It is important to recollect/observe your own self-made ADHD compensation techniques, and have gratitude for them, have respect for them -- you were doing the best you knew at the time to overcome/ work within your challenges.

Here are some examples of things one might do to self-manage ADHD symptoms. Each of these things can have adaptive (helpful) and maladaptive (hindering) effects, depending on the implementation and awareness surrounding the approach.

• Control the external environment

• Insist on sameness

• Hyperfocus for task completion

• Rearrange one’s daily schedule to “capture” or maximize prime focus time

• Minimize the number of decisions to make on a daily basis (can turn into rigidity, such as eating the same thing every day, doing the same workout every day). The idea is that your mind has limited resources for attention and decision making, and you want to allocate those resources toward creative things

• Adopt a shy/passive/deferential persona to counteract the impulsive side of oneself

These are examples of things that one might do inadvertently in order to cope/compensate for ADHD tendencies.

These are not necessarily “strategic” or “recommended” techniques.

With the approach of compassion and gratitude, knowing that your younger self did the best given the resources at the time, begin the process of looking back and looking forward:

• Write down a few of your own self-management techniques:
• Which of these is helpful, which could be changed/upgraded to be more helpful to you?