Historically, ADHD was often misdiagnosed as behavioral issues, leading to misunderstandings and challenges for both students and educators. Many individuals with ADHD faced difficulties in traditional learning settings due to the mismatch between their neurodivergent brains and the prevailing teaching methods. This lack of understanding often resulted in frustration, underperformance, and low self-esteem.

Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of ADHD and its impact on learning. Research has highlighted the importance of individualized approaches and accommodations for students with ADHD. By recognizing the unique learning styles of neurodivergent individuals and providing appropriate support, educators and parents can create environments that foster success.

This shift in perspective is empowering for students with ADHD, who now have access to a wider range of strategies and resources to optimize their learning experiences.

I personally struggled with ADHD ever since I entered grade school. Being from a cultural background where neurodiversity was considered taboo to even talk about, let alone a symbol of pride, I was never really given the care that I needed to figure out what my learning style was, and how to overcome my issues with focus, and general distress around structured learning in general. This issue would worsen in high school, where severe burnout surrounding not understanding how to learn and how to focus led to worsening grades, which would continue to cause incredible mental health struggles throughout college, leading me to withdraw, drop-out, and re-enroll in a seemingly endless cycle. Over time, the so-called “simple” task of acquiring an undergraduate degree became an increasingly elusive goal, as I started to reach an age where I struggled to relate to my peers and form meaningful connections in college, which worsened my ability to perform in college.

ADHD: A Misunderstood Disorder

Historically, ADHD was often misdiagnosed as behavioral issues, leading to misunderstandings and challenges for both students and educators. Many individuals with ADHD faced difficulties in traditional learning settings due to the mismatch between their neurodivergent brains and the prevailing teaching methods. This lack of understanding often resulted in frustration, underperformance, and low self-esteem.

Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of ADHD and its impact on learning. Research has highlighted the importance of individualized approaches and accommodations for students with ADHD. By recognizing the unique learning styles of neurodivergent individuals and providing appropriate support, educators and parents can create environments that foster success.

This shift in perspective is empowering for students with ADHD, who now have access to a wider range of strategies and resources to optimize their learning experiences.

I personally struggled with ADHD ever since I entered grade school. Being from a cultural background where neurodiversity was considered taboo to even talk about, let alone a symbol of pride, I was never really given the care that I needed to figure out what my learning style was, and how to overcome my issues with focus, and general distress around structured learning in general. This issue would worsen in high school, where severe burnout surrounding not understanding how to learn and how to focus led to worsening grades, which would continue to cause incredible mental health struggles throughout college, leading me to withdraw, drop-out, and re-enroll in a seemingly endless cycle. Over time, the so-called “simple” task of acquiring an undergraduate degree became an increasingly elusive goal, as I started to reach an age where I struggled to relate to my peers and form meaningful connections in college, which worsened my ability to perform in college.

Ultimately, I came to a decision whereby I realized that Information Technology, something I realized was my deepest of passions, was one of the easiest fields to find success in with no degree. Armed with an Associates of Arts covering my Gen Eds, I remembered the days in middle and high school where I would take classes in Florida Virtual School, and how the self-paced, self-learning structure led to me having some of the highest grades and best performance I’ve ever had in any educational platform. While the concept of a deadline in and of itself did not scare me–as I have historically been incredibly successful with projects, as opposed to tests and homework, I realized there was something fundamentally incompatible with the nature of how structured schooling expected one to perform over time, versus how I realized I best learn and perform. I decided to try something different–pursuing my certifications in IT, one of the best ways to find success in one’s IT career despite a lack of a Bachelor’s Degree.

ADHD: Disorder or Superpower?

Armed with an O’Reilly subscription, and a whole landscape of free resources scattered across YouTube in channels such as FreeCodeCamp and websites such as GeeksForGeeks, I was able to experiment with my learning styles freely, at my own pace, without any looming threat of failure. My first certification was the Google Cloud – Cloud Digital Leader certification, of which existed a wonderful tutorial by FreeCodeCamp that I sat down one day, and started to watch. Somehow that day, I was in “the zone” that so many ADHDers talk about, and I was able to watch the 6 hour video, from start to finish, once through, in one sitting. Being “in the zone” in my “flow state” as is the new buzzword, I watched the video, and mentally took note of every single detail. Every product in GCP, every trait of the cloud, and really–everything you’d need to pass the GCP-CDL exam. I used ChatGPT (this was before Bard/Gemini existed) to quiz me, and booked my exam, within 2 days of initially starting to study. I passed it on my first attempt–my only struggle being a handful of topics that were not covered in the video.

