Ferrari Brain, Bicycle Brakes: Learning to Listen
This ADHD Awareness Month, I've been talking about knowing our barriers and adjustments, using our voice, and the importance of regulation and connection. A recent experience reminded me of why it is so important to translate awareness into action, and that even when we have the awareness, it can still sometimes be a challenge to stop and listen to our bodies.
Some years ago, I attended a course with Dr Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist and internationally recognised ADHD specialist, who describes the ADHD brain as having a Ferrari engine with bicycle brakes. I've always loved this analogy – the Ferrari represents the speed, creativity, enthusiasm and potential of the ADHD brain, whilst the bicycle brakes represent the challenges we can experience in regulating that powerful engine.
What I took from that course was how important it is to find our brakes, and to learn to apply them. Just this week, while supporting a friend, I became completely absorbed in the task. My brain was travelling at a hundred miles an hour. I was excited, energised, organised, solving problems and enjoying myself. I was in my element. I wasn't distracted or disorganised. Quite the opposite in fact, I was functioning brilliantly. But my body was being dragged along behind my Ferrari brain, struggling to keep up. As the day progressed, I became jittery and shaky. Suddenly, I needed food, and I needed it quickly – I'd burnt through my available energy without recognising the warning signs early enough.
There's a scientific term called interoception: our ability to notice internal signals such as hunger, thirst, fatigue and physical discomfort. Research suggests some people with ADHD experience differences in this awareness. I've learnt to listen to the nuances of my body, rather than override them. When I became sharply aware of the signals within me, I listened and, at that point put on the brakes even though it wasn’t what I wanted to do in that moment.
This experience reminded me of what awareness has given me – simply having a diagnosis doesn't automatically tell us what we need. Knowing that I have a Ferrari brain isn't the same as knowing how to look after it.
For me, the awareness is about recognising when enthusiasm and productivity carry me beyond my body's needs and applying the brakes to regulate when that happens. Eating, drinking, taking a break and allowing time to recover are necessary adjustments. I don't want to stop my Ferrari brain. I love its enthusiasm, creativity, speed and ability to become immersed in something meaningful. But just because my brain feels capable of doing everything doesn't mean my body has the energy to keep up.
Know your barriers.
Know your adjustments.
Use your voice.
And, perhaps most importantly, listen to your body.
What do you understand about your ADHD now that you wish you'd understood earlier?
