People With ADHD Swear By ‘Home Shoes’ For This Common Issue – HuffPost

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Even folks who don’t have ADHD can find benefit in this practice.
Senior Wellness Reporter, HuffPost
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comes with many challenges, which commonly include “getting distracted, staying motivated and following through,” according to Brighid Gannon, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and co-founder of Lavender, an online psychiatry practice. These issues make completing tasks extremely difficult for many people with ADHD ― so much so that there’s a name for it: task paralysis.
“The idea of task paralysis is you want to start a task ― your brain could be screaming at you, ‘get up and do the task,’ but some invisible, unseen barrier is preventing it,” said Andrew Robinson, a licensed clinical social worker and ADHD-certified clinical services provider. Task paralysis is an example of executive dysfunction, a common symptom of ADHD that makes it really tough to get up and do (and complete) a task, Robinson said.
On social media, there is no shortage of hacks to tackle executive dysfunction and task paralysis, specifically. One that went viral recently claims that “house shoes” are a way to combat task paralysis and get necessary chores done.
Basically, people say wearing specific shoes in the house (anything from sneakers to comfy sandals) helps provide motivation to get tasks done.
Mental health providers told HuffPost the idea of “house shoes” to defeat task paralysis makes complete sense. Your body goes into “rest mode” when you get home and take off your shoes, which would feasibly then lead to struggle doing a task, Gannon said.
“Our body is connected to our mind … there’s certain physical cues that change the state that we’re in, and I could absolutely see when you take your shoes off, you go into rest mode,” Gannon said. “There are neurons on the bottom of your feet that talk to your brain, so I could absolutely see if you get to your house and you simply switch into your house shoes, your brain is staying in active mode and it’s signaling to keep your motivation up so that you can finish your tasks.”
Robinson added that starting a task isn’t easy, but house shoes can be the trigger that gets your head into task mode.
“People are very creative with how we work around our task initiation barriers, and I think when we’re able to have something that puts our brain into the concept of ‘OK, I associate this with work,’ that association takes some of the hurdle out of starting the task,” Robinson said.
“I think the problem for a lot of us with ADHD, we get really big, lofty ideas,” Robinson said. Because of this, it’s best to pick a small to-do item as your foray into completing tasks while wearing house shoes. This way, you won’t set yourself up for failure.
“Maybe start with doing the dishes. Maybe start with wiping off the windows or the counters,” Robinson suggested.
Allow yourself to get into the habit of doing a specific chore while wearing your house shoes. Then, make sure you’re only wearing the shoes while doing the task, Robinson said. “Don’t intermingle. It wont work,” Robinson stressed. “As soon as you’re done with that task, take off those shoes.”
Don’t get discouraged if this hack doesn’t work for your task paralysis, Robinson said. “Not only is it not going to work for everyone, but there’s different ways that you can try it if it doesn’t work right away,” he said.
You could put on your house shoes with a different outfit and see if that helps. Or you could put on some motivational music as you try to complete the must-do task.
“Try this, but also give it some time to see if it will work,” Robinson added. If it doesn’t, there are other strategies out there.
Gannon said if you feel like you’re struggling with task paralysis or any other symptoms of ADHD, it’s a good idea to see a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner for an assessment to determine whether or not you have ADHD.
“That’s the first step, and it can be really empowering,” Gannon said. “Then they can talk to their provider about what treatment modalities are available to them,” she noted.
“What I’ve read from people on social media that are using this life hack that have ADHD, they’re able to stay motivated longer and accomplish more in their day, which not only allows you to have better functioning in your life, but also it has a positive effect on your self-esteem as well,” Gannon said.
People who have ADHD face a lot of self-criticism over not being able to complete certain things, she added. “I would imagine when you’re able to complete the tasks of the day that you want to complete, it really does help with your self-esteem and your self-worth,” she said. “As a human being, we all need that.”
Kate Hanselman, the vice president of clinical psychiatry at Thriveworks, added that for people with ADHD, there can be shame and embarrassment around the inability to do certain things. “And there also can be some grief around that. Like, why do I have to figure out house shoes when everybody else just seems to be able to do their chores?” Hanselman said.
Hanselman described behaviors like completing tasks as “human skills” that some people implicitly can do and others have to learn explicitly.
“That’s the difference,” she said. Thinking of it this way can “reduce … some of the shame and stigma around wanting, needing, leveraging extra tools when we describe them not only as tools to support people who are neurodivergent, but tools to support humans to do stuff,” Hanselman added.
Anyone, neurodivergent or not, can benefit from having house shoes to help them complete boring chores.
“Everybody has a hard time with motivation, transition, etc. I’ll teach everybody these tools, and they can be particularly helpful for people with ADHD,” said Hanselman.
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