Healthy Living With ADHD

A Quick guide To a Healthy Life With ADHD

Sooner or later we need to look for help...hopefully something good will come out of it!

A "haphazard" approach to improve life is going to do more harm than good. Usually what we hear from experts is the "single shot" approach. Whether "single shot" or "haphazard" we are still in trouble. Life is more complicated than that. Work, love, and play are all part of the drama. Every area of life is exaggerated and complicated by ADHD. It takes a coordinated plan of action to put enough changes in place that have the desired effect.

• Target the areas that are in most need of improvement.

• Rate those areas on a scale of 1 to 5 - 1 being better - 5 being worst.

• Keep a weekly record of how things are going by rating levels of improvement.

• Include all the major areas of  life - work - relationships - and play.

• Be specific - rate behavior, performance, etc.

• Get feed back from others i.e. teachers or trusted adult (also ADHD coach or specialist can help).

• Consult with resources that target each area and see what really works using your new approach.

• Be accountable - take responsibility - you can be the winner.

Do You Have Low self Esteem?

Low self esteem is all too common in people with ADD. Try this exercise:

Self Esteem Visualizations:

1. See your self making small positive steps.
2. Visualize the positive behavior in action.
3. Consider the positive consequences in your visualization.
4. Include body language which projects high self esteem.
5. Know you will struggle at first, then succeed, this is more realistic.
6. See yourself liking you more, treat your self that way - like good friend.
7. Your OK now, just maybe better in the future.
8. You have self esteem already, your are just giving it some fertilizer.
9. Combine visualizations with self affirmations to make it more effective...

An affirmation is a strong, positive, feeling rich statement that something is already so.

Like:

1. I love my self.
2. I am confident.
3. I am successful.
4. I do my best.
5. I am interested in life.
6. I am fine just the way I am.

Self-criticism is a enemy we can crush with practice. ADD gives self-criticism allot of ammunition. We must be vigilant and counter it every time we realize we are falling into that negative pattern.

When you see your child being hard on himself, ask him to say something positive to counter the pattern. Over the long term that habit will serve him well.

High self-esteem is essential for success in life. Let's work on it daily.
 

Monday Morning

The alarm goes off. You punch the snooze button for just a few more moments of blessed sleep. The inevitable must happen. You lift your head, throw the covers off, twist your body around and touch your feet on that cold floor. Life today, Monday, has started.

What is your mind set? Check it. Down or up. Negative or positive. This moment could set you up for the entire week. That first movement you stand and walk. Is it with pride and excitement or dragging your body with dismay?

Straighten up and guide your thoughts. Look out the window at that bird in your garden - chirping - innocent at the dangers of its life. Happy in its work. Living moment to moment in the fullest of its existence.

Look into your self and find that child. The one that used to be amazed at life. The ants on the ground to the planes flying over head. He is still there, buried under years of discouragement. The ADD fog, the countless self perceived failures. Labeling your self as different and full of faults.

You are as wonderful as that bird outside your window. ADD is only a piece of your life which has helped form who your are today. It does not define you. You have loved, had friends, laughed, and cried. You have thought and dreamed of things possible and impossible. God has touched you in ways only to be imagined. Life is an incredible gift to cherish - ADD or not.

ADD gives us the power to dream things no one else would dare. The fearlessness to attempt things others would give up before the starting gate. ADD gives us boundless energy when others want to sleep. Our inner child is right there with us. We don't bother with cynicism, it is too confining.

We are inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, and risk takers. Without us the world would be a very dull place.
 

The Internal Critic

What is an "Internal Critic"? It is that little voice inside you that issues self attacks at the slightest provocation.

Take a moment to think of some. Yech!

As an adult you can understand what I mean. Imagine what it is like for ADD kids. They just think that life is one long string of self blame and criticism. It is up to us to ask them what their reaction to things is and correct them. Tell them how to attack their internal critic. Use language appropriate to their age (avoid profanity).

Adults, the critic is more of a habit, dug in, with bunkers all around, harder to get at.

Let's blow that critic right out of the water. ADD or not, it does not belong there. We want to make it homeless, no longer our habit.

This will take effort, practice, and strong language indeed!

Parents, adapt this for your kids. Tell them they are too harsh on themselves, point out the best, the love you have, teach them to love themselves unconditionally. They can be happy and successful in life.

