Psychiatrist Explains Good ADHD Hacks

Dr. Alok Kanojia is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist who specializes in the health and happiness of people who grew up online. He is the cofounder and President of Healthy Gamer, a subclinical mental wellness platform that makes premium content and coaching resources.

▼ Timestamps ▼
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00:00 - Intro
00:12 - Tiktok React
01:19 - Overview
02:07 - What if I don't have someone around?
04:03 - Where is the optimal level of stimulation?
05:20 - Meditating with your eyes open
06:55 - What is the part of our brain that allows us to put it down instead of away?
09:00 - Recognize that its easier said than done
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All guests of Healthy Gamer are informed of the public, non-medical nature of the content and have expressly agreed to share their story.

[HealthyGamerGG]

Hey folks — Dr. K’s Healthy Gamer Coaching is a cutting-edge program tailored for the unique mental health needs of the internet generation. It can help with issues like lack of motivation, excessive procrastination, missing life purpose, repairing/building relationships, and more! Sessions start at just $30.

[deedeelong]

If I ever had doubts that this man is a doctor, they were all dispelled after seeing his handwriting.

[joseph-euuu]

As someone with ADHD, that "eye-opening" technique also works well with falling asleep! I used to be sleep deprived because when I lay and try to sleep, I would try to keep my eyes shut. But what would happen is that my mind would begin to think about a lot of random things that prevent me from getting sleep. I noticed if I kept my eyes open my mind would be clear, and that has helped me rest at night.

[debs]

I think the real value of the body double is that I feel more accountable when someone is around. I'm less likely to stop working and watch you tube videos if someone is watching me.

[matchasgotcha]

I think despite a lot of the cringe and misinformation on Tik Tok around mental health, I think it's nice people are beginning to have a wider discussion about it. know so many people who are looking to get diagnosed and personally, I'm looking forward to starting ADHD module this week 👏

[zhvokwz]

Don't put it down put it away.
Great advice for households without roaming clutter.
Ya know, like ADHD people are great at creating and maintaining

[lupeters]

What works better for me than "put it away" is "right place, wrong place, convenient place": everything should have a right place and only be stored in that right place (basically "put it away"), buuut determining a right place is exhausting and getting to a right place might be too far. That's why I have designated convenient places, which accept broad categories of items where I can find them and know what to do with them, like everything that needs to go upstairs is allowed to dwell on the third lowest step of my stair well or my glasses can be put in a number of fixed locations throughout my house, where I know to search for them. And then there's wrong places like a random black box in the storage cupboard I put my black frame glasses on without noticing. I am still searching my bike lights atm and can only remember "Well, that's a bad place to put them!" - so, no, it's not perfect and requires enough mindfulness to remember that things in my hand need to go places, but it's helping a lot.

[tsirakura]

The fridge veggie drawer jack is literally the biggest game changer. My entire family has adhd and our veggies used to rot and go rancid and mushy and smelly before we remembered it existed. I had to figure out this hack on my own and it changed our lives. We eat fruits now.

[KingNothing]

I have a feeling I might be one of the few people on the ADHD spectrum that cannot listen to music while studying because I will legit vibe to it and then lose my train of thought xD

[Syneh]

(edit.)
I made this comment thinking that almost no one would see it or care much. I also made it in the mindset that I was in a support group with other adhd'ers and so I didn't choose my words with much concern for accuracy. Take it with a grain of salt - I'm just an armchair dumbass and the only words I know to describe my experiences are the ones that are used in common conversation to describe common experiences. (/edit)

I don't think the body double trick is about stimulation, I think it's about being held accountable or something like that. Even though you know the other person isn't judging you or anything, you can sort of monitor your actions through their eyes and it helps keep it all together.

I read a while ago that there was a study about ADHD behaviors while the person knows they're being observed and it seemed like adhd was less of a struggle while being observed.

