Tips at Work

Coping with hyperactivity in the workplace can be a challenge, but it isn’t impossible. With a few strategies in place and a willingness to ask for help when needed, adults with hyperactivity can thrive in an office setting.
Where children with hyperactivity present as “bouncing off the walls”, hyperactivity in adults with hyperactivity is more akin to a feeling of restlessness or edginess. It can be difficult to settle down or relax. This can make adults with hyperactivity feel trapped if their jobs include a lot of sitting in one place.
Try these changes to release some of that pent-up energy on the job:

Reference

Sara Moreira Ferreira

Schedule frequent breaks;

Get moving – brief walks around the office can help reduce tension;

Consider keeping a balance ball handy in your office to break up time spent sitting in a chair. You could also keep a set of hand weights in your desk; do some bicep curls whenever you’re struggling to focus and/or need to get rid of the edgy feeling;

When possible, pop in to see a co-worker, instead of simply emailing from desk to desk;

Set an alarm to focus for set periods of time, followed by a break;

Avoid getting stuck in a daily routine – schedule breaks and slight changes to your work routine can help you settle down to deal with the task at hand.

My Personal Experience

Hello there! My name is Sara and I’m a Portuguese Mechanical Engineer. I’ve been followed by professionals and diagnosed, as hyperactive, but I know that not everyone had the same luck. Therefore, this small page was made so that I could share a bit of my experience and show some of my favorite information, based on professionals’ opinions. As I see it, hyperactivity is a world full of surprises, most of them amazing. My body tends not to stop, but my brain is the trickiest part. A hundred thoughts come to me at once, constantly, and there’s nothing I can do to stop them from coming. This leads to a total but interesting mess. And here it is, the perfect definition of what I am: a cool mess.

Then you ask, but isn’t there medication for that?

Sure there is, and I take a hell lot of it. Does it help? It does, specially physically, but your essence is your essence, it sticks to you since ever, forever, so... With or without medication, we still need tips and help to face the world, because hyperactivity doesn’t go anywhere. I’m sorry if you think this is a bad thing. I mean, my head hurts A LOT, and a lot of times, but… actually, I love being like this, and I can’t imagine myself without this part of me. Basically I wouldn’t be so crazy, that’s certain, but also, I wouldn’t be able to do so many things without feeling tired, I wouldn’t be so easy going, I wouldn’t have as much fun as I have and definitely, I would not be an engineer. So, who says that being hyperactive isn’t great after all? I wouldn’t change it for anything! Hyperactivity is a real problem around the world, you can rather just deal with it or turn it into one of your best qualities! Hope you liked my soft approach, and feel free to contact me on LinkedIn if you think that I might help you somehow!

Sara Moreira Ferreira

Symptoms in Adults

In adults, the symptoms are more difficult to define. It's believed that hyperactivity cannot develop in adults without it first appearing during childhood. But it's known that symptoms often persist from childhood into a person's teenage years and then adulthood. By the age of 25, an estimated 15% of people diagnosed with hyperactivity as children still have a full range of symptoms, and 65% still have some symptoms that affect their daily lives. Some specialists say the way in which hyperactivity and impulsiveness affect adults can be very different from the way they affect children, and therefore, have suggested the following as a list of symptoms associated with hyperactivity in adults:

Reference

Sara Moreira Ferreira

Carelessness and lack of attention to detail;

Continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones;

Poor organizational skills;

Forgetfulness;

Restlessness and edginess;

Difficulty keeping quiet, and speaking out of turn;

Blurting out responses and often interrupting others;

Mood swings;

Extreme impatience.