Drugs like Adderall, Ritalin and Strattera can be very effective at treating ADHD, but we always want options.  Here is a list of some alternative ways to improve your ADHD that you may not have known about. I’ve tried almost all of them.

Brain Training Software

Lumosity.com is by far the cheapest and most robust. For $15/month, you can improve your attention by playing games on your computer or smart phone. Posit Science is a far more expensive software, but has a money-back guarantee and a  long history of research on its effectiveness.

Brain Training Audio

The Listening Program has been around for over a decade, and claims to improve the brain by only listening to specially-engineered music in headphones.

Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback uses funny-looking headsets that read your brainwaves while you watch movies. When you’re not focusing properly, the movies stop until you regain focus. This trains your brain to pay attention properly, and can have long-standing effects.

Meditation

I’ve written about my experience with Vipassana Meditation, which I believe to be particularly effective for ADHD people with impulse control issues. It’s by no means the only form of meditation that will work though.

Light Therapy

Light boxes have been used as an effective treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) and depression, but there is also some evidence that it can be affective for people with ADHD as well. Given the fact that ADHD can co-occur with depression, light therapy can be doubly useful as a supplementary therapy.

Physical Stuff

I’ve had some indirect results from the Alexander Technique, which I detail in another post. AT improves posture which reduces facial tension, which in turn removes some distractions.

Also, Learning Breakthrough uses balance training to improve attention deficits. Programs like Brain Highways seem to incorporate exercises of this nature as well, to treat ADHD, Autism, LD and more.

There’s a ton of stuff like this out there, more to come!

Soon after I was formally diagnosed with attention deficit disorder several years back, I became vigilant in finding natural alternatives for treating ADHD. Vipassana Meditation is what I’d say to be one of the most effective approaches that I’ve personally tried.

For those who haven’t heard of it, Vipassana is a type of meditation that is related to mindfulness meditation. The technique is in effect a step-by-step guide on how to pay attention.

The technique involves closing your eyes and progressively paying attention to different parts of the body. First you “observe” what’s going on at the top of your head, then your face, then neck, chest, and so on…all the way down to your toes, then back up to the top of your head again. As you monitor each part of your body, you allow yourself to become aware of what’s going on in that area…the feeling of air against your skin; itching; tension; sometimes numbness or pain, if you’ve been sitting there for a while.

But the technique isn’t as significant as the way in which it’s taught. This stuff ain’t easy. You can’t go to a run-of-the-mill 5th Avenue yoga school and learn Vipassana. Vipassana meditation centers require new students to commit to a 10-day silent retreat (no talking) in which you will eat, sleep and breathe this technique. But it’s free, so you won’t be a stitch poorer if it doesn’t work for you.

During the 10-day retreat you’ll wake up every day at 4am and meditate for hour-long sessions, with breaks only for food and light exercise. After a few days, you’ll be asked to sit still without moving an inch for an entire hour. But this rigorous immersion training is probably why the vipassana retreats are so potent.

The biggest impact I saw from the retreat wasn’t in the area of attention; I saw a huge increase of control over my impulsivity.

ADHD’s most known symptoms are distractibility (inattentiveness) and hyperactivity. But underneath all that, we have a lot of impulse control difficulties as well. Vipassana’s practice of observing what’s going on in your body without reacting to anything really gets you better at self-control. After leaving Vipassana, I found myself talking far more calmly and clearly to people, and interrupting them much less.

In addition to that, it did have some effect on my attention and overall level of relaxation as well. Equally important, it gave me an exercise to train my ability to focus or relax which I could practice on my own. The effects of the retreat do require maintenance; I kept meditating daily for some time after the retreat, but when I stopped practicing completely, my impulsivity took a hit and old habits came back to some extent. That said I believe that some portion of the calm and self-control Vipassana has instilled in me is permanent.

In short, Vipassana meditation retreats are not for everyone, but I found mine to be very effective as an alternative ADHD therapy. Check out the links below, the documentaries seem particularly interesting:

• Vipassana Meditation Website.
• Research on Vipassana:
• Documentaries on use of Vipassana in prisons.

The Alexander Technique was something I’d tried in order to improve my back problems. It’s had a significant effect on my back, but a side effect was it’s effect on my attention.

