Far More Helpful Than Anything Else I Have Tried

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

Another satisfied adult ADHD coaching client.

Pete Quily is an excellent coach with fantastic communication skills. He is a compassionate listener and an assertive communicator.

I’ve struggled with ADD for years and I found Pete to be far more helpful than anything else I have tried including a wide variety of medications.

He has a broad holistic approach that includes conventional as well as alternative strategies. Pete uses a combination of solid medical research that is well tempered with experience, intuition and kindness.

I have always believed that medication should be used only as a last line of defense for treating ADD and I strongly recommend using Pete as a first line of defense in conjunction with exercise and diet.

S. G.

Pete Quoted in The Globe and Mail Coping With Adult ADHD: First You Need a Diagnosis

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

I was quoted in an article on Adult ADHD in Monday’s Globe and Mail Newspaper (the major National Canadian Newspaper) written by Adriana Barton, Oct. 3rd, 2011 p L1 in the Life section.

Sarah Byth the Vision Vancouver parks commissioner who is the first elected politician in Canada and the US to go public with ADHD is profiled in the article.

I was quoted on Adult ADHD coaching in the article and on the positives of having adult ADHD. I think it was a great well researched article. I do disagree with Dr. Russell Barkley, there ARE advantage of ADHD, 99.9% of all research studies on ADHD are looking for the negatives of ADHD, and there are true negatives but almost no one is looking for the strengths of ADHD.

What you don’t look for you won’t find. Barkley’s done great research on the pathology of ADHD, and there are true negatives of adhd. But Barkley is not a clinician he’s a researcher. He doesn’t actually treat ADHD patients, like clinicians such as Dr Ed Hallowell who has ADHD does.

Dr Hallowell considers ADHD a strength wrapped in a challenge. Talk to clinicians or Adult ADHD coaches who focus on adults with ADHD and you’ll find them talking about the strengths of ADHD as well as the negatives. They don’t consider ADHD 100% pathology.

The title of the article highlights a huge problem with adult ADHD in Canada, Coping With Adult ADHD: First You Need a Diagnosis. But you can’t assume that you can get a proper one reasonably easily. The vast majority of  adults with ADHD are undiagnosed and untreated.

Many doctors, psychiatrist and psychologists have no training on adhd, especially on adult ADHD. At UBC medical school they only get one hour on ADHD during their whole program, totally inadequate.

Why doesn’t the The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC  and other provinces properly educate doctors and psychiatrists on ADHD, especially adult ADHD by demanding family doctors take Continuing Medical Education courses on ADHD in adults and children?

The preamble of The Canada Health act states that

the objective of Canadian Health Care policy is “that continued access to quality health care without financial or other barriers will be critical to maintaining and improving the health and well-being of Canadians.The primary objective of the Act is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.” (Section 3).

Well by that definition, aren’t BC and other province are violating the Canada health act by not providing “reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers”? The barrier being not finding enough doctors competently trained in diagnosing and treating ADHD in adults and children. I hear this complaint constantly. Will someone with ADHD have to sue the provinces to allow ADHD adults and children to get properly diagnosed and treated?

What did you think of the article?

11th Annual ADHD Resource Conference CHADD Calgary March 6th

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

Update: as promised, here’s the extra ADHD coaching web resources I did for the presentation

CHADD Calgary is holding their 11th Annual ADHD Resource Conference, ADHD See It Through My Eyes on March 6th from 8am to 4.30pm at the Red and White Club, McMahon Stadium. Why not check it out if you have a chance?

I will be on of the 3 speakers. My topic is Adult ADHD Coaching: One size never fits all.

The other speakers are Dr. Declan Quinn, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He’ll be speaking on Developing Character Strengths and Virtues in ADHD.

Also Heidi Bernhardt, RN, Director of CADDAC, the Center for ADHD Advocacy Canada, and the Executive Director of CADDRA, the  Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance.  She’ll be speaking about ADHD organizations in Canada and how they can help people with ADHD

CHADD Calgary is an ADHD support group (Children and adults with ADHD) that

provides information and support for parents, children, and adults in and around the Calgary area, who are affected by and struggle with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

I’m on the board of CHADD Vancouver and the support group I run The Vancouver Adult ADHD Support Group is the adult group of CHADD Vancouver, so  I think local ADHD support groups can be pretty useful. I’m looking forward to meeting the members of CHADD Calgary and learning from the other presenters, I already know Heidi, haven’t met Declan yet.

