The ADHD Executive Function Tax: How to Cope
By Catherine Mutti-Driscoll, MA, PhD, CALC
Head of Coaching, Hallowell Todaro Washington
I read about the concept of the “ADHD tax” on social media recently. ADHD taxes accrue due to how our brain-based executive function challenges impact our behavior in the real world. These costs tend to be thought of in financial terms, as this comic by Dani Donovan describes.
Executive function challenges that may accrue “taxes” for individuals with ADHD include:
Working memory,
Emotional control,
Sustained attention,
Task initiation,
Planning/prioritization,
Response inhibition,
Goal-directed persistence,
Flexibility,
Stress tolerance, and
Metacognition (Dawson & Guare, 2016).
As this Executive Function video by the well-known How to ADHD YouTuber Jessica McCabe notes, not all people with ADHD have the same executive function challenges (some of the aforementioned list may even be strengths!) but studies show we all have some challenges related to executive function. For me, two of my core challenges center around organization and task initiation. As such, a common ADHD tax that I pay is replacing lost items or purchasing a second copy of an item I cannot find. I also struggle to implement self-improvement routines, frequently due to not being able to find the items needed for routines. The time and effort necessary to locate items then discourage my weak task initiation skills.
Expanding this concept of the ADHD tax, I have experienced the costs of ADHD to be more far-reaching than just money. When I can’t find my important items or implement a new routine that I was excited about, I experience a loss of time, additional stress, and a hit on my self-confidence.
The other day, as I was scrolling social media, I saw someone describe how they began paying the ADHD tax up front, investing time and money in supportive structures that could circumvent unwanted expenditures. I loved this idea! I decided to try this and see what might happen if I tried to do this. As ADHD brains are prone to do, my brain started whirring with the possibilities….
I decided to run a pilot experiment. After I misplaced my keys when my in-laws were in town, it seemed that it might be time to invest in something that would help me find important lost items like my keys, especially planning for those times when I am overwhelmed and even more likely to misplace items and be stressed by their misplacement. I had been meaning to invest in the tile app for a while and I decided, in the name of my experiment, I would purchase a few tiles to support my organizational difficulties. To head off my task initiation challenges, I planned to set them up immediately rather than having them sit in the box for several months.
After the tiles arrived, I quite quickly (if I do say so myself) attached them to my important items that are extremely difficult for me to put in the same place such as my purse, keys, paper planner, journal, and routine logs. I was very pleased to learn that all these tiles will always be able to ring my phone which I tend to need to locate several times a day :-) By setting up the tiles right away, I was also able to head off my inner critic’s common jabs about me “never opening/setting up/using the stuff I buy.”
This small change had a HUGE impact! By being able to easily find my items, I was able to implement my daily journaling and routines with more ease, heading off my previous lengthy searches for essential items! Instead of lost items initiating a cascade of negative impacts, I was able to intervene at an early moment in the completion of desired tasks. I noticed how this intervention brought several bonuses for my mood, time, and self-confidence! I found it much easier to purchase tiles upfront than to try to control my habitual disorganization through willpower and effort.
This experiment made me wonder if there are any other ADHD taxes that could be paid upfront and if other targeted interventions like this might be able to produce a positive chain of effects? I will continue experimenting in hopes of transforming my ADHD taxes into bonuses! :-)
We provide a range of support services for people with ADHD, including online classes and webinars to help develop executive function skills.