MYTH: The “right help” for ADHD begins and ends with medication.

FACT:  While medication can often be useful in dealing with ADHD, it is neither necessary nor always effective.  The starting point in managing ADHD is education.  One needs to learn about what ADHD is–and what it isn’t–in order to change it from a serious liability into a bonafide asset.

Books are a cost-efficient way to start the process.  I can recommend my comprehensive book, Delivered from Distraction, written with Dr. John Ratey, but there are many other good books out there as well.  

There are also excellent websites, chock full of free, valuable information.  The best one for parents looking for help for children is Understood.org, which is a phenomenal resource. ADDA provides resources for adults.

Once you learn about ADHD—its positives and its negatives—then you get to work, with a good guide, a therapist of some sort who understands ADHD. Someone who takes a strength-based approach, to change whatever it is in your life that is causing you problems. Usually you need to work with a coach to get more organized.

Steps To Take:

• Get on a regular sleep schedule.
• Build exercise into your life.
• Consider the nutritional aspects of treatment.
• Reconsider your job or school situation in light of ADHD
• Making various structural changes in your life can make a big difference: the right filing system, the right organization scheme, the right daily schedule.

In addition, you will likely want to talk with your therapist about your family life. If you are a child, some family therapy will help. If you are an adult, couples therapy can make a big difference.

Beyond education, coaching, and therapy, it is important to have a plan for developing your talents and interests. This will take time, but it is key. You build a life not on weaknesses you have repaired, but on talents you have developed. Of course, fixing weaknesses can help you in developing your talents, so the two go hand in hand.

Click here for a list of comprehensive resources.

Click here to learn how the Hallowell Centers can help you.

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If you missed my podcast on the Upside of ADHD, listen HERE.

If you want to know about the Downside of ADHD, listen HERE.

Recently I had the great pleasure of attending a conference in Liverpool, England sponsored by the ADHD Foundation, Britain’s leading organization dedicated to neurodiversity, which of course includes ADHD and dyslexia, both of which I have myself.

I was thrilled to see the enormous progress the Brits have made on this front. Not too long ago the “moral model” still prevailed there, in which children and adults who had ADHD were told to try harder, be more disciplined, and basically to suck it up.

Now, under the dynamic leadership of Tony Lloyd and the great team he’s put together, the foundation offers screening, testing, and treatment, as well as massive public education, symbolized by the Umbrella campaign. Children wrote their strengths onto umbrellas—red, blue, orange, green and purple umbrellas—and the symbol caught on so well that in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London there is a section where you can see dozens of these colorful umbrellas hanging from the rafters, celebrating the progress and joy created by the ADHD Foundation and all the participants who’ve joined in.

It’s a beautiful sight, bright colors, bearing bright messages of hope, progress, and a new era in helping the neurodiverse population in the U.K. These (we) are the people who have changed the world for the better since the dawn of time. DaVinci seems to have had it, as do Mozart and Thomas Edison. We neurodiverse people are the ones who come up with the game changing ideas and the ideas that take the world to its next level. For too long we’ve been misunderstood and stigmatized.

But the new era is upon us at last.

At last this group of the world’s population is finding understanding and credit, validation and well-deserved admiration from the rest of the population who, for centuries, did not appreciate the amazing gifts wrapped inside the minds of this diverse group.

It was wonderful to look up and see these multi-colored umbrellas, hanging like Mary Poppins’ favorite form of transport should do, symbolizing triumph, joy, freedom and creativity for all the world to share.

Freedom at last for the tens of millions who’ve been shackled by misunderstanding, ignorance, and stigma for centuries. Freedom at last to give all that we have to give, to develop all that we can develop, and to share with the rest of the world the immense and unpredictable fruits of our diverse, creative brains.

Hooray for Tony Lloyd and his merry band of freedom-fighters in the U.K., liberators all, benefactors of the civilization that gave us Parliament and Shakespeare, the greatest literature the world has known and an enduring form of government tailored, fittingly enough, to preserve freedom.

