Dopamine menus: Make room for your brain

I think anybody benefits from having planned, ahead of time, ways to help themselves stay productive or useful in their day. If I already know that I'm going to have distractions, having a list of things that I can do to shake off that distraction and feel slightly refreshed so I can get back to the cognitive work that's ahead of me  can make my day easier. That's true for somebody who has ADHD or somebody who doesn't. The trick to a dopamine menu is to not wait until you are distracted and wallowing in self-remorse before you figure out how you're going to re-energize yourself and get back to the work that you were supposed to be doing. "There's a lot of research that shows that behavioral treatments for ADHD are quite successful, especially in children. To some extent, this idea of making bite-sized pieces of behavioral activation and having them kind of before you, as a reminder, is a strategy reflective of long-established psychological principles."

 

Why do you think that the rebranding of behavioral activation as a dopamine menu resonates with people, especially younger people right now?

Behavioral control strategies for ADHD have looked into the impact of diet and exercise and some school accommodations like test taking have been pretty well studied. To some extent, the dopamine menu idea is a repackaging or relabeling of some of those studies that would have previously been called behavioral activation or behavioral strategies. "It is a much better way of describing what we're after for people. Behavioral activation strategies, what they really mean, is doing what you should do that's good for you rather than what you want to do at the moment. If instead we describe these things as little rewards that improve our overall productivity that sounds a whole lot better than, you know, eating your peas."

Are there different dopamine menu activities that introverts should consider versus extroverts?

Some people really benefit from what's called body doubling, which means having somebody sit next to you to study alongside you. They find that the presence of somebody doing the same activity is really centering for them or tends to anchor them in the task, while others would find that distracting.

 

How do seemingly small actions like taking a short walk or lighting a candle have a real impact on brain chemistry and motivation?

Part of attention is volitional. We all know that we're better able to pay attention to the things we love than to the things that we only do when we must. Attention is pretty complicated that way. Part of it is directed by us, but part of it is not. One of the ways to think about what's happening in a person with ADHD is that their body can't not pay attention to each new thing. It requires extra effort. It's a fatiguing effort to maintain their attention to the usual degree. Their cognitive burdens are increased, and so by giving people a little break, it just gives them a chance to replenish and restore.

For example, if a person is taking a long math test, they don't do better if they are given twice as long to complete the test. That's just twice as long for them to feel miserable about their math skills. They do better if they can take the test for 10 minutes and then have two minutes to chew on their pencil and then re-engage for 10 minutes and have three minutes to walk around the room. I think that is because the effort involved in maintaining attention for a person with ADHD is just greater than the effort involved for someone who's not equally burdened.

How might someone create their own personal dopamine menu tailored to their lifestyle and personality?

It's important to keep the items on the dopamine menu relatively brief. I usually talk about it as a snack, short things. If I'm rewarding myself with screen time, as an example, it's pretty easy for that to turn into an hour that is lost.

Are there specific dopamine menu strategies you found particularly effective for children or teens with ADHD, especially in academic settings? And I think you've touched on some of it, but is there anything more to add?

If the parents are helping the kids set up dopamine menu options, or if the parents are helping generate this list, I would encourage some flexibility about what goes on the list based on their knowledge of the child. I think that parents should feel enabled or empowered to know what makes their kids click and be flexible in how they get through their days. What we want for people is to not focus quite so much on the process but instead emphasize the outcome.

 

For example, I don't care if the college student has to run a lap and then study for 10 minutes and then do 10 jumping jacks and study for another 15 minutes, as long as they get their studies done.  It's the outcome I'm after and I hope that people are flexible about the process and generous to themselves.

 

Do you think that dopamine menus could actually be integrated into workplace routines to help manage burnout, procrastination, or creative blocks?
I hope they will be.

Are there any psychological risks in overusing dopamine menus, for example, turning a healthy break into a prolonged distraction?

 I think the people who are most burdened by ADHD might benefit from timers, not only timing the amount of time that they're working, but the amount of time that they're allowing themselves for breaks.