Pre-Order "Succeeding wtih Adult ADHD" NOW!

"Succeeding With Adult ADHD: Daily Strategies to Help You Achieve Your Goals and Manage Your Life" is now available for Pre-Order!

www.apa.org/pubs/books ISBN 978-1-4338-1125-8 Item # 4441017

In easy-to-master lessons, ADHD specialists Abigail Levrini and Frances Prevatt offer realistic, proven, and unique daily strategies to help you succeed with adult ADHD. Each chapter contains checklists, worksheets, and Start Reading/Stop Reading reminders to help you break down large jobs, such as organizing your space, studying effectively, or listening to your partner, into manageable tasks. You'll learn how to identify the right treatments and support for your lifestyle and find strategies for handling emotional roadblocks such as stress, anxiety, depression, and fear of failure. This dynamic and interactive text will become an indispensable aid in helping you translate your goals into realities to succeed with adult ADHD.

If you've been diagnosed with adult ADHD, you are well-acquainted with the pitfalls that can thwart your best efforts to achieve your goals. You may find yourself constantly distracted, or fear you're about to forget something important. Or you may firmly set a goal for yourself, only to abandon it later in frustration. This book will help you overcome the challenges of adult ADHD and find fulfillment in taking the practical steps needed to achieve your goals. 2012. 272 pages. Paperback

First look at my new book!

Here is a first look at the cover art for the new book! It will hit the shelves February 15, 2012. Copyright APA 2012.

Why Being Diagnosed with a Learning Disability as an Adult is NORMAL

Last week, I went to dinner with a group of old high school friends I hadn't seen in awhile. There I learned that my friend--we'll call her Lulu--had just come from being assessed for ADHD and learning disabilities. Lulu is 27, and has always been an excellent student. About a month ago, after completing an intense medical program at Columbia University, she had taken the MCATs in hopes of getting in to medical school and had, in her words, "bombed" the test.

Most of our friends who have known Lulu were shocked and surprised when they heard about the possibility of her being diagnosed with a learning disability or ADHD. They were even more shocked when Lulu explained that the psychologist had already determined that at the very least she definitely has ADHD. How could someone who has always done so well in school and come across as incredibly intelligent, have a learning disability?

Being a specialist in this area, I wasn't quite as surprised. Like a lot of older students and working adults I have come across throughout my career, even with very caring and observational parents, learning disabilities and ADHD often get overlooked throughout childhood and even throughout adulthood. Just last year I worked with a woman I diagnosed as ADHD at the age of 58, and she had never before been told that it was even a possibility.

Here's the thing. People with learning disabilities and/or ADHD aren't stupid! In fact, the reason the diagnosis can get overlooked for so long is a testament to how smart a lot of them are. They find ways of coping with their weaknesses, often working harder than the rest of us to keep up, but fooling everyone in the process---parents, teachers, and friends.

In Lulu's case, she had coped so well and is so intelligent that she made almost perfect grades throughout high school, SAT's, college, AND her med program, and only discovered that she might have an attention problem or other learning disability when her standard coping skills stopped working when she attempted the MCAT.

It is wonderful how much people focus on childhood interventions. My 5-year-old nephew has been going to PT and OT and every other T since he was two, and it has been tremendous for him. Still, the need for older adolescent and adult interventions is never going to change. And to parents who may be feeling guilty for not "seeing" the problem earlier, I hope this helps to explain that it's no ones' fault. The reason you didn't see your child's disability is because your child is so adaptable. Learning disabilities and ADHD don't form later in life or come out of thin air, it's simply that a person's environment changes to the point that they are no longer able to creatively adapt and cope on their own.

People like my friend Lulu are one of the main reasons I feel so passionately about coaching. Coaching allows individuals to work with professionals and come up with creative ways of reinventing coping skills so that they will work as challenges become more and more difficult. It is fitting the system to the person and not the other way around. People like Lulu CAN reach their dreams, they may just need a little help along the way.

FREE Copy of Master Your Money: Paying Bills On Time with Adult ADD

Click the link to get a free copy of Master Your Money: Paying Bills On Time with Adult ADD. In these times of economic hardship, we could probably all take a few lessons!

http://www.additudemag.com/RCLP/sub/2750.html

Do You Have Adult ADHD? Why Diagnosis Is Critical

The following is a brief article from attitudemag.com

Attention deficit disorder (ADD ADHD) is being diagnosed in adults in their 20s, 30s, or, in some cases, in grandparents who are in their mid-60s.

Many adults with ADHD say that they weren't even aware of the disorder until they had a child who was diagnosed. After seeing ADHD in their children, these undiagnosed adults gradually realized that they had the same signs and symptoms. Why would it be important to diagnose someone has made it through school, has a job, and has somehow managed to hang around the planet for more than a quarter of a century?

ADHD is not some monolithic diagnosis that affects all people the same way. Some people with ADHD have learning disorders, some do not. Some ADHD people are extremely intelligent, others have average or even below average IQ. Some come from supportive homes, others come from dysfunctional families and had to raise themselves. All of these factors affect the impact of ADHD on the life of the individual. The child genius who has supportive parents will be better able to compensate for his or her ADHD.

Many ADHD adults have learned to hide their cluttered desks behind closed office doors; they learn to look attentive even when they have no idea what has just been said. These and other survival skills help to cloak their ADHD.

But, eventually, even the child genius finds that coping skills only go so far. Frustration becomes more apparent as the gap between ability and actual performance grows. After years of being able to get by on innate intelligence and other abilities, these undiagnosed ADHD adults realize that there is nothing left in their bag of tricks.

Research on ADHD adults illustrates the scope of the problem. Twenty-five percent of ADHD participants in the study did not graduate from high school versus 1% of the participants who did not have ADHD.

On a positive note, half of the ADHD students who did not graduate were able to obtain a General Education Diploma by taking the GED test. Only 15% of ADHD participants had completed a bachelor's degree compared to more than half of the Non-ADHD group having completed a bachelor's degree or higher. Other studies report finding that as few as 5% of AD/HD people who attend college actually obtain a degree (American Journal of Psychiatry, April, 1998)

Three percent of the adults in the ADHD group were enrolled in graduate school or had completed a graduate degree, compared to sixteen percent of those in the Non-ADHD group were either enrolled or had completed a graduate degree program when the follow up survey was conducted.

Education and career goals are not the only reasons why these patients seek treatment. The ADHD adult begins to feel unable to cope, as the responsibilities of marriage, parenting, mortgage payments and more begin to pile on. This frustration may lead to self-medication with illicit drugs or alcohol, both of which present even more problems of their own. Jobs suffer and relationships perish. An overall sense of failure begins to take over.

Breaking this cycle of failure and frustration is the primary goal of treatment for the ADHD adult.