Latest / ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women / 132 // How to Create an ADHD-Friendly Environment

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132 // How to Create an ADHD-Friendly Environment · ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women

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  If you want to thrive and you want to live your life confidently,
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  it's important to understand how you can create an ADHD-friendly environment that works for you.
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  Are you tired of feeling like you don't fit in? Like you're not good enough the way you are?
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  In this podcast, I will give you the strategies to build God-centered confidence
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  so you can know in your heart that you do belong.
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  You are enough and you are made on purpose and with a purpose.
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  Hey, I'm Kelsey Spronk, fellow ADHD.
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  Hey friends, welcome to the ADHD with Confidence podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey.
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  And before I get into the episode, if you ever hear me laughing,
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  it's probably because I am doing something ridiculous.
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  Like right now, my hands are just all over the place. So if I ever start a YouTube
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  channel, you will get to see that, or I might hide it a little bit.
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  Anyways, back into the episode.
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  Today, we're going to talk about how to create an ADHD-friendly environment.
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  Now, I want you to remember and recognize that this is not a cookie cutter one size fits all.
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  This is going to be something that is friendly for you while keeping in mind
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  some of the overlapping features that most of us with ADHD have.
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  So part of this that we're going to talk about today, I'm going to break it down into our senses.
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  There are lots of different ways that you can look at environment.
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  So in the book, ADHD 2.0, they talk about environment and they kind of go into
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  different aspects of like, you know, support and asking for help and stuff like that.
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  I'm going to take a slightly different approach today, but just a quick quote from ADHD 2.0.
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  They said, environment matters a great deal.
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  Many adults never discover they have ADHD until their environment dramatically changes.
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  For example, when a woman gives birth to or adopts her first child,
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  the demands on her organizational skills coupled with loss of sleep really upset
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  the apple cart of her environment.
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  I don't know about you, but that definitely resonates with me.
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  I think before I had kids, I have three kids.
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  Before I had kids, I was able to manage.
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  I didn't know I had ADHD. I think looking back, there was definitely signs,
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  but I didn't realize it until there were so many demands and things that disrupted
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  the systems and supports and strategies that I had in place.
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  And so essentially the point of sharing this is to understand that our environment does matter.
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  In a future episode, I can talk more about those types of environment where
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  we're talking about, you know, our supports, our systems, kind of some of the,
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  I would say, I guess, the deeper forms of environment.
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  But in today's episode, I also think it's really important to talk about your
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  environment as far as your senses. A lot of us with ADHD can have a hypersensitivity
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  to, you know, sights and sounds and smells and things like that.
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  And I think it's important to recognize what is going to be a good environment for you.
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  So I will give some examples, but I also want you to think about what will work specifically for you.
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  Starting with sight, I want to break each one down into what is helpful to have
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  and what is also not helpful to have.
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  So as far as sight, what would you like to see in your environment that's going to help you thrive?
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  For me, for example, having some clean spaces.
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  Now to keep this realistic, my kids are 2, 4, and 6.
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  I cannot have tidy, clean spaces everywhere in my house.
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  It's just not realistic. so sometimes what I
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  will do is I will clear off one
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  portion of the counter clear off one portion of the table and
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  then I will try to face in that direction I'm talking about if I'm trying to
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  you know get some work done or something but having these little pockets of
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  space for me where I can look and it's it's clutter free it's not messy or disorganized
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  can make my environment more friendly for me.
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  Some other things for me that are helpful to see are visual reminders.
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  So a really, you know, ADHD friendly environment for me.
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  If I want to remember something, I need to see it.
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  So we have our weekly meal planning for our dinners is on the fridge where I'm going to see it.
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  I have a printed paper calendar that I put kind of on the wall over by the vitamin
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  cabinet by the fridge and things where I know I'm going to go and I'm going to see those.
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  And I don't have to, you know, rely on remembering or on alarms that go off,
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  you know, and maybe I'm not home and I don't hear them or I don't think about
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  it. And so that can be really helpful.
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  So I want you to think about what would be helpful for you in your space to be able to see.
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  Now, the other part of this is what is helpful to avoid seeing.
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  So for me that's a lot of clutter or messes another thing for me if I want to
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  be present with my kids when I'm at home with my kids is that I can't.