For those of you that don’t know, the Alexander Technique is essentially a method of retraining your postural habits. An AT instructor will begin by observing and analyzing the way you move when doing everyday things, such as:

• Walking
• Standing / Sitting down
• Picking up your coffee
• Tying your shoes
• …basically anything you do with your body (hey now).

We subconsciously use more muscle tension than we need to while doing these things, leading to tension, pain, and anxiety. A good AT teacher will make slight adjustments to your posture, and help you gradually retrain these habits so that any activity – walking, sports, etc. – is far more effortless.

While I still have a long way to go with the technique, it’s already had a great result on my back, and overall well-being. An interesting side effect (and the topic of this blog post) is its effect on my attention.

While I work throughout the day, any physical irritation is a distraction: an itch, pain somewhere, tension in my neck, a stomach rumbling. My Alexander Technique training helped to make me more aware of these things, and when I feel tension I can now calmly adjust my posture, eliminate the distraction and get back to the task at hand.

The AT teaches you to take a moment and observe the different parts of your body which you may be inadvertently tensing up, and consciously unclenching them. In AT lingo, you’re “freeing” them: AT people use terms like “free your neck,” and “let go of the jaw,” and “let go of any facial tension.” Sure enough, after doing AT for a bit, I became aware of tension I didn’t know existed – in my forehead, neck, jaw, around my eyes. And as a result, my face, neck and back became less tense and less of a distraction.

Another way the AT has affected my ADHD is in the area of impulse control. Part of AT practice involves practicing “inhibition.” Inhibition, as AT people teach it is the habit of hesitating before you react to something (rather than reacting impulsively).

Quite often, people with jumpy temperaments (e.g., many ADHD people) speak or act quite impulsively. In a conversation, each time feel the impulse to speak, we follow it – even if it means rudely interrupting. While  Vipassana Meditation is far more attuned to help an ADHD person improve this sort of thing (I’ve had big effects with it), the Alexander Technique’s concept of inhibition seems to be right in line with it.

While I wouldn’t choose it as a primary therapy for ADHD, I’d encourage trying the Alexander Technique if you’re looking to improve your posture or coordination, eradicate back pain, or just have a calmer sense of self-control in your body.

Update: Because of this blog post, I got interviewed by Robert Rickover of Body Learning about my experience with The Alexander Technique and ADHD. You can read the summary and listen to the podcast at Robert’s site here.

As a professional web developer, I work for big firms and make decent money. I have healthcare, I own a home. I’m far from rich but I’m doing ok for someone that can barely keep it together on my bad days.

Still, no one at an income level likes to throw money away. And the ADHD impulsivity makes all of us want to kick ourselves now and then. It seems like once a month I’ll look at my credit card bill and ask myself, “I spent how much money? On that??“

So today I stumbled across this article which falls under the “impulse spending” category (grocery-specific) and thought I’d share what I thought are some useful strategies.

Rule #1: Always eat before leaving the house. [...] Indeed, studies show that, on average, shoppers spend 17 percent less on groceries when they shop on a full stomach.

Rule #2: Shop at a specified time each week — no more random runs to the supermarket.

Rule #3: Shop with a written list, created after checking the contents of her pantry, refrigerator, and linen closet (where she stores cleaning supplies).

I despise being thought of as “lazy.”

Having ADHD and LD, I’m a bit slower than the average person at times. “Slow” in the literal sense; my brain sometimes takes longer to process things. “Slow” does not mean “stupid.”

So as a result of slower processing speed, I’ve found ways to get more done with less effort. Using tools like Evernote and Zooom. Having an assistant handle paperwork, do my laundry, help me organize.

Some people perceive this as laziness or pretentiousness. It’s not; it’s effective time management.

CEOs of large companies don’t have salespeople, computer programmers and project managers working for them because they’re “lazy.” They hire them because one person can’t do the job of so many people. The CEO has one job; manage the company well, and delegate everything else.

ADHDers are faced with a similar task; managing our lives. We may have a life as simple as anyone else’s, but it takes us twice the work to manage it because we’re slower. That’s the same as one person with two jobs. We need to delegate the work.

So when someone implies that we’re lazy, know that it isn’t true; we just have more jobs than they do. Get other people to help out and focus on only one job, and you’ll get it done faster and better.