Being a Christian with ADHD.

[Matt89]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and it came with struggles. It doesn't that the world likes to medicate the problem rather than work on the problem. My brain has a hard time focusing on things that I feel uninterested in so you can imagine how hard it is for me to focus on my studies. Sometimes the Bible can feel like a 50-pond wait. Over the years I have found some tricks to help keep my focus like having music playing in the background or using a read-along app that helps keep my mind from wandering. These things help but it still feels like a struggle to get myself to sit down and focus on what is supposed to be the most important thing in my life. God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

 

[Who Me]

God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

The honest answer is that we all struggle with prayer and in doing bible reading/study.
We could all do better.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions that will help.

 

[WIP]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and it came with struggles. It doesn't that the world likes to medicate the problem rather than work on the problem. My brain has a hard time focusing on things that I feel uninterested in so you can imagine how hard it is for me to focus on my studies. Sometimes the Bible can feel like a 50-pond wait. Over the years I have found some tricks to help keep my focus like having music playing in the background or using a read-along app that helps keep my mind from wandering. These things help but it still feels like a struggle to get myself to sit down and focus on what is supposed to be the most important thing in my life. God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

Admittedly, I know or understand very little about ADHD. My ex-wife insisted that our son had ADHD and I won't go into the details but I disagreed believing that it was more of a personal discipline issue with both her and him. Eventually, after his mother and I later divorced, she took him to multiple doctors until she finally found one that agreed with her position and prescribed Ritalin. To this day he accepts and refers to himself as dealing with ADHD issues. He is now 42 years old, and I can't agree or disagree as I didn't truly understand ADHD.

That said, you can take my comments for what they're worth. I have issues with reading comprehension so I can read a paragraph and shortly afterward if asked a question about what I read, I may not be able to answer without rereading it again. About the only thing I can think of for someone that struggles with focus and attention is to not try to take too much all at once. Break your studies down into smaller pieces. It's not necessary to read the entire Bible in one sitting and to fully understand it is an even greater task. At 65 years old, I have read or listened to an audio version of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation many times and every time I do that, something new comes to my attention.

If you enjoy listening to music, even in the background, perhaps you could try listening to an audio version of the Bible. Just let it play in the background if nothing else and you might be surprised at how much you pick up. One that I really like is the New International Version Dramatized found at BibleGateway. What I like about it is that it isn't just someone reading the text but almost a radio enactment with suitable background sounds and many voices playing the various characters. For me it really brings the Bible to life. Here's a link to it if you're interested in giving it a try.

BibleGateway.com- Audio Bibles

www.biblegateway.com

 

[Matt89]

Admittedly, I know or understand very little about ADHD. My ex-wife insisted that our son had ADHD and I won't go into the details but I disagreed believing that it was more of a personal discipline issue with both her and him. Eventually, after his mother and I later divorced, she took him to multiple doctors until she finally found one that agreed with her position and prescribed Ritalin. To this day he accepts and refers to himself as dealing with ADHD issues. He is now 42 years old, and I can't agree or disagree as I didn't truly understand ADHD.

That said, you can take my comments for what they're worth. I have issues with reading comprehension so I can read a paragraph and shortly afterward if asked a question about what I read, I may not be able to answer without rereading it again. About the only thing I can think of for someone that struggles with focus and attention is to not try to take too much all at once. Break your studies down into smaller pieces. It's not necessary to read the entire Bible in one sitting and to fully understand it is an even greater task. At 65 years old, I have read or listened to an audio version of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation many times and every time I do that, something new comes to my attention.

If you enjoy listening to music, even in the background, perhaps you could try listening to an audio version of the Bible. Just let it play in the background if nothing else and you might be surprised at how much you pick up. One that I really like is the New International Version Dramatized found at BibleGateway. What I like about it is that it isn't just someone reading the text but almost a radio enactment with suitable background sounds and many voices playing the various characters. For me it brings the Bible to life. Here's a link to it if you're interested in giving it a try.

