A 10-year-old tells us in her own words what it’s like to have ADHD!
I am the mother of three kids, two of which have ADHD and Dyslexia diagnoses. My daughter Maria (10 at the time of the interview now 11) has ADHD predominately inattentive. My son Lage (14) has ADHD predominately Hyper.
I interviewed Lage about his ADHD last year and if you are interested in how it feels to have ADHD (Hyper) or his tips for keeping a clean room you can check out the links below.
Having a child with ADHD can be difficult especially if you don’t have ADHD yourself and don’t understand all the difficulties and complexities your child is facing! My kids have explained to me many times what ADHD feels like and they allowed me to interview them so you can understand too
Maria, is Your Memory Affected by ADHD?
”Yes, I have a really short memory. I forget things easily. It’s easier to remember fun things that happened a year ago than remembering to do my homework for tomorrow!”
Does Your ADHD Feel Better When You do Physical Activity like Running, Jumping, or Climbing?
”Yes it helps, and I feel much better. I don’t really know why or how it makes me feel better, but when I am doing some of my favorite activities like Judo, climbing, or swimming I don’t feel my ADHD as much.”
How do You FEEL When Your Room is a Disaster and I Ask You to Clean it all by Yourself?
”I feel bad! I almost want to cry, (Sometimes I do cry)! I want to hit you for asking me to clean my room! I feel really upset!”
Did you feel more upset in your old room? That room was really unorganized, and your things didn’t fit in your storage space.
”I feel better in my new room because we organized everything and labeled most things. When all of my things have a home in my room it helps!”
Do you have any TIPS for other Kids with ADHD Who Have Trouble Cleaning Their Rooms?
”Always ask an Eskimo to help you,”
What?!?
”Always ask your mom to help you if you don’t know where things should go!”
”My Best tip for moms of ADHD kids is to look behind stuff, under stuff, behind your child’s stuffed animals, and behind everything when you’re checking your child’s bedroom to make sure it’s clean.
Because some kids hide things like old cookies!”
”Mom helps me clean sometimes when I don’t know what to do next.
Picking up my whole room can feel like something that is completely impossible! Then I do nothing because I don’t know where to start!”
I (Annie Maria’s Mamma) had to come up with a plan for how to help Maria clean her room!
When her room got really messy I would give her some forewarning that we were going to clean her room tomorrow, and almost without fail she would scream, cry, roll around on the floor, and sometimes even hit me!
I realized that the way she felt about cleaning her room was how I felt about cleaning a junk drawer!
Drawers with 100 random things in them are not fun to clean and tidy!
Not knowing where things go is overwhelming, and once I dump the jumbled contents of the drawer on the floor to sort, I tend to just stand and stare at the odd conglomeration of things that somehow found their way into my house!
Annie Eklöv
The result of some very frustrating times trying to help her tidy her room was. . .
A new system for how to help ADHD kids clean their rooms was born! You can read about my system for helping ADHD kids keep their rooms clean and organized by clicking on the link below.
Annie Eklöv
What’s it like to Hyperfocus?
”Sometimes I get really focused on moving things around in my room. I want to move my chair to the other corner and I move other things around.
Sometimes I get really focused on picking up, organizing, and moving things when I should be going to bed or doing homework!
I don’t usually feel the need to have a clean room, but when I need to concentrate in my room and do things like homework it’s easy to hyperfocus on tidying because I can’t concentrate in the mess!
I like to try new things in my room”
What kinds of things do you hyperfocus on?
”I like to hyperfocus on Legos. I like to build stuff, and I hyperfocus while I stick things together. I try to use the legos in ways that they were not meant to be used!”
”I get really focused when it’s a competition!
We had a competition at school to see who could hang from a bar the longest, and I won over the whole school. I even beat the older kids! I like to win!”
What Are Some Good After-School Activities for Kids with ADHD?
I like Judo as a sport. I think Judo is much more fun than sports like soccer.
When you train in Judo you throw people on the ground. You don’t kick just throw, pull, and hold people tight.
I like to swim. I swim whenever I can. I wish I could swim more often!
What Does it Feel Like to Have ADHD?
I feel like I am different from my friends, but I am not really sure how I feel different from them.
I feel that other kids can do things that I can’t. I don’t really know how or why I feel that other kids are different from me, but deep down I know it.
What is it Like to Meet New People When You Have ADHD? Is it Hard to Make New Friends?
I don’t feel that it’s hard to make new friends. Sometimes I think it may be much easier for me to meet new people, than for some of my friends.
Sometimes I am nervous when I meet new people, but most of the time I am not nervous at all!
I usually just ask kids if they want to do something with me or if they want to talk. Often they say ”Ok, what should we do?”
ADHD and how to motivate yourself
Winning is a big motivator for me! I LOVE to win. If you can make something into a competition then I am automatically motivated!
I (Annie) remember when Maria was little and we couldn’t get her to school on time!
She kept missing the school bus!
My husband had an idea to put a timer on and let her compete with herself and that actually worked!
He would take her time and she would compete with yesterday’s time!
Often, she didn’t even ask if she was faster than yesterday she just wanted to know how many minutes it took her to get ready today!
We did not include the time it took to get out of bed, put clothes on, use the bathroom, and eat breakfast. When she was done eating we started the timer for her to brush her teeth, put on her coat and shoes (ski pants, coat, gloves, hat, and boots in the winter) put on her backpack, and get to the door!
How Does Sugar Affect Your ADHD?
I feel really calm when I eat sugar and not hyper at all! Sometimes it helps me feel like I have more energy when my ADHD meds wear off.
Sugar helps me feel better when I am in the car. I don’t know if all kids with ADHD get car sick, but I sure do! Once I threw up in the car!
Sugar ADHD and Self-Medication
I noticed that Lage often tried to self-medicate with sugar when his ADHD meds wore off after school. He has ADHD predominately Hyper. It may be that his type of ADHD needs more stimuli when the meds wear off than ADHD predominately inattentive type does, but Maria does enjoy sugar as well.
Using sugar as a form of self-medication is not a good long-term solution because it can lead to many health problems later on in life!
Check out why Sugar can cause health problems for those with ADHD in the link below.
Conclusion
If you need help getting your ADHD child organized make sure you read my post on how we helped my daughter keep her room clean and organized!
Even when I don’t ask her to clean her room for a couple of weeks her room is in much better shape than it used to be because I took the time to look at cleaning and organizing from my daughter’s perspective!
Annie
