One Way To Get Things Done
Somewhere on my bookshelf, the one with all the ADHD books, there is one book with an interesting suggestion for doing chores. The technique was called “body double”. This is how it works: you ask a friend to join you in getting some task done. It doesn’t matter what it is but most likely it is something you have been putting off and maybe even made a few false starts at. The friend joins you but they don’t have to do anything. It is probably best if they have a conversation with you and that they are at least in the same room but they don’t assist you or join in on the work. I tried it. It works. I have no idea why. Nor did the author of the book but I do have a theory.
I was reminded of it yesterday when I was watching a rerun of Awakenings on television…you know the movie in which Robin Williams plays a physician called Dr. Sayer but the movie is based on the book by the same name written by Dr. Oliver Sacks. In the movie (and I presume the book) Robin Williams’ character is working in a mental hospital (in the language of the time) and he is in charge of a section with patients who were all catatonic states as a result of an influenza epidemic in the 1920’s. They are totally none reactive but at one point he discovers they can catch tennis balls if they are thrown in their direction. They can also dance. Williams’ character guesses when asked how they can do this and he responds that it is if they can borrow another person’s will. When I read the suggestion for getting difficult chores done, I wondered if that was what the mechanism was that made this work, if it wa not possible to borrow the body double’s will. If you have ADHD, or even if you just have trouble doing chores, try it and let me know what happens.
Also interesting, in the movie, the patients gain a temporary reprieve when the doctor administers L-Dopa to them. He describes L-Dopa as synthetic dopamine, which at the time was used with patients with Parkinson’s Disease. Drugs that increase amounts of dopamine or prevent it’s reuptake are common medications for ADHD