Adult ADHD Coaching Presentation at Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group This Tuesday

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

I’ll be doing an interactive presentation on Adult ADHD coaching at The Vancouver Adult ADD support group this Tuesday, February 2nd from 6.30-8.30 at Ravensong Community Healthcare Center, 2450 Ontario St, near Main & Broadway.

As part of the presentation, I will also be doing a short live demonstration of Adult ADHD coaching of someone that I haven’t coached before.

If you want to be coached at the meeting, please come with an openess & willingness to change yourself and 1, not 3, very specific practical goal or problem. I.e., get organized, get focused is too general and vague. Be very focused and specific, i.e.,  location, context, people etc.

For the curious types, I’ve got an overview on what Adult ADHD coaching is all about on my website including comparisons to therapy and consulting, articles on ADHD coaching, benefits of ADHD coaching, coachability quiz (not everyone is coachable at every point in time), and notes from a live coaching session I did.

What Has Helped Me with Adult ADD

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

This is from someone I coached. Thought some of you might find it helpful.

Pete

What Has Helped Me with Adult ADD

Hi,

I don’t know if you have adult ADD or ADHD (I have ADD), but I sure feel for you. I was diagnosed this summer, shortly before I was fired for the second time. Looking back I realize it’s been going on for 10 years. It’s caused huge financial and family turmoil that we’re still working through. I was doing good work on individual projects, but missed I appointments, was late on important documents, and felt mentally cloudy – like I was in a shower with fogged up glass around me. In some ways the worst part was that I never felt that I accomplished enough of the items on my To Do list, and felt panicky and like a failure – even when I was being productive.

The good news: Now that I’ve been diagnosed and taken action, I would say I have my ADD about 80% controlled. At this point I probably fall into the category of “occasionally absent minded” rather than a mess. This means the things I’m really good at stand out rather than being dragged down by glaring mistakes. I’m pretty confident I’ll keep the next job – I feel entirely different, haven’t missed an appointment, project deadline, paid a bill late, or missed freeway off ramps since then.

People get ADD under control in individual ways. I’ll tell you in a bit what worked for me – but you should see it a menu, not a concrete guide to what you should do. Here are the resources I turned to:

• Get an ADD coach + maybe a personal organizer: I like the ADD coach I used very much – he’s low key, with lots of good ideas. He’s in Vancouver but we worked well together over the phone and by email. Here he is – if you use him, tell him I sent you: Pete Quily
• I also used a local professional organizer. She came over and helped me organize my home office – how I should organize my desk and filing cabinets, filing system and so on. Find someone local in the phone book or online. Get someone who has worked with ADD clients
• The nicest thing she said to me was: “You can get organized, and be successful – you just have to do it differently than most people, because the usual organizing tips don’t work for people w ADD”
• ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life, by Judith Kolberg and Kathleen Nadeau. By far the best book on adult ADD I looked at – in fact I bought it. It’s filled with practical tips on how to get ADD under control; many of the others talk more about ADD as a disability but don’t give you concrete tips on taking action
• Psychiatrist + medication: Find a good psychiatrist who’s familiar with adult ADD. I’m sure my Mom can help you. I got lucky; mine is terrific. There are different meds to use, but he put me on the lowest dose (30 mgs) of Vyvanse, basically it’s like a strong cup of coffee that lasts all day. My mind cleared up amazingly within 2 hours of when I took my first dose. He told me that Vyvanse is somewhat more effective than Ritalin, which is used more commonly – but that’ll be up to your psychiatrist
• Go to: ADDitude Magazine- good site with lots of helpful articles, plus you can sign up for a free online newsletter. Some good stuff on nutrition in there – for example fish oil is supposed to be helpful
• Here’s what I’ve come up with as a system that works pretty well for me. I have to be strict about following these rules – when I don’t, I mess up pretty quickly. It took me several months to really get into these habits. Again, it may not work for you

