How do you break inertia?

Sometimes, people with ADHD can feel mentally stuck or frozen. There’s a task that we need to do, and often it’s something that we really want to do, but we can’t get started on it.

Then we start judging ourselves, “I should be able to do this. Why can’t I do this? This is proof that I’m not good enough.” Now our freeze devolves into a Shame Spiral.

I’ve written about how to break Shame Spiral, see this post, this post is about how to break inertia which is similar but a little bit different.

1.      Realize that all emotions are impermanent and let it wash over you. This is like the Bene Gesserit “Litany Against Fear” and it works with any emotion.

2.      Ask the emotion, what does it need you to do so that it can subside. It probably wants you to do the task that’s causing the freeze.

3.      Do one thing, no matter how small. Right now we’re not trying to finish the entire task, we’re trying to break the inertia. Doing the task for only one minute will break the inertia and is a HUGE accomplishment!

4.      Celebrate that accomplishment, reinforce that behavior. Don’t dwell on how much is left to do, instead you need to celebrate the fact that you successfully broke the inertia!

When the cognitive freeze is severe, my clients and I have had success treating it like a cognitive freeze that happens in a fight drawing upon my experience as a martial artist/self-defense practitioner.

The key to breaking a severe cognitive freeze seems to be: Do two things that have an effect on the world.

Let me break this down:

A.     “Two” seems to be the Magic Number. If you do one thing over and over again you can get stuck in a loop. If you do three or more things you can get stuck with planning rather than acting. Therefore, two things.

B.     “That has an effect on the world” means neither of the two things can be in your head, they must be an action that has an effect. “Pick up your phone and dial one digit.” “Sit at your computer and type one word.”

C.     Now with the freeze broken, you are very likely able to continue.

What are your thoughts and experiences? Please share below!