Writing with ADHD: an Introduction

July 31, 2025

Writing with ADHD: an Introduction

I think I’ve mentioned this before in my first post, but just in case I haven’t, I have ADHD. What is ADHD? It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder, meaning it affects how the brain develops.¹

I was diagnosed in 2018 when I was seeking a different diagnosis, and this one came out of the blue. I remember one of the tests that made me so frustrated: sitting in front of a computer and pressing the space bar when any letter other than the letter X popped up on the screen. In my own thoughts, I couldn’t simply “get it together” or “just do the task.” I would hit the space bar prematurely or too late and get frustrated at this. After hours of tasks and questionnaires, I came out of the testing with my ADHD diagnosis. At first, I thought the news was odd, like something was wrong with the testing. I wasn’t an adolescent boy who couldn’t sit still during school and disrupted class constantly. I was a young woman in her 20’s trying to make it through graduate school, who barely talked to anyone in any of her classes, much less be disruptive.

I couldn’t have ADHD…right?

From what I’ve learned over the years since this diagnosis and in preparing this blog piece, ADHD can manifest at least a little differently in adults (and adult women).^{2, 3}While research has focused heavily on children, scientists are slowly catching on that adults can have ADHD, too.⁴

The frontal lobe of your brain is behind your forehead. It is responsible for things such as problem solving, memory, language, impulse control, attention, time perception, and much more.⁵The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the “front” of the frontal lobe and is involved in a multitude of higher-order cognitive functions, such as executive functions (planning, decision-making, working memory, and others), risk processing, and others.⁶Funny how the PFC is said to be the last thing that develops in our brains (around age 25) and some research suggests that there are “volumetric differences” in those with ADHD.⁷

The next terms I’m throwing your way are dopamine and norepinephrine. These are both neurotransmitters in your brain, AKA a “chemical messenger, communicating messages between nerve cells in your brain and the rest of your body.”⁸They act as hormones, playing roles in the “fight-or-flight” response.^8,9Dopamine also plays a “key role in motivation, mood, memory attention, and emotional regulation.”¹⁰Dopamine activity may be different in those with ADHD, with some research suggesting there is a dopamine malfunction.¹¹

So, what do people with ADHD struggle with? Sustained attention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. These are the main categories when looking at ADHD from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.⁴For me, I struggle with all three, but I agree with the research that ADHD can present more as a dimensional disorder and not a categorical disorder.⁴

When I say “dimensional disorder” I’m talking about a spectrum. I believe that ADHD is an individualistic disorder, meaning it presents at least a little differently in each person. Of course there’s overlap or else diagnostic criteria wouldn’t exist, but each individual experience can vary on those three criteria (sustained attention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness).

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about writing, aren’t we? Whoops.

Like I stated in my very first post on this blog, I started “writing” around age 12 or 13. I say writing in quotes because I really didn’t know what I was doing, but that didn’t matter. It was fun. It was an escape. It was my closest companion.

Writing in my thirties has never been more challenging. I often reminiscence of how “productive” I was as a teenager (I even made it into one of the local newspapers for self-publishing a book!) I wrote 4 full-length novels in 4 years during high school, a series centering around the main character I’m still trying to write about.

While the books I wrote then make me cringe every time I think about the content, I’m still incredibly proud of what I achieved back then. I feel frustration every day at not achieving that same level of productivity in my writing as an adult.

What changed?

We hear the phrase “life gets in the way” all the time, for any number of reasons for why we didn’t do something. For me, this phrase is part of the reason I struggle with writing consistently. But it’s just a small reason. Yeah, we’re all busy, but I could easily carve out an hour or two to write instead of doom scrolling on my phone or watching ASMR Youtube videos.

But it’s more nuanced than doing just that.

My brain craves novelty, hates structure and mundane, yet I understand I need structure and some mundane to function. Yet, doing the same thing every day feels like this:

It starts out great and then slowly plummets into sadness. Writing everyday? Sounds fantastic, until I actually try it. I go into the idea with great enthusiasm, only to end up bored and frustrated and hating what I’ve written.

For some ADHDers, boredom can feel intense and lead to symptoms of depression, agitation, frustration, or even hopelessness.¹²I know I’ve felt all of those things regularly when faced with boredom. The issue I struggle with is when I’m bored, everything is boring. There are a lot of articles out there that tell me how to deal with my boredom as an ADHDer and all that I’ve read tend to say vague things like “keep interesting activities close by!” (Whatever that actually means…)

That’s all fine and good but what if nothing is interesting? What if my boredom is a black hole, sucking down all my hobbies and destroying them?

