💡 Key Features in ADHD-Friendly Mood Trackers:
* **Simple interface** (color-coded, emoji-based, or sliding scales)
* **Reminders or gamification**
* **Short prompts** ("What just happened?" or "What helped?")
* Visual history over time (e.g., bar graphs or color wheels)
* Integrated tracking of related ADHD factors like:
- * Sleep
- * Medication adherence
- * Exercise
- * Hormonal cycles
- * Executive function wins
🧠 Examples of ADHD-Specific or ADHD-Friendly Mood Trackers:
🟪 **Apps**
1. **Daylio** – Quick, no-typing mood and activity tracker. Very ADHD-friendly due to simplicity and visual output. Daylio - Journal, Diary and Mood Tracker
2. **Bearable** – Customizable and great for tracking mood, symptoms, habits, and even meds. Has reminders and charts. Bearable Symptom Tracker App | Track Pain, Mood & Medication
3. **Moodnotes** – CBT-based journaling prompts that can help reframe distorted thinking (good for ADHD + anxiety/depression). MoodNotes - Apps on Google Play
4. **Reflectly** – Uses AI for journaling with mood tags and prompts—helps those with racing or cluttered thoughts. Reflectly - A Journal for Happiness
5. **Monumental Habit or Finch** – Great for ADHDers who need motivation to keep up daily self-care with mood check-ins. Habit Builder UI Kit
🟨 **Paper-Based / Printable Trackers**
* ADHD-specific planners like **ADDA’s Daily Planning Pages** ADHD Planners & Tools For Organization & Productivity - ADDA - Attention Deficit Disorder Association
or **the Panda Planner** include mood check-ins. Panda Planner | The Best Daily, Weekly & Monthly Productivity Planners
* Printable mood wheels, sticker systems, or even bullet journal layouts can work well for visual ADHDers.
✅ Clinician-Backed Tools
* **TALi Health** and **CogniFit** offer cognitive and emotional tracking for ADHD in research or coaching settings. Brain Training | Trusted by Doctors - CogniFit
* Some clients with ADHD use **CBT mood charts** with modifications (color-coding, emoji faces, brief prompts).
Hormonal Fluctuations:
https://neurolaunch.com/why-is-my-adhd-worse-on-some-days
https://neurolaunch.com/when-does-adhd-peak/
"Surging through life like an unpredictable tidal wave, the symptoms of ADHD ebb and flow, leaving many to wonder: when does this neurological tempest reach its zenith? Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that affects millions of individuals worldwide, manifesting differently across various age groups and life stages. Understanding the trajectory of ADHD symptoms and their peak periods is crucial for effective management and support."
Hyperfocus in ADHD is a well-documented but paradoxical phenomenon, often misunderstood by the public and even some clinicians. Despite the core ADHD symptom of inattention, people with ADHD can sometimes focus intensely on tasks that are highly stimulating or intrinsically rewarding. Here's a breakdown of what we know about hyperfocus, including how it manifests across ADHD types:
🔍 Definition of Hyperfocus
Hyperfocus is an intense form of mental concentration or absorption in a particular activity or subject. It is not officially part of the DSM-5 ADHD criteria, but is frequently reported by individuals with ADHD, especially in qualitative studies and self-reports
⚙️ How It Works (Neurobiologically)
* Dopamine dysregulation is a core feature in ADHD. Activities that provide high stimulation (novelty, immediate feedback, urgency, interest) can temporarily normalize dopamine levels, making it easier to focus.
* Hyperfocus appears to bypass the brain's typical executive control system, creating tunnel vision around the task of interest.
* It often occurs automatically, without conscious intention or awareness of time, needs, or surroundings.
🧠 1. Dopamine Dysregulation and Temporary "Normalization"
ADHD brains have lower baseline dopamine activity, especially in areas responsible for motivation, attention, and reward (like the prefrontal cortex and striatum). Dopamine is the chemical that helps you *feel* motivated, alert, and able to focus.
* People with ADHD often struggle to focus on low-stimulation or routine tasks (e.g., paperwork, chores, listening to lectures) because these don't trigger enough dopamine release to "wake up" the brain.