Hooray for their great work, and hooray for this world, so in need of good news, that the day is come at last where hidden gifts get recognized, unwrapped, developed and put on grand display.

Just go to Terminal 5 at Heathrow, look skyward, and get ready to fly.

Since October is ADHD Awareness Month, now is a good time to review some ADHD myths. We want you to have the FACTS.

MYTH: Having ADHD, ADD means you are stupid.

FACT:  People with ADHD vary in their intelligence (whatever that elusive word means!) as much as the general population does.  Many people with ADHD are extremely intelligent, especially in the areas of:

• • creativity,
  • original, out-of-the-box thinking
  • remarkable persistence and resilience
  • highly intuitive style
  • resourcefulness, and
  • emotional savvy.  

Indeed, when I meet with someone who has ADHD, one of my top priorities is to locate their special talent. This is what I often call their special sauce, because, in my experience, almost everyone with ADHD has one. 

Of course, when you first receive the diagnosis, you may not feel you have any special talents. You might also feel afraid. This diagnosis may sound ominous, containing the words deficit and disorder, but you need not be afraid.  Since once the diagnosis is made, the next step is to find and develop your talents.

What To Do If You Find Yourself Asking, “But What Am I Good At?”

My answer is, “You never know. But whatever you do, don’t stop looking.” You can’t predict what your talent will be. Maybe it’s in being creative with investing online. Or maybe in working with motors or engines or in inspiring people. Whatever the talent, the goal of treatment is to bring your special talent to light and put it to work.

Learn How to Embrace Your ADHD

If you have ADHD and feel, “incompetent,”  “stupid,” or “ashamed, learn how to reverse the negative thinking that leaves you feeling depleted and defeated. Read my approach outlined in this ADDitude article, “How to Stop Beating Yourself Up Already.”  

Need help managing your ADHD?

At the Hallowell Centers,  we follow Dr. Hallowell’s strength-based approach. It begins with a personal connection with you. We also connect with your family – if appropriate – and one of our clinicians.  We believe in the power of positive connection above all else.

Upon that positive energy we seek out your, or your child’s, interests and strengths, while also identifying what weaknesses need shoring up.  Together we turn what you may have thought was a “deficit disorder” into an advantage full of powers that can’t be bought or taught. We open up what you’ve known all along was a treasure chest, but you just didn’t know how to open.  Learn more…

If you want to learn more about ADHD, click here.

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I have ADHD and I’m proud of it. My daughter and one of my sons have ADHD. I think that people with ADHD represent some of the most fascinating, fun, and fulfilling of all the people I meet. However, words such as structure, supervision, reminders, and persistence don’t even begin to describe the magnitude of the task people with ADHD have to tackle every day, especially kids.

People with ADHD need their families and friends to understand their difficulties. If you know someone with ADHD, the best way to help is to start by changing your own thinking about ADHD.

When explaining ADHD to a child, I say, “you have a turbo charged mind – like a Ferrari engine, but the brakes of a bicycle, and I’m the brake expert.” When ADHD is properly treated, children and adults can achieve great heights: doctors, lawyers, CEO’s, dreamers, innovators, explorers and even Harvard grads. Founders of our country may have had ADHD. The flip-side of distractibility is curiosity.

By far, the biggest barriers for understand ADHD are denial, ignorance, and a refusal to learn. So you need to learn what ADHD is and what it isn’t. Perhaps the single most powerful treatment for ADHD is understanding ADHD in the first place. You need to understand what a positive attribute ADHD can be.

You can learn how to break down the positive aspects of ADHD by watching my TV interview with WBZ | CBS Boston below:

Reframe Challenges in terms of Mirror Traits 

Remind yourself  of the positive sides of the negative symptoms associated with ADD. By recognizing the mirror traits, you avoid the ravages of shame and fear.

DIAGNOSING ADHD