In my opinion, having loving people all around you is true success in life.

But, Ah!, the words to battle that internal critic for adults are quite strong, brace yourself:

This is poison stop it!
These are lies.
No more put downs.
Shut up!
Get off my back!
Stop this garbage!

Make up some of your own for practice.

Shout them inside, take dead aim at your internal critic. Be a sharp shooter. When you identify your critical voice, go on the attack. Blast it out of its bunker. It hides, is a trickster, sneaks around - you will find it and then boom.

Example: Like when you say to yourself: "I am ADD, I will never amount to anything", what could you think back at that. Oh, maybe like - "Get off my back!"

Don't let this internal criticism go on one day longer.

Attack the internal critic today, right now. No time to waste. One day passing being any less happy than we can be is too many.

For more read the book: "Self Esteem" by Mckay and Fanning.

Look for the ADD gold, dig it out and treasure it.

Remember, you are special, with attributes no one else has.

 

Communication and ADD.

One of the most difficult things to do and deal with on a day to day basis is communicating to some one with ADD. My wife will attest to that because I have ADD. The other day we were taking a drive and we passed down this street we commonly travel on. I was off in deep thought (day dreaming). We traveled back the same route and I commented that a house was for sale again, the fourth time in as many years. I wondered if it might be haunted or something. My wife looked at me with this quirky look. I asked her what was up. She said, in exasperation, that she had been talking about that same house with me on the way down. I made a joke but I know she felt bad. Sound familiar?


Steps to good communication with an ADD'er

1. Get eye contact.
2. Speak clearly and distinctly and in a normal tone of voice.
3. Present your request or information in a simple concise manner emphasizing you main point (for parents-what you want the child to do).
4. Verify that the person or child has heard what you said by asking them to repeat what you said.

Families:

Practice assertive communication.

Message is that the parents are clearly in charge and assume the leadership role.

Examples:

1. When you finish your chores you can go out to play.
2. Name calling is against the rules. Stop it or get your consequence!
3. Stop arguing immediately or go to Time-Out!

Be clear about consequences and shift responsibility to the child. The child can stop the behavior or take the consequence, their choice.

Parents with ADD have an added complication in that their patience can get thin pretty quick when attempting to help their ADD child behave better. ADD + ADD = HIGH STRESS. Beware that you don't take your frustration out on the child and make matters worse!

Monitor your self. Use you higher thinking process to separate the behavior from the child (or adult). The child is not the behavior, but your loved one is misbehaving.

For everyone: ADD is a set of no fault characteristics that include special gifts as well as difficulties. ADD is not a moral issue, and the ADD'er should not be blamed for having this disorder.

Practice good communication this week!

Conflict And ADD

The ADD brain is different in alarming ways. One particularly troublesome is it needs stimulation to "feel alive". The ADD brain is under active and wants to activate, to become supercharged. Here comes an opportunity for conflict - with a parent, school mate, or in adults a co-worker, wife, friend. We begin to say things that we consciously or unconsciously know will aggravate. Boom, the person responds with something inflammatory. We make a come back statement. The conflict begins. We begin to feel jazzed, alive. Our ADD brain is working like gang busters. This feels great! Only thing is we didn’t realize what we were about to do or know why we were doing it. Boy, do the people around us hate when we get like that. We alienate and aggravate, drive others away.

Becoming aware of this tendency to seek conflict is important for ADD’ers to self monitor to get along better socially. Often ADD’ers have difficulty in this area. We can be over bearing, pushy, and not listen well. All qualities that turn people off and make other kids stay away.

Talk with your kids or adult ADD’er about this tendency. Maybe even see a counselor to work on your impact on others. Social Skills groups for kids are sometimes recommended. ADD coaching can help for adults. We ADD’ers are not good at seeing our impact on others - we need the help of those who love us to alert us to when we are acting out and seeking conflict to "wake up" our ADD brain. Please remember we are not doing these things on purpose, our ADD brain is a trickster. It fools us all the time.

Following Instructions And ADD

Imagine the ADD brain as if it is a timer which runs on sand. Each grain passing through it at a given rate. Eventually there is no more sand and time runs out. The ADD brain is similar in that it can only hold a certain amount over a given period of time, any more and time runs out. Short term memory within someone with ADD  is limited in how long it can hold on to an idea. This is important when considering something as simple but important as giving and receiving instructions to do something.

