I am in grad school, getting my masters in education, which is a whole lot of learning about the psychology and physiology of learning
if you have ADHD (like me) there are things you can do to help your brain perform better.
this paper made me feel vindicated:
Cognitive and perceptual load have opposing effects on brain network efficiency and behavioral variability in ADHD by Fisher, Hopp, and Weber
The researchers had participants with and without ADHD play a video game they built while varying two things: how mentally demanding the task was (cognitive load) and how much sensory information was present (perceptual load). They measured accuracy and consistency of play across these conditions to see how performance changed. This let them compare how each group handled low vs high stimulation environments. Spoiler: the ADHD brains performed worse until a higher perceptual load was added. Then they performed better than the non-ADHD-havers.
the research showed that ADHD brains don’t actually do well in low-stimulation environments. like the “quiet room, no distractions, just focus :)” setup can make things worse.
because what’s happening isn’t just “can’t pay attention” — it’s that the brain is under-stimulated and starts drifting.
BUT. when you add more sensory input — noise, movement, visual stuff — performance can actually improve.
need a video playing to do your homework
focus better in a coffee shop than in a silent room
are listening to music, fidgeting, and half-watching something while working
that’s not you failing at focus. that’s you building the amount of input your brain needs to function.
like the goal is not “remove all distractions.”
the goal is “hit the correct level of chaos.”
which is… extremely annoying advice if you were raised on “just try harder in a quiet room” or "you can't watch Housewives and write a paper" but incredibly useful once you realize it.
anyway. if your brain only turns on when there are at least three things happening, congratulations, that might actually be the way through, not the problem.
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