Are you looking for ways to live a happy and healthy life with ADD or ADHD without medication? I’m successfully doing this for a few years now. In this article, I will share my 7 tips with you.
Note: I am not a doctor, this article is written purely based on my own experience and some researches I read. When in doubt, always consult your doctor.
1. Change your diet
My first tip would be, make changes in your diet. I believe no specific diet is good for everyone, but research has been done on diet and ADD/ADHD. What was the result? Cutting gluten and casein (dairy) can have a tremendous positive effect on people with ADD or ADHD (and also autism).
What also helps is:
Cut refined sugar from your diet and stick to natural sugar
Cut processed food from your diet. Eat pure, unprocessed food.
Help your gut by eating probiotics and fermented food.
These changes in my diet made a huge impact on my well-being. It improved my focus, concentration, health and happiness.
2. Vitamin supplements
Research has been done on vitamin supplements for people with ADD and ADHD as well. The result: a lot of people with ADD or ADHD miss certain vitamins and minerals, so taking supplements can benefit them. For me it makes a tremendous difference.
Researched supplements with great results on people with ADHD/ADD are: vitamin D, vitamin B12, folate, magnesium, ferritin, iron, calcium, zinc, fish oil/omega 3 and copper.
After 2 weeks of taking vitamin supplements, I already felt a huge difference in how I felt.
3. Yoga and meditation
People with ADD/ADHD have a hard time focusing their attention, but I found out this can be trained through yoga, Mindfulness or meditation.
When you start with meditation or Mindfulness, you might think this is not for you. Meditation is super hard to do and you need a lot of practise. But when you do it on a regular (daily) base, this is going to make a immens impact on your focus and concentration.
When I meditate on a daily base, my life is so much easier.
4. Change your job
Most office jobs are horrible for people with ADD/ADHD and a lot of us hop from one job to the other, never really finding anything we like. That’s because in most jobs you have to do the same trick over and over again, while people with ADD have to be creative to be happy. Building a career can feel like a goal never to be reached.
My tip: do some inner research on your core values. What do you really find important in life? What makes you happy? What makes a job the right job for you? When do you experience flow in work or activities?
I found out that I don’t really need as much money as most people do. What I values are freedom, love/friendship, creativity, balance, health, adventure, self development, meaning to life and taking care of the planet.
I can perfectly live a minimalist lifestyle so I don’t need that 40-hour-workweek in an office. My aspirations are not buying a big house, designer clothes, shoes and spending holidays in 5-star resorts.
My choice is to work for myself, as a freelancer/entrepreneur. Now I decide when I work, how much I work and therefore how much I earn. Because I can work on different projects, creativity can flow. Possibilities are endless and I’m literally never bored. The only downside is: my administration is a mess 😉 and I need to hire someone to help me with that (which isn’t really a problem).
5. Routines and structures
Many people with ADD/ADHD have a love-hate relationship with routine. Because we like variety, diversity, creativity and novelty, structure is hard. Our brains need to be stimulated constantly. On the other side, routines and structure bring us so much peace of mind, because it lowers the chaos in our minds and our lives.
My relationship with routine and structure used to be more hate than love… I thought liked going to bed at 2am, getting up whenever I felt like it, reacting to all the great impulses that life gave me and just going with the flow.
After a year of ADD therapy, working on having positive routines and a bit of structure in my life, I’m starting to love it. Routines and structure improve my health, work, personal administration, friendships,
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