ADHD & Time - Let's do the Time Warp. Unraveling ADHD's Time Horizons & The 'Back to the Future' of Neurology

ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders

Are you an ADHD adult who just doesn't 'get' time? Is it either speeding past or dropping slowly? Why is it so difficult to work on long term projects or goals?

In this insightful episode, we go rummaging through the unique relationship between ADHD and time - but not time management!

The focus is on understanding the way time and life interact for adults with ADHD, where the time pressures of deadlines, schedules, and daily tasks are complicated by the mysterious nature of 'time' - how it feels, why it's different, what we can do and more.

Understanding ADHD and Time Challenges:

We explore the concept of 'Now and Not Now', highlighting the difficulty in perceiving tasks that aren't immediate. This includes the challenges of time 'blindness' or temporal discounting, where estimating the duration of tasks or the speed of time passage becomes a hurdle.

Temporal Shifts and Cognitive Processing

The episode discusses how ADHD is linked with systematic biases in habitual time orientation. Insights from the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (S-ZTPI) are shared, emphasizing the different perception of time in adults with ADHD.

Research Insights:

We share highlights from various studies highlighting the relationship between ADHD and time perception, including the impact of neurological factors like brain anatomy differences, blocked neural connections, and altered dopamine pathways as well as the RAS and reward sensitivity, including the impact of anxiety and emotion on how we can connect with the future.

Practical Strategies for Common Time-Related Struggles:

Katherine offers practical strategies to overcome common ADHD-related time challenges

Conclusion and Resources:

The episode wraps up with key takeaways and a group of strategies and apps that can be really useful - as well as two suggestions of what NOT to do!

Next Episode Preview:

Stay tuned for our next episode - episode 10 (and the last of this season before the new season launches Monday January 1 2024) - where we'll tackle prioritization, procrastination, and ADHD inertia, setting the stage for a deeper dive into these topics in the upcoming season.

None of the following links are sponsored in any way - I've tried them and found them useful.

https://www.focusatwill.com/ - music for focus time

https://www.rescuetime.com/ - rescue time

https://timemator.com/ - timing app for audit and planning

https://timingapp.com/?lang=en - timing app (auto tracking of time for mac)

https://www.thetimeparadox.com/ - Time Perspective Therapy

https://www.timetimer.com/collections/applications - the Time Timer app - FREE

Barkley RA, Edwards G, Laneri M, Fletcher K, Metevia L. Executive functioning, temporal discounting, and sense of time in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2001 Dec;29(6):541-56. doi: 10.1023/a:1012233310098. PMID: 11761287.

Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete Authoritative Guide for Parents (4th ed.) published in June 2020) 12 Principles for Raising a Child with ADHD (published in October 2020) Taking Charge of Adult ADHD (4th ed.) (Published October 2021) Treating ADHD in Children and Adolescents: What Every Clinician Needs to Know. (Published May 2022)

Boonstra AM, Kooij JJ, Oosterlaan J, Sergeant JA, Buitelaar JK. To act or not to act, that's the problem: primarily inhibition difficulties in adult ADHD. Neuropsychology. 2010 Mar;24(2):209-21. doi: 10.1037/a0017670. PMID: 20230115.

Carelli MG, Britt W. Time out of mind: Temporal perspective in adults with ADHD. J Att Disord. 2012;16(6):460–66

Carstensen LL, Isaacowitz DM, Charles ST. Taking time seriously. A theory of socioemotional selectivity. Am Psychol. 1999 Mar;54(3):165-81. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.54.3.165. PMID: 10199217.

Li L, Hou C, Peng C, Chen Y. Encoding, working memory, or decision: how feedback modulates time perception. Cereb Cortex. 2023 Sep 26;33(19):10355-10366. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhad287. PMID: 37522300.

Mette C. Time Perception in Adult ADHD: Findings from a Decade-A Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 10;20(4):3098. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043098. PMID: 36833791; PMCID: PMC9962130.

 Pironti VA, Lai MC, Morein-Zamir S, et al. Temporal reproduction and its neuroanatomical correlates in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives. Psychol Med. 2016;46(12):2561–69.

Ptáček R, Vňuková M, Děchtěrenko F, Weissenberger S, Kitzlerová E, Ptáčková H, Anders M. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Time Perception in Adults: Do Adults with Different ADHD Symptomatology Severity Perceive Time Differently? Findings from the National Czech Study. Med Sci Monit. 2022 Jul 16;28:e936849. doi: 10.12659/MSM.936849. PMID: 35841140; PMCID: PMC9297734.

Reinecke, L., Meier, A., Beutel, M. E., Schemer, C., Stark, B., Wölfling, K., & Müller, K. W. (2018). The relationship between trait procrastination, Internet use, and psychological functioning: Results from a community sample of German adolescents. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 913. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00913

Svancara AM, Kana R, Bednarz H, Sherrod G, Visscher K, McManus B, Stavrinos D. Time-to-Collision Estimations in Young Drivers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2022 Sep;52(9):3933-3948. doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-05264-6. Epub 2021 Sep 16. PMID: 34529252.

Toplak ME, Rucklidge JJ, Hetherington R, John SC, Tannock R. Time perception deficits in attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder and comorbid reading difficulties in child and adolescent samples. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2003 Sep;44(6):888-903. doi: 10.1111/1469-7610.00173. PMID: 12959497.

Walg M, Hapfelmeier G, El-Wahsch D, Prior H. The faster internal clock in ADHD is related to lower processing speed: WISC-IV profile analyses and time estimation tasks facilitate the distinction between real ADHD and pseudo-ADHD. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Oct;26(10):1177-1186. doi: 10.1007/s00787-017-0971-5. Epub 2017 Mar 10. PMID: 28283836; PMCID: PMC5610226.

Weibel S, Menard O, Ionita A, Boumendjel M, Cabelguen C, Kraemer C, Micoulaud-Franchi JA, Bioulac S, Perroud N, Sauvaget A, Carton L, Gachet M, Lopez R. Practical considerations for the evaluation and management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults. Encephale. 2020 Feb;46(1):30-40. doi: 10.1016/j.encep.2019.06.005. Epub 2019 Oct 11. PMID: 31610922.

Weissenberger S, Klicperova-Baker M, Zimbardo P, et al. ADHD and present hedonism: Time perspective as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2016;12:2963–71

Weissenberger S, Schonova K, Büttiker P, Fazio R, Vnukova M, Stefano GB, Ptacek R. Time Perception is a Focal Symptom of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults. Med Sci Monit. 2021 Jul 17;27:e933766. doi: 10.12659/MSM.933766. PMID: 34272353; PMCID: PMC8293837.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/temporal-horizon