unpredicted fires keep needing to be put out! Sometimes, this comes from the under- overstimulation pendulum I described above. We overcommit, and end up being completely overwhelmed by the list of things we now need to do.
But it can also come from something outside of our control. When you’re tired, you might get overwhelmed by a scent in the house, plus the sound of your computer, plus an itching label in your clothes, plus, plus, plus… If you’re in that state and you receive an email to say you need to redo a task you already completed – that’s a sure-fire way to make a writer with ADHD get overwhelmed.
Writers with ADHD get overwhelmed – so what can we do?
I hope this blog post has helped you become more aware of the top 3 reasons why writers with ADHD get overwhelmed. That’s the purpose of this month, after all: to raise awareness about the ways that ADHD affects us! This awareness might help you avoid your most pressing issues when it comes to ADHD and overwhelm, or at least start finding solutions.
Because awareness, of course, is only the first step.
ADHD Awareness Month mini blog series
As this post is part of my ADHD Awareness Month mini blog series “4 Hidden ways ADHD affects your writing life,” I wanted to focus on building the awareness you need to treat yourself with more self compassion.
However, knowing that is not going to solve all your issues. And I don’t want to leave you with more problems and no answers.
If you’d like my strategies and tools for reducing your overwhelm, just fill out the form below. Then, I’ll email you a link to a Google Drive where you can find a PDF with tools and strategies for each of the four blog posts in this series.
Break down your projects – with my help
Most problems with overwhelm can be resolved with mind maps, which are especially useful when people with ADHD get overwhelmed. This ebook explains why and will help you use mind maps to break down your big project.
Fill out the form below and I’ll send it to you!
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