Adult coloring books are everywhere, and yet precisely none of them are in my junk drawer when I actually want to color. How does that work?
ADHD. That’s how it works.

I love coloring. Genuinely. The colors. The start-to-finish satisfaction of seeing something become complete. The hand cramping from not having truly held a pencil for more than 5 minutes since my 12th year of high school. It’s all part of the process, as they say.

But do they really work? And if so, how do they work? Are coloring books for adults, with or without ADHD, really just pulling the same tricks video games do to ADHD kids? Fooling us into thinking we can focus, when really we’re just tapping into our hyperfocus instead and still can’t sit through our 2pm Team Zoom meeting without zoning out?

The great news is, even if there are no direct benefits to ADHDers specifically for coloring, there are some great benefits just in general. Mayo clinic says that “Coloring can help you be more mindful … shut off the noise [and] focus on the present moment.” Which truly feels like a miracle when your brain is always spinning.

What type of Coloring Book Is Best for the ADHD Brain:

This all depends on the type of ADHD Brain you have. Are you the perfectionist and elaborate visionary who loves to show off her supremely gifted work? Are you the practicing type, never wanting to draw real attention but enjoy the sound of the pencils on paper and like to zone out while you work? Or maybe you’re similar to myself, a combination of both but enjoy the illustration to be meaningful in some form?

Thankfully, there’s coloring books for adults, kids and everyone to fit each of these. Here are a few of my favorites:

Blowing-Off-Steam Style Coloring Books

Fair warning, these books aren’t for kids. They’re often for adults. They might be cuss word style books, or they might be funny insult style books. I like these ones because they can be as much a distraction from day to day stress, as they are releiving. I mean, how can you not just quietly giggle as you color flawlessly the word “Twatwaffle” on any given day, hmm?

You can check out Amazon’s Cuss Word Coloring Books for Adults here.
Here’s one I’m sure everyone can relate to:

I think these work best for the ADHDer who is so overstimulated they really want to lose their cool, on their boss, their secretary, their kids, and the PTA. Might as well throw our spouse in that group too. Sometimes, getting to laugh at the words we want to say or even just being able to relate to them in general while actively engaging in an art form is enough to bring us back to center.

This actually isn’t something new. I remember my sister-in-law purchasing coloring books and crayons for herself as well as her kids. She doesn’t have ADHD, but she found coloring to be enjoyable and relaxing.

Adult coloring books are generally a little different from children’s coloring books. They tend to have overall designs rather than a picture that depicts a scene, such as a child riding a bike.

If you take the time to look, you will find that there are intricate designs and simpler ones. My oldest daughter and I prefer the simpler ones.

She is a perfectionist and finds the intricate ones too demanding while I find them overwhelming.

This type of coloring is especially effective for people with ADHD on a number of levels:

• It promotes calm and can ease anxiety because your mind is on the task of coloring
• It helps you focus
• It gives your busy mind a rest by keeping the right brain – the one that’s got 6,000 tabs open in your own personal internet – something to do

Another alternative to coloring in an adult coloring book is to simply doodle.

You might want to buy yourself a blank sketchbook to keep on hand for this, or you can just doodle on whatever is at hand.

I used to do this a lot when I was in school (college too) because, although I didn’t know it at the time, doodling was helping me pay better attention to the lecture and retain more of the material. Even if you’re not in school, it can help you at times when you need to concentrate and remember something.

If you’re into scrapbooking or art journaling like I am, you might want to keep those doodles to add to your creations.

I did some doodling of my own this evening and came up with a page that you can download, print, and color if you like. Just right click on it and save it to your computer. This is my first time doing something like this, so I hope it works!

 

Maybe it will give you inspiration for your own doodles, or let you try your hand at coloring and see how you like it. You will notice that it is very imperfect; that’s OK. Art should be an expression of creativity, not perfection.

By the way, colored pencils or fine point markers work best for this kind of coloring; crayons are too fat.