ADHD Simulator

This isn't a meditation, it is a simulator to help those without ADHD understand what it can feel like for someone with ADHD. You could ask family or friends to listen to help them understand how it feels to try and focus on something when all of this background noise is occurring constantly. If you know someone with ADHD this can help you to understand what it feels like.

Transcript

Should I tidy that room?

I should.

Don't close the door.

I created this as an ADHD simulator.

When you have ADHD it's really challenging to explain to others what it's like and also what it's like to try and focus on one thing when you have so much additional background chatter.

ADHD isn't an ability to focus,

It's that the focus is on everything.

Everything is at the same level and it's really difficult to just focus on one person at a time.

Sometimes it's impossible.

It takes so much effort to drown out the background noise,

To be able to focus,

That by the end of the day you're exhausted.

Often this is when the outbursts occur.

The overstimulation has just been all too much.

So I wonder how well you're doing ignoring all of the other sounds on this recording and just focusing on my voice.

How does the constant ringing sound?

The tinnitus that never goes away?

The songs that are playing on repeat over and over and over until you can no longer bear to listen to that song.

What about the background noise when you're out and about?

It's the same level as someone trying to speak to you isn't it?

What about all the changes that are going around in the back of your mind?

All the things that want to be altered,

The places you want to go,

The careers you want to try.

It's hard work isn't it?

But at the end of this you can turn it off and hear the peace that is within your mind.

Somebody with ADHD lives with this every second of every day.

It never stops,

Never relaxes,

It's there constantly.

I like to bear that in mind when perhaps you get irritated by somebody you know that has ADHD.

And although you're listening to me speaking,

I wonder if you can imagine working or studying with this amount of background noise happening.

What would it be like if you were trying to work,

Trying to focus on something and yet all you had was all of this background noise?

What if you were studying for a qualification and all you could hear was this?

So,

Enjoy the silence.

It's nice isn't it?

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

I will be sharing this with others with hope that they can begin to understand. Thank you!

Wow. Very powerful and helpful, thank you for this track!

That was awesome! Thank you for that! I've been looking for something like this. I appreciate it as a clinician and as an individual who lives with ADHD. what a pleasant surprise for this morning!

Add all this audio noise simultaneously to equivalent for the rest of my senses and you get a clue of my normal experience. I'd never labelled it before as ADHD, though. Thanks for your simulator. It brings me a new field of study.

Thank you so much for this experience and the compassion it inspires!!

Thank you.

Very enlightening thank you!

As a person with ADHD and as a therapist, I really appreciate this simulator. Thank you for creating something that will hopefully cultivate empathy those who are neurotypical.

Absolute genius - thankyou will use this

So accurate I have adhd autism dislexia a day social anxiety I really get this. thank you so much for showing the world what it’s like ❤️

Thank you so much for creating this. I am ‘unofficially’ diagnosed with ADHD, I also work with many neurodivergent children. This is a great way to help others gain some insight into some of the struggles an ADHD brain has.

Thank you for creating and sharing this. I found this very resonant with my experience of the ADHD and think this could be helpful to share with friends and family.

As one with ADHD as I listened, I could see myself just freezing. There are times I just don't know which way to go with all the stimuli I face. Before I jump into a world like this, it's important for me to have a kind of list, either mental or written down, to make sure I know which way to go and how to complete things. It's great that you thought about this subject and put this together. I appreciate it.

As a person with ADHD, it is kind of like this except all the voices are equally as loud. And conversation slices between every single conversation and the piece of music at really fast intervals. I would like another simulator like that please

This really does perfectly capture what is happening inside the ADHD brain almost constantly. It honestly made me feel seen, since I was diagnosed as an adult. I feel less alone knowing that other people have this brain chatter, with random songs and tinnitus. This can be eye opening for people without ADHD so they can understand better.

That was absolutely excellent and I will definitely be sharing with the people in my life who do not understand the constant drain this causes. You can be exhausted by not even moving. Thank you for this. It's very eye opening and hope there are some other ideas for explaining to others how it feels to struggle with your ADHD.

My SO and my son have ADHD. I will remember the lesson you've shared as I navigate life with them 🙏

Ohh, that was really powerful thank you. Will be more empathetic to my family members with ADHD now

As a person with late diagnosed AuADHD, thank you. It is the best way to explain to my loved ones how it feels. I can finally show them. I used to think it was normal to live like this.

Wow. I am awaiting my assessment, end of the month for ADHD, and I have often wanted to try an explain what it is like, this really hit the nail on the head, I made mysefl hear a few minutes. It is also the first time I have felt that part of it properly confirmed in me. How I, and we find it so, so, so hard to turn off the rest of the World. I am 62 and boy I need this, I did believe it would allow me to stop searching for the answers to my lifelong problems, but I just realised or re-realised again, that whilst I don't need to search for what's up with me, I know have a whirling mass of questions about the why's, what's, how's, when's and who's of everything to do with ADHD, especially how it fits with CPTSD. Thank you for this. I can now share it and challenge my nearest and dearest to see how long they can last listening to life with ADHD.