BibleGateway.com- Audio Bibles

www.biblegateway.com

Thanks I'll keep your suggestions in mind

 

[Tenchi]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and it came with struggles. It doesn't that the world likes to medicate the problem rather than work on the problem. My brain has a hard time focusing on things that I feel uninterested in so you can imagine how hard it is for me to focus on my studies. Sometimes the Bible can feel like a 50-pond wait. Over the years I have found some tricks to help keep my focus like having music playing in the background or using a read-along app that helps keep my mind from wandering. These things help but it still feels like a struggle to get myself to sit down and focus on what is supposed to be the most important thing in my life. God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

When I was very young - in grade four, I think - my teacher called in my Dad for a conference about me. In the middle of a math quiz, or general classroom instruction, or even during a conversation with my teacher, I would...wander off in my imagination, or get utterly distracted by something outside that I had noticed through the classroom window, or fixate on a single comment the teacher had made to the neglect of everything else he was explaining. I had a terrible time staying focused on one thing for an extended period.

Strangely, the trade-off in my hyper-distractibility is that when I did focus on something, it was to the exclusion of all else, my attention narrow and very intense, my mind filled with a flurry of questions and extrapolations. As you can imagine, I was not a stellar student. In fact, my teacher was convinced there was something very wrong with me.

In the early nineteen-seventies there was nothing about ADHD in the common understanding of the public. I was just a "problem student" and my Dad's remedy for my mind darting off in all directions was the threat of a spanking if I didn't "pull up my socks" (which is an old way of saying, "Do better"). All through my public schooling I struggled as a student, like you, finding much of what I was supposed to learn very disinteresting and pointless. I say all this to explain that I get where you're coming from.

So, what advice can I give you as one ADHD person to another? Every person is unique and there is, then, no perfect "one size fits all" answer to your particular problem I can offer from my own experience. For me, what helped to focus my mind and keep it focused was having a very personal reason for doing so. I read, meditated and memorized Scripture that spoke directly to my personal experience, to what I was dealing with philosophically, spiritually and morally at the time of my Bible study. Rather than a merely academic accumulation of biblical data, I studied God's word for divine truth that I could apply immediately to my life and/or that answered a "burning question" I had about my faith.

God, too, has been very much "in the mix" of my Bible study, incentivizing my study of His word. At times, He has acted to make me desperate for His truth that could set me free from myself, or protect me from demonic attack, or answer the sharp challenges to my faith levelled at me by the secular World. Such desperation - for me, anyway - has had the effect of fixing me very intently and persistently on God's word.

As the years have passed and my history with God has enlarged, it isn't desperation that moves me into His word, but the prospect of knowing Him better and being well-equipped to serve Him. It's a joy to "connect the dots" of God's truth, and to be made wiser, and holier, and more delighted in Him, as a result.

Really, you ought to have been discipled by a believer who has a deep, rich, holy, truth-filled walk with God who can help you to enjoy the same. In discipleship, such a believer opens their life to you (as you open your life to them) so that you can see the truth they are teaching you worked out in the practical, mundane events of their life, the work of the Holy Spirit in them on display as they interact with you, their spouse, children, siblings, etc. The one discipling you works with you to engage practically with God's truth, guiding you into how to walk well with God. This process of discipleship is especially helpful to people who find concentrated, solitary study difficult because it directly connects learning spiritual truth to practical action and to relational interaction with a fellow Christ-follower, both things greatly enlivening study of God's truth.

 

[Matt89]

When I was very young - in grade four, I think - my teacher called in my Dad for a conference about me. In the middle of a math quiz, or general classroom instruction, or even during a conversation with my teacher, I would...wander off in my imagination, or get utterly distracted by something outside that I had noticed through the classroom window, or fixate on a single comment the teacher had made to the neglect of everything else he was explaining. I had a terrible time staying focused on one thing for an extended period.

Strangely, the trade-off in my hyper-distractibility is that when I did focus on something, it was to the exclusion of all else, my attention narrow and very intense, my mind filled with a flurry of questions and extrapolations. As you can imagine, I was not a stellar student. In fact, my teacher was convinced there was something very wrong with me.

