This week's ADHD Solution is: Be positive.

How many times have you fallen into a downward spiral, where it seems like nothing is going right? You have so much going on, and so little time to do it. You start thinking about all the things you can’t do. Everything that’s ever gone wrong in your life. “Why do I even bother?”

This kind of stress is often part of living with ADHD. Negativity causes stress. Conversely, positive thinking reduces it. If we can get a handle on our stress level, it’s much easier to do things. Procrastination becomes less of an issue. Planning doesn’t seem quite so hard.

One of my clients recently remarked, “It’s really easy to go negative. But it’s really not much harder to see the positives!” He went on to observe that when he looks for the positives, his whole outlook is brighter and everything just seems easier. He had a hard time with public speaking, freezing up in front of large groups. When I asked him what he thinks about in the moments before a presentation, he realized that he tends to focus on what could go wrong: “What if I forget my lines? What if I say something stupid? What if they don’t understand what I’m trying to say?” So the next time, he tried thinking about all the things that could go right instead: “They’re here because they’re interested in my topic. This is my chance to demonstrate my expertise and earn their respect, which I deserve. This event is probably the most fun thing they’ve done all week, and I’m a part of it.” It worked! He was much more comfortable and confident, and his performance was flawless.

Everything has a bright side and a dark side. It’s up to us which we look at. It’s a choice. When we choose to see the positives, that’s what we attract into our lives. As my grandfather used to say, “walk on the sunny side of the street.” When you catch yourself being negative, stop and find something positive. It’s usually right there next to the bad stuff you were looking at.

Never underestimate the power of positive thinking. It makes life with ADHD much easier.

www.adhdsolutions.net

This week's ADHD Solution is: Avoid careless mistakes

Students with ADHD are often quite brilliant, but their grades don’t always reflect it because of “careless” mistakes. (I use quotes there because it’s not for lack of caring, it’s for lack of attention!) We experience more of the same when we become adults: We might put the wrong address on an envelope or enter the wrong amount on a check. Leave our keys in the front door. Skip a step in a detailed procedure. Miss an important question when responding to email. Everyone does it from time to time, but people with ADHD are especially prone to careless, or rather, attentionless, mistakes.

What to do? Here are some strategies to try:

• Observe your patterns. Be aware of the specific kinds of mistakes you tend to make. Math homework? Data entry? Bill paying? This will help you put extra effort where it is needed. “Okay, it’s time to pay bills. I need to be really careful with this because this is one of my problem areas.”
• Slow down. On tests, read the question twice, and make sure you answer what is says, not what you expect it to say.
• Treat every important task as if it were the most challenging thing ever. Don’t fall for the “it’s easy, I don’t have to give this much effort” trap. If it’s important, check your work every time.
• Take it one step at a time. Don’t think ahead to the next step while you’re working on the current one.
• Don’t try to do too many things at once. It’s tempting to multitask, but you have to admit, accuracy does suffer.
• Make sure you are fully focused on the task at hand. As soon as you realize that you’ve lost your focus, stop, take a few deep breaths, and return your attention to what you’re doing.
• Use a checklist. Your checklist might include each step of a process, or just the areas you need to focus extra hard on.
• Check your work. Always, always, always double check your work even if you're certain it's fine.
• See things with fresh eyes. Whenever possible, let your work sit for a day and proof it later. You’ll catch things your bleary eyes weren’t able to see when they were in the thick of it. Don’t have time? Ask someone else to give your work a quick scan.
• Eliminate distractions. Don’t try to talk and do detail work at the same time. Turn off the TV. Clear off your desk. Clear your mind.
• Identify things that have worked in the past. What tricks did you learn in the past that you can pull out of your sleeve? For example, maybe your high school algebra teacher had you circle the operators before solving the problem. Try that again and see if it still works.
• When you do make a mistake, learn from it. What can you put into place to avoid the same mistake next time? Remember that attention to detail is a learned skill. So go ahead and keep learning.
• Stay positive. Think of all the things you do really well. How smart you are, how creative. A positive mindset goes a long way to reducing the stress and overwhelm that exacerbate our tendency to make mistakes. Recognize that the tendency to make detail errors doesn’t reflect your overall knowledge, wisdom, or character.

Let your brilliance shine through by reducing the mistakes that can hide it.

www.adhdsolutions.net

7 Solutions to Sleep Problems - How to manage when symptoms of ADHD get in the way of a good night's rest.

by Nancy Ratey

Many adults with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) complain of restless nights and exhausted mornings. Sometimes, ADHD medications cause adverse reactions, other times a turbo-speed brain keeps you up. Just as there is no one reason for ADHD-related sleep disturbances, there is no one solution that works for everyone. Here are a handful of options from ADDitude’s experts …

Adjust Your ADHD Medication

ADHD medications can spark sleep problems in some adults. If you suspect that this is the case, talk with your doctor about fine-tuning your treatment.