I wasn’t sure what networks in my brain spun alive that day–perhaps learning about scalability allowed my own brain to scale that day, but as much as I learned about GCP and the cloud, I learned something more important about myself. There became a certain awareness of my learning strategy, one that is called “Monk Mode” nowadays, whereby one takes advantage of one’s Flow State for as long as they possibly can without break, sometimes 4, 8, or even 12 hours at a time, before taking a break. In fact, as I write this article, I’ve been writing other articles to schedule for more than 4 hours, with perhaps not more than a 15 minute break to acknowledge my best friend who had just come online, as I try to take advantage of my flow states for as long as possible.

As I went on to pursue my Google Cloud – Cloud Engineer and Cloud Architect certificates, I utilized our family O’Reilly subscription to read its text, cover to cover, before taking and passing its exam. In this process, I learned to develop a technique to speed read–namely skimming passages and identifying key words and phrases to read slower and more in depth, a process that would get quicker and faster with every certificate I obtained, due to the overlap of information across certifications allowing me to skim over larger passages without needing a more in depth analysis. I would sit for 6-8 hours at a time, and gorge myself on the information, and within 2-3 days, I was able to perform on my certifications. I had come to realize something that I was missing for the longest time–ironically, reading a textbook cover to cover in one sitting, as opposed to small sections slowly over time, was easier for me. Having one BIG test for the equivalent of a one credit course worth of information, in very short periods of time, allowed me to learn and achieve more in a shorter period of time than the learning and performance styles that colleges and schools expected of their students, which came as a revelation to me, after over 20 years of being told that I’m failing because I’m “lazy” as opposed to a learning style incompatibility or a treatment resistant dopamine misregulation problem.

There is something to be said about theory versus practice–but there is equal things to be said about being bedrock solid in theory before one ever begins to practice, as it allows one to do things right the first time, and prevent forming bad habits and bad practice which can often be harder to overcome than having spent some extra time ensuring one knows what they are doing to begin with. Some people have learning styles where they prefer to “mess around and find out” i.e. iteratively learn, try, and fail incrementally, which is a learning style that often gets projected onto everyone by neurotypicals, with the expectation of everyone requiring this method, or else they’re “doing it wrong.” Breaking free of these expectations and experimenting with how I can work with my neurodivergent learning styles, instead of being forced to fit a neurotypical expectation of performance and path, is what has allowed me to develop learning strategies, goal setting, and methods to trigger the Flow State in an unrestrained environment, which has allowed me to be more performant than college ever let me be.

ADHD Management Techniques

I’m at a certain point in my life where I still struggle to find that Flow State–as it in and at its core is a dopamine regulation issue, of which I’ve continuously struggled to find in a worsening state of treatment-resistant mental health. I’ve continuously been experimenting with methodologies, such as overcoming the “coefficient of static friction” associated with starting a task using a starting reward (for me, biting into a juicy spicy pickle always gives me a boost of dopamine) which must be consumed immediately as one is starting a task. This can be a candy bar, food, or any other form of (safe) dopamine-inducing consumable that can be consumed in parallel to the task, that won’t serve as a distraction from the task (playing your favorite TV show in the background is counterproductive, but playing something uninteresting or otherwise ambient in the background can help one stay on task).

One such combination that works in most but of my worst mental states is having one screen have a fractal zoom playing on one screen (I actually like the music this channel chooses for his videos; one can easily replace it with their own choice of music), as glancing unto the screen and staring at it for a few minutes tends to re-energize my focus (mathematical hypnosis?). I have a snack or a bowl of munchable candy in front of me as I work, giving me a steady stream of small boosts of dopamine to help me focus on a task. Executive dysfunction is essentially a “coefficient of static friction” issue–oftentimes, starting a task is the hardest part, and it isn’t as simple as “just doing the task” as some neurotypicals like to assert–dopamine misregulation is a hardware issue and cannot be psychologically overcome. In this case, consuming something that triggers a large amount of dopamine while starting the task (such as a spicy pickle, in my case), can give one the dopamine boost necessary to start the task–all while conditioning one’s self out of the executive dysfunction trough.

