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Study on ADD and TV
The recent study published on watching television between the ages of one and
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Back To This Month's Newsletter
10 Steps To Making The Most of Adult ADHD
by George Bailey
Today, more and more adults are being diagnosed with ADHD. It is partially from the increased amount of information that is now available to the general public. It may also come from children being diagnosed. Many parents have written to me to say that once their child was diagnosed, and they began to learn about ADHD, they realized that they also have been struggling with many of the issues relating to ADHD for years.
Sometimes, the diagnosis alone can be scary, bringing many emotions to the surface. For parents, trying to cope with a diagnosis in their children and at the same time dealing with their own revelation can be overwhelming.
What is an adult to do once they have discovered that they have ADHD? The following 10 steps are guidelines. If you are seeking treatment, trying medication or going it alone, you can follow these steps. These are for your personal benefit and do not include medical treatment plans.
1) Understand ADHD is only a disorder if it causes impairment in your life. If you discover that you have ADHD and yet you are doing fine in your life, you have discovered coping mechanisms over the years and it doesn’t seem to be a problem, then you probably don’t need to do anything. If you can look back at your years in school and say that you definitely had symptoms of ADHD and it interfered with your school, but it no longer interferes, then you probably don’t need to seek medical help. If you do feel that ADHD is still impairing your life, contact your physician and make an appointment to discuss testing and treatment options.
2) Read and research ADHD and symptoms and treatments. Understand what it is all about.
3) Forgive yourself. Many adults with ADHD carry a lot of baggage with them into adulthood, especially if the ADHD has not been diagnosed or treated. They carry the weight of all of their mistakes on their shoulders, blaming themselves for every failure, every relationship gone badly, and every job that was lost. Stop blaming yourself; accept that your past is your past and that you intend to move forward from this point. Understand that you cannot change the past, but you can improve your future.
4) Take inventory of your strengths. ADHD has many wonderful characteristics, and can enhance your life in many ways. Read: 35 Good Things About Having ADHD. Decide where your strengths lie. Are you creative, outgoing, energetic, funny etc? Use these strengths to your advantage. Create situations in your life in which these traits will help you succeed. You might want to write out your list and hang it on the bathroom mirror so every morning you can remind yourself of the great person that you are.
5) Take inventory of your weaknesses. It is important to understand your weaknesses and decide what course of action you can take to improve those areas of your life. For example, communication can sometimes be a problem for individuals with ADHD. Either they have a hard time following conversations because of their wandering and distractible mind; they think quickly and forget to listen or are listening so intently, they forget what they wanted to add to the conversation. Determine what you can do to improve that aspect of ADHD.
6) Look at your weaknesses differently. Could certain perceived weaknesses actually become strengths in different situations? Could your ability to jump from conversation to conversation actually improve your ability to communicate with your family, being able to discuss matters with four different people all at once (a very handy habit to have when you have multiple children!)?
7) Review your personal relationships. Has ADHD interfered with your relationships with friends, family, or relatives? Explain your diagnosis of ADHD to them, educate them on what it means to be ADHD and ask for their support in your “new” future. Some may be reluctant and some may not believe in ADHD. Be patient, if you are seeking treatment or trying to make changes in your life, let them see the changes. The ones that matter the most to you will eventually come around once they see that you are trying.
8) Find the support you need. There are many support groups for ADHD, both in person and on the Internet. This site offers several different ways to connect with other adults with ADHD. Finding people who are struggling with some of the same issues, as you can be extremely helpful.
9) Accept that ADHD does not go away. Although many people have found ways to control symptoms or overcome symptoms, ADHD is with you for a lifetime. Once thought to disappear after puberty, it is now understood that it does not. Many times the hyperactivity will decrease or you will find ways to cope with and overcome other symptoms. This has given the appearance of ADHD being a childhood disorder. Find strategies that you can use in your everyday life and continue to use as the years go by. Strategies will need to continue to be reviewed in order to adopt the most effective methods of success for any given period of time.
10) Celebrate each success. If you continually lose your keys and you have worked out a method to keep track of them and for the past month you haven’t once lost your keys, CELEBRATE! Success is not one jump but a series of small steps. Rejoice in each step that you take.