The journey always begins with two phases that can feel especially challenging for ADHD brains: Struggle and Release. By understanding their science and mastering their transitions, you can tap into more frequent and sustainable flow states, maximising both your biology and your mindset for peak performance.

The Struggle Phase: The ADHD Agitator 

What Is the Struggle Phase?

Struggle is the launchpad for every creative breakthrough. It’s when you’re learning, mind-mapping on a big complex project, problem-solving, or pushing your skills to the edge somehow – there is a challenge level that tests your skill.

For ADHD brains, this phase can feel like running through mud, distractions multiply, motivation dips, and frustration spikes, and that “stuck” feeling can be overwhelming. Or it can feel like creative chaos – a once insightful idea now feels impossibly complex, out of reach, beyond our capability. It is a prime time for limiting beliefs to get in the way if you let them, and it takes grit to overcome the urge to listen and turn that frustration into determination.

Neurochemically, your system is flooded with cortisol and norepinephrine, heightening alertness but also tension. You may experience sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, feeling fidgety. Here is how to tell when it’s the right time to lean into the discomfort, rather than avoid it.

Why is it so tough for ADHD brains?

ADHD is linked to differences in dopamine production and regulation, which affects motivation, focus, and reward. When a task isn’t immediately interesting or rewarding, your brain might rebel, making it hard to get started or stick with it. The rebellion can look like hunting for cheap sources of dopamine – you tube shorts, WhatsApp messages, or a quick sugar fix, for example! The good news it though, we get to choose a better way! We just have to be the ultimate rebel, and actively rebel against the rebellion! That looks like choosing the struggle and release practice, instead of being at the mercy of addictive behavioural trends.

Why Struggle Is Essential for Creative ADHD Brains

• Biological Priming: Struggle activates your brain’s prefrontal cortex, stimulating you to wrestle with new ideas or challenges. This “mental workout” is necessary for breakthroughs as the stress response primes the brain for learning and adaptation. 
  
• Learning and Growth: Without struggle, your brain doesn’t get the input it needs to make creative leaps later. This “loading” phase, gives your brain the raw material for creative synthesis during flow. This network thinking – seeing the whole web of interrelated elements is precisely what leads to new creative insight. It is the foundation for innovation, the fuel for flow.
• Resilience Training: Pushing through discomfort builds grit and mental toughness, a trait that sets creatives and entrepreneurs apart from linear thinkers. We are building the AMCC (anterior mid cingulate cortex) responsible for tenacity and energy regulation. Grit is also a defining factor in success – having the capacity to hold on when all others have let go. 

ADHD-Specific Insights

• Dopamine Dynamics: ADHD brains have lower baseline dopamine, making uninteresting tasks harder to start—but also priming you to seek high-reward, stimulating challenges. Therefore solving globally impactful issues that have big ripple effects is deeply attractive to the ADHd brain – which is why so many ultra successful people have ADHD. Purpose is what drives your creative mind: creating a movement, innovation that changes the way we live and work, creating something with deep impact drives us further, faster.
• Hyperfocus Potential: The discomfort of struggle can be a signal that you’re close to entering hyperfocus, the ADHD version of flow. There is science to suggest that hyperfocus is in fact the same brainwave state as flow state – it is only the way we relate to it that differs. I spoke directly with Steven Kotler, founder of The Flow Research Collective, about this and he suggested ADHD is an evolutionary adaptation! What if ADHD truly is a superpower..more on that soon.

Real Humans Doing It

Trevor Noah, comedian known for The Daily Show and stand-up was late diagnosed with ADHD. As a comedy professional he faces the pressure of daily writing and performance deadlines by reframing struggle as a natural source of comedic material and narrative insight. He breaks overwhelming projects into small segments (writing short sketches, engaging with new topics) to maintain momentum.

Singer songwriter Solange Knowles leans into creative discomfort when producing music or art, accepting periods of restlessness and uncertainty as necessary for innovation. She often throws herself into new genres or art forms, challenging her comfort zone.

Gymnast Simone Biles approaches intense training sessions with determination, even when frustration or anxiety arises. She frames mental and physical struggle as foundational to skill-building, using precise goal-setting to give each challenge context and purpose.

Common Pitfalls for Creative Minds

• Task Avoidance: If it’s not interesting, it’s out. It’s easy to procrastinate or jump to something else. Abandoning a task at the first sign of discomfort resets the cycle and makes it harder to enter flow. It also trains us to flake rather than focus – and when is that the goal?
• Task Paralysis: Multitasking or checking your phone prolongs the struggle and blocks progress. Our brains are not designed to multi-task, that is why it can lead to paralysis – our brains are designed for single point focus.
• Impulsivity: The urge to get a quick fix of dopamine rather that persevere with the struggle can be irresistible when we have lots of options around. Escaping discomfort by checking email, social media, or starting a new project can feel like satisfaction now but it comes as the cost of deeper satisfaction. It’s like substituting protein rich food for fast food. 
  

