ADHD | Health And Life Blog

Are there strategies to stay in a positive frame of mind if you have ADHD?

Posted by in Anxiety Disorders on October 8, 2011

This article aims to explore strategies to assist a person with ADHD or ADD to identify negative thinking/ ideas and to turn their minds around to start thinking positively again.

One great skill a person with ADHD can learn to have is to employ brainstorming to help him or herself to find ways to counter negative thinking. Brainstorming is not an exclusive activity utilised in the business world, one can also apply it in a personal capacity. One of the advantages of an ADHD mind is that this technique engages their innate creativity and ingenuity to identify and create solutions.

How do I start?

Stop and think why you are feeling negative or down. Did someone mention a criticism about you or about your work at home? Is your desk at home in a state of utter pandemonium to you and others and you don’t know where to begin sorting it out or do you perceive that you have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?

Isolate what caused your negative thinking sprawl and employ brainstorming techniques to counter this paralysing behaviour. If left to run its course, it will sabotage your day and what you wanted to achieve. If you do not want to think about it right away- DO SOMETHING. Find activities that will jump start you and mobilise you away from your feelings of paralysed inactivity. This activity list can be:

Making a list and then prioritise what needs to be done as important, have to do and can be done later
Take a blank sheet of paper, find a quiet spot and start mapping out ways to resolve your problem, e.g. I feel bad about a document I delivered at work and don’t know how to fix it. Start by asking yourself some of these questions and writing it on the blank sheet: What is the worst that can happen?
What if the worst happens?
What did I do that I can improve on?
What can I do differently?
What did I learn from this?
Why did I react with the emotion I felt?
Is there a different way to react?
Go for a walk or an hour in gym or start a short play session with your son or daughter.

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Now what?

Move forward and examine what you wrote down or what you thought of. Take a good look at it again, even in your mind, and you will force yourself to take a different perspective on what it was that caused you to feel down or negative. ADHD is not the cause of what happened, you are and what you did. That is the great news about it. You can change your behaviour and your thoughts.

If you feel overwhelmed by an activity or a task and don’t even want to attempt by identifying the different steps or parts to it and realise that you were brave enough to take it on, others declined the challenge. Now, tackle it head on, and get done. What works for some is to have some kind of reward afterwards, e.g. a special movie or trip with a friend. This also inspires you to stay focused on getting it done by a date and time linked to the reward, that will follow after you delivered the job.

If you feel negative that you have not accomplished anything, take that blank sheet of paper and sub divide the space in family, career, spiritual, play and personal growth. List underneath each heading what you have accomplished or what you have done to change your own life and other’s lives for the good. Review this list next time you feel this way.

ADHD or ADD does not cause challenges to appear in your life. It is part of how you perceive the world and how you create your own reality. The guidance contained in this article aims to assist you to counter the paralysing effect your thoughts and thinking pattern has on you. Utilise these and improve on them if you wish to. Let me know what worked for you

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ADHD Treatments Available ? Part One

Posted by in Anxiety Disorders on August 8, 2011

Written by Gaillyn T. Hope

Cups and Balls, a technological treatment game for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is available free of charge on a web site dedicated to the topic of ADHD. The game was created specifically to reduce symptoms for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorde. Cups and Balls is one of many types of treatments available to assist in reducing the symptoms of ADHD.

This particular web site also contains a video serie, posted under FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions) which covers a wide range of topics all focused on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The video series which is about ADHD only, was written and narrated by a professional clinician experienced in treating ADHD patients. He is highly knowledgeable on the topic and professional in his delivery. Among the most informative videos in this series are the two on ADHD treatments. Apparently, there are so many treatments for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that it was necessary to address them in two separate videos. Part One covers: medications, neurofeedback, sensory integration dysfunction, and nutrition.

Regarding medications, the narrator first instructs the viewers to keep in mind that what works for one child may not work for another and also that the side effects may vary greatly from one person to another. Sometimes it is necessary to try several different medications as well as dosages on a person before the medication and its dosage selected can be included in the treatment plan. He goes on to emphasize that medications as well as other forms of treatments should be tailored and uniquely developed for each person.

The part of the video which addresses neurofeedback was perhaps the most technical portion. The narrator used some specialized jargon that I had heard before but did not clearly understand. I knew that to grasp his points about neurofeedback, I needed a clear layman’s definition. So-o-o, I visited my old friend, Webster, and his Webster’s New Reference Library. There was no entry for “neurofeedback;” therefore, I did a search on the Internet. While a definition was not forthcoming, I did learn that apparently the terms, “biofeedback,” and neurofeedback,” are interchangeable. I then went back to Webster and looked up, “biofeedback.” Bingo! There it was, “biofeedback,” and therefore “neurofeedback,” is “a technique by which one seeks to consciously regulate bodily function thought to be involuntary, as heartbeat, by using an instrument to monitor the function.” I combined this bit of information with what I gathered from the video, Treatment – Part One, which is posted on the web site, AttentionDeficitDisorderGame.com. Now I understand that neurofeedback uses a certain type of equipment to regulate brain waves.

The professional clinician explained that there are two kinds of brain waves involved with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, The Beta Waves and the Theta Waves. The narrator informs the viewer that the Beta waves are the brain waves used when concentrating and focusing on mental work. The Theta waves are the ones used when an individual is daydreaming. What has been learned about this in relationship to ADHD is that when children are concentrating on their schoolwork, Beta wave activity is significantly increased. However, when a child with ADHD attempts to concentrate, for instance on schoolwork, it is the daydreaming brain waves, the Theta waves, which increases. The clinician explains in the video, “Treatment- Part One,” that there are many neurofeedback exercises used for the purpose of training the brain to function normally.

Sensory Integration is also addressed in the first video on ADHD Treatments in this video series. The narrator informs the viewer that sensory input refers to what we see, hear, taste, smell and feel. A person with ADHD has difficulty processing and organizing sensory input in such a way that it can he can understand it. The clinician made a very interesting point about sensory integration and ADHD. He explained that neurologically, people with ADHD seem to have a deficit in sensory production. Behaviorally, the person with ADHD tends to overcompensate resulting in an inappropriate amount of physical activity which is the cause of the hyperactivity part of the disorder. Structured sensory input scheduled at consistent times, is used to provide the traditional sensory input needed to increase low sensory input up to appropriate levels.

The last aspect of ADHD Treatments addressed in Treatments- Part One in the video series on ADHD posted on Attention Deficit Disordergame.com is that of nutrition. The clinician states that nutrition now plays a large role in the treatment approach for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. According to the narrator, many studies have suggested that some foods tend to promote ADHD symptoms and at least increase them. One interesting outcome of these studies is regarding sugar. It has been thought for a long time that sugar causes ADHD symptoms. However, research discounts this theory rather than support it! Other research focuses on food additives, such as MSG, food coloring, and preservatives.

These, then, are the topics addressed in Treatments – Part One in the video series on ADHD available at AttentionDeficitDisordergame.com. The video was informative enough to motivate me to view Part Two, in order to obtain more complete knowledge on the treatments available for

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Gaillyn Hope is a former public elementary school teacher who is now a web writer, as well as a writer of children’s stories and tells her stories on line as well as in person. Her connection with education sparked her interest in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and its concerns.

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