An ADD teenager in my practice was experiencing this at home. His parents were getting very angry with him because he would agree to do something "later" and then forget - his timer ran out. His short term memory would loose the idea, without him realizing it, then trouble followed. The parents felt he should have more self discipline at his age. He couldn't comprehend their complaint. He felt he was doing his best to follow through on his commitments. Granted, sometimes it can be defiance, teenagers run on the pleasure principle and will tend to do what feels good first.

This is where a disability perspective comes in handy. We need to consider the functioning of the ADD brain when giving instructions and adjust our expectations accordingly. Give instructions in small increments in order to compensate for the realities of the short term memory in the ADD brain. If  long instructions are required write them down. If you are an adult with ADD. don't be prideful, take notes to avoid trouble later. Break instructions down into increments you are comfortable with. Make sure you are heard when giving instructions to someone with ADD, and adults with ADD, make sure you are taking it in by repeating them back to the person giving the instructions. Be practical and organized about it. Accepting the limits of short term memory in ADD will save many hard feelings later. As Dirty Harry said " A man's got to know his limitations", ladies with ADD,  you too!

Time Management and ADD.

Time is a critical factor in any one’s life but more so with ADD. Time perception is radically different for ADD’ers (due to brain chemistry differences). A minute can seem like an hour or an hour can seem like a minute. When ADD’ers hyper focus it can seem bazaar to others for they can spend a great deal of time on a pursuit which others might consider a waste of that time. If you ask them, they will say it only felt like a few minutes went by. Frustrating for those watching this happen to valuable time better spent elsewhere. To avoid this tendency, ADD’ers need to use strict time management strategies.

Try this: List tasks in categories 1 to 5.

1. Important and urgent. Do it now.

2. Important and not urgent. Do get them done.

3. Urgent but not important. Minor or trivial - a great deal of time is often wasted here.

4. Busy work. Marginal in importance - may feel productive, but don’t contribute much to goals.

5. Wasted time. TV shows, video games, pacing around the house. (Shouldn’t do much of these)

Adhere to your new schedule and organize, organize, organize, these words can not be repeated often enough for every one, but especially for adults with ADD and for parents of ADD kids.

If you have done your home work by now you know that the brain is the issue. It isn't working right and denying that will only delay finding a solution. You probably found many theories, but nothing that leads you to a solution - or one you are satisfied with any way. Has anyone asked you about your health and daily habits? If not please read on...

Go Aerobic...

You must include a daily aerobic exercise plan in your healthy living with ADD i.e. running/walking/sports vs. couch potato. Should decrease hyperactivity and increase focus.

Some Controversial Issues To Set Aside...

In this brief guide we present some basic guidelines for ADD survival. Here we will present some more controversial information - the link between specific vitamins, minerals, essentials oils, and amino acids and brain health. We are not claiming the following is a cure. Though we must point out that at this time July, 2008 - no one has published a definitive study or article explaining the cause of ADD. As you do your research you will notice only examples that prove the existence of ADD or AD/HD, not a virus, genetic component, or any definitive cause and effect relationship linked to the symptoms. What is going on in research today? Look around and you will find it pointing you toward only one solution.

Through a careful examination of the information that is out there we have found that we must take a stand here and present natural nutritional alternatives to brain health that no researcher could disagree are critical to brain functioning. Some would say that we are leading our readers astray and main stream therapies are the only way to go. We are contending that proper and "targeted" nutrition is not only "main stream", but essential.

Our pricing is the lowest we can offer as suppliers. We do make a small profit from your orders.  Our hope is that our credibility will not be brought into question. We offer only the best products here and maintain that not offering a supplement program would be shortchanging our readers.

With that said. Please read on.

Using supplements and a nutritious diet can help...

Can changes in diet and added supplementation make any difference? Could something so basic to life itself also effect the brain in specific ways?

We could get very complicated here and go on about neurotransmitters and brain scans but you can find that out on your own. To put it very basically - the brain needs the correct nutrients to function at its best. On the reverse side - putting bad things in our bodies will effect the way our brain works. An example is sugar. Sugar will give us an initial boost, only to let us down in  a big way once it gets exhausted. Starting your day out with a jelly donut or sugar based cereal doesn't make any sense when we know we have challenges to begin with. We are stacking the cards against us.