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  Be around a lot of things that I need to do, if that makes sense.
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  So if I have, you know, some paperwork sitting on the counter or bills that
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  need to be paid or whatever it is, that can be really distracting for me.
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  And so if I have a different space, you know, somewhere out of sight,
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  out of mind for me, where I can work on it later, that can really help me to stay present.
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  Another really big one that I would encourage all of you with is keeping your phone out of sight.
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  If you are struggling with the addiction of screens, of scrolling,
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  of social media, whatever it is,
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  I would recommend finding a way that you can have your phone somewhere where
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  you don't see it all the time.
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  I find, even for me, even if I can see it out of the corner of my eye,
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  it just draws me to it. I'm like, you know, compulsive.
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  It's like I just need to grab my phone and see if there's anything exciting
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  on there. And I find that if I start my day going on my phone,
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  I have a lot worse of a day.
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  Nothing seems to go as well. I feel more brain fog.
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  I feel discouraged. Whereas if I put my phone, I typically put mine away in
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  the cleaning closet because I know I'm not going in there. So I put it in the cleaning closet.
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  I know where it is. It's always in the exact same spot. But it helps me to not
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  think about it so much as I look around, you know, my house and I'm working on things.
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  So think about for you what is helpful to be able to see and what is helpful if you don't see it.
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  The second one is for your, what can you hear?
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  Now, obviously, if you have little kids, you can't always control this.
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  And so I wanted to touch on that quickly because we do with ADHD,
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  our brains take in a lot of information and we don't filter it out as well.
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  So we don't filter out some of the unnecessary information, which can lead to
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  a lot of overstimulation.
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  And I don't think any of us want that.
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  So if you are in an environment where you cannot control some of the sounds,
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  I would highly recommend noise cancelling headphones or wearing earplugs or
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  like those loop earplugs.
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  I haven't tried them yet, but I've been wondering about them for a long time.
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  So it's important to think about what's helpful to be able to hear or to not hear.
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  So as far as what you would like to hear.
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  I think having some calming music or some upbeat music, if you're really struggling
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  to get started with something, task initiation or completing something or saying, hey, you know what?
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  If I complete this, I can listen to this song or I will complete this while I listen to this song.
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  Whatever is helpful for you. The other part that I already kind of touched on
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  is what is helpful to not be able to hear.
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  So for me, things like a ticking clock, I actually
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  just replaced the clock that's right beside me here and I
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  used to have one that would you know tick tick tick tick tick and it
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  drove me nuts if I was trying to do anything remotely productive I
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  had to take it off the wall and take the battery out of it so this
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  new one is great because I cannot hear it at all other things
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  like fans or just other
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  sounds in your environment it's important to kind
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  of be aware of how those are affecting you my
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  sister for example can't handle being in an environment where somebody is writing
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  on a whiteboard so not just a chalkboard but a whiteboard because she can't
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  handle the sound of the marker squeaking across the board so she has had to
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  she has had to make accommodations for that.
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  Number three for setting up an ADHD-friendly environment for yourself is what
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  is, so this is with touch, what is helpful to be able to feel in your environment or to not feel?
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  So this can be a lot of different things, but say, for example,
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  the type of chair that you're sitting on,
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  you know, what kind of clothes you are wearing, you know, are you a very tactile
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  person who's going to be bothered by something that is itchy or maybe it sits
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  up too high in the front around your neck and that's going to drive you crazy.
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  Like a turtleneck i could not i could not handle same
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  with like wool nope too itchy too scratchy cannot do
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  it so making sure that you are recognizing and
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  respecting what it is that you need as far as tactile environment and so some
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  things for me for example is i really enjoy using a paper planner i use a daily
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  planner i have a free one that i can link below as well but i enjoy using a paper planner.
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  Getting to write things out, having, you know, something in my hands is really
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  helpful for me instead of just using electronic planners.
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  Another thing for me is that I need to be warm enough, but not too warm.
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  If I get too hot, I can't think and I panic and I get frustrated and overwhelmed and things like that.
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  So figuring out what does that look like for you?
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  What kind of environment would work best for you?
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  Number four, what is helpful? And this is kind of a weird one that we don't
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  necessarily think about as much, but also very important.
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  What is helpful to be able to smell or not to smell?
