Using AI As An ADHD Accommodation Without Feeding OCD

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Hi, and welcome to Dopamine and Doubt.
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I'm your host, Rachel, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in ADHD and OCD.
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On this show, I will be speaking from both my clinical and lived experience as we explore the surprisingly common crossover of ADHD and OCD.
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Because when we understand which is in the driver's seat, we are better able to know what we need in that moment.
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Whether you're living right at the intersection of both or navigate life with one of these neurotypes, you're welcome here.
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As always, please take what is helpful and leave what isn't.
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Neurodivergence shows up differently for everyone, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
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Okay, let's dive in.
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Personally, I use AI, and I've noticed something interesting.
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Sometimes it's one of the best ADHD accommodations I've found, and other times I can feel my OCD wanting to use it for reassurance-seeking.
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It's the same tool, but it has a completely different function.
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The tool itself isn't good or bad.
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It's what job I am asking AI to do.
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I do wanna also just name that I completely understand not everyone supports AI.
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I get the reasoning behind that.
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It's a very mixed tool in that way.
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And so I do understand the environmental impacts of it.
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I understand the job-related consequences of it, and so those are very real, and that is not what I'm going to discuss today.
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So looking at it from the ADHD, OCD lens, when AI helps my ADHD, I use it as scaffolding, so it can help me break down overwhelming tasks.
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It can help me break large projects into smaller steps that I can follow.
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A huge one I use it for is estimating how long something takes.
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I actually used it between clients the other day because I had an hour, and I was trying to convince myself that I could swim between clients, and it helped me realize the answer was no.
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And so I didn't, and I-- it made for a much better day.
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It helps me adjust my weekly schedule to add in those buffer times we've talked about before.
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And it has called me out, the time my time blindness was trying to do a perfect schedule and not account for daily life or anything going wrong.
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And so it, in the end, it saved me so much stress per day, because now I have a schedule that makes sense for when life happens and backup plans of what I'm gonna do if my little guy is sick or I need to cancel work for some reason that day.
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It helps with decision fatigue, and I use it for meal planning.
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It also can help me with prioritizing because I know many of my clients and I wanna do it all.
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When you have ADHD, it's hard to know what to do first.
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We or I, uh, typically will choose the thing I'm most interested in, which is not always the thing that needs to get done.
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It helps me brainstorm when I'm stuck, and sometimes I know what I wanna say, but I just can't always organize it, so it turns my scattered thoughts into an outline.
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AI in these moments for me is helping me move forward.
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AI can also support my OCD recovery.
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So there was a time when writing an email could take me far longer than it needed to It-- This was due to compulsions around wording, rereading it, checking tone, getting it exactly right, and also trying to guarantee nothing bad would happen.
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AI has actually helped me move through that process much more efficiently, but I've also had to learn to notice when I'm asking it to help me write an email versus asking it to make me feel certain about the email.
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Now I use AI, I read it once, and I send it.
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This helps serve as response prevention so that I can act.
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The key is what happens next.
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If I send it, that's a win.
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If I ask,"Can you tell me if this decision is the right one?
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Are you sure it doesn't sound rude?
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Oh, what if they misunderstand me?" Asking the same question five different ways, hoping for certainty that it will be okay.
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Now, AI is not helping me move forward.
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It's helping me stay stuck trying to become certain.
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So here's the framework.
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Is AI helping me to live my life or helping me escape uncertainty?
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Some examples of when it's helping me live my life, writing the email, planning for dinner, organizing my thoughts.
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When it's helping me avoid the feeling, trying to get certainty, removing any doubt, guaranteeing I am right, guaranteeing that nothing bad will happen.
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Ooh, that's a big one for me.
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I, I would love to prevent bad outcomes.
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Who wouldn't?
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Recovery is not avoiding helpful tools.
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Recovery is noticing when I am asking the tool to do something nothing can do.
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Unfortunately, no one can provide certainty, not Google, not your partner, not your therapist, and that's really hard to accept.
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Also, for my folks wondering if you're reassurance-seeking, when you ask Chat that question This goal is not to perfectly categorize every interaction.
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It's simply to become more aware of why you're reaching for the tool in the first place.
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It comes down to function and giving ourselves choice, which is something I'll continue to come back to,'cause the question is always the same one: What function is this serving?
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Is it helping me move toward my values or helping me move away from uncertainty?
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This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only, and does not replace professional mental health care.
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If you are struggling, please reach out to a qualified mental health provider who can work with you directly.
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What I share here comes from my clinical experience and my own journey, but your situation is unique to you.
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If you are in crisis, please contact 988 or go to your nearest emergency room.
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Thanks for being here.