Remember how I wrote my latest blog post on what writing software I was using currently? Scrivener is still great, but it’s boring now, and I haven’t written anything in weeks.

Things like this make me want to throw in the towel and just give up.

I’ve thought about giving up on writing over the past couple of years. I tend to buy into the sunken cost fallacy:

the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.

I’m not saying abandonment would be more beneficial in this case, but the first thought after stating “I want to quit” is always “well, it’s my longest-running hobby.”

This is the part where I struggle with coming up with reasons why I haven’t quit writing. I’m not bashing the hobby at all. I think we need more writers in the world, especially those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. We need stories to enrich our lives, to protest, to educate (correctly). Sometimes I simply don’t know where I fit into the equation.

(And that’s okay.)

I live in America, and at least where I live and the view of society I have, productivity in a corporate/career sense is prized above all. Creativity does not equal productivity. Creativity is just a side hobby, a pastime, a fleeting fancy. Creativity simply can’t be productive. Creativity isn’t valuable.

Unfortunately, that’s been drilled into my head from society so often that I am still struggling to unlearn it. When creativity is not valuable, what’s the point in participating? And even when I do decide to participate, why is it so hard to get the words flowing?

Life gets in the way. Writer’s block takes over.

I used to have many thoughts on what writer’s block was. Since I’m a literal thinker, I often associate it with a block or wall that can’t be vaulted over. I’ve heard it comes about because you’re writing the “wrong” thing. I’ve heard it’s just a myth.

In Rosanne Bane’s Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer’s Resistance, she outlines just what she believes is “writer’s block”:

Unchecked and misinterpreted, resistance can lead to an ongoing cycle where the anxiety of anticipating not being able to write triggers the limbic system and reinforces the resistance. At an extreme, we call this self-perpetuating cycle “writer’s block.” [p.27]

And most importantly, she notes:

You are not being weak willed, thin-skinned, oversensitive, under-disciplined, or lazy. You are reacting to a subconscious awareness of a potential threat. [p.27]

Now, let’s back up a little. What’s the limbic system? It’s made up of several structures including the amygdala, which is responsible for feeling emotions, among other things. The limbic system, as Rosanne Bane states,

“processes sensory experiences and passes that sensory information to the cortex [the PFC in this case], but it also gives emotion to the sensory experience so that by the time that sensory information is perceived by the cortex, the information has an emotional association.” [p.18]

The limbic system relies on the fight-or-flight instinct to respond to threats. Of any kind.

When the limbic system takes over, creativity is dismissed as trivial compared to the need to take immediate action to stay alive and safe.[p.21]

If my brain interprets writing as a threat in some way, the limbic system is activated, and I (more or less) don’t have the capability to be creative. My brain is focusing on survival, not how to craft a great sentence.

Not only do I struggle with sustaining attention to a task, but my brain is interpreting said task as a threat. I can’t form elegant prose and get frustrated. The cycle repeats until I want to quit.

So how do I fight against my own brain?

According to Rosanne Bane, there are 4 steps to take and practice on a regular basis. These steps are done to “fight the resistance”, AKA the writer’s block.

These steps are (broadly summarized):

Recognizing
Relaxing
Respecting
Redirecting

These four steps are also connected to three important habits: Process, Product Time, and Self-Care.

ADHD can be a challenging disorder. I believe there are tools out there to help work with ADHD instead of fighting against it. It’s natural to feel frustrated with the disorder at times; I certainly have. But that’s okay, because I’m not giving up on myself or my hobby of writing. Through this series, I’m aiming to explore options to break past the writer’s resistance and finally finish writing my story, and maybe some of these options will resonate with you and propel you to finish your story. Join me next month as we dive into the first of the Three Habits by taking a look at Process.

If you want to jump ahead of this series and read Rosanne’s book (which I encourage you to do anyway) then here are some links to purchase. I am not affiliated, nor do I receive commission on purchases.

Thrift Books

Amazon

Also, a quick disclaimer: I am not an expert at anything. I am certainly not a doctor. If you think you have ADHD, I encourage you to seek out reputable clinicians who can empower you on your own journey. My favorite tool to find psychologists or psychiatrists is PsychologyToday.com. Again, not affiliated.

References:

J. C. Sutton

ADHD, personal thoughts, writing

ADHD, anxiety, blog, health, mental-health, writing

J C Sutton Writes

Writing with ADHD: an Introduction

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Writing with ADHD: an Introduction

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