GRABBING OUR ATTENTION THIS MONTH:.ADHD LAUGHS We’ll eventually get around to explaining procrastination. Until then, enjoy these "Yup, that's me" ADHD observations. ANXIETY & ADHD Exploring their relationship, similarities and differences. ORGANIZATION APPS When it comes to getting your life straight, let the (free) machines do the work! Here are some options your family/children may love! LEARNING FROM CHILDREN Click here for a piece on getting to know ourselves through our children's ADHD/Psychoeducational Assessments.
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By: Jess Dinsmore – Administrative Coordinator Have you ever felt anxious in the middle of a conversation worrying about your ability to pay attention--let alone respond? Worried that you are going to forget a task or miss a work deadline? Maybe you're overly irritated by your children or partner? You are not alone. I have had many conversations with adults seeking an ADHD diagnosis after feeling misunderstood for many years. Quite often, they are experiencing high levels of anxiety or have even been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder by their doctor. This makes sense because they are experiencing symptoms such as challenges with concentration, restlessness, muscle tension, frustration, irritation, or high stress levels. The problem is that being treated for anxiety doesn’t seem to be helping them much. Why? Well, most people don't realize that ADHD and anxiety often coexist, commonly resulting in misdiagnosis and challenges in managing symptoms. Let’s talk about why this is. For starters, many individuals diagnosed with ADHD will be diagnosed with a comorbid disorder such as a mood disorder, substance abuse disorder, personality disorder, or anxiety disorder. The challenge with diagnosing ADHD compared to anxiety disorders is that anxiety can often mask ADHD symptoms. Many symptoms overlap between anxiety and ADHD. This includes:
It’s important to be able to distinguish between anxiety symptoms and ADHD symptoms, even when they are intertwined. So, what are the main differences between ADHD and anxiety that may tell the two apart? ADHD symptoms include:
On the other hand, anxiety symptoms typically include:
With this knowledge, it can help us understand when an anxiety disorder may be present versus when anxiety is a result of ADHD symptoms. When the symptoms of ADHD impact daily life, it often results in increased anxiety in academic, social, personal, and work settings. So yes, it makes sense that you may feel anxious regarding your ability to pay attention and respond in conversations, or that you may forget a work or personal deadline. Understanding the complexity of ADHD and anxiety can help individuals navigate these challenges and receive the proper support and treatment to manage symptoms daily. Awareness surrounding this anxiety helps us break the cycle of anxiety that sometimes feels never-ending. Receiving an ADHD assessment can help individuals receive a diagnosis and recommendations on how to manage these symptoms. The good news is that both ADHD and anxiety are manageable once we have the proper resources available to us. By: Hailey Edwards-Kern – Receptionist, Assistant to the Director Executive function describes a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals. For many people with ADHD or learning disabilities, things like motivational regulation, planning, and problem-solving can be daunting. That’s why the use of assistive technology can be beneficial for tracking goals and appointments and remaining consistent/focused on everyday life tasks. Below, we will explore some free apps--found wherever your favourite apps are located--that may be helpful to track and achieve goals. There are more straightforward calendar apps and gamified apps for children which reward them once a task is checked off as completed. Some of these apps will employ the use of the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique breaks down big tasks, projects, or goals into 25-minute segments, giving breaks in between. It keeps you hyper-focused on the next thing you need to do rather than get overwhelmed by the enormity of what you're taking on. FINCHMeet your new self-care best friend! Fun for kids and adults alike, have the whole family sign up and send “good vibes”. Finch is a self-care pet app that helps you feel prepared and positive, one day at a time. Take care of your pet by taking care of yourself! Choose from a wide variety of daily self-care exercises personalized to the user. Finch offers a light-hearted, colourful world of “birbs” ( bird friends) that helps track feelings, accomplish goals and earn rewards. Pick a “birb” to accumulate rainbow stones, dress them in fun clothes, decorate their home, and send on adventures. Adding friends offers the ability to send good vibes of encouragement towards goals (goals stay private even from friends. There is an insight button for a mood calendar, goals completed and reflection tracking. Other features include teaching breathing techniques, movement and exercise, white noise soundscapes and meditation timers. An excellent app to use for morning and bedtime routines, cuteness factor and positive outlook it offers! Forest: Focus for ProductivityCan't stop scrolling? Lack of self-control? Forest is the solution that has the cutest focus timer to help the user stay focused and boost productivity! An app that gamifies and rewards you for being off your phone! Have a task that needs undivided attention? This app will help you stay off your phone and grow a tree in your absence. Once you’ve completed the predetermined time off your phone, it’s time to check your forest! This is a visual representation of all the time you’ve stayed off your phone and grown your forest of focus! Unlock different trees as you progress and customize motivational phrases that will encourage you to keep going. The paid version lets you earn and spend virtual coins which plant real trees through their partners, Trees for the Future. To date they have planted over 1,658,806 trees, great for the environment and productivity! Focus Quest: Pomodoro ADHD appFocus Quest is a productivity RPG gamification. This app helps to beat phone addiction, manage ADHD, avoid distractions, stop procrastination, and improve work productivity, self-control, and concentration. Create a hero avatar that completes challenges and earns rewards, all based on staying focused and task-oriented. This app unfolds like a story that is controlled by upgrading the hero and completing quests. It is even a good introduction to meditation through its gamification. Daily pie graph charts help show how time is spent throughout the day. This app is best suited for people 10 and over, as there is some fantasy violence when battling monsters. Technology should always make our lives easier, and these apps do just that. Finding the app that works best for how your brain processes and solidifies information is important. Try one at a time and see which makes the most sense for you! By adding in fun functions, organizational lists, and mindfulness exercises, anyone can use any of these apps!
