AD(H)D Solutions

Your ADHD or ADD Can Be Managed

I find that all of a person’s challenges with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) can be understood and transformed into successful living patterns, once the underlying condition is identified and addressed. The key to the ADD or ADHD individual’s overall success is their acceptance of their condition, combined with some successes in managing it.

Methods that help a person manage their ADD/ADHD symptoms, including ways to increase focus and concentration, can be learned, A few successes can motivate the individual to learn additional coping methods that serve them throughout their lifetime. The ADD/ADHD person also needs understanding and support from the most significant individuals in their lives, including parents, teachers, friends and spouses.

ATP: A Successful Method to Manage ADD/ADHD

Since ADD/ADHD is caused by weaknesses in Executive Function and Working Memory, successful compensation depends on three inter-related and synergistic dimensions: Attention, Tracking and Pacing.

The Ability to Sustain the Focus of Attention: Fundamental to the condition of ADD/ADHD is a person’s inability to maintain a continuous focus of attention. Since lapses of information cause “deficits” in Short-Term Memory, any successful compensation begins by solving this problem.

What Can Help: Individuals are often better able to sustain focus with a balance of rest, diet, exercise, supplements and/or medication – a predictable, organized and calm environment is key.

Tracking: The ability to continue along a designated path and resist shifting to other tracks, in other words, not become “dis-tracked,” is key to coping with ADD/ADHD. The thinking of ADD/ADHD individuals tends to be nonlinear, expansive and creative. ADD/ADHD people are constantly distracted by the opportunity to make something better right now. A central dilemma for ADD/ADHD individuals is that an internal or external command to pay attention loses its impact quickly, unless their attention is successfully narrowed down to a track.

What Can Help: The ability to narrow one’s focus can be learned and reinforced through coaching.

Pacing: Sustaining one’s focus and the ability to track along a designated path are essential prerequisites to pacing. Pacing is the ability to be aware of where one is on a particular track, or, whether a person is even on the track that they think they are on. Pacing is complex in that it involves successful internal processes, combined with clear timeline expectations.

What Can Help: A schedule of goals with timelines and expectations for productivity are necessary to be successful with pacing.