Podcast Summary: Overcoming Distractions – Thriving with ADHD, ADD

Episode: Navigating the Adult ADHD Survival Mode Trap
Host: David A. Greenwood
Date: January 8, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode is a solo street-smart conversation with host Dave Greenwood targeting busy professionals with ADHD who feel stuck in “survival mode.” Greenwood draws on his personal experience as an entrepreneur with ADHD and his work coaching professionals to offer actionable, non-clinical advice for recognizing, minimizing, and moving beyond survival mode. The discussion is candid, relatable, and geared to help listeners recapture agency, build intentional routines, and reimagine success in the context of life's evolving demands.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Survival Mode and Its Impact

• What is Survival Mode?

  • Survival mode for ADHD adults is being stuck "always reacting, rarely planning"—simply clawing from Monday to Friday just to make it through, both at work and at home. (05:00)
  • “It’s not so much a weakness, right? It’s like your nervous system just, it’s a response to that chronic ongoing demand and maybe some chaos, right?” (08:03)

• Common Symptoms:

  • Constant urgency, even for non-urgent tasks
  • Mental exhaustion and difficulty slowing down
  • Feeling behind, regardless of effort (“You just always felt like there were like 25 things still to do before you can rest.” 09:33)
  • Emotional depletion, irritability, guilt, or checking out
  • “When everything feels urgent, nothing feels meaningful anymore.” (11:19)

2. Why High Achievers with ADHD Get Stuck Here (and Why It's Dangerous)

• False Rewards & Traps:

  • Survival mode may be rewarded early in careers but is ultimately unsustainable and leads to burnout.
  • There’s a persistent, self-sustaining cycle: “I’ll slow down once things calm down. But do they ever calm down without being more intentional and strategic? Sometimes not.” (13:15)

• Maintain Perspective:

  • “Survival mode is just like a state. It should not be our identity. And I think we need to continue to remind ourselves of that.” (14:18)
  • “We’re not broken, we’re not lazy, we’re not shitty at running our life. Our systems have adapted to this building pressure and now they need new systems and strategies and inputs and, you know, a new game plan.” (15:05)

3. Moving from Reaction to Intention

• Awareness Is Key:

  • “Awareness alone can just start the process of kind of lowering our stress and just hitting that pause button, doing a little thinking.” (18:39)

• Beyond Productivity Tools:

  • Many try to fix survival mode with new productivity apps or notebooks, hoping for magic solutions.
  • Memorable quote: “Those five new apps on my phone will surely, you know, solve all my problems, right? Oh, that red new notebook. Yes. I have just fixed my ADHD.” (17:05)

• Critical Questions for Building Awareness:

  • What am I constantly reacting to?
  • What decisions am I avoiding out of exhaustion or stress?
  • Where do I feel I have no choice? (17:40)

4. Practical Strategies for Stabilizing Yourself

• Small Predictable Systems:

  • Predictable morning/ evening routines
  • A “home base” at home for essentials so things are where you expect them (“Mission critical things…they don’t move, and if they do…my day turns into chaos.” 21:52)
  • Block protected time (“One protected block of time at some interval during the week. I say one, but you really should have more…” 23:20)
  • Reducing daily decisions by setting up routines and advance planning (“Those are the things that allow us to make fewer decisions.” 24:50)

• Hitting Pause:

  • The importance of literally stopping to think and regroup: “Just the frickin pause button, right, hit the pause button.” (25:09)

• Let ‘Good Enough’ Replace Perfection:

  • Accepting imperfection to break the survival cycle, especially at home after a draining day.
  • “I'm done operating in survival mode all day. I'm gonna live to fight another day. I'm gonna cut it off, I'm gonna chill, and I'll get back at it tomorrow.” (26:50)

5. Regaining Agency and Control

• Agency Is the Opposite of Survival Mode:

  • “When we’re in survival mode, we basically say to ourselves, I have no control or I can’t control this. When we have agency…we can influence it in some way.” (28:08)

• Developing Strategic Delay (Not Procrastination):

  • Choosing what not to work on—delaying tasks strategically not out of avoidance but as a smart energy management choice.
  • “Procrastination is bad. Strategic delay is saying, I need to put this in a certain place and time where it is just a smarter move on my part.” (29:03)

• Boundary Setting:

  • Recognizing you have the power to set boundaries—even if it took, as Dave says, “an embarrassingly long time” to realize.

6. Redefining Success as Your Life Changes

• Seasonal Self-Acceptance:
  • “Success might just have to look a little different. Right? Success might look like more sustainable energy and not so much that constant output because we just don’t have it or we have other demands.” (32:15)
  • It’s about presence and alignment, not simply productivity.
  • “Our survival mode kind of keeps us maybe chasing a definition of success and productivity that just might not fit your season of life right now.” (34:01)

7. Concrete Next Steps & Encouragement

• Awareness, Ownership, Nervous System Regulation:

  • Exercise, walking, massage, mindfulness, and other methods to soothe the frazzled system.
  • Find or build support and structure that matches your real, current life—not your aspirational one.

• Reassurance:

  • “Survival mode is a signal that something needs to change and work a little better. But you don’t have to live that way forever.” (37:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Relentlessness of Survival Mode:

  • “It’s at home when the shit hits the fan sometimes, right? Life happens, family demands happen, caregiving things, breaking in the house, throwing your routine and schedule off, redirecting your energy…” (04:53)

• On the Futility of Productivity Fads:

  • “Those five new apps on my phone will surely, you know, solve all my problems, right?” (17:05)

• On Intentionally Naming the Experience:

  • “We kind of just need to name it, right? You know what? It’s survival mode. We are surviving.” (07:47)

• On Self-Compassion:

  • “We’re not broken, we’re not lazy, we’re not shitty at running our life.” (15:09)

• On Agency and Boundaries:

  • “I could actually put my foot down and even put some boundaries in place.” (28:43)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:04 | Opening thoughts on new year, preview of future episodes | | 04:53 | Defining “survival mode” in ADHD – work & home contexts | | 08:03 | Survival mode as a nervous system response—not a weakness | | 11:19 | “When everything feels urgent, nothing feels meaningful anymore.” | | 13:15 | The survival mode trap for high achievers; early workplace rewards | | 15:05 | Survival mode is a state, not an identity—don’t self-blame | | 17:05 | Comedy on chasing productivity fads and quick fixes | | 18:39 | The role of awareness in breaking the cycle | | 21:52 | The “home base” stabilizing system for essential items | | 28:08 | The difference between agency and survival mode | | 29:03 | Strategic delay vs. procrastination | | 32:15 | Redefining success as life’s demands change | | 37:02 | Survival mode as a signal to change—final encouragement |

Tone & Style

Dave Greenwood’s approach is candid, self-deprecating, and practical. He grounds discussion in lived experience rather than clinical advice, focusing on what works “in the trenches.” The episode feels like supportive, real-talk guidance from a friend who has “been there,” packed with relatable anecdotes, gentle humor, and calls to intentional action.

Summary in Brief

If you’re constantly tired, reactive, and stretched by ADHD and life’s demands, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. Dave Greenwood’s advice: name the survival mode, build awareness, establish small stabilizing routines, and recognize your power to set boundaries and define success according to your season of life. There are no magic bullet apps—but practical shifts in intention and agency can help you move from merely surviving to truly thriving.

For more resources or to connect with Dave directly, visit: OvercomingDistractions.com
Key message: Survival mode is a signal—it’s time to pause, reset, and reclaim a more intentional life.