Optimizing ADHD Management Through Lifestyle Interventions

This module focuses on practical lifestyle changes to support individuals with ADHD, whether newly diagnosed or managing long-term challenges. Learners will explore strategies to establish structured routines, build visual tools, improve sleep, and more.
Collaborative Routine Building: Learn to design step-by-step written and visual routines (morning, evening, and after-school) with active buy-in from children or teens rather than relying on generic templates.
Visual Scheduling & External Memory Tools: Utilize physical, whiteboard, or electronic calendars to reduce cognitive load and prevent reliance on short-term memory.
Sleep & Evening Problem-Solving: Identify root causes of bedtime delays, adjust evening routines, and incorporate physical activities or stretching to facilitate smooth wind-down transitions.
This video is intended to be a starting point for these things and does not go into significant depth.

Transcript

Hi. All right. So in terms of navigating a new ADHD diagnosis, Or again, This is also relevant, You know, Even if you've been diagnosed years ago, If you're still struggling, The things we're going to talk about are also quite relevant, Too. So in the first module, We talked about professional interventions. Here, Really, We're going to talk about our lifestyle changes, Things that in most cases are actually probably helpful for most people to do anyway, But become especially important as another element of helping to allow you or your child or teen with ADHD to thrive. So in terms of lifestyle changes, Routines, Whether you like it or not, Or your kid likes it or not, And again, Everyone's different, But overall, Individuals with ADHD often thrive on routines, Or at least they need the routines and benefit oftentimes from them. The key, Though, Is you can't just create a random routine. I mean, You could use chat GBT and make a morning routine. The problem is the likelihood of it working exactly the way you want it to and your child buying into it is probably not ridiculously high. So the idea is, If it's a routine for your child, Talk to them together. And figure out an actual step-by-step plan that works for you, That your child's willing to use and get their buy-in and input on, And set up specific routines. And the key thing is write them out. Because if you talk once about a routine, Chances are they're not going to remember it and be able to follow through on it, Or your recollection of what was agreed to may be different than theirs. So my strong recommendation is write it down. When you put in a shared Google Doc, You write off his paper, The idea is have a clear plan of, Let's say, The morning routine. So think about what are the steps involved of what you need to do, Or your child needs to do. So for getting up, Getting dressed, Eating breakfast, Packing up, Brushing teeth, Writing it down, Having a step-by-step plan. These are the rough how long things take and what I should do. You can create a visual checklist, Certainly for younger kids, And basically have a plan. So the idea is, Here's what they're supposed to do. Again, Obviously, Just because you have a plan doesn't mean they're going to execute it perfectly. But the idea is it creates a structure as a starting point. And then you can problem solve the execution if it's not working quite the way you want it to. But having a set morning routine, Having a set evening routine, Same thing with after school. Having blocks for kids, Having blocks of time for homework, And planning that out that it may be a different time each day based on whatever their after school activities are, But giving them visual schedules. For adults, This works well too. Whether you put it into a physical calendar, A whiteboard calendar, You could have a giant calendar in your front hall with here's the month and here are all the events and the weekly schedule. You could use the Skylight calendar, Which is an electronic calendar where you put stuff in. But the point is, Don't rely on memory. And teaching your kids to not rely on their memory as well, And to see it visually in front of them will often help. So basically using a calendar to keep track of stuff in terms of events, Activities, Helps with routines as well. So the routines are one big thing. Certainly things like getting enough sleep, Which again, Helpful for everyone, But probably even more helpful for ADHD also is making for kids or teens, Making sure that they're getting enough sleep, That they get to bed on time, Time, You have a set bedtime, And if it's not working to get them to bed, Look at what happens. And this is where the evening routine comes in. So looking at perspective of they keep delaying, You know, Then looking at can you start bedtime earlier, For example, To be able to help them to have that wind down time if they need it? Or if they're really wound up, You know, Can they do some sort of stretching before bed? You know, Can you do a physical activity an hour or two before bedtime enough that it gets the energy out without like rubbing them up more? So the point is to problem solve, To take that step back and not just in the moment, Try to, You know, Go into crisis mode, But to sort of figure out what can we do differently to make things better. So that's where some of these lifestyle changes, You know, Can definitely help. And eating, You know, Again, Consulting with a nutritionist can be helpful, Being able to just think about the things that are considered healthy that work, You know, Are beneficial really for everyone. But again, If a child is functioning optimally nutritionally, They're probably going to function at least a little bit better in general. And so there's a lot of benefits of that aside from other health benefits you get out of eating healthy. So again, Just think about the general lifestyle things that are beneficial Again, Obviously I only covered sleeping, Eating, Routines, But there's certainly far more to it in terms of other things you could focus on. But use this as a starting point, Because you don't want to overdo it either.