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ADHD and meditating
Does anybody around here have ADHD? If so, how long of a meditation session did you start with? Has dealing with ADHD during sessions gotten easier? (Seriously, I forget that I'm trying to meditate and just get up and go do something else.) Has your attention and concentration gotten better outside of meditation?
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I have already booked a CAT Scan of my brain for the middle of next month (This was arranged prior to any mention of ADHD as I have some serious memory issues that just isn't right for a 34 year old... I have been tested in the past for Alzheimer which was ruled out)...
So I am very interested in this thread and will keep tabs on it regularly...
I will speak to my Doctor about possible ADHD after the results of the CAT Scan are in...
Edit: Good luck Jonathan. I'm going to hope you have ADHD, not something more serious, as it's pretty easy to fix for most people.
I'd guess the process isn't much different, just that you'll need to be even more patient with yourself.
Normally when people ask about bringing objects in I would say no, it's not necessary. But things you associate with formal meditation, like incense, singing bowls, etc. might provide you with various censory reminders that will help you learn to redirect your attention. Just an idea.
This way of practice involves keeping the eyes open and holding the posture. That is the central point, keeping the body dead still in posture. There is no object that is focused on to the exclusion of anything else, instead the object is the totality of just sitting there. Your job is to hold the posture. Then..you'll find body sensations, breath, external sights and sounds, inner sensations, feelings , racing thoughts... the whole shebang is just there, flapping in the breeze all by itself. Just hold the posture and stay awake. Repeat.
If you can find a teacher it would make a big difference, but you can find help with the posture in that book. My son began with this about a year ago and can now sit firm with some wild distractedness. There is a bigger stillness that opens up, a bigger container.
Anyway I'm going on a bit. If not this approach there will be another that you can work with.
I'm still thinking of putting something near me to remind me I'm meditating, so I don't just walk away, but maybe I'll put it behind me. I plan on sitting back down as soon as I see it however many times it takes to get up to around 10 minutes.
I'm kind of shy about finding a teacher just yet.
chanratt: I can definitely see Adderall making someone without ADD/ADHD more distracted. Maybe tell your doctor? You could have some other type of issue that is messing with you.
Update: I tried Shikantaza as I understand how to do it, and I sat completely still for ten minutes!
This is a slightly separate issue, but I don't think it warrants another thread–I'm severely distracted by sounds (coughing, sniffing, clearing throats, tapping, talking, laughing), which wouldn't be so bad, but they make me incredibly angry, too. I'm having some success at tempering the anger by simply observing the sounds and then letting them go. I'm not that good at it yet, but it has made it a little more comfortable to be in public.
That's GREAT that you're observing the sounds and letting them go!
Make sure that you observe the anger, too, without denying or pushing it away, and without holding onto it for too long. Observe the anger, let it go. If you're in public, try to take just a couple of minutes alone (I always go to the bathroom when I'm at work and need a "pause") to pause and look at that anger. Find where it's residing in your body. Look at it, notice how it literally feels - a clenching, a pressure on your chest, a hand grasping around your lung, whatever. Keep looking, don't attach, and see if it starts to dissolve at all. If it doesn't, just try to keep exercising compassion. My experiences with dealing with anger have been that as long as I'm regularly "pausing," the anger dissolves after about a minute and a half of attention to it, and I can easily move on.
Sometimes in thinking or longing for how things could be we forget that we have an opportunity to practice with them just as they are. By being gentle and easy going we can work on a different area of practice than just the 'not wandering off'..
If I were to try to not wander off I might seriously tie my shoes together while I was meditating or something like that. If it were a persistent problem.
just with your own challenge,like anyone else has their own challenges