ADHD
Is your inability to focus or do tasks efficiently preventing you from achieving your goals?
Do you wish you could just complete one task before starting another?
Do you wonder why other people seem to get so much done?
Has anyone told you "I don't know how you do it all!" or "you need to relax?"
Do you have difficulty starting or finishing tasks?
Do you have several unfinished projects laying around?
You May Have Wondered If You Have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
You might have thought to yourself if you have ADHD it would have been identified sooner. You might wonder why you lose your keys, phone, or other important items so often. Or maybe you have found a system that works for you like keys always go in a specific place. But have you ever wondered if life should be this hard? Maybe you feel like you're always swimming upstream. This can make you feel overwhelmed, maybe even like you don't know what you're doing or you feel incompetent. These feelings are common if you have ADHD.
You May Have Tried Everything….
Have you tried all the strategies your friends and family have offered? Like putting things in the same place, setting multiple alarms for events to remember, or getting more "organized." Maybe you said to yourself you just aren't disciplined enough and you try and focus harder? Or your boss is asking why they are telling you the same thing multiple times. You might try and take notes during meetings, or keep reminding yourself to actually listen to what someone is saying, but no matter how hard you try you can't seem to hear them for very long?
ADHD Can Be A Life-Threatening Diagnosis
It is shocking when you learn that if you have untreated ADHD you are at a 400% increased risk of a serious car accident. Or that ADHD puts you at a much higher risk of using illicit drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. Undiagnosed kids are at a 3-4 times higher risk for injury than their age equivalent counterparts. This doesn't even address the inability to meet your potential in life.
You Are Not Alone.
ADHD affects approximately 6% of children. Of those children who have ADHD, about 8% continue to have symptoms into adulthood. There's a silver lining though, 70% of business owners have ADHD because they are willing to take more risk than other people. Additionally, having ADHD means you don't confine your thoughts within a strict set of guidelines, meaning you can be more creative than a neurotypical brain.
You Don't Have To Suffer
Treating ADHD is simple, we get the right chemicals into the right areas of your brain. This doesn't mean we have to put you on a stimulant, or that you'll become addicted to a medication. In fact, you may be able to focus better on medications that aren't commonly thought of for ADHD. We can help you get on track to making the most out of your life, and you can stop working so hard to do it!
You May Be Asking Yourself How This Wasn't Discovered Sooner
Depending on your age and gender, there are a number of reasons. Many years ago, teachers would only refer students who were either trouble makers or who were having difficulty learning for evaluation of ADHD. It was also believed, for a long time, that only boys suffer from ADHD. Another reason I hear often is "I got good grades, so no one suspected me of having it." In fact, we have many PhDs who weren't diagnosed until they were much older. Unfortunately, the higher your IQ, the longer it may take to identify you as having ADHD. This is because you've probably implemented nearly every strategy in the book to keep your life in order, and it has worked! Until it doesn't anymore. Most people walk through our doors at very specific times in their life: 3rd grade, 7th grade, 9th grade, freshman year of college, first real job, after a big promotion, after the birth of a second child, or when someone goes back to school as an adult. The reasons for coming at these times, the cup overfloweth. This is when you might have trouble keeping all your balls in the air and as they come crashing down around you, you realize that you need help.
What Can You Expect From ADHD Treatment?
Clarity first and foremost. You'll have the ability to give something or someone the attention you want to and won't have to work so hard to do it. You'll spend less time looking for your phone or car keys, more time doing the things you want to be doing in life! You can expect the world around you to become quieter, and in turn, you'll find yourself less overwhelmed and overstimulated.
Identifying and treating people with ADHD is a passion of ours. Having been identified later in life myself, I went through all the questions people usually ask themselves, "What could I have been? How different would my world looked like had ADHD been identified sooner?" I've decided to make it my mission to find people who are experiencing ADHD and help treat it.
What Tools Are Out There That Can Help With ADHD?
Here are a few items that our patients have found to be most helpful with everyday needs.
Medication reminder - TabTime Super 8 Pill Dispenser and Medication Alarm
Fidget toys for adults - the PILPOC theFube and PILPOC theFube Infinity
A white noise machine for studying, sleeping, and work: LectroFan White Noise Machine
“Thriving with ADHD Workbook for Kids” is a workbook designed for kids with ADHD and helps them develop self regulation and coping skills.
A great strategy for taking notes in college is to use a different marker color for each subject, to highlight something important like dates, names, or to organize notes by different focus areas. Taotree Fineliner Color Pens
“Managing ADHD Workbook for Women” is a workbook specifically for women that helps teach strategies for managing their ADHD.
It may seem archaic to have a physical calendar, but this continues with the theme of organizing by colors. The Legend Planner really has it all. What's great about this planner is if you have ADHD you know when you are ready to get organized and that you need to do it now. This planner can get you started immediately. Using it will take some initial time investment to get it organized according to your personal needs. Once it is set up, you will probably never leave home without it.
“I think it’s important to have start times and stop times,” says Russell Ramsay, PhD, an associate professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Too often, people affected by ADHD have difficulties with starting a new task. At the same time, when an activity is so interesting to them, it can be difficult to end the activity and move onto something else. The day planner or calendar with start and stop times for tasks can help with those transitions.
Dr. Ramsay often hears people argue against their own downtime, claiming there is too much that needs to get done. When you have ADHD, it’s easy to go off-task because of impulsivity or boredom with the task at hand. These symptoms can contribute to the feeling of falling behind in what needs to be accomplished.
Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in how hard it is to have ADHD. When you leave the groceries in the trunk overnight and they spoil. Or you have a big presentation at work and leave your computer charger at home. It is easy to feed into the negative internal dialogue that can go along with these mishaps. These moments, and how to actually benefit from ADHD are described in the book “Thriving with Adult ADHD”