If you have ADHD, you probably know this feeling: you buy a nice desk, a monitor, maybe even a fancy office chair… and within minutes, your skin’s crawling from having to sit still. You grab your laptop, leave your expensive office set-up and sprawl out on the sofa.
That’s the reality for many of us. Traditional desk chairs just don’t work. They’re designed for stillness — and stillness feels like torture with ADHD.
But here’s the good news: it can be fixed. Not by wasting years (and money) testing random chairs, but by rethinking what already works and reinventing what a desk looks like.
It isn’t one chair. It’s two.
Features I want
But before we get onto that, let’s take a look at what key features I needed to consider. Using a desk for computer work feels utterly exhausting when you have ADHD. Using your laptop on a comfortable sofa or arm chair is the primary mode to be productive.
It is, therefore, especially baffling when you see some people these days even relaxing at their desk, like streamers playing a video game with bubble tea. I wish that could be me.
First, the problem isn't about ergonomics, because I move around a lot. In which case, ergonomics simply don't matter as I won't be staying in one position anyway. No need to worry about chair fatigue! This is a very important point.
I'm going to let my restless foot twitch, I want to sit cross-legged. On the sofa, I'll flip over sometimes so I can bake the other side of my body. What I need is adjustability, comfortable materials, and tons of movement options. I need that wobble and wiggle functionality.
Existing ADHD-friendly chairs
None. There are "meditation chairs" that allow you to sit cross-legged, like the pipersong meditation armchair, but they're which are basically normal desk chairs with a platform on the front to cross your legs. But taking in mind we want to move all the time, and not just cross our legs, I didn't see how they'd be a good choice.
The Setup
So, having finally become a grown-ass adult with a home office, I have tried a variety of ways to actually work and relax at my desk with ADHD. The winning formula is quite a complex but brilliant setup… Let me explain.
- A $2,000 HÅG Capisco
- A $400 IKEA electric-powered optional standing desk
- A $400 IKEA lounge chair
Why
Clearly, I had to save some money on the latter two items, after buying the Capisco, which has always been my childhood dream chair, because it was on Star Trek. I’m the captain now. It was non-optional.
But I didn’t buy it just because of that. Money doesn’t grow on trees, after all. I bought it after watching online reviews where pretty much every reviewer disliked it, and a small number of actual long-term users loved it to bits. Why? Because the spread was about 1 loving reviewer to 10 negative reviews. And 8 in 100 people have ADHD, so roughly 1 in 10, as well. I figured this wasn’t a random occurrence.
I was right. I love this chair. My booty is occupying it right now. My booty is wiggling back and forth, and driving around, and I am tapping my feet, and sometimes I can sit in it sideways, or even backwards.
Does that sound like it is accommodating the torture of sitting still with ADHD? I thought so.
The HÅG Capisco, ladies and gentlemen, is the ADHD Chair.
It was designed a long time ago and, just like the mistake I made with Horse Browser initially, the Capisco is marketed to normal people. “The active sitting chair”. No posture is perfect; a changing posture is healthiest. Sure. Health. It’s a selling point, but not a “must-have” selling point. “Does your skin feel like it’s on fire having to sit still in a normal desk chair?”. Now that’s an actual must-have selling point. And it’s the one I’m making for the HÅG Capisco right now.
My Experience & Usage Tips
I love this chair. When you have the Capisco, you will no longer feel like you’re going to go crazy unless you lie down on the sofa. You will just wobble around naturally, cross a leg across the other, sit forward, lean backward, hang sideways. Your body is simply doing its thing, so your brain can finally do the thing you need to do.
I got a tall one so I wouldn’t even have to lower my standing desk to sit on it.
But the Capisco is NOT comfortable. Standing is more comfortable. And this setup has been the only way I have ever coaxed myself through the week or two it takes to acclimatise to a standing desk. That’s right; the Capisco fixes the standing desk problem as well. You see, it’s normally too comfy to sit down, so you don’t use the standing desk long enough to take to it. But no willpower is required, however, if your desk chair isn’t a hyper comfy $8,000 Aeron. Not that those ever worked for ADHD anyway, but you get the point!
For gaming, yes, ladies and gentlemen we do still need a way to mirror those twitch streamers relaxing with a bubble tea. And for this, I use an actual damn lounge chair. I can lower the standing desk to lounge height. So it’s just like working/gaming comfortably on the sofa with a laptop, but with the added posture and monitor real estate you get from having a desk.
It’s the holy grail for ADHDers. And now you know. When I’m tired from standing or using the Capisco, I sometimes switch to the lounge chair as it allows me to keep working as well. Of course, I should probably be going on a hike or something instead of working so long. But we’ll get there.
So yeah, if you’re an adult with ADHD, and you’re looking for the ideal desk chair, there isn’t one. There are two. And you’ll need both. And you’ll switch between them. And that’s fine. Because nothing you use for a long time is ever perfect for someone with ADHD; the only thing that is perfect is novelty. And swapping them around gives you that.
Enjoy!
