Holidays and ADHD

The holidays are here.

As the holidays approach, the ADHD brain lights up and starts to 
imagine creating the most beautiful and perfect holiday possible: 
the perfect decorations, a three-course dinner for the extended 
family, cards sent out in time, perfect gifts for everyone, signing 
up for all events and concerts…

As the anticipation increases, it’s easy to see how we can smile 
and make ourselves believe that all of these goals can be achieved 
with our adrenaline-boosted energy and motivation.  

What we tend to forget is that pulling together the perfect holiday 
requires exactly those Executive Functions of the brain that we 
may already be struggling with in our everyday lives.

Planning, organizing and time management are just some of the 
skills we need to utilize in order to accomplish a seamless holiday.

It’s no wonder things falter when it comes to putting our ideas 
to action.

We start to procrastinate on writing those cards until it’s too late; 
we get overwhelmed by the details each task entails; we forget to 
plan the to-do list in the days leading up to the family dinner we 
agreed to host. All those tasks that seemed easy and doable begin 
to loom larger and larger, threatening to overwhelm us into complete 
inaction.

Even though we are usually the ones who created these expectations 
for ourselves, this is when our negative talk starts. Anxiety and 
stress build as more and more things start to fall apart.  At this 
point, anxiety and stress builds and our anticipation turns sour as 
we begin to dread the holiday season.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Consider the following approaches 
to ease you into future holidays: 

1. Take care of yourself

2. Adjust your expectations and set reasonable and realistic goals. 

3. Learn skills to manage the project more efficiently

4. Simplify your holiday and plan ahead

5. Learn to say “no”

In my next post you will find these ideas with additional details collected 
from experts.

I can help you implement any and all of these choices or to come up 
with more solutions!

Source: Gabriella Hajdu