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  So if you find, you know, you get overwhelmed by things, maybe there are certain
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  smells that are calming for you, you know, and you want to have some sort of
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  smell in your environment that's going to,
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  help you stay focused or help you stay calm or it's going to bring you joy, whatever it is.
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  I don't know that I necessarily have anything for that.
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  Like, I mean, I appreciate the smell of, you know, like freshly baked cookies
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  or whatever it is. And I don't mind if there was, what are those things called?
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  Diffusers, I think. I don't have one clearly. But those ones where you can add like a scent to it.
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  Feel free to experiment with that. For me, it's
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  more important the things that I don't
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  want to be able to smell and so a part of
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  that is just understanding you know certain environments if
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  I go to a coffee shop to get
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  my work done and I don't want to sit too close to where the bathroom is or I
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  have to be cautious of who I sit beside if they're wearing really strong you
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  know perfume or cologne or something that's going to really bother me and and
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  so just essentially giving yourself grace and understanding and being okay with the fact that
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  some of these things are really bothersome.
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  Some of these things are really unhelpful and not feeling shame or embarrassment
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  about that, but just recognizing this is helpful and this is not.
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  And then doing your best to set up your environments in such a way that's going to help you thrive.
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  The last one here is things that are helpful to taste or not taste.
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  Now, this one may not be relevant, you know, all the time.
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  We're not necessarily eating all the time, but I don't know.
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  It's important, too, when you're thinking about your environment,
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  whether you're at work or you're at home, you're at home working or you're home
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  with your kids, whatever it is.
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  For me, for example, having coffee, my coffee in the morning and,
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  you know, my water or maybe I have a kombucha or a tea or whatever it is.
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  Some of these things can be positive
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  experiences for us that can help to contribute to our environment.
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  Right and I think part of this
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  too right is finding things that work for you even when you think about
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  you know in in honor
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  of trying to eat well trying to
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  focus on nutrition maybe you're trying to force yourself to eat things that
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  taste awful to you so maybe you know reassess reevaluating that and saying hey
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  is there another way that I can get these you know vitamins and minerals and
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  this nutrition in without having to eat something that makes me absolutely miserable.
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  So from today's episode, I encourage you to think about how you could create
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  an ADHD-friendly environment that works well for you.
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  Because, and I think along with this,
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  the first step is always that that curiosity that
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  awareness of how is my environment affecting
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  me right now even for me if I'm you know
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  working on my laptop at the kitchen table if there is
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  a paper or really anything in the corner of my eye that I can see it drives
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  me nuts and it distracts me and it takes a lot of my energy like to not to not
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  look at it so if I hide it behind my computer or I put it on a different encounter
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  where I can't see it, that's been really helpful for me.
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  So I want you to think about what is going to be helpful for you in order to
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  help you thrive. And a big part of this is that.
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  Even when we don't recognize it, these things are taking a toll on us.
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  When, I don't know if you've ever noticed when, you know, there's like a bathroom
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  fan on or the kitchen, I think it's called the range hood fan is on.
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  And then when it, when somebody turns it off and all of a sudden you feel like,
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  I can, I can relax. I'm not so stressed out by that sound that I didn't even
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  realize was bothering me so incredibly much.
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  It's important to have that awareness because when we have all these things
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  going on around us that are not a very good environment for us to thrive in,
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  it's going to exhaust us. We're going to be tired a lot faster.
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  It's going to overwhelm us. We're going to become overstimulated.
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  And then those things can lead to other negative outcomes like snapping at your
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  spouse or your friend or your coworker or your kids or, you know,
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  just being generally really tired and discouraged or frustrated with yourself
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  that you did snap at somebody, whatever it is.
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  So what I want to encourage you with is to try to be aware of what kind of environment
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  works best for you, what kind of environment and things don't work for you,
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  and then just slowly make those changes.
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  And as I always say, be kind with yourself. This isn't about judgment,
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  and this isn't about doing it perfectly.
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  Maybe you'll have a stellar environment for a day or a week,
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  and then you'll forget about some of these things.
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  And then maybe you'll remember them a few weeks later. It's not about perfection.
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  It's about progress and it's about awareness and working towards what will work best for you.
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  I hope you found this episode helpful. Don't forget to click that follow button.
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  And I look forward to being here with you next time. Till then, God bless.