ADD/ADHD and Motivation

ADD/ADHD and Motivation

Motivation

Motivation is the desire to do something. Someones motivation can be to get out of bed in the mornings or it can be to accomplish some task, whether it is schoolwork or an everyday household chore.

Motivation, or lack of motivation, affects everyone. It doesn't matter what age they are or whether or not they are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Whether it be at school, at home, or at a job, it can be easy to lose the motivation that encourages someone to keep moving forward. Some people may have issues managing schoolwork, some may not have the motivation to go out and involve themselves in social situations, or it may be harder to get up and get moving to work when its time to go in for a shift.

How ADD/ADHD Affects Motivation

Motivation can be hard to come by for those with ADD or ADHD to develop or maintain because the part of our brain is responsible for learning is in charge of learning and the part that allows us to apply this knowledge are disconnected from each other. This also means that someone may have trouble connecting the information and getting interested in it as they cant see how the information could affect them. A person without ADD or ADHD has a connection between these parts of the brain and can, therefore, process and apply the information given with fewer issues.

ADD and ADHD makes it really hard when there is a lack of motivation because we can get our work done and we know what we are supposed to do but we dont do it. We can and we know we can do it. But getting the task done can be really hard, especially since when the brain cannot see an immediate consequence, the brain will see no need to get it done until last minute when there is an immediate consequence.

Finding your sense of Motivation

In order to gain a sense of motivation when you have ADD or ADHD, you have to find a way to involve yourself in what is happening. If you dont connect with a lesson in class, imagine you are a person who went through something. How would you feel and what would you want others to know or what would you have wanted to know? If you cant find the motivation to start an assignment or get up in the mornings, or even get up in the middle of the day, make your motivation outside of yourself. Set deadlines for yourself and make sure that somebody (not yourself) is going to enforce them and set consequences. If you have a hard time getting up for work, having that external consequence of If I dont go in today, I could get fired. can be an incentive to get up and go to work.

Take frequent breaks!!! For people with ADD or ADHD, our attention is very limited and it doesnt mean you cant do something. It may seem like it takes longer for you to complete an assignment or task and that is normal when you are not taking breaks. Doing this allows you to get more work done in less time. Usually for people with ADD or ADHD, for every 10 minutes of a task or assignment, a good break is 3 minutes. And making sure that you do get back on task afterwards, again making the consequence outside of yourself.

When you are working on any bigger assignment or task (yes I know youve most likely heard this before), split it up into smaller parts. But dont just split it up and then leave it there because that still doesnt give any reason to get those parts done by the time you need it done. Set deadlines for yourself and tell someone else about them. Make sure there are consequences for when you dont complete a part of the task by when you want to get it done. Even if you wait until right before the deadline once again (Thank you ADHD brain), there is less to accomplish and more chance of completing the task. With enough smaller parts, and remembering to take breaks between them, it is more likely for someone with ADD/ADHD to be successful in what they are doing.

Questions

1) What do you have the most trouble getting motivated about completing?

2) On a scale from 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, how would you rank your current level of motivation?

3) How would you define motivation?

4) Is there anything that you have found that helps you to get motivated or to stay motivated? If so, what is it?

5) In what areas of your life do you find yourself lacking motivation?

6) What causes you to lose motivation?

7) What do you want others to know about motivation?

8) How can you apply what you learned from this discussion in your day to day life?

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