ADD / ADHD Coaching Blog

Children born to Older Dads

As many as 50 percent of A.D.D. affected people may have another syndrome during their lifetime; most commonly depression, anxiety disorder, learning disabilities or bipolar disorder.

Only 15 percent of those eight million actually know they have A.D.D. but all are looking for a label for their lifelong restlessness, spaciness, jumping from one subject to the next, easily distracted from completing tasks and meeting deadlines that adversely affect their world of work.

Previous research has connected schizophrenia and autism with children born to older dads, and a Danish study published last year added bipolar disorder to the list.  Biopolar affects more than five million Americans. The new study led by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute strenghtens the evidence.

The leading theory is that older men's sperm may be more likely to develop mutations.  Even so, the odds of a person becoming bipolar are so low that the study's authors said it shouldn't dissuade older men from becoming fathers.  The study appears in the September 2008's Archives of General Psychiatry.

Researchers analyzed Swedish national registry data from more than 80,000 people, including 13,428 with bipolar disorder who were born between 1932 and 1991.  The risks started around age 40 but were stronger among those 55 and older.  Children born to those dads were 37% more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those born to men in their 20s.  The age of the mothers didn't appear to be much of a factor. 

These children also faced more than double the risk of developing bipolar disorder before age 20.  Scientists call that early onset disease, and while they have long known that bipolar disorder tends to run in families, early onset disease has been thought to be most strongly linked with genetics.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2008

Early Intervention of Autism Matters

As many as 50 percent of A.D.D. affected people may have another syndrome during their lifetime; most commonly depression, anxiety disorder, learning disabilities or bipolar disorder.

Only 15 percent of those eight million actually know they have A.D.D. but all are looking for a label for their lifelong restlessness, spaciness, jumping from one subject to the next, easily distracted from completing tasks and meeting deadlines that adversely affect their world of work. Some of these are "sleeper A.D.D. people" who have gotten really good at using their creativity and intelligence to cover the disorder. However, when evaluated for A.D.D., they see the cost of the incredible effort they have put forth to get to this point in their life and the influence of the disorder in the decisions they have made.

Early diagnosis of A.D.D. and autism syndrome in young children allow parents to initiate behavorial therapy--a common treatment that is more effective early in life. 

Autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger's syndrome, affect about 560,000 Americans under 21, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The autism disorder is found in one out of every 150 children by the time they turn 8 years old.  With the number of autistic children growing, researchers are targeting new technologies to help detect the disorder at ever-younger ages in hopes of reversing some of autism's worst symptoms.

Because of parents' tendency for denial, blindness toward their baby's autism signs and/or deciding to postpone the financial burden of early intervention, most autistic children are not screened and diagnosed early enough.  Yet, very intensive early intervention can significantly reduce the symptoms of autism.

By identifying children early who may be at risk of developing autism, even without a definitive diagnosis, parents can consider initiating behavioral therapy, the most widely validated treatment for the condition.  Studies of autistic children indicate that preschool-age kids receiving intensive treatment show greater gains in language and IQ scores than children whose treatment begins at older ages.  But diagnosis and therapy can be expensive and therefore easily ignored by parents not ready, willing and able to accept their child's condition and the need for early intervention.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2008

ADDing Focus Coaching Program

ADDClasses.com is offering a brand new ADHD Coaching Program this summer! Beginning on July 23rd Diane Ladd will be leading the 6-week program ADDing Focus.

The regular cost for ADDing Focus is $247 but we are currently offering an early bird special of only $147. If you sign up for ADDing Focus before July 9, 2008 you will save $100.

Space is limited in ADDing Focus and we have had a lot of interest in this program. Space for ADDing Focus is already beginning to fill up!

ADDClasses.com is going to be exhibiting at the ADDA Conference later this month too. Due to the interest we have already had and the exposure at the ADDA Conference we are expecting ADDing Focus to sell out!

If you are interested make sure you sign up ASAP at www.addingfocus.com!

ADHD and the 5 Stages of Grief

Several years ago, I used to work for a small college in the Learning Assistance department. A large number of the students that I worked with had Attention Deficit Disorder and/or learning disabilities.

I was thinking today about some of the students that I used to know, and in typical ADD fashion, my brain made a connection between ADD and the 5 Stages of Grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance).

It started with one student in particular - a young man with both AD/HD and learning disabilities who still managed to get good grades and who had an air of self-assurance about him. He required a number of accommodations due to his disabilities, and always made sure he got exactly what he needed in order to do his best. He did it quietly and politely, but also without shame or embarrassment. He had accepted what was, and then moved on.

I think that acceptance of our AD/HD is an important step in the way we live our lives, and an important lesson for parents of AD/HD children. I have always said that it is OK to use ADD as an explanation for your behavior, but not as an excuse. Acceptance allows you to do that; in fact, acceptance takes you out of the victim role of "excuse" and allows you to simply be who you are - no explanation necessary.

Brenda Nicholson

ADD Book Club Starts Monday

This a reminder that the first ADD Book Club call of 2008 will be on Monday January 7th at 9:00 pm EST. During the month of January the ADD ADD Book Club will be discussing the book Odd One Out. The ADD Book Club is a great resource to connect with other adults who also have ADHD and learn better ways to manage your ADHD.