Steve’s 10 ADD Disciplines

• Ask the right people for help: Not everyone can be helpful to you, but don’t hesitate to reach out to those who can. This is a disability just like a broken arm – no shame in it
• Stop and listen to the quiet voices inside your head – they often tell me when I’m wasting time on something that’s not a priority
• Ask the right people for help: Not everyone can be helpful to you, but don’t hesitate to reach out to those who can. This is a disability just like a broken arm – no shame in it
• Stop and listen to the quiet voices inside your head – they often tell me when I’m wasting time on something that’s not a priority
• Strict AM routine: I’ve developed a routine that I go through every morning: Create a to do list every morning that you look at during the day and check off what’s done. My list is: Look at my calendar – what do I have to do today? Check emails if case there’s something important. Look at yesterday’s Action list, and create a new one for today. Prioritize what important, not just what’s urgent
• A place for everything and everything in its place: For example, when I go out my cell phone is in my right front pocket, my keys are in my left front, and my wallet is in my back left pocket. Same with your home
• OHIO: Only handle it once. Good for emails, bills, and so on. Don’t let things pile up
• Take small bites (I don’t mean food): When I have a big project that looks hard; just do a little piece of it. Fold half of your laundry – you’ll feel better and eventually get stuff done
• Prepare first thing for appointments: If I have a meeting today, even if it’s in the afternoon, I prepare for it first thing in the morning so if things get rushed I’ll still be able to leave on time. I even take a shower and lay my clothes out
• Leave twice as much travel time as you think it will take to get somewhere, and take something to read or do if you’re early. Sometimes you need all that time, and you’ll be more relaxed
• When it’s good enough, stop: I tend to try to make things better and more perfect than they need to be – big waste of time. Only make things really great if they need to be
• Do your best, and forgive yourself when you mess up. Don’t beat yourself up when you make ADD mistakes – it’s going to happen. Figure out when went wrong, and change the system so it won’t happen again

I hope this is helpful. I believe that you CAN control ADD and improve your life. I have.

Best of luck,

Steve

Win A Month of Free Coaching From Pete and Help Charity

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

Update: This is event and offer is now over.

Or do something good for others and get a chance to get something good for yourself.

I’m donating a month of free coaching cost $300 to Twestival Vancouver 2009. I did the same to Twestival Vancouver in 2008 where the charity was charity:water. While I do mainly focus on adults with ADHD, my initial training was as a life coach and I do sometimes coach non ADDers.

Twestival‘s slogan is tweet meet give

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global series of events organized by volunteers around the world under short timescales, which bring people offline for a great cause.  Twestival is run 100% by volunteers and independently from any not-for-profit

Vancouver Twestival 2009 is at Ceilis Irish Pub   670 Smithe (@ Granville) on the Rooftop, Vancouver

12 September 2009 :: 4:00pm – 7:00pm

Cause: BC Childrens Hospital Foundation – Be a Superhero
Donations will go toward the Foundation’s “Campaign for BC Children”

Currently there’s nearly $4,000 in prizes

Buy your Tickets here

If you want to follow me on twitter I’m @petequily

12 Ways to Fight Mental Health Stigma With Social Media

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

This is for a presentation I’m doing at Mental Health Camp Vancouver (a conference combining social media with mental health) called ADHD – Busting the myths, breaking the stigma, showing reality, one post and tweet at a time. While ADHD is especially stigmatized as the orphan of mental health conditions, especially Adult ADHD, it’s not the only one that suffers stigma.

12 Ways to Fight Mental Health Stigma With Social Media

Arranged from more anonymous to more personal, and less effort to more effort. There’s a choice for everyone.

1. Click on a factually correct, non stigmatizing mental health article, or personal story via a blog post, tweet, podcast, YouTube video, Facebook update, Friendfeed, web forum etc. Result will traffic to the site/account, encouragement for the creator to continue to create, possible revenue and good for SEO just from that one simple easy click.

2. Actually read/listen/watch above content. Assuming the content is non stigmatizing, and helpful, interesting, or entertaining do one or more of the following.

3. Vote on it /rate it, i.e. number of stars if available.

4. Socially bookmark it in site’s like Stumbleupon, Delicious, etc.

5. Submit it to sites like Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Reddit, Mixx, Propeller etc.

6. Forward the content to others either without a comment, or with a personal comment by :

a) Email
b) Twitter i.e. Retweet it, or on Facebook, Friendfeed etc

7. Comment on the original article, post, video etc in one of the following ways depending on your comfort level:

a) anonymously
b) with your first name
c) with your full name
d) with your full name and the name of your blog/website/Twitter account etc.

