Editor’s Column: ADHDing, One Year Later

Adriane M. F. Sanders

I’m writing this summer column from a delightful local beer garden where my regular writing group has been meeting since last fall. This joint has coffee, adult beverages, wifi, pizza, and a handful of fellow academics who are desperate for both companionship and actual time to work, so there’s really no reason for me to leave. It’s a come-as-you-are writing group, and all of us almost always make progress on something each meeting—rarely totally giving in to our need for socialization but appreciating that when that happens, our time was just productive in a different way.

If you’ve done any perusing of developmental psych or watching young toddler behavior, you might call this productive co-behavior “parallel play.” If you’ve ever gone in search of ADHD hacks, you might call it “body doubling” (#ADHDtok does). And upon reflection, it may be how most of us got through our grad programs, working alongside other grad students in your prof’s research lab. The idea is that being near or seeing others on task (a “body double”) may inspire, motivate, regulate you enough to also stay on task. There are even social media accounts that live stream themselves writing, reading, cleaning house, and so forth so that others may benefit from an on-task buddy.

The premise of body doubling as a tool for individuals with ADHD is prevalent enough on the internet that I assumed the concept was well established (bad scientist!). To provide you, dear reader, with only the most cutting-edge research and resources, I naturally turned to Google for some quick references on body doubling. One of the first sites that came up was from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association, which is a long-running nonprofit organization dedicated to “helping adults with ADHD lead better lives” (ADDA, n.d.). In their “time and productivity” resource section, they have a fairly recent article on the subject that begins with, “Can something as simple as another person’s presence make it easier to stay on task? While there’s no research to prove its effectiveness, ADHD body doubling is helping many people get things done” (ADDA, 2024). Say what now? NO RESEARCH? The staff writer goes on to say this strategy was born out of working with one of their ADHD therapy clients, and the rest of the article is actually a republication from their website in 1996. So just to recap, this idea/phrase emerged out of clinical practice and was published on a prominent ADHD resource website 28 years ago. Google Scholar only returned two hits in which ADHD and body doubling were central to the research: a poster from the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Eagle et al., 2023) and a Computer Science master’s thesis (Annavarapu, 2024). As these outlets suggest, the authors are exploring the concept from a technologically assisted perspective, and their studies combined included 260 participants. Clearly there is still much opportunity for research approaching the topic from a variety of other disciplines. I have two points in bringing you down this little rabbit hole: (a) Even if you don’t “need” a body double, you might benefit from the practice for a variety of reasons and (b) it is difficult to find actionable, evidence-based strategies for adults with ADHD, and ok, (c) Bonus! Are there any I-Os researching this as practitioners continue to gain momentum on incorporating neurodiversity as another part of DEI and accessibility in the workplace?

Now, I could continue with what I think may be the world’s tiniest, most informal lit review, but this was really just a long way of telling you that I think writing groups are the bee’s knees and to get body doubling on your radar as a potential strategy to consider for yourself, friends, or family of any age. It’s been 1 year and 3 months since my column Women & ADHD on Front Street, where I shared my experiences with what ultimately became a diagnosis of ADHD. Since then, I have heard from so many readers identifying as women who were having/had similar experiences. The reason I know it’s been just over a year since that column is because before I walked into my writing group today, I received the most thoughtful and exciting thank you email from a reader who was now celebrating a fresh diagnosis at age 50. Similarly, I was at a neighborhood party and ended up chatting with a K12 teacher I had never met before. We were talking about how frenetic life feels with small children, and she happened to share that she thinks she might have ADHD. I told her a little about my journey and mentioned I had written an editorial about my experience. When I pulled it up to text her the link, she saw the website and said “Oh I’ve already read that! My friend sent it to me when I started talking about my symptoms.” My mouth dropped open. I cannot tell you how powerful and meaningful these notes and conversations have been. The appreciation I have for those who take the time to write or tell me that I’ve been a positive part of their own journey is even greater because I am very aware of the special combination of motivation, interest, working-, short-, and long-term memory, and maybe even celestial alignment that is often necessary to carry out such a task in the face of ADHD symptoms. I am so happy that my little article, that I almost never published, is actually reaching people. Hearing that I’ve had anything to do with someone finding support and encouragement and even empowerment to take action feels like receiving a hug from the universe.

I also thought you may want a little update on what it looks like for me a year into this diagnosis. I tried a couple of different medications in the initial months following the diagnosis and have found one that seems to “work” for me (though a supportive therapist continues to be my best treatment). I say “work” because I had unrealistic expectations about what medicine would do. Some ADHDers describe their medicated selves as turning down the volume of their ongoing mental chatter so that they can focus better. My mental chatter still operates at full tilt, unrelated to medicine. Where I seem to notice the pharmacological assist is being able to initiate and/or sustain effort on tasks that I really don’t want to do. Don’t get too excited; that doesn’t mean I just hop on such tasks without painfully procrastinating first, but it’s generally better than it was.

I’ve also had a recurring thought that my symptoms actually seem worse in some ways. The frequency and/or depth of my issues related to working memory and forgetfulness feel like they’re at an all time high, as is the impulse to do low-priority or irrelevant tasks before the high-priority ones.¹ However, I’m wondering if these symptoms aren’t actually getting worse or more frequent but instead they are just more obvious now that I’m only infrequently trying to mask them. I’ve learned that everyone does not have these same struggles, and being able to acknowledge and accept they are indeed struggles for me is oddly liberating! Having just seen Inside Out 2, it’s like a new connection has grown in my “sense of self” this year. This experience has empowered me to acknowledge that this is how I operate, which in turn, allows me to focus more on how to work with myself and not against myself. Granted, that’s a whole other quest I have embarked on that continues to require deep reflection and deliberate practice, but even getting this far has brought me so much more self-appreciation and compassion. It’s provided a vocabulary for meaningful and funny conversations with people who matter to me personally and professionally. Thinking deeply on this is where I’m currently at—relishing the additional authenticity and understanding of myself while testing out little day trips on that new quest to work with and not against. I also want to point out that the official diagnosis is not what made this possible. While a diagnosis can provide a sense of validation and opportunity for more formal supports, seeking to better understand who and how you are right now and how you can care for and support that version of you is completely free.²

I hope anyone reading this or my original ADHD column will continue to reach out if so inclined. I’m happy to share anything else about what I’ve learned or experienced, and I just love being able to share a little personalized encouragement as you navigate your own journey. I have felt so much of that same support and what to give it back to you!

Here’s to a summer of whatever you need most! May you grant yourself the space and love to do just that.

Note

¹ My spouse has always been equally humored and perplexed by my tendency to clean out a closet (or other space that no one sees) when we have limited time to tidy the house for company. Similarly, I had to reorganize my to-do lists before I finished writing this column even though I only have an hour of childcare.

² Anyone can use ADHD-informed techniques if they help with your struggles, regardless of a diagnosis (and the same is true for techniques meant to help those with anxiety, depression, autism, OCD, learning and executive function disorders for example).

References

Annavarapu, S. (2024). Comparative study of body doubling in extended reality. Unpublished master’s thesis. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/5fcc5824-46de-4614-b2b0-835646e58dff/content 

Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA). (n.d.). About us. https://add.org/about-adda/

Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA). (2024, April 19). The ADHD body double: A unique tool for getting things done. https://add.org/the-body-double/

Eagle, T., Baltaxe-Admony, L. B., & Ringland, K. E. (2023, October). Proposing body doubling as continuum of space/time and mutuality: An investigation with neurodivergent participants [poster]. In ASSETS ‘23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3597638.3614486