* However, when the task is high-stimulation (novel, urgent, exciting, emotionally rewarding), it raises dopamine levels just enough to allow for intense focus.
* Examples: video games, creative projects, internet deep dives, coding, competitive sports.
* So, in these moments, dopamine levels are temporarily “normalized,” and focus feels easier and automatic, without effort.
🧠 2. Bypassing the Executive Control System (Creating Tunnel Vision)
The executive control system (located mainly in the prefrontal cortex) helps you:
* Plan
* Shift attention
* Manage time
* Monitor priorities
* Transition between tasks
In ADHD, this system is under-functioning. When hyperfocus kicks in:
* The brain locks onto a single task, often bypassing the usual systems that help you regulate attention and shift gears.
* This results in "tunnel vision": you get so absorbed that everything else — time, hunger, obligations, even bodily signals — fades away.
* You're not choosing to focus — you're stuck in it.
It’s like your brain finds a shortcut to attention, but it can’t steer, and can’t hit the brakes until the task ends or something forces an interruption.
📘 Hyperfocus Across ADHD Presentations

🧠 Key Characteristics of ADHD Hyperfocus
* Task must be interesting or emotionally rewarding
* Often triggered by novelty, urgency, or personal meaning
* Can lead to hours of uninterrupted focus, often forgetting basic needs like eating or sleeping
* May feel compulsive or addictive — difficult to shift out of
* In contrast to “flow,” it’s often rigid, not easily entered or exited voluntarily
❗ Clinical Implications
* Strength or liability: Can be productive (deep learning, creativity) but also interfere with responsibilities (missing appointments, ignoring self-care).
* Time blindness: Individuals may lose track of time and social cues, contributing to interpersonal and functional issues.
* Comorbid autism or OCD: Hyperfocus may be more intense or overlap with special interests or perseveration in comorbid presentations.
* Gender differences: Women and girls may use hyperfocus to mask ADHD symptoms (e.g., perfectionism in schoolwork).
🔧 Management Strategies
* Timers and external cues (alarms, accountability check-ins)
* Schedule high-interest tasks last to avoid derailment
* Transition rituals to break the spell (e.g., movement, countdowns)
* IFS/DBT/ACT to identify parts or values associated with the obsession
* Medication may help regulate the transition between focus states but doesn’t typically eliminate hyperfocus
🔗 Related Constructs
* Flow State (Csikszentmihalyi): Similar to hyperfocus but generally positive and intentional; hyperfocus is less under conscious control.
* Perseveration (in Autism): May look similar, but often more repetitive, rigid, and resistant to change, especially in response to anxiety.
- Active during rest, daydreaming, internal thought, and self-referential processing.
- Deactivates during goal-directed tasks.
- Activated during tasks requiring working memory, problem-solving, decision-making.
- Responsible for focus, planning, and top-down control.
- Detects and filters important stimuli.
- Switches between the DMN and CEN to regulate attention and task engagement.
- Inflexible thinking (e.g., stuck thoughts, obsessions, ruminations)
- Oppositional behavior
- Difficulty shifting attention
- Tendency to hyperfocus
- Often comorbid with OCD spectrum traits or autism spectrum
- Frequently worsened by stimulant medications (they increase ACG overactivity)


Apple Watch can be a game-changer for managing suspected ADHD — especially for things like time blindness, executive dysfunction, distractibility, and motivation. Here’s a breakdown of ways it can help, based on common ADHD challenges:
🔔 Time Blindness & Poor Time Management
Timers & Alarms
Use Siri or the Timer app to set short focus blocks (Pomodoro-style: 25 min work / 5 min break).
Use multiple alarms as time anchors — e.g., 10 min before a meeting, 15 min before bedtime routine, etc.
Watch Faces with Calendar & Reminders
Customize a watch face to show:
Upcoming events
Reminders
Timers
Try Modular or Infograph Modular for max utility.
Silent Taptic Nudges
Set reminders to tap your wrist discreetly (good for transitioning between tasks).