Fast-Tracking the Struggle Phase

Reframe the Experience

• View discomfort of struggle as creative stimulation, not failure. Remember: discomfort is the gateway to flow.
• Use a “brace and reward” mindset. Anticipate the challenge, then reward yourself after a focused effort. Reward can be something from your healthy dopamining list – learn how to create one of those in my up coming Flow Masterclass.

Set Clear Goals

• Set Goals: Break tasks into micro-steps or what we call goal-directed actions. Then it becomes easier to progress, and each time you check one off your brain releases dopamine! Getting things done is a great healthy dopamine hack.
• Get Visual. Visual progress (kanban boards, sticky notes) gives your brain a dopamine boost. Creating a vision board that depicts your dreams and goals helps your brain assimilate your dreams as first possible, then probable and when they feature in your daily action plan, they become inevitable.
• Autonomous Results. Make goals specific and measurable to stay engaged. Set your results based on actions within your own control, not results that require input from others or based on unknowns. For example – spend 2 hours writing blog, make 20 sales calls.

Cull Clutter and Distractions 

• Use My One Window Policy: Only have the tabs you are using open in this window. Kills those unused placeholder tabs, and create a dedicated workspace. Productivity shoots up doing this. If you must, you can keep the tabs on a different window. I like to have one window per task and it really works!
• Pomodoro technique: where you focus in bursts of 25 minutes with a 5 minute break, this gives time for the struggle phase to build, and gives you release that then primes you for flow state on demand. You can use apps such as Pomodoro or Forest, or simply a timer.
• Body Doubling: Not only for ADHDers, body doubling (which means working alongside someone else) helps us hugely to maintain focus and make things more interesting. The person doesn’t need to be doing the same thing, they can simply be present to make an impact.
• Accountability Buddy: Use an accountability buddy system to log your progress on your goals, check in, discuss challenges and celebrate wins. This primes not only the happy hormones of dopamine but also oxytocyn through connection with another human. When someone else gives a **** about your progress – our biology likes it!  We are tribal beings – let’s connect and make it more fun! The goals do not need to be similar, you can get a coach, or a friend or colleague for this – the trick is regularity and consistency with connecting, and tracking progress in whatever way works for you.
• Flow Club: I host sessions in Flow Club, we do focus sessions and do check ins and set goals and track your progress with tasks. You can drop in as you like and do it as often you like. My link here gives you a free 14 day trial .

Persist Through Friction

• • • Commit to 20–30 minutes of focused work, even if it feels uncomfortable—research suggests it takes this long to acclimate and move toward release.
    • Eliminate other sources of friction where possible: laptop running out of battery, cable being too far from the power point, or continuous pings from notifications all create friction which stop us from going deep. Note little glitches as they happen. I then schedule a ‘blitz fix session’ once a week to help iron these out over time.

Hydrate for Focus

• • • Our bodies are sensitive to hydration. Here’s what the science says:
    • 1% dehydration causes subtle declines in attention span and mental flexibility, which make focused immersion and flow more difficult36 as well as mood disturbance, with increased irritability.
    • 2% Dehydration: reaction times are slower, error rates increase, and subjective fatigue rises74. Mood is further degraded, with anxiety and tension interfering with deep focus. Executive function, and motor coordination deteriorate significantly at or above this threshold making driving dangerous.
    • 3% Dehydration: more pronounced deficits in memory retrieval, logical reasoning, and executive function17. Noticeable drop in cognitive-motor coordination and error-rates in multitasking or complex problem-solving increases. 
    • 4% Dehydration: short-term memory, visual perception, and sustained attention are all significantly impaired23. Participants may report confusion, marked cognitive fatigue, and difficulty completing even moderately complex tasks2. Large increases in mood disturbance such as irritability, anxiety, and subjective feeling of mental “blockage”12
    • The science recommends we drink 2-2.7 litres per day for women and 2.5-3.7 litres per day for men. For non binary people this would vary according to body dimensions.

Nutrition – Food is fuel

• • These days food scientists like Tim Spector recommend us to eat a rainbow, include prebiotics, probiotics and fermented foods in our diet to improve the diversity of our gut health, or our microbiome.
  • Our microbiome is considered to be our second brain – linked to our mood regulation, motivation and energy levels. If you feel low energy, consider what fuel you are feeding your body.
  • Intermittent fasting can be beneficial in improving our cellular efficiency and clarity as well as having other health benefits.

Move your body.

