I've been curious about this for a little while. Is showering a therapeutic activity for people with ADHD? I don't have the time to make a real study about this, but some anecdotes might be fun.

Share your feelings about showering. Some people find it to be a quiet, meditative activity. Some people find their best ideas and inspirations come in the shower. Some people just want to get clean. What is showering for you?

I get in...I get out...as quickly as possible. There are things much more exciting than the shower.

Shower for me is thinking of all my flaws in life. How much ADD messed up my life entirely even though I attempt to overcome it constantly. I also fantasize about how well my life could be if I was not born with ADD. One can hope for a miracle.....

mods, I wanted to add a poll but apparently there is a time limit for doing so. Can one be added?

I think too much in the shower and spend an hour in there.

Hmmm... I've got some conflict about showers... they wake me up out of my morning stupor, but I feel bad for wasting so much water since I try to be a "conservationist" when I can. If I miss a shower in the morning, I'm likely to be groggy all day long, not to mention feeling greasy and hot (I have oily skin).

I was kinda excited when I read the name of the thread. j/k haha
Basically I stand up in there, wash, stare to something, wash, stare, revive with cold water, get out of the shower. :D

When I had an outside job, I showered every morning as routine and didn't feel right without it. But I've been a stay-at-home turned work-at-home mom for the last 6 years. Funny how things change. Now I find that having to shower is an annoyance. Of the 20 things that I want to do at any given moment, it's just not that close to the top of the list. I can't stand the time that it wastes. So when I can put it off no longer, I guess I'd say it was just to get clean.

Turn on tap, balance hot/cold water, get under the shower. Stand and stare and half-dream on. Ow. Should shampoo my hair. With considerable effort of will, stick out arm, take bottle, wash my hair. Get back under hot water. Mmmmm. Stand and stare. Aw, soap gets in my eye. Rinse out hair. Feels good. Get ideas about how to *this* or maybe I could *that* and oh wait .. should wash. Get shower gel, read what it says on the back ... space out again .. oh should not waste so much water ... wash myself .. back under hot water ... mmmm ... oh yes, I should do some conditioner in my hair. Get that bottle, put some in my hair, get back under water. Space out some more. Ah, that song I found yesterday .. how does it go ... *sings for awhile* .. and today I could go and .. or *hey* maybe I should write an email to .. *IDEA* yes, maybe if I try implement that routine like this that could ... ah I wanna see LOTR again .. must call my mother this week .. Oh, I should get out. Damn. I'm still half asleep. Ah well. Close tap, step out of tub, grab towel, dry face, dry hair .. yuck, what's that? Forgot to rinse out conditioner again. Turn on tap again, balance hot/cold water, stick head onder water, rinse out conditioner. Close tap, dry myself off.

Showering is really relaxing for me. But I would not call it therapeutic.

I think Showering is wonderful! I just hate that, in my home, when a toilet flushes or someone else uses a sink the cold/hot balance gets thrown off and I end up screaming!!!

mods, I wanted to add a poll but apparently there is a time limit for doing so. Can one be added?

Yes. I added one, keeping it quite simple for now, unless any additional choices are desired.

I used to take some rather long showers (over 20 minutes), but these days, my stay is rather short (due to hot water constraints at the current time...). I would definitely consider it a theraputic activity, and probably one that isn't very energy conscious. It's quite a bit like driving, actually (one that tends to be highly "dissociated" for me).

I find it difficult to actually get myself in the shower, but once I'm in, I quite enjoy it, but the water temperature has to be perfect.

And when I'm in the shower, I usually think about a rock song, or a sport, or any thought I find mentally stimulating.

Time speeds ahead when I'm in the shower, when I think I have only been in the shower for 2 minutes, I have been in for about 30.

I love the shower and wish i had unlimited hot water. I would probably spend hours in there if i could. I don't however like getting in the shower, and once i'm in i don't want to get out. I think about things that don't matter and don't worry me.

I too love taking showers and do sometimes find them theraputic. I love sitting in hot tubs as well, not sure how that is related or if it is at all, but u get it. I am a very cold person, so me being able to take a hot shower is like heavan to me!

I love the shower. If I could stay in it all day and not turn into a prune, I would. It seems to help sort of plot out my day, and it's very relaxing during and afterward. Towards the ending of the shower I like to turn it on freezing cold after it's been hot, and that really helps jumpstart your day! If you can stand it longer than a minute, I admire you. I started doing that because it comes recommended by Jack LaLanne, who is still spry at 93, probably in no small part due to his showering methods.

