Follow the Dopamine: A Soul Survival Skill for ADHDers
Where I First Learned ‘Follow Your Bliss
As an entrepreneur with ADHD and a therapist who treats neurodivergent overwhelm (a state created through burnout, trauma, chronic stress, spiritual disconnection, or moral injury via political harm), I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase “follow the dopamine.” The first time I heard something like this was from my own therapist. She was an EMDR therapist with long, incredibly curly blonde hair — very much a hippie dream. We were both spiritual, and her specialty was trauma work with spiritual folks (in fact, she found atheism confusing to work with, which honestly motivated me in grad school to learn more about meaning-making work with non-religious people).
In one session, when I was struggling to figure out how to spend my free time as a writer, she said simply: “follow your bliss.”
It was so simple. But for neurodivergent creatives, it’s anything but easy. At that time in my life I was terrified of the idea. Desire was buried under fear of losing momentum or losing the desire to write altogether.
The Myth of ADHD Productivity
At the time, I was working day jobs I hated and secretly wanted to write full-time, which meant I constantly felt guilty for not writing. Later, I discovered that at my peak, I can write for maybe two hours a day. That’s not 40 hours a week — and that’s not abnormal. Creativity doesn’t follow a linear schedule. ADHDers have the power of hyperfocus, but almost no control over where that intense energy goes. We can sometimes channel medium-energy into chosen tasks, but that lightning-strike desire? It refuses to be locked down.
When the Spark Fades (and ADHD Grief Begins)
When hyperfocus arrives with clarity and urgency, we have to do the thing we’re excited about. We can’t stop ourselves. It’s like falling in love. But then we create future fantasies — the hope that we’ll feel this way forever — and that sets us up for grief when the spark inevitably changes shape.
There are levels to losing the spark.
Sometimes an activity slides into “medium energy,” and we can still finish what we started — we’re not lit up, but nourished. Other times, we feel the spark fading: the overwhelm of too many projects, the sudden disinterest, the sadness.
This is ADHD grief, and it often leads us to ask:
“Does following the dopamine even make me more productive?”
Is Following the Dopamine Productive?
I genuinely believe yes — you’ll accomplish more, across more areas of your life, if you follow your hyperfixation rather than forcing a schedule that doesn’t make sense for you. But it’s not true that following dopamine will let you do one thing forever or complete a hundred projects. You won’t be perfectly productive, and you may keep expecting more from yourself than is realistic.
Capitalism Is Not Allowed to Steal Our Medicine
And here is my a-ha moment:
We cannot let capitalism steal our medicine and twist it into a productivity hack.
“Following the dopamine” is not about output.
It’s about regulation, joy, and self-connection.
It’s the thing that keeps ADHDers alive.
Finding your dopamine again after months or years of burnout is the healing itself. Asking whether it’s “productive enough” is like asking whether breathing is productive. It doesn’t matter. You will die without air. Dramatic, yes, but I’ve known enough ADHD folks who become severely depressed when they lose access to dopamine — whether from burnout, boredom, or lack of supportive medication — to know this is real.
Following the Spark in Real Life
For me, following dopamine means relaxing into my free time and going where the spark leads. Right now, that’s witchy art journaling. My original November plan was to edit my novel, and now I’m editing a single sentence a day. I’m recognizing when my medium energy is drying up and the big spark is returning — if I’m brave enough to follow it.
The Spiritual Side of ADHD Hyperfixation
And here’s the spiritual side:
Following the dopamine lets you stumble into insights, experiences, and states of mind you never expected. It’s like we’ve been given an abnormally large nose to sniff out our path — the lessons we need, the truths we’re ready for, or simply the meaning waiting to be made. This is soul-growth work, even when the hobby itself isn’t explicitly magical.
Your Hyperfixation Is Not a Problem—It’s a Right
Your hyperfixation is healthy. It’s necessary. In my view, it’s a human right for ADHDers.
It’s air.
It’s water.
It’s fire.
It’s grounding.
And if you’re in that place of neurodivergent overwhelm — disconnected from what brings you joy — my caseload is open. I’m here to help you find your spark again.
