A person with ADHD explains how "anchors"—if-then statements planned in advance—interrupt unwanted behaviors. His anchor for interrupting: "If I interrupt, then I will immediately try to drop whatever's happening." It gives him a choice point instead of realizing too late he wanted to stop.
What do anchors have to do with ADHD? When you have ADHD, one of the most important things to understand are systems and anchors and fewer steps. The point of an anchor is that it's something that will give you a centeredness and a foundation and either prevent you from doing or saying something you don't want to or pull you back from that pretty easily. Being a male with ADHD, interrupting is a problem. Because of that, I've had to create an anchor around interrupting. I've told myself, If I interrupt, then I will immediately try to drop whatever's happening. The reason you want to have the anchor is that gives you the opportunity to choose going one way or another way. If you don't do this, let's say interrupting happens, and if you realize, oh, I want to stop doing that, what's going on? You go up in your head and everything just gets worse. But if you have the anchor, when I do blank, then I will blank. That's a very powerful thing that can really help you to have more positive behaviors and to help with your communication and your relationships. Relationships with other people.
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