8. Do a response to the original content by a blog post, tweet, or video on your blog or social media account

9. Respond to someone lying, stigmatizing, minimizing, trivializing, or shaming a person with a mental health condition or the actual condition itself. This can be done in a wide variety of creative ways depending on your personality, subject knowledge, and comfort level with conflict, some of us occasionally enjoy conflict for a good cause:) Perhaps involve your social media friends in the effort.

10. Create some original content that’s factual, anti stigma or a personal story or story about someone you know, or all of the above on one or more of your social media accounts.

11. Participate in a social media mental health campaign. I.e., anti stigma, awareness, fund raising, political action, online petition, contacting politicians etc. Could be all online or a combination of online and offline i.e. involving traditional media.

12. Create a social media mental health campaign.

If you know of any other ones or some good examples of the above, please share them in the comments for others. If you think this was useful, please do one of the above for this post:)

Hopefully some of you might take one action now and ask your BC MLA candidate if they support the 8 Recommendations of the BC Medical Association in their February policy paper on ADHD. Currently BC has NO Strategy at all on ADHD, Adults with ADHD are especially ignored, ADHD is costing BC billions annually, and the BC Liberal Party, the BC NDP, and the BC Green Party have all ignored the recommendations, they have nothing at all in their platforms for ADHD. Hopefully BC ADDers won’t be abandoned again.

If you don’t know your riding use the BC MLA finder

List of  BC Liberal Party candidates

List of BC NDP candidates

List of BC Green Party candidates

List of BC MLA candidates on twitter

I’m Profiled in The Georgia Straight Newspaper. ADHD Coach Improves Focus

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

I was profiled in this week’s Georgia Straight Newspaper, a very popular newspaper in my hometown of Vancouver on page 31.

The title of the article is ADHD Coach Improves Focus

Let me know what you think of it in the comments section on their website.
Thanks to Gail Johnson for a great article. I’m glad the Straight is helping to get the word out on Adult ADHD and Adult ADHD coaching. I’ve got some minor corrections below on the article but first here’s a few quotes.

After he learned he had the disorder, Quily researched approaches to managing it and found many that worked for him, including exercise, personal coaching, talk therapy, support groups, and spiritual exploration. He’s come a long way since the early ’90s, when he was diagnosed.

What helped Quily the most was personal coaching. He got so much out of the one-on-one sessions, in fact, that he became a coach himself. Now he specializes in helping adults with ADD who, like him, have a natural curiosity but who might be overwhelmed by paper clutter or unable to finish tasks, or find it hard to handle stress.

Quily helps others focus on the positive aspects of ADD. “People with ADD are creative; they think out of the box,” he says. “The thing that bothers me is that ADD is a mixed bag. It can really drag people down if you don’t know how to manage it, but it can propel you to great heights if you do manage it.…Coaching helps with the practical, day-to-day challenges: work, relationships, social things…time management, underemployment, job-hopping.…But there has to be an openness to change.”

Here are some minor clarifications.

• I didn’t always do well in school, but overall did reasonably well, and made the dean’s honour’s list in University & got one of my essays published.

• ADHD is not a neurobehavioural condition, it’s a neurobiological condition.

Gail said post in the comments she got it from another site.

• Many ADDers do drop out of school, though not all, and some do very well in it, there are PHd’s with ADHD and billionaires with ADHD

• You can have learning disabilities and high intelligence. They’re not mutually exclusive at all. LD has nothing to do with IQ. Some people with LD, like ADDers have very high IQ’s.

Gail just corrected the above on her post in the comments

• Dr. Derryck Smith is correct that people with ADHD are statistically prone to accidents and speeding, and some are terrible drivers, but not all. Some make their living as professional drivers, and are quite good at it, they hyperfocus when driving. I know adults with ADHD that are bus drivers, limo drivers, stunt drivers, etc and are quite good at it. It’s like there’s statistically much higher rates of alcohol and drug addiction for people with ADHD and society should wake up & deal with this, but we’re not all drug addicts.

