Decision Fatigue and ADHD

[Bill]

The typical parental observation is that their child gets distracted doing homework, but quite happily “concentrates” on toys or video games. The conclusion is that ADHD is linked to things you don’t want to do. I bought that argument. To me it said that ADHD distractions could be overcome. Something happened this weekend that changed this conclusion for me. I’d appreciate your feedback.

My goal for this weekend was to create an outline for an idea I’m working on for a movie script. It’s to be a 2 hour feature film, so the plot needs to be complex. As I developed the outline, the ideas changed and the characters evolved. I had to keep track of my story arcs and character development as I wrote the outline. Now, this kind of writing is something I love to do. This is my second major attempt to write a story around a particular theme. And yet, I was just as distracted, getting up and pacing, going to the fridge, doing other things (including mentally composing this email), etc. as if it were an accounting project. That was a surprise to me. As I watched myself, I realized that I am always distractable. It’s just that when I like the work, it’s easier to refocus myself.

This is true when I like the work or the person I’m working for. If I understand why the work is important, that helps too, but it’s not as strong a reason as the other two.

Some research might be helpful. I just heard about research into “Decision Fatigue” which showed that when people have made a lot of decisions or had to exercise a lot of self-control, their ability to make complex decisions was impaired. Here is a quote:

“Even though nearly all of the brain’s activities consume someglucose, most cognitive processes are relatively unaffected bysubtle or minor fluctuations in glucose levels within the normal orhealthy range. Controlled, effortful processes that rely on executivefunction, however, are unlike most other cognitive processesin that they seem highly susceptible to normal fluctuations inglucose. For instance, low glucose has been linked with impairedperformance on difficult (incongruent) but not easy (congruent)trials of the Stroop color word interference task (Benton, Owens,& Parker, 1994) and on complex but not simple reaction time tasks(Owens & Benton, 1994). One study found that low glucose wasassociated with poor performance on a driving simulation task, butonly toward the end of the task, when participants were fatiguedand the task was most demanding (as cited in Benton, 1990). Lowglucose, therefore, seems to impair controlled or effortful processesbut not the simpler or automatic processes, most likelybecause controlled processes require more glucose than automaticprocesses (Fairclough & Houston, 2004).”

http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~lchang/material/Evolutionary/Brain/Self-control%20relies%20on%20glucose%20as%20a%20limited%20energy%20source%20willpower%20Is%20more%20than%20a%20metaphor.pdf

The ADHD brain is in constant motion, at least mine is. It’s like I’m constantly scanning for ideas or relationships between ideas. Even on medication, I experience a large drop in my ability to focus on complex tasks as the day wears on. I have not found it documented anywhere yet, but I see a link between ADHD and Decision Fatigue.

At the very least, I don’t think ADHD kids deserve this reputation for being able to focus only on things they like.

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[Anonymous]

I posted a link (in this thread http://totallyadd.com/forum/topic.php?id=1764#post-14932) to an article in the New York Times earlier this week (thanks to a blog post by David Seah). I found it interesting that the studies they reported showed that the mere act of having to make a decision changed one’s performance on a subsequent task versus people who just reviewed options, etc. without making a decision.

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[Bill]

Hi ND,

In your searching, was there a link between ADHD and Decision Fatigue?

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[Anonymous]

Hi Bill,

After reading the NY Times article, I pretty much came to the conclusion that there was a link, for me anyway. If decision fatigue is a problem for “normal” brains, then it must be pretty major for the ADD brain.

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[billd]

nodop (and others) I saw the DF bits and wow, now think I know why my sleepy symptoms change, at times it’s worse, other times better, and even other symptoms that are ADHD seem to ebb and flow……… get better or worse. For the past few months, I’m off the deep end with ADHD – and sleep is a problem – I need to nap on weekends and get really tired in the afternoons, don’t sleep deep at nihght, etc. – I think I’m seeing connections. More stress or decision making seems to make all my other symptoms worse – and I get really tired fast when I have to decide things . I don’t mind the reviewing, but want someone else to make final decisions for me.

REALLY hard to describe, but if I had to do a “self-diagnostic” I’d say for me there’s a connection. Can’t nail it down, but there’s something there….

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[munchkin]

What do you think about this? All the stuff that’s piled up on my desk, not getting done is all the stuff that needs a decision. The stuff where I just need to do a task, I work on all day happily. The decision pile – I get the willies just looking at it…

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[billd]

The hard part is deciding what to do first or next! The longer the list of things to do, the harder the decision, the more tired and confused I get.

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[Anonymous]

I always thought it was because I was a Libran, couldn’t make decisions. I would always leave it up to my husband – I never pay for restaurant meals because that would mean a decision on what amount to tip. And making lists of things? yup, I do that, and then spin my gears when I have to pick something to do. If someone would just tell me what to do, I’d do it, like munchkin says (except I’d always want to be doing something ELSE more interesting!)

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[billd]

HAHAHA – this is ME! ->

>>If someone would just tell me what to do, I’d do it, like munchkin says (except I’d always want to be doing something ELSE more interesting!) <<

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[Bill]

It is so inspiring reading the posts here. Nice to know that there’s a lot of good people in the same boat as me.

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[billd]

Pretty big boat – wonder if there’s enough life jackets to go around?

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[Author]

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