Therpapeutic as in it wakes me up. I listen to the news (radio) so I don't have to think. Thinking that early in the morning is never good.

you guys remember at the start of American Beauty? When Kevin Spacey jumps in the shower? That's me everyday !

kidding... I could only wish my showers were that glamorous. Its really just in and out, all the while thinking about other stuff and spacing out :)

i only take showers if i have no other choice. it's all about the baths for me! every day...they are super therapeutic and relaxing for me. course, i don't pay the water bill, hehe!

so when the poll is over are you going to pair us up for water conservations *lol*

I'm not a morning person so showers in the AM are stress since it means the start of the day, but if I have to go out then I have to shower. Now night showers carry a different effect All in al they simply fruterate me. I'm forced to stand in one area, I now have all these random thoughts and my pen and paper keep getting wet. I turn my I-Pod speakers up full blast and that helps. Now I love the concept behind the shower, I love the feeling when I'm done and I'm dancing in my room to the music, it's just getting to that feeling is so da*n frusterating....

A shower on a hard day is for me. I can remember when I was going through are a really bad time in my life, I would jump in the shower every night at 7pm and it felt like the problems would go down the drain. I was more relaxed to deal with life. To get in the shower now is to help the world, to save our resources. Baths are a luxury. I am interestein the GoGreen thing so that is why I take my showers and to relax. It is also very theraputic if you have sore muscle.

love the shower, the day starts with the shower. Its also the place im most likely to enter another world, so I have to use alarms so im not late. If the hot water runs out, that works too.

Mmmm...shower...

I love to shower! I got a marathon hot water heater in my house, the thing looks like a missle silo, but you can be without power for 3 days and still have hot water. so i get all the shower time I want. Shower time is my total "ok, you can think about whatever you like now" time, because I mean, its part of life, you gotta be clean, like kittens! no one likes a diry cat, and cats look cute when they do that thing with the paw, when they clean thier ears! so see! showering is a part of life! I wonder if kittens do it for food? anyway.

so showering, ya, because its a part of life I have to do, Have to do it+boreing activity by itself+ utterley mindless that requierd very, very little mental effort on your par, you can just totally auto-pilot the whole process = perfect relaxeing enviorment for me.

no obligations, and boreing enoughf for me to daydream to my hears content. The other day I was hopping around the shower singing "rawwr, im a dinosour!" because I was comtemplateng ome of the new theries of the timelines involveing the history of the earth, that museum that has human, and dinosour footprints next to each other ,etc.

PLUS!!!!!! we have glass slideing doors, and I love to have the hot water turned up so hot that it kind of makes your skin itch, but scratches it, so there is a lot of steam, so I draw on the doors with my fingers! yay, its fun!

there was one time were I was stuck writeing a poem, so i went into the sower, and all of the sudden I figured out the rest of the poem! so I ran out of the shoer stark naked to finish it, then returned to finish the shower >.<

Showers are fantastic in my opinion and I can't really feel awake or able to do anything until I have one in the morning.
If I'm really upset I usually take one and it makes me feel better. I also come up with great ideas and plans in the shower. Although unfortunately I seem to forget all them when I leave the shower...
Persephone

Hmm.... Interesting question, I can go both ways with this. Everyday in the morning showering? Ehh... Not so much, it's something I just have to do everyday.... but if I'm stressed showers can be therapeutic.

Alright - after reading all these responses (and taking a shower) I realized that I DO like to be IN the shower, just have a heck of a time getting there, and hate having to dry my hair afterwards. Wish I could get away with a buzz-cut. If I could just scrub my head with a towel and be done with it - ahh, life would be so simple them (...snicker...). But 40-something fat women in a small midwest town cannot get away with shaving their heads, esp if they cannot tolerate stares and whispers. Of course, I COULD just wear a hat.......hmmmmm.

I am now going to form the liberation army of showering ADDERS!

all meetings have been canceld on account of low member attendence.

I don't mind being IN the shower but I hate being cold before and after and fussing with the water temp. The hot water usually makes my skin dry so after I have to use lots of lotion. Even when I am enjoying the shower 15 min is about the most I can stand before I am bored. It helps to put on music then I dance and sing in the shower.

Really I don't like being wet. Never have. I guess I screamed every second my mom bathed me when I was a baby. Baths are worse tho. Stopped taking baths when I was like 6-7yrs old.
But, I like swimming and was on swim team in high school. Go figure.

I daydream and sing in the shower which is a good thing.