If any Apps have been helpful that we didn’t mention, we would love to hear about them! Comment below! We'll eventually get around to explaining procrastination to you. Until then, enjoy these "Yup, that's me" ADHD observations: Keith Carman – Chief Administrative Coordinator“D’oh!”
Anyone of a particular vintage hears that statement more than actually reads it. You probably even said it out loud, or your brain said/screamed it. I can certainly think of one particular time—which became many—as I came to a string of realizations, epiphanies and acceptances when I was eventually diagnosed with both a Specific Learning Disability and Inattentive ADHD. For context, I’m firmly planted in Generation X. You know, the group where everyone thought ADD (as it was known back then) only affected young boys. They would whip around the room in a hyperactive frenzy like the Tasmanian Devil and be relegated to a life of stigma as uncontrollable little monsters with few prospects in life. Thankfully, we know better now. A LOT better. Not only do we understand that ADHD affects anyone regardless of age, race, gender, political preference, whether we love or hate pineapple on pizza or any other criteria you can imagine, but we know it includes inattentiveness, distractibility, and impulsivity, not just hyperactivity. Moreover, it can present itself in any configuration of the above. Anyway, back to the point: I shamefully admit that I was one of the aforementioned who had many opinions on ADHD without much knowledge. That is until I had my own child assessed. For years, I refused to believe him when he said that listening to music while doing homework actually helped him focus, not hinder him. I told him and myself that his inability to “get things done” was a lack of trying, laziness, brattiness…you name it; I used it as an excuse instead of admitting my kid “had a problem.” Let’s not even get started on refusing to listen to the pleas of how he was “trying, but it’s just a mountain to me, Dad. I’m more upset with myself than you are with me.” What a load that sounded like. Little did I know that I was the problem. Emotionally (unsupportive) and mentally (blocking instead of removing blocks), but PHYSICALLY (this is really genetic? Ugh…) as well. I love my kid and wasn’t a brute by any stretch. It’s just that with some things, I thought the “tough love” of “hunker down and put your nose to the grindstone” was the right track. Boy, was I derailed. Fast-forward a few years to my “I’ll prove them wrong” moment. “I’ll step in there, do this test and show ‘em all I don’t have ADHD. Sure, when my child was going through the assessment, it all felt a bit too close to home, but I’m an adult. I know better.” Ha! Guess what? Go figure that I have ADHD. Oh yes, and I gave it to my kid. But wait! There’s more! I most certainly got it from…my mother! Did my world end? Nope. In fact, it got a lot better. Attitudes and behaviours started making more sense. Mine AND my son’s. Some things didn’t feel like failures any longer. I just had to look at the issue from a new perspective. It also helped to get more things done when I could bop along to my favourite tunes. All of these “that’s just me” idiosyncratic behaviours didn’t feel as troublesome when I could pin them down, address them, or realize what was ME versus what was ADHD. Oh. Wait. That sounds really familiar. Darn it. Someone in this house was right all along, and it wasn’t me. “D’oh.” You deserve a break today! Take a moment to relax and have a bit of a laugh. Here are this months funnies we borrowed from all over the internet**. **Yes, we were absolutely procrastinating. There were reports to write, tests to score, 60 emails waiting for us, and oh yeah, taxes are due sometime soon, aren't they? But these are so good! Leave a comment and let us know what you're putting off doing. We like to know we aren't alone! Keith Carman – Chief Administrative Coordinator
I know what you’re thinking: “ADHD improving a relationship? It’s not possible. This guy’s off his rocker.” Believe it or not, it’s true. Depending on how you approach the situation, naturally. Stories of parents having their children assessed only to realize that they themselves should be tested because “things are ringing all too true” abound. What a lot of folks don’t touch on is that the bond between an ADHD child and an ADHD parent post-diagnosis can actually become stronger. Let’s look at it in this context: Jimmy has been driving me nuts. He won’t focus, he never seems to be hearing what I’m saying, and don’t even think about a list of chores. He’ll be lucky to get through the first one before plodding back to ask what’s next. Ok, he was assessed, and it’s ADHD. Now I know what I’m dealing with. Yet, everything that was driving me around the bend with Jimmy also seems to apply to my life. Nobody understands me. I have my system, and it works for me, even if nobody else gets it or thinks it’s counterproductive and messy. Why do I always fade out during meetings? What was that bunch of items my partner asked me to pick up on the way home? Gosh, I heard the first thing, but I was so focused on ensuring I got it and didn’t forget at all that the rest of what they were saying became a blur of noise like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Wait a minute. If I took every one of those points and put them into my child’s life/situation/head, maybe I do understand them on a new level. When we parents take the onus and find answers to our own concerns, we can…relate. To our children. What a concept. Suddenly, we have ways of understanding what they’re facing. How they don’t want to