As an adult with ADHD, there’s almost no facet of your life that couldn’t benefit from being custom-tailored to your personality.

If you’re more visual, get your hands on some art supplies and paper, the larger the better. Break out a whiteboard or a blackboard. One of my clients swears by blue painter’s tape—you can use it to attach almost anything to a wall. It’s nobody’s business what you draw or scribble. Leave it up as long as you want or erase it, but don’t forget to ta

Take the familiar issue of losing your car keys. In a perfect world, a coach would also give you a good grounding in how your brain works—what happens in your short-term memory that causes you to misplace things. Then he or she would help you come up with a half-dozen strategies for how not to lose those keys.

Consciously reject the voice of the Hired Killer. When you talk to yourself, be honest, curious and compassionate. It may not come as naturally, at least not at first, but stay with it. Support yourself with self-talk instead of tearing yourself down.

helped a lot of people, and with the publication of this

“I will now state the obvious. I don’t regulate emotions very well. I think I have a storm coming on.” “I’m hypersensitive. It feels like a big bruise. Such jealousy when I start noticing other people’s accomplishments! I have a hard time feeling happy for someone who’s accomplished anything! I wish people would quit publishing novels. I wish their

had to rehabilitate my ability to laugh about life. Early in my career, while working at a psychiatric hospital, I attended a lecture on humor, given by a brilliantly funny minister. He reminded us that every time we laugh, we’re deep-breathing, and we’re also making it possible, just for a moment, not to think about anything but what’s so funny. B

Well, I can’t use those ideas, but I’m not out of ideas yet. One thing I have a lot of is ideas.

Think about how your ADHD might impact your future plans. Know your own risk factors. I know I have a history with gambling, so I wonder how watching this high-stakes poker tournament might affect me? When I get bored, I tend to do impulsive things to make the situation more interesting. Could I do that right now without destroying anything in the