[ada]

All this time I've been trying to avoid stimulation to force myself to focus and get stuff done, which only ends up making things worse and making me MORE distracted. Thanks Dr. K, I really needed to hear that getting extra stimulation while I'm being productive is not a bad thing I need to change, but actually something that can help. Like my brain just needs a bigger threshold of input to get going - just not too much!

[KatieDeSousa]

Oh my gosh thank you for calling out the problem with “don’t put it down, put it away” that advice is so frustrating. I am almost never aware when I put things down, I have no idea where I put anything. Medication has helped that a fair bit for me, but it’s still worse than a normal person.

What I do that has helped is to have a large basket in each room, it’s like a depot bin. As I have a tendency to put things in bowls and baskets even when I’m unaware (don’t know why) they tend to get full of random stuff, and then at a set point I can pick up the basket, see if anything else is in that room that shouldn’t be there, then bring it around the house putting those things away in their proper spots. A designated tidying time is so much more effective for me.

It’s a tactic I kinda learned from playing survival craft games like V rising, Conan, Minecraft, etc. having a “depot chest” at the entryway to my bases for quick dropping all my shit (I’ll organize it later) helps navigate the inventory system hellscapes in those games.

[Moose]

It took me a while to figure out why I struggle so much more to get grad school work done on nights when my wife is working an overnight shift versus nights that she’s home, even though she doesn’t even interact with me while I’m studying or working. This was fascinating.

[heyheyhey]

Having another person isnt just stimulation. They also allow me to "offload" some of my executive functioning related to self-monitoring. And they also allow me to mirror a "neutral state" so i can shift tasks more easily.

[leebird]

My nesting partner has hyperactive ADHD and I have inattentive ADHD. With the power of body doubling, the two of us are usually able to accomplish what needs to be done. I provide the calm and focus they need; they provide the energy and enthusiasm that I need. If they're trying to multitask, I can remind them of things they've left on the back burner (sometimes literally). If I can't go through my usual process to complete a task (ex. missing a tool; temporarily injured), they help me brainstorm alternate methods for completing the task. Or we'll put on a show we both like while we do something together (ex. watching Great British Bake-Off while we put away laundry).

[TheNerdyPengwin]

I KNEW there was a reason I have always been resistant to closing my eyes during meditation. I thought it was just cuz I don't like conforming. And then I'd get more anxiety with my eyes closed so I'd end up keeping them open even if I tried.

Makes sooo much sense in the context of optimal stimulation.

[onlyjayus]

really interesting that you put my face in the thumbnail and said “debunking” but you really didn’t debunk anything? You said my ideas were good.. i think it’s cool that you went into depth to explain it but really confused by the clickbait

[xMerope]

“Don’t put it down, put it away” is not always a good solution for me. If i’m close to where something should be put away, sure. But if it’s on the other side of my apartment, chances are I’ll encounter a lot of stuff along the way that distracts me from my task. I’ll either leave the thing somewhere half-way, or start a new thing in a different room before finishing what I was doing in the first one.
Putting away kitchen utensils while I’m cooking? Sure, np. Putting away the vacuum after I’m done in the bathroom before I start mopping the floor? Bad call, I am now doing dishes in the kitchen while there is still a dirty bathroom floor. Leave it all in the hallway until the bathroom is done.

[austindusseau]

I don't think "don't put it down, put it away" would work for me because the reason I put something down is because I had another important task I just remembered and I want to act on it before I forget it. If I take the time to put something away I wont remember why I wanted to let go of the item in the first place. I'm going to try to putting junk baskets everywhere that I can throw shit in and sort out at some other consistent time, maybe that will help.

[amyrugala]

Hi Dr K, I was dx 3 years ago with ADHD at the age of 65. Once I was finally dx correctly, my quality of life has gotten so much better! I appreciate these ADHD videos you do. They have helped me understand the science of my brain. Thank you!
ps first had the opportunity to get to know you on the David Pakman’s show. Would love to see you go on again.