If people with ADHD are interested in trying out Adult ADHD coaching to see how it can help improve their work and personal lives there are some benefits to it here and I do offer a 30 minute free sample session of ADHD coaching

Again I’m glad the straight is shedding some light on this much ignored real condition. The Vancouver Sun recently had a great article on Adult ADHD, hope more of the BC media start covering the condition and if you live in BC remember during this provinical election to ask your campaigning politicians if they support the BC Medical Association’s 8 recomendations on ADHD in their February ADHD policy paper. One of those recommendations is to get the province to actually diagnose and treat Adult ADHD, and have a strategy on ADHD. Currently the govt has no strategy at all and NONE of the 3 parties mention ADHD in their campaign platforms.

The politicians will continue to ignore ADHD until ADDers and their families and friends start telling them why they should start taking it seriously and help us.

Pete Quoted in CNN Article on Using Music at Work to Help You Focus

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

I was quoted today on CNN’s website on an interesting article called “Listening to music at work — dos and don’ts”by Anthony Balderrama

Listening to music at work can be more than just fun for some people. According to Peter Quily, adult Attention Deficit Disorder coach, music can have a physiological effect on his patients who suffer from adult ADD. According to Quily, listening to music boosts the levels of neurotransmitter dopamine, a brain chemical that can help people focus.

Some of Quily’s clients listen to music when they can’t focus or when they’re performing a task they find boring. People who have ADHD often have dopamine levels that are low or quickly used up, and the music is a welcome help.

For some of his clients, music is just another distraction that they don’t need. And while many workers can’t imagine a day without music, plenty of people, such as Jay Levitt, prefer to leave the tunes outside of work hours.”

Check out the full article.

Just a clarification, I don’t have patients, but I do have Adult ADHD coaching clients

Music can also help Adults with ADHD (and non ADDers too) get motivated and focused to do things around the house that they may find boring like housework, cleaning, doing the dishes etc. Pick the music you like, crank it up or put on the headphones and go at it. I know some people that just use white noise to do it.

Some students with ADHD use music to help them focus or just to tune out the other noise around them so they can concentrate better.

I even have a play list on itunes called a wake up list that contains music that I find energizing and stimulating that I use from time to time. You might want consider creating one or more playlists on itunes or your ipod / mp3 player for the same purpose.

But it’s also important to notice what types of tasks you have to do at work, school or home when music won’t be useful and is an actual distraction.

How do you use music at work/school/home to help you focus? What kind works for you?

Another

Post from: Adult ADD Strengths

satisfied Adult ADHD coaching client

I derive great value from the insight and suggestions of my life coach, Pete Quily. The money I pay is well worth it. Working with him has helped me align my life and get my business seriously on track. Pete is very knowledgeable about the Internet, blogging and social networking. It was easy to contact Pete; I found his website, contacted him, did a 1/2 hour meeting and knew I wanted him be my life coach!

I am realizing my full potential. Something I’ve always dreamed of but never seemed able to achieve.

Pete has not given me strength but helped me find it within myself. I was able to realize and experience true productivity. Being busy isn’t the same as getting the important things done and Pete will have you face yourself, which for some people is just too hard.

Pete is intelligent, supportive, firm and provides the type of structure I need to be successful in my daily life. Pete also has a great sense of humor and is knowledgeable about history and current events. Lastly, Pete shows, through his actions, he is dedicated to your success. He has sent me many awesome links and recommended amazingly powerful books that have truly helped me move forward. Try Pete Quily for 6 months and if you’re really ready to improve your life, you will see results.

Pete is like the horse whisperer. There’s fear inside you and you’re avoiding certain things in your life; fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of just not being good enough. You’ve had so many negative reinforcements to these beliefs that you no longer need anyone saying these things to you because you now put yourself down. All “what if’s” get squashed. Pete makes it safe. Pete will ask you to describe the cliff. Okay, that’s scary. Then what would happen if you launch yourself off? Are you wearing the right equipment? What’s the worse that could happen? And don’t forget steps! Pete will help you break down, for yourself, the steps you towards your goal. The time span between thought and completed action grows smaller each month I work with Pete.

If you ever wondered how other people get stuff done and you feel like you’re drowning, ask Pete to be your life coach.
Adria Richards