In the early nineteen-seventies there was nothing about ADHD in the common understanding of the public. I was just a "problem student" and my Dad's remedy for my mind darting off in all directions was the threat of a spanking if I didn't "pull up my socks" (which is an old way of saying, "Do better"). All through my public schooling I struggled as a student, like you, finding much of what I was supposed to learn very disinteresting and pointless. I say all this to explain that I get where you're coming from.

So, what advice can I give you as one ADHD person to another? Every person is unique and there is, then, no perfect "one size fits all" answer to your particular problem I can offer from my own experience. For me, what helped to focus my mind and keep it focused was having a very personal reason for doing so. I read, meditated and memorized Scripture that spoke directly to my personal experience, to what I was dealing with philosophically, spiritually and morally at the time of my Bible study. Rather than a merely academic accumulation of biblical data, I studied God's word for divine truth that I could apply immediately to my life and/or that answered a "burning question" I had about my faith.

God, too, has been very much "in the mix" of my Bible study, incentivizing my study of His word. At times, He has acted to make me desperate for His truth that could set me free from myself, or protect me from demonic attack, or answer the sharp challenges to my faith levelled at me by the secular World. Such desperation - for me, anyway - has had the effect of fixing me very intently and persistently on God's word.

As the years have passed and my history with God has enlarged, it isn't desperation that moves me into His word, but the prospect of knowing Him better and being well-equipped to serve Him. It's a joy to "connect the dots" of God's truth, and to be made wiser, and holier, and more delighted in Him, as a result.

Really, you ought to have been discipled by a believer who has a deep, rich, holy, truth-filled walk with God who can help you to enjoy the same. In discipleship, such a believer opens their life to you (as you open your life to them) so that you can see the truth they are teaching you worked out in the practical, mundane events of their life, the work of the Holy Spirit in them on display as they interact with you, their spouse, children, siblings, etc. The one discipling you works with you to engage practically with God's truth, guiding you into how to walk well with God. This process of discipleship is especially helpful to people who find concentrated, solitary study difficult because it directly connects learning spiritual truth to practical action and to relational interaction with a fellow Christ-follower, both things greatly enlivening study of God's truth.

Thank you for your response and you giving plenty to think on.

 

[Hopeful 2]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and it came with struggles. It doesn't that the world likes to medicate the problem rather than work on the problem. My brain has a hard time focusing on things that I feel uninterested in so you can imagine how hard it is for me to focus on my studies. Sometimes the Bible can feel like a 50-pond wait. Over the years I have found some tricks to help keep my focus like having music playing in the background or using a read-along app that helps keep my mind from wandering. These things help but it still feels like a struggle to get myself to sit down and focus on what is supposed to be the most important thing in my life. God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

Welcome to the site.
I hope you get some useful tactics for study for the many folks here.

 

[Cate-inVA]

Matt — I also was born with ADHD and God gave me two wonderful ways to overcome it.
As a child and young adult I created a lot of chaos , drama , problems and insecurities in my.life from the hyperactivity and lack of knowledge about ADHD decades ago.

I refused to take the medications as they made me feel horrible.
The two solutions that created the focus chemical to work in my brain were.
1. I learned to meditate and quiet the brain. It is an actual focus “muscle” you can acquire.
I had a wise and experienced meditation teacher that didn’t bring eastern religions into it, but just taught us how to still our thoughts and train the brain to have the “stillness” ability. Psalm 46:10 — “be still and know that I am God”.

2. I had a hard time during prayer time staying focused on my conversations and listening to God. During one contemplative meditation prayer , God gave me an image of Jesus standing in front of the light of God. I sensed I was to focus on that image. And I’ve used that image for years now when I pray. The image keeps my brain focused on it while I pray just like I’m having an actual conversation with Jesus and God face-to-face. If an image doesn’t come up for you, try googling an image of Jesus or a sunset or rainbow or something that visually signals God for you, and then when you pray -just be before that image focused on it while talking and listening to God.

