AD/HD and Doing It Your Own Way…
The quote below, which was sent to me from a client, serves a powerful reminder of the power of perseverance, as well as the need to find your own way to accomplish what is important to you.
…every now and then even streams and rivers have incredibly tough obstacles between their starting points and where they want to meander (like mountains!) but over the years they just keep on chipping away and turning and finding other ingenious ways to access where they're going. So I'm not fluid like an established flowing river, but I'm slowly carving out a crooked sort of flow… Ok off to do some eroding.
As the above quote suggest, by taking into consideration your areas of weakness and strength in designing the most effective ways to operate, you can significantly increase your chances of success.
It is important to acknowledging the impact of your ADHD, as this will give you the information you need to create an appropriate plan that will work with your ADHD, and not against it. As part of this plan, you can identify your strengths and other strategies to minimize the impact of your challenges. In addition, you will know which resources will be the most helpful in your effort to reach your goal(s).
So, if the way you are operating now is not working, please, don't continue to do it the same way. Figure out what is getting in your way and what to do about it.
Below is an adaptation of Thomas Brown's Model of Executive Functions Impaired in ADHD. As you take a closer look at this model, consider how your own ADHD symptoms manifest themselves and hinder your ability to reach your goals
While this is by no means comprehensive in its scope, my intent in this section is to highlight some of the ways that ADHD may be impacting your functioning. It would be impossible to address everyone's challenges in format like this as everyone has a unique makeup, including possible comorbid disorders.
The importance for you of being aware of your own ADHD related traits cannot be overstated. It is only with this awareness that you will be able to identify and create strategies to deal with these in order to reach your goals.
| Executive Function Used | Areas of Challenges | Strategies |
| Activation: Organizing, Prioritizing & Activating to Work | -Lack plan to meet goals -Knowing the best order of strategies to reach goal -Being able to start and knowing where to start | |
| Focus: Focusing. Sustaining Focus, & Shifting Focus to Tasks | -Staying on task -Persisting with tasks -Shifting from one task to another | |
| Effort: Regulating Alertness, Sustaining Effort & Processing Speed | -Maintaining interest -Keeping necessary level of effort to move forward -The speed at which you are able to process thoughts | |
| Emotion: Managing Frustration & Modulating Emotion | -Give up too easily -Don’t experiment for a sufficient amount of time | |
| Memory: Utilizing Working Memory & Accessing Recall | -Trouble remembering what has worked and what has not worked in the past -Forget plans, commitments and appointment | |
| Action: Monitoring and Self Regulating Action | -Difficulty paying attention to conversation -Hard to participate in give and take of conversation – Hard to settle in, on the |
Photo Credits:Some rights reserved by makelessnoise
