Fundamental Strategies to Overcome Inattention, Hyperactivity, and Impulsivity
by Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA

It can be overwhelming sorting through the thousands of strategies designed to help people with ADHD become more effective, consistent, and successful. Fortunately, most of these strategies tend to be variations on some common themes. All these different strategies mostly boil down to six fundamental strategies to overcome common struggles with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. If you understand these fundamental strategies, it's easy to create your own customized solutions based on your exact life circumstances. This brings to mind the adage of, "Give a man to fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." This enables you to not only create effective strategies to solve today's challenges, but also to adjust smoothly as your situation changes without having to re-invent the wheel each time.

We can create some general guidelines for how to address each of the three core deficits of ADHD: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (you may only have one of these). For the most part, the strategies that are most successful for people with ADHD will be consistent with these guidelines because they take into account the way that people with ADHD typically process information.

Overcome Inattention
People with ADHD have difficulty keeping their attention on the most relevant part of their environment, so the goal is to make the most important stimuli stand out more than the distractions. We can do this by working it from both sides:

• Reduce extraneous stimuli. The fewer distractions that are competing for your attention, the more likely you are to stay focused where you should be. For example, by reducing clutter, turning off your cell phone, or working in a quiet place.
• Amplify relevant stimuli. The stronger and stickier the desired stimuli are, the more likely you are to notice and stay on them. For example, by setting an alarm to tell you that it's time to go to a meeting, putting up sticky notes, or using a highlighter to mark up

Overcome Hyperactivity
Restlessness can drive people with ADHD to act in ways that get them into trouble. The key to dealing with hyperactivity is to:

• Seek out situations that allow for the safe expression of hyperactivity. If you have a hard time sitting still, then look for times and places where you can move. Rather than eating lunch at your desk, make a point of getting out and walking around.
• Minimize or avoid situations that require more restraint than you can muster. To the extent possible, it's sometimes best to be selective about the situations you put yourself into. For example, many adults with ADHD prefer to watch movies at home where they can more easily move around, rather than feeling trapped in the theater.

Overcome Impulsivity
People with ADHD sometimes act before thinking through the consequences. They can make better thought out decisions by setting themselves up for success before even entering certain situations. There's less to think about this way and less will power is needed. The key to dealing with impulsivity is to:

• Create barriers to problematic actions by reducing tempting stimuli. It's much easier to not be tempted if there is no temptation. For example, if you tend to spend too much in certain stores, just don't go into them in the first place.
• Set up cushions to reduce the potential damage done. If the temptation can't be eliminated, look for ways to minimize the potential costs of impulsive acts. For example, if you have to go into that favorite store, then leave the credit cards at home and only bring a set amount of cash, since then you can't spend more than you planned.

Conclusion
Hopefully these six fundamental strategies simplify some things that seemed much more complicated. When you get down to it, these strategies should solve most of the places that your ADHD gets you into trouble. Granted, the devil is in the details with these matters, but keep coming back to these six strategies when you feel stuck. I think it will help.

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Visit myADHD.com and use the follow tools this month to learn about Cognitive Behavior Therapy and CBT tools to help adults with ADHD who may suffer from anxiety or depression.

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