Through working on, applying, and adapting these methods iteratively to further refine my learning approaches and strategies, my executive dysfunction has been decimated on decimated, compared to where it used to be. Not only has my ability to start tasks drastically become easier (despite my depressive episodes), but my ability to enter my Flow State and Monk Mode my way through tasks has also drastically improved. While my methods are nowhere near to perfect, nor optimized, nor as performant as a neurotypical, I’ve made a significant amount of progress compared to where I used to be, a mere 3 years ago. From being virtually as nonfunctional as an HP from 2005 rescued from the dumpster, to working towards truly embodying a data center, my “scalability” has significantly improved, and an SLA that was 2% at best went to 5%, then 10%, then 20%, and is steadily improving as I offer myself at higher availability than I was ever able to.

A good CPU in a data center should run at an average of 65% duty to maximize its efficiency, with periods of higher or lower utilization being acceptable to make thorough use of its provisioning. Whether I am focusing on my career, hobbies, or other forms of productive work, my KPI for healthy productivity is matching that 65% duty, in some form or another.

Physical Health and its Impact on Mental Health

One’s physical nutrition and physical health contributes as much to one’s capacity for productivity as much as one’s direct attempt to learn. Growing research talks about the gut-brain connection, and the importance of nutrition and gut health in maintaining one’s mental health. There have been studies on the use of the Mediterranean Diet to improve one’s gut biome and by extension one’s mental health. The importance of regular exercise cannot be stressed enough–as I discovered on my own watching my health, both physical and mental, dramatically improving upon me simply walking regularly. As I continue to develop a fitness and nutritional regimen for myself, my health (and by extension, my focus and productivity) steadily improves. I have been able to wean off of all of my medications, and have found drastically greater results by simply exercising regularly and eating healthily. In fact, my mental health has dramatically improved off of my medications by simply focusing on strategies, nutrition, and fitness, as compared to more than 10 years of getting nowhere with medication. This isn’t to say quit your medication–what worked for me may not work for you and to consult your doctor or to ensure you are fully educated before making such decisions–but that medication on its own cannot solve underlying issues without performing essential lifestyle changes that can better support your living and learning style. One cannot maintain their mental health before maintaining their physical health, and ensuring a critical fitness and nutritional regimen is of utmost importance of maintaining one’s psyche.

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” ~Socrates

Be it one’s physical form or one’s mental form, it is quite a shame and frankly a waste to not truly see the limits of what one’s body is capable of. Through concentrated training efforts, both mental and physical, one can truly discover their true potential and limits. Learning how to learn, and one’s process of self discovery, strategy, and skill building, is an ongoing lifelong effort that requires constant adaptability, and identifying what works, and what does not work. This consistent effort prevents stagnation and ensures that one’s vector stays pointing forward, however large or small the magnitude of such is at a given time.

Reverse engineering the self, be it physically, psychologically, spiritually, or otherwise is crucial to understanding one’s relationship to the self and their surroundings. My comprehension of my archetypes and their relation to my spirituality has helped me to understand how to “be a better data center” among other outward techniques I have utilized to improve my efficiency and capacity to serve, and maintain a higher availability than I have ever been able to before.

Once one knows the self, one can achieve anything. It is not as simple as conforming to one’s expectations of society or the DSM-V, which expect cookie cutter behavior from everyone fitting a specific label. Only when one sits and understands who they are, how they learn, and what works for them can they truly optimize themselves–of course, under the guidance of an expert they trust. Like a gradient descent algorithm, the iterative steps to approach a local optimum–in hopes of finding the global optimum–is a process that takes time, iterative effort, and an awareness that one’s requirements can shift day to day. Structuring your requirements and building a game plan that works for you–and iteratively refining it, can help even the most struggling of ADHDers, neurodivergents, and even neurotypicals, find the absolute limits–if any–of their potential.

Know thyself–and you will find yourself in places you could’ve never dreamed of.