Adult ADD Strengths

There are a lot of ways how to deal with Adult Attention Surplus Condition, aka Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Here are a few.

Top Ten Ways to Manage Adult ADHD

1. ADHD Coaching. More for adults than children. Pills can be useful but pills don’t teach skills. They can however, put you in a better place to learn them through ADD coaching or therapy. See the 26 benefits of adult ADHD coaching. Adult ADHD Coaching focuses on practical day to day ways to manage adult ADHD more effectively at work and at home. Adult ADHD Coaches work on dealing with the challenges of ADHD and identifying and developing the strengths of having ADHD. They work over the phone for 3-4 sessions per month. Most adult ADD coaches offer a free sample sessions of ADD coaching so you can try before you buy.

Just a reminder for those that don’t usually do well with New Year’s resolutions. There is an alternative. A New Year’s Theme.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And a happy Hanukkah, Kwanza and Akemashite Omedetoo Gozaimasu.

ADD Resources has a great list of links to dozens of ADHD related CME’s (continuing medical education) courses for medical professional and available to the general public as well. They also have links to podcasts and videos.

Next time you hear your Doctor/Psychologist/Psychiatrist say “I don’t know enough about ADD to diagnose or treat it”, show them this webpage.

One way to fight ignorance and stigma against ADHD in the medical profession and the media is knowledge about the condition, diagnosis and treatment.

Sometimes ADHD Adults and parents of ADHD kids need to help educate their Doctors/Psychologists/Psychiatrists about ADHD, since it still isn’t covered very well by medical schools (according to many doctor’s well versed in ADHD that I’ve talked to, who tend to be self educated).

The term Fisking, or to Fisk, is blogosphere slang describing detailed point-by-point criticism that highlights errors, disputes the analysis of presented facts, or highlights other problems in a statement, article, or essay.

Karin Klein an LA Times editorial staff writer wrote an editorial in the August 20th, 2007 issue entitled “Pens, Pencils and Meds”, which I thought just piled more unneeded stigma on people with ADHD. It unfortunately got picked up by many other newspapers, websites and blogs, further spreading the stigma and ignorance. I recently got an email from her saying she was on the Pulliam Fellowship, so she can work full time on an in-depth project in ADD and asked me to help her find mothers with ADD to interview. Being the curious type, I googled her and found this editorial Karin Klein wrote last August. I wrote back saying I declined and citing her article and made a few point about the stigma against ADDers it created, and that I didn’t want to help her create more stigma against ADDers.

There’s going to be 2 free public talks on Adult ADHD October 3rd and 4th on the North Shore. The topic is Adult ADHD: Putting the Pieces Together. They’ll be given by the people at the North Shore Adult ADHD clinic. Namely:

• Lawrence Sheppard MA, RCC Registered Clinical Counsellor
• Dr. Stephen Holliday PhD Psychologist
• Dr. Anthony Ocana MD CCFP ASAM Family Physician with a special interest in Mental Health and Addiction

One will be in West Vancouver at the Kay Meek Centre 1700 Mathers Ave. (604) 981-1175 Thursday October 4th, 2007 6:30 – 9:00 pm

Good news to Adults with ADHD in the lower mainland. There is a clinic that focuses on adults with ADHD that recently opened up in the Vancouver area. It’s called the North Shore Adult ADHD Clinic. They’re  located within Continuum Medical Clinic at # 201 - 520 17th St, West Vancouver, BC. It’s a private run clinic, but some services are covered under MSP and some you have to pay for out of pocket. ADHD Diagnosis will be covered under MSP. It will be focused on adults with adhd who live in North Vancouver and West Vancouver but will be open to those who live in other cities as well.

Is it Depression? Is it ADHD? Is it both?

Some people who get diagnosed with ADHD do so because they’ve been undergoing therapy and antidepressant medication for Depression or Dysthymia (chronic low level depression, a condition that is very often missed) for years with little improvement. They finally start asking about ADHD and see someone that is actually trained in diagnosing and treating ADHD (unfortunately, far too few medical professionals), get a diagnosis of ADHD.

Then they start managing their ADHD by ADHD medication, adult ADHD coaching or therapy, exercise, lifestyle changes, greater self awareness and participation in Adult ADD support groups, and the grey fog of depression starts to lift.

One thing that’s not mentioned in the previous ABC 20/20 report about prescription medication errors is the doctors who write out prescription with sloppy, often unreadable handwriting. I’ve actually gone back to one doctor after getting a prescription and get him to verify what he scribbled because I couldn’t understand what he wrote.

I think Doctors should be required to either write prescriptions by printing them off a computer, or some type of portable label making device or use single space printing, NOT cursive writing. Yes I know you’re busy, but your patients shouldn’t have to risk injury or death because you’re not willing to take the time or make the effort to write out our prescriptions legibly.