Often diagnosed in childhood, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can impact any age group. Since this medical condition affects one’s everyday routine activities, managing it becomes a challenge for the sufferers. While therapy and regular medication help people with ADHD, expressive writing in the form of a journal is one simple yet effective way of treating this condition. Journaling for ADHD proves to be beneficial in many ways.
In this blog, we’ll uncover the benefits that journaling offers to improve the lives of ADHD individuals.
How Journaling Benefits People with ADHD
If you search online, you will come across hundreds of articles about several advantages of journaling for ADHD. Following are major benefits that people share about the improvement in their condition with expressive writing.
Processing Emotions
When someone is facing ADHD, they often have impulsive responses to their emotions and feelings. It is because they cannot figure out how to channel them properly. But with writing, it becomes simpler to pause complex, spiraling thoughts and better understand them. This way, you can find the root cause of your problems and what’s triggering the impulsive reaction. So, you can easily figure out ways to control such reactions and react in a better way.
Providing Self-Compassion
If you usually feel spiraling around negative thoughts, it’s time to consider journaling. One easy way to end negative thoughts is to start journal writing. With writing, you can put a full stop to the feelings that make you worse or generate other negative feelings. When you write about something awful happening to you and read it, your words reflect. This is your wake-up sign to stop being mean and boost your self-compassion.
Reducing Anxiety
Sometimes small things can even lead to anxious thoughts. But with writing, you can see your thoughts clearly written down on paper. With racing thoughts, writing can easily release emotions without any fears of judgment. Gradually, this can reduce anxiety.
Boosting Creativity
During brainstorming of ideas, your thoughts flow rapidly while letting you write down your emotions and letting you think about what you want to express. When you jot down thoughts without a censor, you can stop thinking too much and limit your imagination. This even helps your brain to form connections while capturing great ideas before you forget them after some time.
Journaling Issues & How to Overcome Those
Here are some common issues that people face while beginning a journal:
What notebook to consider for journaling?
It appears like a very small decision. But when you think about it, it’s a big decision to make. For instance, if you often travel for work, it could be difficult for you to carry a notebook all the time and find time to sit down for writing. This is why it’s best to consider a digital journal app to write a journal at your convenience. However, if you prefer writing in a notebook, you can go for that. But it’s best to make the decision as per your lifestyle and how much time you desire to spend on journal writing.
What to write about in a journal?
Every time you struggle to write a journal, you often are not confident about writing. But when you remove any doubts from your mind, you can easily express your feelings. You don’t need a topic or theme to write about. Just start with writing about your day. Slowly, you will start finding ideas to express your emotions better.
How to stick to regular journal writing?
When forming a habit, you need to set a time when you feel free to express your emotions. If you like journaling while having your tea or coffee in the morning, you can do so. It’s all about your comfort and flexibility when forming a habit of journaling. This way, you can write a journal, you can do it anytime, anywhere. Usually, you can spend 10-15 minutes writing a journal every day. When you are consistent, you’ll surely form a habit of expressing your emotions.
Conclusion
Journaling is a transformative way to help people with ADHD to understand brain complexities. With this, individuals can better develop emotional regulation, self-awareness, and time management skills.
When you embrace the power of journal writing, this can act therapeutically to support people starting their journey for resilience and self-discovery. Furthermore, this can lead to a more empowered and fulfilling life leaving troubles of ADHD far behind.
