The ADHD Guide to Choice (Part 1)

We often believe we don’t have much choice in our lives. It can feel like we’re just moving through the days on autopilot, scattered and hoping they go smoothly, hoping we can maintain enough focus to make decisions that serve our long-term well-being. Yet still, we catch ourselves repeating patterns, making impulsive choices for that quick hit of dopamine, then judging ourselves for them - only to do it all over again.

But we do have a choice.
We always have a choice.

We have the power to pause, to grab the reins of our wandering attention, to breathe, to see things differently - to meet the day with a new way of showing up. That choice isn’t always loud or dramatic. Often, it’s quiet, difficult, and deeply unfamiliar in a brain that craves the path of least resistance. Because the easiest thing is to slip into old habits, old neural pathways, old ways of being. The familiar is seductive. It feels safe, even when it no longer serves us.

Our brains are wired for safety, for predictability. They seek comfort in the known and the immediate. They push us toward short-term relief instead of long-term alignment. And that’s okay - our brains are just trying to protect us from overwhelm. But safety in the moment isn’t always the same as our wholeness in the long run.

Some choices you’ve already changed - perhaps without even realising it, a small win against the forgetfulness. Others are still shifting, slowly, beneath the surface of your awareness. And some feel stuck, like you’re trying and trying but your focus just slides off, getting nowhere. This is so normal. It’s part of the process too.

We all face choices, every day. But how we meet them - with a mind that can either hyperfocus or feel utterly scattered - how we carry them, wrestle with them, rise to them - varies wildly. What’s easy for one person might be excruciating for another. We are united in our struggles, but the struggles themselves are uniquely ours.

So comparing your scattered path to someone else’s linear one is not only unhelpful - it’s untrue to who you are.
Your wiring is different.
Your experiences are different.
Your inner battles, your longings, your lessons - they are your own.

And this is where the real power of choice lives:
In recognising that your life is yours.
That your growth is yours.
That your choices - however messy, however small - are the way you shape the life you want to live.

Stay in your lane.
Trust your timing.
And keep choosing - again and again - the version of you that feels most like home.