71: How to Find Balance with ADHD All-or-Nothing Thinking

You either clean the whole house in one rampage or leave your clothes on the floor for a week. You go hard at the gym for a week, eat one cookie, and write off the whole month. You wait for a six-hour window to work on that project, and when it doesn't come, no progress happens at all. If you're an adult with ADHD who's tired of hearing that all-or-nothing thinking is just how your brain works, this episode is for you.

I break down why ADHD all-or-nothing thinking is a dysregulation pattern, not a personality trait, and how it can shift once you understand what's actually driving it. Your nervous system swings you from one extreme to the other because the middle feels risky to a primal part of you. I cover what ADHD all-or-nothing thinking looks like across cleaning, work, fitness, and food, how the ADHD binge-restrict cycle is the same swing as going hard at the gym then quitting for a month, why ADHD perfectionism and avoidance are the same pattern dressed differently, what the ADHD burnout cycle does to your momentum, and how to identify one place you're pulling to the extreme this week so you can start softening it.

00:00 – Why ADHD All-or-Nothing Thinking Isn't Who You Are

03:25 – What Dysregulation Looks Like in Your Behavior

05:43 – The Pendulum Swing and Why It Kills Momentum

07:27 – All-or-Nothing With Food and Exercise

17:23 – Finding the Middle Ground With Perfectionism

22:36 – One Place to Soften the Swing This Week

Building habits with ADHD lives in the middle of the pendulum. Join my free call on August 5th, Is the Purpose of Life to Check Off To-Do Lists Till I Die?, to go deeper into what life can look like when you're not stuck rushing through it. https://www.jennafree.com/adhdcall

Check out the show notes and other resources at https://jennafree.com/blog/find-balance-with-adhd-all-or-nothing-thinking

Let's stay connected!

Want more thriving with ADHD? Come hang out with me on Instagram!

Get out of paralysis, be more productive, and enjoy your life again! Join an upcoming group!

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(78)

77: ADHD Time Blindness: How to Stop Fighting the Clock

Your relationship with time feels broken, and you've probably filed it under ADHD time blindness and left it there. If rushing, scrambling, and never having enough time has started to feel permanent, ...

14 Sep 19min

76: 3 Reasons to Set Your ADHD Diagnosis Aside

You know the label. ADHD, anxiety, OCD, autism, whatever you have been diagnosed with. You know the symptom, and it still hasn't changed anything. If a diagnosis has started to feel like a wall instea...

7 Sep 18min

75: Scarcity Mindset in ADHD: Why Nothing Feels Like Enough

You've screenshotted the same tip four times and still feel like you're behind. Or you finish the whole to-do list, and your brain zeroes in on the one thing left undone. If that constant sense of not...

31 Aug 16min

74: Stop the Confusion Between ADHD Emotions and Reactivity

You've been calling it "being emotional" for years, and it's kept you stuck. Or you're a clinician who lumps every client reaction into the same emotional bucket without separating what's really drivi...

24 Aug 24min

73: 3 Mistakes in ADHD Therapy That Stall Progress

You've been seeing an ADHD therapist for months, and something's off, or you're the clinician sensing your ADHD clients aren't getting where they hoped to go. Either seat you're sitting in, the patter...

17 Aug 23min

72: Interrupt ADHD and Perfectionism Patterns for More Freedom

You spend three weeks fussing with a work project that was technically done two weeks ago. A two-line email took 40 minutes because you rewrote it 4 times. You can't start the errand list until you've...

10 Aug 19min

70: ADHD Executive Dysfunction Isn't Permanent and Here's Why

You know exactly what you should be doing, and you still can't make yourself start. If you're an adult with ADHD who's tired of being told your executive function is just "how your brain is," this epi...

27 Juli 23min