Adult ADHD, how to silence the mental chatter?

[OhLookSomethingShiny]

I read a similar question on an online ADHD support group recently and it got me thinking. I constantly have loops of thought or songs or phrases running through my head, no matter what I'm doing. It's actually quite exhausting (as I'm sure many of you will relate), and it's something I thought everyone experienced until I found out that it wasn't.

Anyway, the only way I've ever been able to totally silence my mind is during yoga nidra, which is great, but the chatter comes back straight away once I come back up from the meditation.

Has anyone found anything more effective? Is it worth asking my GP for medication? I currently don't take anything because my day to day life isn't severely impacted.

I wish I knew. Its constant isn't it.
I try and drain it out with music like right now (on a night shift) but it doesn't really work. Its something that constantly gets me down.

Hoping someone comes along with an answer.

Partner is like this
He use to numb it with Alcohol
His 5.5 years sober and his having a really tough time

If you find out, do let me know. I'm trialling Elvanse at the moment, but my brain is currently

a) mentally playing a Tetris-like video game against my will (and despite the fact it's entirely in my head, it's still giving me horrible pieces)
b) singing a song I hate
c) repeatedly going over a distressing conversation I just had this evening
d) popping up with random worries I can't do anything about
and
e) ruminating over the fact I really should be going to bed yet am inexplicably welded to the sofa

all at the same time.

And the irritating thing is that, because my own thoughts are largely in text-words rather than sound-words, my brain can play songs with lyrics over the top of everything.

Oh I'm hoping someone has the answer to this!

I've found meditation helpful and yoga. Trying to consciously think about what I'm thinking about.

In my early 40s it had got really intrusive. Taking hrt has quietened it down no end. For me it's worst when eostris low.

Interesting about the low estrogen connection, must have a read into that!

I feel everyone else's pain (and now I'm also playing mind Tetris).

Can you explain what you mean-are you saying that having constant, conscious thoughts all the time isn't normal? I don't understand what people mean by the chatter.

Is this not normal? Now I'm playing Tetris in my head too

Perhaps it is! But I do wish my head would stop with the whole multimedia experience, normal or not.

Sometimes I ask DP what he's thinking about, and he always says either "nothing" and seems to genuinely mean it, or names a single specific concrete thing he's thinking about, which makes sense in the context of what's been going on lately. Either he's not telling the whole truth, or the inside of his head is some kind of blissful sanctuary of peace in comparison to mine, which is currently playing an entirely different piece of music I hate, while thinking about this post, mentally playing Tetris with the lines of the post, worrying about family, thinking about literary and grammatical terms, and telling me about all the ways in which I'm physically uncomfortable. And if he's the abnormal one, then please make me so abnormal

A strong, focusing sensation (extreme cold or heat), or absolute exhaustion (up for a few days in a row) silence my mind, or limit it to one thought at a time. More sensibly, grounding works while I'm actually doing it (finding a 'thing' for each sense in tutn and focusing in on it), but it's just another form of meditation I guess.

(Don't, to my knowledge, have adhd, but I do have a nind doing 35 things at once, loudly, constantly and all competing).

How is it possible to have nothing going on it your mind? Unless you’re asleep or work on instinct.

Ehhh. Elvanse has been wonderful in many ways but does not silence the chatter / songs / 893 tabs open in my brain at once. And I have ticker tape synesthesia so if I can hear words, lyrics, speech I can also see it, as if inside my head wasn't noisy enough.

But meds mean I can now usually take one thing out of that chaos and sort of turn down the volume on the rest, and focus on it till I've done what I needed to. Which maybe sounds really small but is enormous for me.

I was worried taking medication would make me numb and efficient but have found it's more like a focusing ring on a camera lens than a volume dial for me.

Which is no help really is it?! Reading and movement are the only non-medication things that help me otherwise - dancing has always been amazing because while I'm thinking about what my feet are doing, I can't think about anything else or I fuck it up. And I line dance, which means if I fuck it up, so does everyone behind me 😂 similar effect when driving, horse riding, kayaking, and other forms of dancing, but it starts straight back up again once I'm still, unless I dive headfirst into a book.

Man, my normal is even weirder than I thought written out like that 😂

I don't have adhd so take this for what it's worth but I did use to struggle falling asleep due to mental chatter. I've since discovered that focusing hard on something kind of channels all the mental energy into one thing and makes it much quieter. So when I go to sleep I :

• Read a book
• Or, watch a video
• Or, work on my project novel in my head, which usually involves playing it like a movie in my head.

Audio books are an option if you need to get stuff done. You have no choice but focus on it (way more than music) or lose the plot.

I thought it was normal too. It’s knackering.

Medication helped massively with this for me. The constant whirring thoughts were actually causing me a lot of anxiety and obviously increased instances of being distracted by my own brain ,as well as everything else going on.

I wouldn't say it's silenced, but it's reduced the intensity, I guess, a lot after starting the medication (also on Elvanse).

I don't spend anything like as much time struggling to fall asleep with nagging thoughts. I can note it down or put it on Google calendar and leave it, unless it's a v stressful thing.

I still use music to stimulate my brain and try to get it to focus on boring stuff I don't like doing though. I think I'd consider headphones on all the time if I didn't have to interact with other humans 😅

Also in my 40s and going to try HRT, the lowering oestrogen levels affect neurotransmitter levels which will make the ADHD feel worse, like it does for the last bit of each cycle 😣.