blank out when given a page of chores. How they really do want to succeed, but everything feels like an uphill battle. Kind of like trying to get to work on time, clean the house, pay bills, cut the lawn, take care of fazed-out kids, and the other million things we parents must tackle weekly. Yet, it’s all so much, and we don’t know where to start, so we just sit and do absolutely nothing while the pile of anxiety gets bigger and bigger. It’s just in their life context. Instead of hollering, punishing, or getting exasperated, we can support them—and vice versa—because we get it. And the more we get them, the more they get us. When their ADHD feels as though it’s too tough to overcome, getting in the way of success or just generally beating them down, we can encourage; be the example to say, “I know it feels like this is a mountain, but look at my life. I made it into a molehill. Let’s tackle it together and get to the next ‘mountain.’ Maybe you can even help me with what I think is my next ‘mountain’ since you get what’s going on in my head.” Sometimes, even more importantly, we can also call one another out when ADHD is being used as a crutch, deterrent or outright excuse. The veil is lifted, removing any chance to hide behind the easy (yet flimsy) “ADHD won’t let me” defense. So, you went to the easy task first, and now you’re behind on the truly important thing, huh? Sounds like someone let their ADHD steer the ship. Who’s playing video games instead of cleaning the bathroom: you or ADHD? We KNOW what it’s like to feel that way. Due to more life experience, we have the resources to overcome it, and we can call foul when it just seems easier to blame neurodivergence than grab those bootstraps. It might not always be a cakewalk, but by offering understanding, support and accountability due to having the same life passenger in our heads, yes, we can actually improve child/parent relationships via ADHD. Smitha Chandrashekar - Psychometrist
Navigating the world through the lens of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a journey that unveils a wealth of unique perspectives and challenges. As someone who has closely worked with individuals on the spectrum, I have come to understand that for individuals on the spectrum, the act of seeing everything but struggling to maintain eye contact is not just a quirk or a preference; it is an inherent aspect of their cognitive and sensory experience. Imagine standing in a bustling city square, surrounded by a cacophony of sights, sounds, and sensations. For neurotypical individuals, making eye contact may come naturally as an extension of social interaction. But for someone on the spectrum, it is almost like navigating a labyrinth of discomfort and overload. The world is a symphony of sensations for them. Every texture, sight and sound, is amplified, enhanced, and processed in great detail. It is as if their senses are tuned to a frequency that others cannot fully comprehend. In this chaos of sensory input, making eye contact becomes a daunting task, taking valuable cognitive resources away from comprehending the world around them. When they look at you, they see every minuscule detail; the slightest shift in your facial muscles, the flicker of emotion in your gaze, the little details that most individuals miss. It is not that they are uninterested; rather, their attention is consumed by the intricate dance of sensory information bombarding their brain. Sadly our society places immense value on eye contact as an indicator of connection and involvement. We are all taught since a very early age that "look me in the eye" implies honesty, sincerity, and respect towards the other individual we are conversing with. However, for individuals on the spectrum, this expectation can feel like an impassable barrier, a constant reminder of their perceived inadequacies in the area of social interaction. The struggle to maintain eye contact is not a sign of rudeness or boredom, but rather of the sensory overload and cognitive dissonance that characterize ASD. Despite the struggle, there is resilience. Despite the limitations, individuals on the spectrum have a unique perspective--the capacity to look beyond the surface and delve deeply into the complexities of human connection and emotion. Their gaze may not always match yours, but their minds are brimming with insight, empathy, and understanding. So, the next time you see someone who has difficulty making eye contact, I encourage you to go past the surface; to see the individual behind the hesitation, an individual with a wealth of untapped potential and insight. And perhaps, by accepting their differences, you can form connections that go beyond the boundaries of eye contact and appreciate the diversity of the human experiences. You are not alone. Learning disabilities affect people of every description. Many of the people you admire or look up to struggle with learning and attention. Below are a number of quotes by famous individuals who have overcome their learning disabilities and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Take a look at how they accepted their disabilities and found ways to work with them, move through them, or around them. Some of them received defeating messages from school, peers, or others. Despite this, they found ways to reject these negative messages or combat them and succeed.
We hope these quotes can serve as inspiration to help you overcome any difficulties you may be experiencing, and find your path to your success and joy! |
Tara Carman-FrenchDirector, Certified ADHD & LD Coach Archives
May 2024
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