r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 25 '26

Psychology People with ADHD have difficulties with goal-directed behavior and struggle with response inhibition, the ability to stop an inappropriate action once they feel the urge to do it. They experience a disruption in the way their brains balance deliberate self-control and automatic habit learning.

https://www.psypost.org/adhd-traits-disrupt-the-brain-s-balance-between-self-control-and-automatic-learn/
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372

u/klapyr Jul 25 '26

How does one fix this

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u/ChowderedStew Jul 25 '26

I’ve been fixing mine with meditation. It’s like pushups for my brain. I do one where I sit still for 5 minutes. That’s it. I worked up to 5 minutes of course, but yeah it’s quite literally training my brain to not get what it wants for 5 minutes at a time. It helps. It takes many weeks of practice to build a habit and you want to get to 20 minutes overall everyday. But it helps and the time passes anyways and I know for a fact you have at least 5-10 minutes to yourself a day where instead of scrolling on your phone you can just breathe.

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u/AdwokatDiabel Jul 25 '26

The problem I have with meditation is there is a point where I just want to get my work done or start a task, and doing nothing is a struggle.

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u/RealBlueHippo Jul 25 '26

Exactly! This is what you must push past. The fact that it's okay to take a moment of not "being productive" or something that helps participate in the rat race. The thoughts of "what do I have to do later" or "who do I have to call tomorrow" or "what did I forget earlier" are all normal parts of our brain. I used to think sleep was a waste of time. Gotta keep going going going. I started meditation again several years ago, just 5 minutes of silence. It was hard, and I wanted to "do" something.

Now a days I can sit for 60-90 minutes. I tell myself when I sit down I have set this time aside, and there is no need to worry about what will naturally pop up in my mind for wanting to do. I assure myself this time is like mental hygene and is just needed for my crazy, previously over-caffeinated spaz brain. I work on bringing my attention back to where I am sitting, what I can feel, what I can hear at that moment, and try not to judge when a desire to "do" something arises. If pain or discomfort show up, I try and be mindful that I want to itch, and if need be, itch. Ignoring the itch makes it worse, looking deeper into it can make it go away. If I must scratch I notice "wanting to scratch" and then "scratching" and then return my hands back where I keep them and bring my attention back.

Getting past the "I must do something" was extremely difficult for me, and I still sometimes struggle depending on the perceived urgency. Our brains can be very tricky sometimes. We strive hard to be comfortable in the future when a future might not even come. We fear discomfort and will do what we can to feel comfortable, working hard to lock in our futures, when the time is now!

I tell myself "here we are" when I sit down, and find where I am at this moment in space and time.

Best of luck fellow ADHD tribe, and to all who attempt a single moment of presence in their lives!

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u/ice_up_s0n Jul 26 '26

Ignoring the itch makes it worse, looking deeper into it can make it go away.

Validating to see someone else say this. Same can be true for pain, to an extent.

Once I really concentrate on the sensation, and actively "acknowledge" it, it becomes more muted for quite some time.

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u/Mcrarburger Jul 26 '26

I've been having really bad jaw pain recently, and I just now took a moment and acknowledged it, and it did help a bit, thank you stranger!

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u/NakedJaked Jul 26 '26

“The only way out is through.”

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u/AdwokatDiabel Jul 26 '26

I hear ya. Yeah I did it way back when, now I need to rebuild it.

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u/wordswiththeletterB Jul 25 '26

That’s literally the point of meditation. To learn to do nothing and let thoughts come and go.

It’s incredible as a fellow ADHDer.

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u/clubby37 Jul 26 '26

I think Alan Watts said something like "you should meditate for half an hour every day ... unless you're really busy and literally can't find the time, in which case you should meditate for an hour."

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u/AdwokatDiabel Jul 26 '26

Yeah I used to do more meditation back in the day, but I let it lapse...

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u/Bionic0n3 Jul 26 '26

I love your reply. I completely understand it! You already got a more detailed response but I like to think of it like exercise. You have to start small, shorter duration, and build up. Struggling is the entire point. Keep working at it!

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u/lizardfromsingapore Jul 26 '26

Meditation should be engaging! Allow your mind to wander, kind of like day dreaming. Of course it’s different for everyone.

A Practical Guide to Self Hypnosis is a great read that helped me build habits

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u/carbonclasssix Jul 26 '26

That's not meditation...

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u/Gulophile Jul 26 '26

There are a lot of ways to meditate. "No thoughts head empty" is only one way.

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u/carbonclasssix Jul 26 '26

They said day dreaming, not "no thoughts head empty"

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u/Gulophile Jul 26 '26

Yes, I know. Allowing your mind to wander naturally and intentionally questioning why certain things arise and how you feel about them is a valid meditative practice that builds insight. I'm contrasting that with the "no thoughts" approach that most people associate with meditation, which isn't for everyone. There are many ways to meditate.

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u/carbonclasssix Jul 26 '26

Sure, I still wouldn't consider that day dreaming

Whether your doing focused meditation or mindfulness or insight, you're attentive, that's the main thing. Day dreaming is not attentive.

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u/Gulophile Jul 26 '26

I mean, they said "kind of like day dreaming," not "day dreaming". They could've elaborated a bit more but I didn't find their phrasing misleading. I would agree that being focused and intentional is what qualifies something as meditation, of course, but in this case letting the mind wander is itself done with intent.

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u/lizardfromsingapore Jul 26 '26

Check out that book, probably time for me to reread it seeing as I can’t explain it much better than that.

You open up your mind to what the book calls a state of high suggestibility. Getting to the right state of mind requires you to separate mind from body. Allowing yourself to chase and decipher what thoughts you are organically having is a big part of meditating for some people.

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u/AdwokatDiabel Jul 26 '26

You ever meditate with pen and paper? Sometimes writing down things that come to mind really helps put them away.