Be much kinder to yourself. We live under the belief that everything has to be perfect, that we have to be focused all the time. Being kind means: how good that I at least worked focused for a few minutes this morning.
People with ADD work in shorter, faster waves. They generate new thoughts or feelings more quickly than “regular” people. Because of that, they may seem distracted — but in reality, they operate at a higher voltage.
We humans have large brains. Big brains require a relatively high amount of energy compared to other species.
So you want to be selective about what you give your attention to. Your “voltage” — the amount of energy your brain is constantly running at — stays around 25%. You can lower it a little through meditation, for example.
The main idea is this: don’t spend too much of that energy on things you see in the news or on social media. When you do that, you’re spending the most valuable resource you have — your energy — on something happening on the other side of the world, or on things that have no real value.
Meanwhile, you want to spend your best energy on the people you love, your dog, or on things that matter to you and make you happy.
Let’s make this concrete:
“I’m now going to spend two hours of my energy reserves — my voltage — on an American company that shows me videos.”
Why you can’t answer the question “Is ADHD real?”
Every person experiences the world in a completely different way—much more different than you might imagine. So if you want to label people with psychiatric conditions, you would have to give every single person on earth their own personal “psychiatric disorder.”
Using umbrella terms like ADHD or ADD is confusing, because no two cases are the same. The unique way a person experiences the world is real. But should we call that ADHD or ADD? No—because that implies that two people have the same ADHD or ADD, which simply isn’t true.
Besides that, there are many observational mistakes in ADHD and ADD research:
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People with ADHD or ADD often work on a different “energy voltage.”
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People with ADHD or ADD sometimes make themselves smaller. You get more energy on a smaller surface.
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We live in a smartphone epidemic. It sometimes feels like we’re already living in the Matrix.
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Being distracted is completely normal. People talk about what they find interesting, but that’s not necessarily what you want to hear.
I think people with ADHD or ADD are actually working in a very smart and energy-efficient way:
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Doing something at 125% and then doing nothing for a long time makes perfect sense. From the outside, it looks as if you’re doing nothing.