Dr G's ADHD Chat

Last week we discussed summer as a time of some trials and tribulation when your child could totally fall out of all those patterns of behavior that took so long to establish during the school year.I’ m going to present summer as the ideal time for you to observe your child’s strengths and help develop them in practical, applied situations. This is also and ADHDers preferred way to learn and experience life.For instance, you could teach the importance of geometry with some simple carpentry or some agronomy and chemistry with gardening. This is also a good time to develop and encourage strengths such as athletics , music, art and even get some experience with an actual job.

Summer causes a lot of questions and difficulties for ADHD parents. Just when you’ve got a routine established with school, now school is ending and you have to establish a new routine. In the next few episodes I’ll explore the difficulties and explain something’s I recommend you implement based on my experience both as a psychologist and as a parent of two ADHD kids.

ADHDers, both parents and adults with ADHD will frequently blame lack of willpower when they have any difficulties secondary to ADHD. When they procrastinate, when they forget about doing something, when they fail to complete a task on time they blame inadequate willpower and berate themselves. This totally ignores the fact that ADHD is a neurologic difference that appears to be cause by inadequate neurotransmitter production. In short, you can’t will your nervous system to produce more dopamine. You have to figure out ways to accomplish tasks with your ADHD brain, not a neurotypical brain, but the one you were.issued at conception. In this episode I’ll discuss this issue further and discuss a few of the ways to get your ADHD brain to help you get the job done.

We members of the ADHDer world are used to spending most of our time and energy with the negatives of ADHD-the temper tantrums, the “lost”homework, the “I forgots”, the dreaded morning getting ready for school on time crunch and the teacher conferences and so much more. But it’s important for us parents to recognize enjoy and praise the strengths that our ADHDer displays. This allows us to develop trust and resilience.

If you are a neurotypical married to a spouse with ADHD, this show is for you. Be married to an ADHDer requires a special kind of patience and acceptance. I have been married for over 50 years and only recently has my spouse come to the conclusion that she, like 2 of her siblings has ADHD. She also has a family history of multiple ADHD relatives. We got married before ADHD was a diagnosis. I was attracted to her energy and spirit and although I knew she had some problems getting up for early morning classes, I nothing that particularly worried me. I’m not going to go through my whole marriage, we’re still together. I’m going to discuss some of the adjustments the neurotypical parent has to make as well as some of the adjustment the ADHD parent has to make. There will be some days you feel like you have an extra kid and a lot more days when you’re excited an appreciative of your spouse’s energy and enthusiasm.

Parents of ADHD children need to have 3 very important skills-resilience, Intention and self awareness. Resilience makes it possible for you to come back after a bad day and learn from it. Intention so you can plan ahead and avoid many of the problem situations. Finally you have to be self-aware.both the . You have to know your strengths and weaknesses and demonstrate to your ADHDer how to handle the good and the bad.

It’s not easy having a child with ADHD, it’s not easy being a person with ADHD. How successfully we adapt to ADHD has to do with our attitude towards our situation. You have to accept that it’s up to you to adapt and adjust to your situation. You don’t get a free pass because you and/or your child have a brain that wasn’t designed for our current society. You can get accommodations, but those are only slight adjustemnts. They don’t guarantee that you’ll pass the course or get the promotion. Your attitude is all important in your  and your child’s adaptation. Again resilience is everything. You have to look at your situation as another case in which you have to do the best you can.

Coaching is a system. Of helping people improve their performance that is particularly effective for ADHD. It is action-oriented and oriented to improving performance immediately. It is not involved in analyzing the past or past accidents or injuries that explain current emotions or behavior. It also is more egalitarian and the client has more say in the direction treatment takes. I’ll cover this and a bit more in this podcast.

After several sessions governing various aspects of employment throughout life for ADHDers. This is for parents of ADHDers and adult ADHDers trying to figure out where to focus their efforts in terms of getting employed, being relatively satisfied with the employment and being able to perform up to standards despite their ADHD.

Another in our series on the best jobs for people with ADHD. This time we’re discussing Jobs that help and ADHDer generate more dopamine because they are so detail-oriented and so structured. This means that mistakes are immediately noted and correction is required also immediately.