Ennui and ADD

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For those of you who didn’t take French in college, here is Dictionary.com’s definition:

en·nui
? ?/?n?wi, ??nwi; Fr. ???nwi/ Show Spelled[ahn-wee, ahn-wee; Fr. ahn-nwee] Show IPA
–noun
a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom: The endless lecture produced an unbearable ennui.

Can you see why I associated the word ennui with ADD?

Sometimes I feel as though I live in a constant state of ennui.

I look at my cluttered closets, my house in need of cleaning, my yard in need of attention before winter, and ennui begins to set in.

I feel weary and tired, overwhelmed and I don’t know where to begin.

I think that ennui is pretty common in ADD.

I mean, have you ever spent an entire day noting all around you that needs to be done, and yet find yourself at the end of the day with little to nothing changed?

How do you get past that roadblock? How do you bust ennui?

You begin. You take action. You move.

For instance – all of my closets have gotten cluttered and could use a good cleaning and organizing. But we’re talking about 4-5 closets here. That’s a lot. Too much. I don’t know where to begin.

Where to begin is where it bugs you the most.

For me, that would be the pantry. But it’s a big pantry and even that is overwhelming. I feel an attack of ennui coming on.

Well then, let’s zoom in a little bit.

I have 4 shelves in my pantry and some are messier than the others. I could pick one shelf and clean and organize that. I could even just pick one thing on that shelf that is especially out of control and work on that.

OK. That’s a little better. I might be able to handle that. I can beat off ennui long enough to spend 15 minutes doing that.

But what if I can’t? Maybe some energizing music would help. Or someone to work with me, like a husband or child.

Is it starting to sound doable yet?

Here’s another idea to keep ennui at bay: you don’t have to do a perfect job.

Let’s say your stove could use a good cleaning. You know, just the stove top. Pull off those metal things the pans sit on and pull out the drip pans. Scrub everything down until it shines then put it all back.

But what if ennui tells you that you just can’t do all that? It’s too much. Too overwhelming.

Simple. Spray the stove with cleaner. Leave all those metal and pan things in place. Wipe it down and call it done.

Some of you may be horrified by what I’ve just suggested. Not doing a thorough job? Horrors!

You know what? Doing a good enough job is better than not doing it at all. And guess what? If you keep up with the good enough jobs long enough, you’ll get things to the really good job stage. I promise.

Now go put your ennui kicking boots on and shake that fanny!

Picture of Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle is the writer of Lacyestelle.com and the Podcast host for An ADD Woman.

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