Essential Facts: Free E-mail series about amino acids and the brain

My bet is that most people take better care of their cars than they do themselves. Ever see your neighbor tinkering with his old car. He knows that old car has problems that need a high level of attention. That's us. We need a high level of attention to perform well and what we put in the tank can make the engine of our brain work better or worse. What if we put a bag of sugar in our car's tank? I think you can imagine the result.

A car needs only gas to run, but our brain's are more complicated than that. I am sure you have heard of many vitamins and minerals that we must have in order to stay alive. If we don't eat we die. If we don't eat well, we suffer with health problems directly related to what is missing or as a consequence of  putting bad things in (i.e. check out what happens to the brain of an alcoholic or drug addict).

Once again being organized is key...

• Keep track of everything we eat for one week.

• List what was healthy and what was not i.e. sugar vs. vegetables.

• Look at all ingredients in prepared foods.

• Look for unhealthy additives or a high percentage of sugar.

• Adjust accordingly.

• Use rating system to track the results.

There you have a good start to get you off and running, but...

Did you know that the medical community has taken a complete reversal on the need for adding at least a multi-vitamin to our daily diet? JAMA, the most prestigious medical journal in the world, recently published a study looking into our diets. They concluded that even if we eat every healthy food we can find, that is still not enough to keep us healthy throughout our lives. We have suggested a multi-vitamin from Unicity International Inc. for good reasons. The overall health benefits can be significant...

(See http://MakeLivingBetter.com Click category button Life Health™ for more information.)

Will a multivitamin do it? Perhaps...But...

What specific supplements might help?

What we want to do for ourselves is target the brain and give it the ingredients it requires to perform at its best. We recommend two products designed by a brain and neurotransmitter function supplement research firm called Neurogenesis Inc.. The products are called Neu Becalm'd and Encore Optima. Following are info links ...

Neu Becalm'd™  (See Month's Special)

Visit Web Site http://www.neuroessentials.com  or Call Neurogenesis Customer service at 800-862-5033 Please Reference 19529 - Ask About Monthly Special

• amino acids - sign up for e-mail education series on amino acids and the brain

• Neu Becalm'd full information and pricing at http://www.neuroessentials.com/Neu becalmd

Encore Optima  

• For full information and pricing http://www.neuroessentials.com/encore_optima

Potential Benefits

Talk to Someone

Many people have received significant results over many years when taking our recommended products.

Linda Clark has volunteered to speak to you about  trying Neu Becalm'd and the results she has seen in her son. She is a motivated advocate. Her son has taken Neu Becalm'd for many years. She would welcome your call 9 to 5 PM weekdays EST. She can also explain how to purchase our products, use of our products, and place an order for you. Unfortunately our products are not available in stores.

Talk with Linda Clark about her son: 1-866-227-0068 Extension 19529

Here are the links again to information that can help naturally and safely:

Start by adding an amino acid supplement: Amino Acid Discovery 

Take a closer look at what we recommend: Neu Becalm'd and Encore Optima

Do you know anyone who might need this program?

In one page you are presented here with an organized plan for living a more successful and healthy life. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Going it alone is independent, but awful lonely, and you  might go in the wrong direction.  I did that for years. Taking goal oriented action is key. What ever choice you make - track for results. Set goals. Keep records. See what is working and what is not. 

Let me know how you are doing at mike.walsh.ma@comcast.net 

If you have any questions, send me an e-mail, I am are here to help. By the way, my life is way more organized now! This system has helped me feel on track and focused for several years.

Sincerely,

Michael F. Walsh M.A. Clinical Psychology - ADHD Coach

Legal Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This information is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or mitigate any disease or disorder. Results vary. Check with your physician. FDA no longer permits testimonials be published, though you may see them on other supplement sites, that is illegal. This site is for information and marketing purposes only. Featured plan may promote a healthier, focused, and more productive life i.e. school, work, play, and relationships.

Words to live by:

 "The higher your confidence, the faster other people's doubts about you will evaporate."

Neu Becalm'd Customer Service 1-800-862-5033  Ref. 19529

Neu Becalm'd and The Brain:  http://www.neuroessentials.com

Neu-BeCalmd™ was developed through research at the University of Texas Health Science Center the work of several scientists at NeuroGenesis. Since 1984 FOUR PATENTS have been awarded.

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