Dr G's ADHD Chat

In this episode in our series on the best jobs for ADHDers, we’re covering jobs that demand attention and boost dopamine because they are naturally intense. These are jobs that don’t allow for slow reaction time or indecision. I’ll cover some of these jobs and why they’re good for ADHDers

Ideal jobs for ADHDers have many different characteristics. Today I’ll be discussing jobs that allow a lot of independent action. ADHDers don’t typically do well in overconrolled environments unless there is a lot of intensity. They tend to be mavericks that like to follow their own lead so they have problems when the job structure requires obedience.

We have been discussing the ideal jobs for ADHDers. We’ve established that high intensity jobs work well because the intensity stimulates dopamine production in the ADHD brain. Today I’ll be discussing jobs that work for ADHDers because they are so structured that any deviation is not possible. This causes tension that also stimulates dopamine.

`One of the big concerns ADHD parents have is whether or not their child will be able to find employments as adults. I just returned from a podcasting conference and about 70% of the participants had ADHD. Does this mean podcasting in particular and entrepreneurship is ideal for our ADHD children. The answer is perhaps. Entrepreneurship is ideal in that there is no boss to please but there is also nobody to keep him or her from making impulsive decisions that may put the business in trouble. I’ll discuss some of the other considerations about the appropriateness of entrepreneurship for ADHDers.

When my ADHDer was struggling with school amongst other things, I worried about how he would be ale to fit into society? What kind of work could he do? I did a lot of research on that one and then he picked a career himself dealing with crystals, gemstones and jewelry design. I’m going to cover some of the things to consider in terms of employment.

Evaluating ADHD is a complicated procedure that requires a lot of experience mainly because there is not a single instrument that can determine ADHD. This leaves the evaluator with having to rule out the other diagnoses that can be confused with ADHD like anxiety disorder, learning disability and bipolar disorder. There are some instruments called continuous performance test that are good measures of the attention part of the ADHD spectrum. Bottom line is your friendly eighborhood neuropsychologist needs to have some experience because there is not just one test that gives you your answer.

ADHDers have a lot of difficulties adjusting to a world that doesn’t understand them. It’s even worse if the ADHDer doesn’t understand him or herself. Self-esteem tends to plummet. It’s not incidental that one of the first books on ADHD was titled “You mean I’m not Lazy, Crazy or Stupid.” This ls the view that ADHDers tend to develop of themselves. Even if they are finally diagnosed, it’s difficult to change the habit of seeing themselves as defective. I’ll be discussing the need to defend oneself and not accept this negative stereotyping.

Being a parent is not easy. Being the parent of an ADHD child is even harder, yet most of the treatment advice we get is focused on the child. We, as parents, are kind of overlooked or treated as an afterthought. In this show, I’m going to focus on parent care. We need to be able to take care of ourselves or it won’t be good for the whole family. I have a lot of training in what we used to called Behavioral Medicine which is just a fancy term for applied stress management. Plus I have my many years as the father or two ADHD kids. I’ll be talking about some of the things that has worked for my patients and for me , too.

ADHDers tend to have difficulties with education as conducted in the United States. Therefore, it’s important for them to develop other interests. These can be sports , music, theater, art and many other activities loosely categorized as sports. These activities are loosely called hobbies but they are extremely important for an ADHD child because they allow them to perfect other abilities that may be important to their adult life. I’ll cover some of these activities and some ADHDers who have developied world class skills in their hobbies.

One of the most important skills to teach an ADHD child is resilience. One of the quickest ways to sabotage your efforts is to let them quit easily. This covers everything from guitar lessons to Little League. ADHDers can learn pretty much anything, if they put their minds to it, but few new things will come easily. They will require effort and frustration tolerance. Your child will never develop these skills if allowed to quit at the first sign of difficulties. Therefore you have to have a contract with your child that if he or she signs up for an activity, they have to complete the season or the lesson schedule. Next season or next course of instruction, they can decide if they want to do it again. In this episode, I’ll discuss resilience in more detail and emphasize how important it is to an ADHD child.