⏱️ Initiation & Transitions (Task Paralysis)
Use the “Now” Timer Strategy
“I’ll just do this one thing until the timer goes off.”
It lowers the overwhelm. Start with 5 minutes.
Reminders with Context
“Start email to therapist — just open the doc”
(Break the task into a single action and schedule it).
📱 Executive Function Support
Reminders + Voice Input
Quickly say “Remind me to…” using Siri — great when something pops into your head.
Calendar Events for EVERYTHING
Schedule everything, even mundane stuff like "Eat lunch," "Shower," or "Stretch."
Use recurring events to build habits.
Use Third-Party ADHD-Friendly Apps
Structured: Visual daily planner with time blocks.
BFT (Bear Focus Timer): Pomodoro with white noise.
Streaks: Habit tracker that integrates with Apple Health.
📶 Distraction Management
Focus Modes
Customize a Focus Mode for work, sleep, etc.
Limit what notifications come through on the watch during that time.
Notifications as External Working Memory
Set reminders like:
“Drink water”
“Switch tasks”
“Check progress on to-do list”
🧘♀️ Regulation (Mood, Energy, Attention)
Breathe App or Mindfulness Apps
Try the native Mindfulness app for short grounding.
Sync with apps like Calm, Headspace, or Insight Timer.
Movement & Exercise Rings
Get dopamine and regulate energy with small movement goals.
Set movement reminders if you tend to hyperfocus or get stuck.
Heart Rate Awareness
Track spikes that might correlate with anxiety or overstimulation.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Complications Wisely
Think of the watch face as your external brain. Load it up with:
Timer
Calendar
Reminders
Mindfulness
Activity rings
Labels
POPULAR POSTS
Jane Rekas, LCSW

.png)
Search This Blog
Pages
- Home
- Downloads from CHADD
- Adult Treatment Guidelines
- Child Treatment Guidelines
- Child Treatment Teams
- Behavior Therapy
- ADHD Criteria DSM V
- Medications
- Medication Alternatives
- 50 Conditions that Mimic ADHD (in children)
- Conditions that Mimic ADHD
- ADHD Differential Diagnosis
- Adult ADHD Group Curriculum
- Getting Ahead of ADHD cliffnotes
- Executive Functions/Skills
- ADHD & Sleep
ADHD Symptoms
Intro page
ADHD Blogs
-
🌱 ADHD and Life Transitions: How to Embrace Change and Create New Beginnings - Change can feel overwhelming with ADHD — but it’s also an opportunity for growth. In this episode recap, Tara McGillicuddy and Lynne Edris share ADHD-fri...
-
Extreme Measures to Escape from Boredom - Impromptu road trips. Police run-ins. Unplanned piercings. Readers share the lengths they’ve gone to in order to escape borture.
-
How Flexible Event Design Helps Me Thrive With ADHD - Adaptable event design supports ADHD success with flexible layouts, sensory-friendly features, and tools that create focus-friendly, stress-reducing spac...
-
The Steps to Prevent and Recover From ADHD Mistakes - Discover why ADHD adults make more mistakes and how to prevent them without shame. The post The Steps to Prevent and Recover From ADHD Mistakes appeared ...
-
Setting a New Stage - [image: So much navel gazing…] I've come to the decision that I need to blog again. I've filled over a dozen journals in the past two years, but I find mys...
-
Statement from CHADD Regarding The New York Times Magazine Article, “Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong?” - As the nation’s leading organization dedicated to children and adults with ADHD, CHADD comments on media coverage that contains misleading or inaccurate ...
-
"Reward Focused Brain" Doesn't Accurately Describe the ADHD Experience - Someone who has participated in a number of our programs wrote in to talk about why the commonly-used expression ‘reward-focused’ brain does not accuratel...
-
Calm in a crisis, frazzled under the overhead light - I’ve heard people say their ADHD makes them more fun, or more flexible. They can go with the flow. Me, not so much. I bristle at the use of an overhead l...
-
You worry too much! You're too sensitive! - Many adults who have ADHD, myself included, don’t feel we worry too much or are highly sensitive, anxious, moody, mercurial, easily upset, or quick to an...
-