Hacking Your ADHD

Retraining Your Nervous System with Dr. Ute Liersch

87 snips
Aug 25, 2025
Dr. Ute Liersch, a Chartered Counselling Psychologist, shares her expertise on retraining the nervous system to tackle anxiety, ADHD, and burnout. She discusses how our sympathetic nervous system can become overstimulated, particularly for individuals with ADHD. Dr. Ute breaks down resilience into actionable steps and highlights the significance of community and self-identity. She also emphasizes the relationship between time, perfectionism, and effective communication, offering practical strategies for improving nervous system health and cultivating resilience.
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INSIGHT

Internalized Threat Keeps You Wired

  • ADHD brains often internalize criticism and treat everyday tasks as threats, keeping the sympathetic nervous system on high alert.
  • This chronic arousal makes anxiety and low mood more likely and reduces the parasympathetic system's ability to relax.
ADVICE

Build Attention With Tiny Increments

  • Start with achievable increments: practice reading one page, then extend to one and a half instead of forcing unrealistic goals.
  • Train small, repeatable steps to build capacity rather than using evidence of struggle as proof of incapability.
ANECDOTE

Extra Time Didn't Always Help

  • Ute described getting extra exam time and still struggling to focus despite the accommodation.
  • She notes extra time doesn't always solve attention challenges and lived experience mattered more than explanations.
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