Choosing Suffering: The ADHD Way to Empowered Change
Suffering? What a shitty word! But it's working for me right now...
Choosing Suffering: The ADHD Way to Empowered Change
December is here, and with it comes the chaos of the holiday season—extra tasks, disrupted routines, and the urge to take the path of least suffering. But as we know, that "easy" path often leads to long-term pain, and that’s what we’re unpacking in the latest podcast episode, ADHD and Suffering. If you haven’t listened yet, jump into Episode 169 and revisit Episode 168, where Dr. Shane drops some serious wisdom about suffering, addiction, and ADHD.
Here’s the deal: suffering is inevitable. Whether it’s the suffering that comes at the end of a late-night binge (for me that would be alcohol, tortilla chips) or the suffering of resisting temptation to stay on track with your goals, we’re going to experience discomfort. The life-changing realization here is this: we get to choose our suffering.
In the podcast, I shared my personal struggle with food, alcohol, and how my ADHD brain prioritizes immediate satisfaction over long-term rewards. Dr. Shane helped frame this in a way that clicked: our ADHD brains are wired for the "now," but we can outsmart that wiring by consciously picking our discomfort. Do I want the short-term high of nachos or the long-term gain of better health and less stress? Do I want to suffer now, with the craving and the desire for those nachos, or do I want to suffer later in life when I’m so unhealthy that there’s no turning back?
That’s the essence of the 30-day challenge I’m kicking off this month, and you’re invited to join. It’s about gamifying our choices, leaning on accountability, and leveraging the incredible power of community. And speaking of community, if you’ve been on the fence about joining the ADHD Big Brother crew, now’s the time. For just $10, you can try the community for 10 days this December. That’s a dollar a day to test out what it feels like to have support, gamified accountability, and people who truly get it.
Click here to give it a thwack!
So, what suffering will you choose this month? Will it be the intentional suffering that leads to growth and success? Or the unintentional kind that weighs you down after the fact? Let’s suffer together! Join the community, take the $10-for-10-days offer, and let’s make this December the turning point.
We also have a lot of cool stuff happening this December, along with multiple opportunities to attend public events where I will answer those questions about how community can help you with your ADHD. Antonia Bowring is going to do a workshop on polyvagal theory as well as guide us through the weekly planning system that she wrote in her ebook “ADHD Success Planner”.
We also have Dr. Shane Calhoun stopping by this coming Friday to give an interactive talk about ADHD and addiction. Always awesome when he does a workshop for us.
Come check it out for yourself.
And just to share what I’ll be working on for the next 30 days: NO alcohol and NO chips! Oh, it’s gonna be a sufferrifical December! But I bet you anything I’ll feel good at the end of this.
And already, as I’m on the second day, I find it really motivating when I think of having chips and I start to feel cravings and I say to myself “This is the suffering I picked.”
Let me know if you give it a try and I’d be so interested in how that perspective on suffering lands with you.
Have a great rest of your week, and maybe we’ll see you in the community,
Russ