Posted on July 7, 2011 by Dan Weigold

“All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room” – Blaise Pascal

Somewhere around 8 million adults face the issues that are brought on by ADHD. Many of these adults don’t even know they have ADHD, and perhaps are even unaware that their lives are being short changed by ADHD. For many, their disorganized lives, forgetfulness, inattention, and completing work accurately or difficulty concentrating has always been with them and it seems normal. There may have been times when the frustration built up and boiled over, but still, it was normal for them and they didn’t know there was a problem.

A person with ADHD may not be the jumpy, fidgety, active person that is so often characterized, but may just be quiet and unfocused. ADHD shows up in many flavors, and that makes ADHD for some, continue to be undiagnosed.

Today, children that are inattentive or bouncy are tested for ADHD, but many adults have grown up without the benefit of the ADHD diagnosis (a benefit being that if they knew, they could have developed coping techniques at a younger age).  People with ADHD tend to be creative, imaginative, and intelligent. Many ADHD adults grew up and found a way to survive the educational system that is based on following a tradition of teaching by lecture and following directions.  For many ADHD people, the traditional methods of teaching are ineffective, unless the subject material is highly compelling. Many intelligent and capable children were categorized as lazy, inattentive, careless, or worse, by the educational system and pushed through. The child with ADHD/ADD that was never diagnosed with ADHD may have felt at some point in their life that they were not “good enough”, that they were “lazy”. That negative self-image impacts them nearly all of their life.

Meal times can be difficult for the energized child or adult with ADHD.  Who would have imagined that the dinner plate would turn into a story board? Broccoli would stand up and become trees. Mashed potatoes would turn into a castle, and gravy would become a highway that carrots could travel on…

For adults with ADHD. their lives are complicated by experiencing many of these issues:

-Lateness or forgetfulness
-Easily frustrated
-Trouble concentrating when reading
-Lack of positive self-esteem
-Easily bored
-Impulsive behavior
-Lack of organization (piles of stuff)
-Anxiety/worry
-Decreased confidence
-Employment concerns (routine, stress, task switching)
-Procrastination

Often, what it means to the ADHD adult is that their career options need to be adjusted so that they can find work that is meaningful and fulfilling. Job descriptions that say “highly organized”, “fast paced”, “ability to multi-task”, may not be the ideal jobs for the ADHD person. Jobs that emphasize “creativity”, “collaboration”,  and “variety” may be better suited to the ADHD adult.

At home, the constant turmoil of ADHD may result in low levels of depression, especially when there are people who are not ADHD impacted and all they see are things that aren’t getting done. The intention is there to get things done, but for some reason, they just don’t seem to get done on a regular basis, and that creates stress for the non-ADHD person.

For many women, ADHD is a much more subtle disorder in terms of being detectable,  however the impacts are still very real. There tends to be a lot less external, physical activity that takes place, so the obvious symptoms of restlessness are not present and ADHD doesn’t get detected or is diagnosed as some other disorder. Some women with ADHD may appear to be depressed (that would happen with negative messaging that lowers confidence and self-esteem as a result of being forgetful or disorganized) and be treated for something other than ADHD.

ADHD can be treated with drugs, however, many people don’t like the side effects that the drugs produce. In these cases, alternative methods need to be developed. For most people, managing ADHD means developing coping mechanisms so that they can work in a world primarily designed and run by people who don’t have ADHD.

If you feel you have ADHD, or know you have ADHD, what can you do to improve your ability to work in an increasingly complex world?

1. Find out what matters to you. What are you passionate about?
2. Find your strengths, talents, gifts – describe them.
3. Set appropriate goals that will allow you to move forward.
4. Have someone help you be accountable to reaching your goals.  (Give someone permission to ask you how you are doing.  Get away from excuse making – it doesn’t serve you). Include hiring a coach to work with you on managing ADHD, at least until some positive patterns and routines can be developed as a strategy for managing ADHD symptoms.
5. Find a method, or methods, to increase focus on “one” thing per day.  (use clocks, alarms, colored reminders, the bathroom mirror, or something to remind you of doing one important thing per day). Find a way to “remind” you of what “should” happen today.
6. Just do it.   Difficult for the ADHD person to just do rather than looking at it, staring at it and looking some more (daydreaming your way to success won’t happen).
7. Find a career that allows you to use your strengths and talents (variety, imagination, creativity)

If you have ADHD, what have you tried?  What has worked for you?

What are the biggest challenges you face?

What would you like to change?