ADHD in College

What do you need to know to be a successful college student as someone diagnosed with ADHD? As someone who has worked with college students with ADHD for over twenty years, here are my top 3 tips.

Tip 1. Know your top 3 challenges areas and strategies that can help.

For example, if you struggle with concentration while reading, listen to your textbooks; it's a simple and helpful solution. Or, if it's hard to manage your time, use cell phone reminders to help organize your tasks and activities. Create a reminder for something as soon as you know about it so it's not forgotten. Is prioritizing hard? Create a To-Do list at the start of each week and post it somewhere you see it daily. Star your top 3-5 priorities for the week. Next, use Google Calendar to block off days and times you can focus on these priorities.

Tip 2. Become familiar with the word ACTIVATION (not procrastination).

It is very hard for the ADHD brain to "activate" when it comes to boring things. The ADHD brain can "activate" when there is fear and/or excitement. You are not a procrastinator (where you choose not to do your work). You know about assignments and projects that are coming up, along with their due dates; however, if you are uninterested, your brain won't readily engage. This is why it is so difficult to complete more mundane tasks. The tedious work is often finished the night before it's due when there is fear/pressure; the brain can now "activate." This is tricky in college because your workload can be heavy. Be aware of the classes you are interested in and those you are not. You must be more proactive with the ones you don't like so that work doesn't pile up. This is when anxiety and stress can creep in, knowing how difficult it will be to start and finish certain assignments. You are not deliberately pushing them aside; your brain has trouble activating. If you could begin them, you would. See Tip #1 above for help with this.

Tip 3. ADHD is a brain thing.

It is super important to understand this. You can't "will" your neurotransmitters to efficiently perform in the pre-frontal cortex. The research indicates that two neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and dopamine, are inefficient with reloading and uptake in the brain's pre-frontal cortex, where executive functions are housed. Executive functions incorporate activation (getting started), focus, sustaining effort (alertness and sleep-wake cycles), regulating emotion, memory (working memory and recall), and action (self-regulation). It's important to understand that ADHD and executive functions are intricately linked. ADHD is more complex than most people think. It is challenging to manage ADHD symptoms in settings that demand executive functions (like school).