Hope this helps!
Cate

 

[Matt89]

Matt — I also was born with ADHD and God gave me two wonderful ways to overcome it.
As a child and young adult I created a lot of chaos , drama , problems and insecurities in my.life from the hyperactivity and lack of knowledge about ADHD decades ago.

I refused to take the medications as they made me feel horrible.
The two solutions that created the focus chemical to work in my brain were.
1. I learned to meditate and quiet the brain. It is an actual focus “muscle” you can acquire.
I had a wise and experienced meditation teacher that didn’t bring eastern religions into it, but just taught us how to still our thoughts and train the brain to have the “stillness” ability. Psalm 46:10 — “be still and know that I am God”.

2. I had a hard time during prayer time staying focused on my conversations and listening to God. During one contemplative meditation prayer , God gave me an image of Jesus standing in front of the light of God. I sensed I was to focus on that image. And I’ve used that image for years now when I pray. The image keeps my brain focused on it while I pray just like I’m having an actual conversation with Jesus and God face-to-face. If an image doesn’t come up for you, try googling an image of Jesus or a sunset or rainbow or something that visually signals God for you, and then when you pray -just be before that image focused on it while talking and listening to God.

Hope this helps!
Cate

I didn't think of meditation or you could separated from Eastern religions but I think I'll look in on that thanks

 

[Tenchi]

I didn't think of meditation or you could separated from Eastern religions but I think I'll look in on that thanks

The Bible urges us to meditate (Psalm 1, Philippians 4:8), but that meditation isn't the passive, mind-emptying sort of thing typical of eastern religions. Instead, it means to think upon, to consider carefully and repeatedly, to "chew over" what God's word says, as a cow chews its cud. This is a learned ability, however; it's something you can train yourself to do, your meditative capacity increasing over time as you make the effort to think over God's word. And remember: The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to live pleasing to God (Philippians 2:13; Ephesians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 6:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Live in constant submission to him that he might fill you with himself and freely exercise his power in and through you (Romans 6:13; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6). When he is doing so, fulfilling God's will - including Bible study - becomes much easier.

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

 

[Hidden In Him]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and it came with struggles. It doesn't that the world likes to medicate the problem rather than work on the problem. My brain has a hard time focusing on things that I feel uninterested in so you can imagine how hard it is for me to focus on my studies. Sometimes the Bible can feel like a 50-pond wait. Over the years I have found some tricks to help keep my focus like having music playing in the background or using a read-along app that helps keep my mind from wandering. These things help but it still feels like a struggle to get myself to sit down and focus on what is supposed to be the most important thing in my life. God knows I'm trying but that's why I want to do better when it comes to my prayer and study time. So to my brothers and sisters who struggle with these things, how do you overcome it?

Blessings in Christ, Matt, and thanks for posting.

For me, any problem boil down to the same answer: Seeking the Lord Jesus Christ daily over something; not throwing up a prayer and hoping it might get answered, but staying after God and staying after God until I start seeing solutions. This is taught in a number of places in scripture, including the Parable of Persistent Friend and James 1:5-8. You have to latch hold of God and refuse to let go until you receive, only it takes a stronger faith to do that, which is why doing things like staying closer to Him and spending time with Him and in His word become important as well. Not that you have to earn answered prayer, but you have to be able to believe God for answered prayer, and many allow themselves to get talked out of things too easily because they are too distant from Him.

I can assure you if you begin asking Him, "Lord, I am believing you that you are going to help me begin concentrating better," and you KEEP praying that prayer, every day, every hour, every time you think of work you need to do, if you stay at it like you are latching on to Him for life and you are not going to let Him go until you see your answer, you'll start seeing some results in no time at all.

Works for me, so its not just something I am making up.

Blessings in Christ, and welcome once again to our forum!
Hidden

 

[Milk-Drops]

I take medication and have several coping mechanisms. I didn't take meds for a long time. I will say if you ever go the medication route you will need to work with your doctor to find the right one. Each one is different to different people. I don't like Ritalin and Vivance was the best. Due to the cost and lack of a generic I use Adderall now. It's a trial and error process and I suggest you do what you feel is right.