• • • Physical well-being supports cognitive endurance, especially for ADHD brains.
    • Stimulating endorphins enables us to feel happier, our muscular strength increases our metabolism, it also increases our resilience, health and mental agility. Over 40’s should lift weights as without stimulation they will decline, and with stimulation we can activate later life flow hacks previously unknown. I will go into the topic of flow state as we age in more depth in future articles.

Celebrate Effort:

• • • Celebrating each other’s wins stimulates dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin – three of the 4 happy hormones.
    • Celebrating our own wins stimulates two out of three, so it is still very much worth it – neurons that fire together, wire together, so when you celebrate your achievements, however small, your biology notices!

Ready to unlock more flow and less frustration?

Try working with your ADHD brain, not against it. Start honouring yourself in the struggle phase of the flow cycle. With practice, you’ll find yourself entering flow more often, performing at your best, and enjoying the process along the way.Next time you’re stuck, try this:

1. Pick a task that feels challenging.
2. Set a timer for 15–20 minutes. Dive in, using body doubling or a focus app if needed.
3. When you feel your focus slipping or frustration peaking, pause. Take a 5–10 minute movement break, doodle, or step outside.
4. Notice what happens next. Often, the ideas and energy you need will bubble up—bringing you closer to that coveted flow state.

Remember:
Struggle is not a sign you’re failing, it is the secret sauce for creative and ADHD minds like ours. With practice, you’ll train your grit, move through these phases faster, reach flow more often, and build a business and life that truly matches your incredible brain’s potential for purpose and meaning. Treat this article like a buffet of options – pick one and run with it, then taste another.

So let’s carve our own path shall we, push back on burnout and access flow state on demand. Flow state begins not with hacks straight into effortless productivity, but with discomfort. Here’s how to work with your unique brain, not against it.

References

1. 4 Stages Of The Flow Cycle: The Scientific Guide To Finding Consistent Flow States
2. The Four Phases of the Flow Cycle
3. The 4 Cycles of Flow State for Athletes – C Wilson Meloncelli
4. FLOW CYCLE – PERSIST THROUGH THE STRUGGLE
5. Ever struggle to start a task and give up after a few minutes? | Philippe Arnez
6. First few seconds for flow: A comprehensive proposal of the neurobiology and neurodynamics of state onset – ScienceDirect
7. The Flow Cycle – 4 Stages to Reliable and Sustainable Flow States – Troy Erstling
8. The Flow Cycle: 4 Phases To Be A Peak Performer | Healthy Wealthy Lifestyle Design
9. 4 Phases of Flow and Why They Matter | The Excelling Edge
10. Hack Your Flow: Understanding Flow Cycles, with Steven Kotler  | Big Think
11. Neurotransmitter Release – Foundations of Neuroscience
12. A Three-Level Framework for Assessing and Implementing Environmental Flows
13. The Rise of Superman | Summary, Quotes, FAQ, Audio
14. Four Stages Of Flow | EnthusiastiCLAY
15. Life transitions: How to stop rushing to the next stage
16. Why Do Kids Have Trouble With Transitions? – Child Mind Institute
17. Flow Research Collective  |  Achieving Flow States  |  OA Podcast
18. Biogeochemical cycle | Definition & Facts | Britannica
19. beginning with the flow phase arrange the biochemical processes in the order in which they occur during the menstrual cycle tiles fsh and lh stimulate the follicles to develop and the oocyte 61935
20. The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Contributes to Achieving Goals
21. Hyperfocus: the forgotten frontier of attention – PMC
22. Flow States Vs. Hyperfocus: How ADHD Challenges Traditional Motivation Theories
23. Hyperfocus in adult ADHD : an EEG study of the differences in cortical activity in resting and arousal states – University of Johannesburg
24. Cognitive performance and dehydration – PubMed
25. Effects of hydration status on cognitive performance and mood | British Journal of Nutrition | Cambridge Core
26. Autonomic adaptations mediate the effect of hydration on brain functioning and mood: Evidence from two randomized controlled trials
27. Hydration status and its impact on cognitive performance and reaction time in young adults: a comparative study

Cat is an ADHD coach, speaker and senior yoga teacher with 6 teacher trainings and 20 years of experience. Founder of collaborative yoga school Nine Lives Yoga and creator of Flux to Flow and the 4 Pillars of Happiness coaching. Cat’s work supports creative professionals and entrepreneurs with ADHD to move from burnout to brilliance, manage their mental health, and access flow state on demand. Cat has worked with over 26,000 clients across 14 countries, speaking, coaching and training. She lives in a modern eco village in Bristol where she loves practising Acroyoga, walking her dog in the Cotswolds, and partner dancing with friends for joy and inspiration.