On the other hand, some ADHD experts believe that taking a stimulant 45 minutes before bedtime can shut off buzzing brains. "About two-thirds of my adult patients take a full dose of their ADHD medication every night to fall asleep," says William Dodson, M.D., a psychiatrist based in Denver.

Kill the Light

Light activates the ADHD brain and keeps you awake longer. Prepare for sleep by shutting off or dimming lights by 9 p.m.

You can put overhead lights on a dimmer switch to gradually lessen the intensity of the light, and don’t spend time in front of a bright TV or computer screen after 9.

Slow Down Your Brain

Once you’re in bed, with lights off, use ADHD-friendly tools to help you relax like a white noise machine, earplugs, or soothing music to counteract your racing thoughts. Relax one muscle at a time, starting at your feet and moving up, breathing out each time you reach a new muscle group.

Create Wake-Up and Wind-Down Routines

Waking up on time follows going to bed on time, and getting a full night’s rest. Develop routines to help you wake up happier and faster in the morning and 'wind down' at night.

These get-to-sleep and waking up easily routines can be simple — showering and watching the news each night, having coffee and reading the paper each morning.

Stick to a Sleep Schedule

Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day. This will increase the quality of your sleep by letting your body enter into a daily rhythm, something that particularly benefits adults and children with ADHD. Not everyone requires the same amount of sleep, but consistency is the key, so work with your family to establish a sleep routine and stick to it.

Avoid Sleep Traps

Know your ADHD sleep traps and avoid them. If talking on the phone, watching TV, or checking e-mail keeps you up past your bedtime, post signs reminding you to stick to your schedule. Ask for help from family, so they know not to distract you from your goal.

Set a Bedtime Alarm

Program a wristwatch with an alarm, or set an alarm clock, to go off one hour before bedtime, so you have time to prepare for bed. If you often get stuck watching TV, place the alarm clock in another room, so you will be forced to get up to turn it off.

(additudemag.com)

This week's ADHD Solution is: Believe you can.

Hulda Crooks was 101 years old when she passed away in 1997. She was famous for being the oldest woman to climb Mt. Whitney (the highest mountain in the continental United States) and Mt. Fuji (the highest mountain in Japan). She climbed Mt. Whitney 24 times between the ages of 66 and 91. Yes, you read that right: a 91 year old woman climbed the highest mountain in the continental United States!

She started jogging when she was 72 because, she said, “it made climbing so much easier”. At age 82, she set a Senior Olympics world record for the 1,500 meter race. At age 95, she was still walking two miles every day.

Why did Hulda do all these amazing things? Because she believed she could. She wanted to do them, and didn’t see any reason not to.

I want to be that woman!

Have you ever said anything like:

I can’t start a business, even though I have this great idea…

I can’t invite people over, even though I’d really like to…

I can’t go to a top school, even though I’m smart enough…

I could never succeed as an (insert exciting profession here), even though I find it fascinating…

I’ll never make partner at the firm…

…because I have ADHD?

91 year old women can’t climb mountains either.

Oh yes they can! And so can you.

Hulda wasn’t into fitness all her life. In fact, she was obese as a child. She didn’t start exercising regularly until middle age. It took her two years to get into a regular routine. She started slowly and worked her way up – literally. Her first jogging excursion was a trip across her back yard. But she kept at it. She believed in the value of exercise, and she believed in herself.

It’s the same thing with ADHD. If we focus on the things we can’t do, we’ll never do them. Better to believe we can. Start slowly. Learn the strategies. Develop the skills. Climb that mountain.

Believe you can, and you will.

www.adhdsolutions.net

Screensucking

We’re not too good at gobbling, processing or managing details. Yet we throw a lot of info at ourselves – TV content, news content and useless Web content. It’s called screensucking. Good news is we don’t have to. Cuz we DON’T NEED all the data/info we consume. Being informed is good. Being a news junkie is screensucking. Limit intake to the necessary.

Next time you’re about to plop down in front of a TV for an hour of mindless “restful” viewing, smack yourself upside the head and instead sit at a window, on a porch or park bench, or just lie on the couch – and think. Stop screensucking. Start creative thinking. Chances are you’ll think of a solution to a problem you’re facing. Too busy? You had time for TV, right?

If you’re watching a lot of TV – particularly reality TV, sitcoms and crime dramas – you are every minute wasting opportunities to make your life better. You’re also getting unhealthy and mushy-brained. Ditto for excessive online behaviors. Get smart. Put down that remote and pick up a dumbbell, dumbbell!

Foods That Fight ADHD-Related Depression

Do you find yourself battling both ADHD and depression? Adding the right nutrients to your diet may help you better manage.

By Beth W. Orenstein

Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH

ADHD and depression often go hand in hand — studies show that roughly 70 percent of those living with ADHD undergo depression treatment at some point. “One of the reasons ADHD and depression are linked,” explains Jeffrey Rossman, PhD, director of life management at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Mass., “is that adults with ADHD often experience frustration in accomplishing their goals. This difficulty following through can lead to low self-esteem and a sense of discouragement and frustration, which can fuel depression.”

