This post may contain affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase from a link on this page, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can find our entire disclaimer here.
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? That is 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.
Click Here to Join the Mothering the Storm Facebook Group! An Encouragement Group For Parents who have ADHD and are also caring for an ADHD Child!
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:
1. 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. Maybe on their boss, their secretary, their kids, and/or 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.
2. Elaborate Mandala Coloring Books
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. Sometime’s the intricate designs of the Mandala books can be overwhelming to the perfectionist ADHDer, so tread with caution.
If you’re not the perfectionist ADHDer then type of coloring is especially effective on a number of levels:
- It promotes calm and can ease anxiety because your mind is on the task of coloring
- It helps you learn to 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.
3. Pattern Coloring Books
Pattern coloring books are somewhere in between the intricacy of a mandala and the simplicity of bubbled words. They give your brain a chance to fill in the gap on a sequencing, something that is fairly difficult for the ADHD brain. Sequencing is the part of our brain that allows us to “see the next action that needs to be taken.” Because our brains don’t do this well, we’re often building the bridge of completed tasks as we do them.
An adult targeted coloring book of patterns gives our brains the opportunity to fill in the gaps in sequencing. By choosing the colors you’ll use to fill in the pattern, and completing it in order, your brain has practiced looking ahead to the future of a finished project, so to speak.
4. Floral Coloring Books (Sort of My Favorite)
If you’re like me, coloring flowers makes you feel so at peace. Why? No idea. Maybe coloring them reminds me of walking through a garden and admiring them? Not sure honestly, I just love it. If I’m really feeling artsy I’ll bust out my watercolor paints and fill them in that way. Or I can use my watercolor colored pencils I love too.
5. The Alternative- Doodling
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 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.
I use a digital notebook these days to doodle in church. I like to draw out image concepts for the scriptural reference’s our pastor is making. For instance;
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.
What sort of utensils are best?
I think this is a preference thing. Just like some of us ADHDers can’t stand tags inside our shirts but don’t mind mismatched socks, other’s can’t stand either. How you hold a coloring utensil, be in a pencil, crayon, or marker, will influence your decision for what to use. What’s most comfortable to you is likely to be your choice, or sometimes, if you’re like me, you’ll prefer what medium and texture the color leaves on the page. Like when I use my watercolor paint’s instead of colored pencils.
Something else to consider when choosing colored pencils for ADHD coloring
You can always add texture’s and sensory input’s by purchasing specific pencil grips like these that I shared on my Amazon Storefront a few years ago. We still have them and the kids like to fight over who get’s to use them.
What do you think? Going to start your own ADHD friendly coloring collection?
Can’t wait to see what art your ADHD brain brings to fruition.
