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.

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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.

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Information overload is not a new thing. Here’s a piece from Stowe Boyd’s thought provoking /message blog

Denis Diderot, “Encyclopédie” (1755)
As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.

Some of us ADHD Adults (like myself) self medicate with information. I love learning about new things and ideas. Quite stimulating and a great way to boost dopamine, the neurotranmitter that does many things but helps us focus & is the reward chemical among other things. ADDers have lower levels of dopamine so we do positive and negative things to help increase it.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably at greater risk for information overload. There’s so much more information available now in more easily accessible formats, and much of it free, we’re wired to look for possibilities and opportunities, we’re more likely to have many areas of responsibility, and learning is a competitive edge.

It is very easy for some of us to binge on new information and we need to realize & recognize when this is happening and find different strategies to deal with it. One aspect of this is to use reminders to help us get out of that state of hyperfocus on information. I did a post on Internet addiction wakeup devices with a few examples. It’s also useful to find ways to develop greater bodily awareness because for many of us it’s so easy to live in our heads all day and be semi asleep below the neck. Awareness is the first step in dealing with information overload but not the only one.

What methods do you find work for you to help cope with information overload?

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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

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Update: ADD and Loving It! is still available online. Please let others know about it to reduce the stigma about Adult ADHD. If you think you may have Adult ADD,  see the 3 next steps at the bottom of this post

ADD and Loving It! is a Canadian Adult ADHD Documentary made for Global TV by Canadian Actor/Comedian Patrick McKenna (Traders, The Red Green Show) and Comedian/Director Rick Green is now available online until this Friday Sept 25th (still up) to watch. Heard this from Heidi Bernhardt, the National Director of the CADDAC, The Centre for ADHD Advocacy Canada  who was one of the people who helped to make the ADD & Loving It!  documentary happen. Here’s the team that made the video possible.

Show was very entertaining, informative & fast paced. Perfect for ADDers. I liked Thom Hartmann’s comments near the end “I think probably the most effective treatment for ADHD I’ve seen is coaching” As an Adult ADHD Coach, I agree:)

You can watch the video here until this Friday. After that it’s gone. Surprisingly it’s still up. Hopefully it will be available for purchase online later either from Global TV or the TotallyADD website. You might want to let them know if you’d be interested in buying it.

My last post described the ADD& Loving it, and if you read the comments section of that post, people who watched the film were very moved and impressed by it.

If you saw ADD and Loving It!, what did you think of it? Who else should see it and how can you let them know about it?

If you think you might have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder

1. Take the 5 minute Harvard/NYU/W.H.O. Adult ADHD screener test on my website.

2. Find a local ADHD support group near you to find a list of medical professionals who know enough about ADHD to diagnose it properly, sadly, many don’t.

3. The best way to treat ADHD is multiple methods, no one magic pill, you don’t “cure” it, you learn to manage it more effectively with things like Adult ADHD coaching, ADHD medications etc. See Top 10 Ways to Manage Adult ADHD

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Update ADD and Loving It! is still online, right here pass the word, reduce the stigma. If you think you may have Adult ADD,  see the 3 next steps at the bottom of this post. Was a excellent video.

Just a heads up. There’s a new documentary on Adult ADHD  called ADD and Loving It! tonight Friday at 8pm (7 pm in Winnipeg, Regina & Saskatoon) on Global TV staring comedian and actor Patrick McKenna – Marty Stevens from the TV show Traders (who I greatly enjoyed watching) and The Red Green Show. It’s written, produced and directed by fellow comedian, Rick Green.

The film’s website is TotallyADD

Patrick Mckenna and Rick Green from ADD and Loving it Canadian Documentary

Here’s their description of their film. You may want to let others know about this.

ADD & Loving It?! is a refreshing, witty and inspiring documentary about adult Attention Deficit Disorder

ADD & Loving It?! explores and explains the disorder by following Patrick’s journey for a diagnosis so he can confirm what he’s always suspected – that he has ADD. Along the way, Patrick and his wife Janis open up about their challenges and struggles, something Janis admits “we’ve spent our whole lives trying to hide.

Patrick notes, “Some people think the diagnosis is the kiss of death, while others think there’s no such thing; it’s nothing, it’s all made up.” But after talking with the experts and with ordinary people, as well as drawing from his own experience, he confirms that ADD is real. It’s genetic, it can destroy lives, and adults with ADD have a higher rate of accidents, addictions, suicide, bankruptcy, divorce, illegal drug use and financial problems.