While a mental health professional is often the first-line treatment, a few simple nutritional strategies and lifestyle changes may also ease the emotional pain.

ADHD and Depression: How Diet May Help

Studies show that certain foods, such as those high in B vitamins and in omega-3 fatty acids — found in coldwater fish, walnuts, and canola oil — can help with depression. They’ve also been proven to help with attention and memory.

“If someone is already ingesting a sufficient amount of omega-3s and B vitamins, they’re not necessarily going to benefit from taking more,” Rossman says. However, he adds, “The reality is that most Americans are deficient in omega-3s unless they’re eating a lot of oily fish. The American diet has changed over the last several decades — there’s just a lot less naturally in our diets and so people may find that taking B vitamins and eating fish or taking fish oil capsules may be helpful in fighting depression.”

Katherine Tallmadge, RD, LD, of Washington, D.C., author of Diet Simple and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, says omega-3s don’t work for everyone, and no one knows why, but for some people they can be “pretty miraculous.”

Some of the best sources of omega-3s are:

• Salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, and anchovies
• Flaxseed
• Walnuts
• Canola oil

It is recommended that people eat about 12 ounces of fatty fish per week, Tallmadge says. That’s equivalent to two servings a week. You can get fish oil in capsule form if you can’t find oily fish fresh or frozen at your grocery store or fish market.

Good sources of B vitamins include:

• Animal products (meat, poultry)
• Asparagus, avocado, broccoli, spinach, bananas, and potatoes
• Dried apricots, dates, and figs
• Eggs
• Dairy products (milk, eggs, cheese, and yogurt)
• Almonds, walnuts, and sunflower seeds
• Shellfish including clams, oysters, mussels, and crab
• Wheat germ and whole grain cereals

People who are vegetarians need to be careful to get sufficient vitamin B12. “They may need supplements because it’s really hard to get B12 without eating animal sources of protein,” Rossman says.

ADHD and Depression: A Healthy Approach

Other supplements, such as St. John’s wort, have been shown to help people with depression. “I’m not familiar with St. John’s wort for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” Rossman says. “But it has been shown in studies to work as well as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression.”

Overall, the kind of diet that seems to be most helpful for mood enhancement is the Mediterranean diet, Rossman points out. This is a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, with controlled amounts of low-fat dairy, protein, and whole grains, and low in refined foods containing white flour, sugar, and trans fats — olive oil is the fat of choice.

People with ADHD and depression also can benefit from daily exercise, says Tallmadge. “One of the things we know that’s critical for brain function is exercise because it increases blood flow and reduces blood clotting.”

If you’re experiencing incapacitating depression, if you’re not able to engage in work or meet family responsibilities, if you’re suicidal or have any thoughts of ending your life, you should seek the help of a mental health professional right away, Rossman says. “Medication has shown to be most effective for people with clinical depression.”

However, if you have mild to moderate levels of depression, you should see some improvement in your mood and attention by getting adequate omega-3s and B vitamins in your diet and exercising for 30 minutes at least three times a week.

Sound advice that will boost your overall health, too.

(everydayhealth.com)

ADHD in adults may become easier to diagnose

By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

May 15, 2011, 3:00 p.m.

Reporting from Honolulu —

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has traditionally been considered to be a problem of children. But research over the last two decades shows the disorder often persists into adulthood and that adults can benefit from treatment of their symptoms.

Identifying older teens and adults with ADHD should become easier — and prevalence rates will increase — based on a proposal under consideration by the nation's psychiatrists, according to information reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn. here.

Psychiatrists are in the process of rewriting the essential textbook on mental illness — "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" — for publication in 2013.

In the current DSM edition, ADHD is described as a disorder of children, but the same criteria are routinely applied to adults who seek help with what they perceive to be ADHD. The proposed changes of the new DSM — called DSM.5 — will describe what ADHD looks like in older teens and adults, said Dr. Steven Cuffe of the University of Florida.

For example, while children with ADHD may run around their classrooms and fail to complete their schoolwork, adults with the disorder are more likely to interrupt someone who is speaking and have problems meeting deadlines at work.

The hyperactivity seen in children tends to be reflected as restless feelings in adults. Impulsivity is more of an issue with children with the disorder, compared with adults, but problems with attention tend to persist from childhood into adulthood, Cuffe said.

Moreover, while the current diagnosis for ADHD requires the presence of at least six specific symptoms, the proposal for DSM-5 is to lower that threshold to four or more symptoms in adults.

The inclusion of information describing older teens and adults with the disorder will likely increase the prevalence of ADHD in the general population, Cuffe said. A few decades ago, ADHD was estimated to occur in about 3% to 5% of children. That figure is now 6% to 8%.

How many adults will end up with an official diagnosis of ADHD after DSM-5 goes into effect is unknown. But chances are the number is going up. Some doctors say they worry that the condition will become overdiagnosed.

"I think the prevalence in adolescents and adults who meet full criteria will definitely increase," Cuffe said.

(latimes.com)