Focused Forward

And it can be a big relief to lay the disarray of your big, messy life at someone’s feet and let them help you untangle it and keep track of it.

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

The work ahead of you is all about building this inner strength, and I do mean building, because people with ADHD come with structural problems. They may have once used their ADHD to function, to see above the problem, to get the oh-crap-it’s-due-tomorrow-at-6am-and-now-it’s-11pm paper written at the last minute, but they can’t seem to pull it off

If you’re part of the three to five percent, your view of the world is skewed, from just about every vantage point. Organization, follow-through, vision, clarity, communication—all just a little out of step with what you experience going on around you. You’re constantly thinking of what’s either behind or ahead of where you are right now, ping-pong

Stop ignoring or avoiding your ADHD. Stand in front of it. Look at it. Think of ways you could explain it, to yourself and others. Look, this is my genetic code, this is how it affects my thoughts and actions, and this is how it’s showing up in me at this particular age.

Images of Balance When our resilience isn’t well developed yet, managing stress can feel like walking a tightrope. Any misstep leads your brain to perceive a threat, leading to the familiar cascade of ADHD symptoms, leading to the feeling that you’re falling, followed by the reality that, yes, you’re falling off that rope, hoping there’s a net unde

Coaching—a sort of down-to-earth adjunct to therapy—is often recommended as part of ADHD treatment. Coaching is basically a positive psychology that starts with the premise that you’re okay, and that your coach is less an academic expert than a teacher, or an advocate, in your corner, rooting for you. It’s a forward-looking model. Together, you and

It could involve hiring executive and/or organizational assistance whenever you can afford it.

And in fact, coaches aren’t trained to revisit the past to process emotional history the way therapists do.