Patrick uses his gift of comedy to demonstrate the three characteristics of ADD – inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. He uncovers the 18 symptoms used to diagnose ADD in childhood, and illustrates how these traits develop by adulthood. After all, adults learn not to bounce in their chairs during meetings, while kids in grade three rarely go bankrupt.

Janis guides Patrick through several ADD quizzes and their banter sets a warm, loving tone for the film. Patrick’s high score leads ADD expert Dr. Umesh Jain to diagnose Patrick with ADD. Patrick is stunned but begins to see his life from a whole new perspective and recognizes how much his ADD has cost him and his family. And realization becomes motivation. Now that he knows he has ADD, he can deal with it.

The experts interviewed are among the top names in the field of ADD in North America – Stephen Kurtz, Kate Kelly, Edward Hallowell, Annick Vincent and Margaret Weiss to name a few. No film has ever assembled such a powerhouse team. As each expert explains the details about ADD, he or she is backed up by at least two or three others. What you will see and hear is information from the most reliable sources on the topic of adult ADD.

The film creates recognition and laughter. That in itself is healing, especially for those struggling in isolation. Research has shown that laughter does improve health. While laughter may not be the best or the only medicine, it’s certainly the easiest to swallow.

Pete’s note. If you think you might have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder

1. Take the 5 minute Harvard/NYU/W.H.O. Adult ADHD screener test on my website.

2. Find a local ADHD support group near you to find a list of medical professionals who know enough about ADHD to diagnose it properly, sadly, many don’t.

3. The best way to treat ADHD is multiple methods, no one magic pill, you don’t “cure” it, you learn to manage it more effectively with things like Adult ADHD coaching, ADHD medications etc. See Top 10 Ways to Manage Adult ADHD

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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

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There’s finally an ADHD support group in the province of Newfoundland. I have a list of list of Canadian ADHD support groups by province for several years, but haven’t ever had a listing for Newfoundland. Here’s the details.

ADD/ADHD Family Member Support Group
Location:Paradise Community Centre
Paradise, NFLD
Contact:Bernie Gauthier, Child/Youth Care Worker at 747-2523

So if you know of anyone in Newfoundland with ADHD, you might want to let them know about it.

If you know of any other Canadian ADHD support groups, please let me know. Here’s my US ADHD support groups meta list, and my list of International ADHD support groups if you’re outside Canada and looking for one near you.

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Eileen Bailey has a good post on how to talk to your children about ADHD at Healthcentral

Young children view the world in terms of them. They may blame themselves for the ADHD, thinking they have done something wrong. Make sure you let your child know ADHD is not their fault. If you, your spouse, or another family member has also been diagnosed, let your child know.

It’s also good to mention the positives of having ADHD as well so they don’t think it’s only pathology, and they’re more motivated to deal with the negatives so they can spend more time focusing on developing the strengths of ADHD. How you frame ADHD is very important because that’s how they will likely internalize that frame.

You should also go to some local ADHD support group meetings to talk with other parents of kids with ADHD. Might want to also get Dr. Ed Hallowells book Superparenting for ADHD and check out the US National Resource Center for ADHD website, lots of good information there. I also have a lot of information on teaching students with ADHD on my website.

Parents of children with ADHD are 24 times more likely to have ADHD themselves. In my experience the men generally tend to spend more time in denial than the women. If you ADHD child notices that you have ADHD and you don’t take it seriously and learn how to manage it, they’re going to be wondering, why should they?

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The next CHADD Vancouver meeting is, Tuesday May 19th.

Topic: Feeding Your Child who has ADHD

Speaker: Joy Kiddie, Registered Dietician. She’s done research on ADHD and nutrition with Dr. Margaret Weiss, head of the BC ADHD Clinic at Children’s Hospital. Here’s her website

Date: May 20th

Time: 6.30-8.30pm

Location: 2450 Ontario St. Raven Song Community Health Centre (between Broadway & West 8th Ave)

Joy has ADHD and has ADHD children. She’s spoken before at 2 CHADD Vancouver meetings before. She know’s her topic, is an engaging speaker, and we’ve had good audience feedback.

The next Vancouver Adult ADD support group meeting will be Tues June 2nd topic TBA.

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