Each week during the month of January the ADD Book Club Coach will lead a discussion about the book Odd One Out and go over simple strategies for living more effectively with ADHD. In between the weekly calls ADD Book Club members also have the opportunity to receive support from each other through the ADD Book Club forum.

Don't miss out on this great opportunity to start off 2008 by learning better ways to manage your ADHD!

Sign up NOW for the ADD Book Club at http://www.addbookclub.com!

Mindset: Why executives thrive or barely survive

Mindset shapes our mental world, influences our outlook, determines the scope of our goals, and ultimately sets us on a path of growth and fulfillment ---or--- one of stagnation.

Executive suites are filled with high achievers who boast high IQs and stellar accomplishments.  Still, some stagnate, while others thrive and continue to shine.

The mindset we develop over the years (heavily influenced by our parents and teachers) can have a powerful grip on our attitude toward learning and achieving.  In fact, it’s the key to fulfillment, explaining why high IQ scores fail to adequately predict success.

Do you or an executive client have an open or closed mindset?  Click here for the answer.

Teenage Weird Thinking

The ability to document the brain as it matures, made possible by harmless, noninvasive imaging techniques, is transforming our understanding of what it means to come of age.

Not so long ago, scientists were convinced that critical periods of brain development occurred only during the first few years of childhood.  Long-term imaging surveys, however, reveal that adolescence also is a crucial time in the life of the brain.

By most measures, the teenage years are the healthiest and most resilient time of life; yet they are also among the most volatile and vulnerable.   The mental and emotional turbulence of adolescence may reflect dynamic waves of change in parts of the brain associated with impulse control, judgment, attention and anxiety.

Prompted by puberty, impressionable teenage brain cells radically rewire themselves, researchers have learned.  At a neural level, consequently, adolescents often process information differently from either children or adults because the anatomy of reason and decision is in such flux.  Unused neural circuits are discarded during normal growth and young adults end up with less of the gray matter of neurons than a newborn, even though their brains may become three or four times as big.

The impulsivity and poor judgment of clinical attention-deficit disorders (A.D.D.) in many cases may be caused by a momentary lag in the timing of cortical growth, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Within a few years, they determined, a normal brain will correct itself.

Even the normal pace of development can exasperate parents and teachers.  The scatter-brain qualities of the normal teenager arise, in part, because neural circuits that control our ability to focus mentally on more than one thing at a time don't finish developing until late adolescence, researchers at the University of Minnesota reported recently in the journal Child Development.

Source: Science Journal, The Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2007

Prevent the Post-Holiday ADHD Money Blues!

As an ADHD Coach, wife and mother of ADHDers, I know how difficult the holidays can be, especially on the pocketbook. ADHDers react impulsively to the excitement of commercial advertising. As a result you often spend too much and get into debt more easily.  Then spend the next few months having to reduce your grocery bill to pay for your splurge over the holidays. Been there, done that, after all I have been married to an ADHDer for 23 years and so many of my clients come to me to get help with your financial health.

Most experts will tell you to make a household budget and stick to it. The problem is that household budgets are boring and so they don't ignite your ADHD brain. Instead, use your creative brain to find amazing ideas that add value instead of sleepless nights. We have become such a society of consumers that we forget that what makes the holidays memorable is not the big gift we received but the quality of the time you spend with your loved ones.

Some of our best Christmas memories as a family was the time I spent with my daughters when they were young creating decorations for the tree or baking fun cookies. And each year we're reminded of those times with the decorations we created so many years ago that still don our tree each year. We make it a point to decorate as a family.

That was my story. Now it's your turn: I challenge you to come up with and share ideas of how you can make the holidays more meaningful for you and your loved ones.

From Coach Linda Walker

Neurodiversity

A group called "Aspies for Freedom" runs a website that celebrates what it calls neurodiversity, arguing that there are advantages as well as disadvantages in an autistic condition.

The reporter Amy Harmon wrote in the New York Times that some autistics view themselves as part of "an ad hoc human rights movement" and view autism itself as "an integral part of their identities, much more like a skin than a shell, and not one they care to shed."

Asperger's syndrome was recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994.  There is no cure for Asperger's syndrome, and there is even some question whether it should be considered an affliction or merely a "difference"--one of many human variants.

The syndrome was identified, in 1944, by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, who wrote, "For success in science or art, a dash of autism is essential."  Yet Oliver Sacks makes a clear distinction between full-fledged autism and Asperger's syndrome.  In the Times some years ago, Sacks wrote that "people with Asperger's syndrome can tell us of their experiences, their inner feelings and states, whereas those with classical autism cannot.  With classical autism there is no 'window' and we can only infer.  With Asperger's syndrome there is self-consciousness and at least some power to introspect and report."

In his 1998 book, "Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals," Tony Attwood observed, "The person with Asperger's syndrome has no distinguishing physical features but is primarily viewed by other people as different because of their unusual quality of social behavior and conversation skills.

David Mamet, in his recent book, "Bambi vs. Godzilla," discerned redeeming qualities in the condition.  Considering filmmakers past and present, he stated that "it is not impossible that Asperger's syndrome helped make the movies.  The symptoms of this developmental disorder include early precocity, a great ability to maintain masses of information, a lack of ability to mix with groups in age-appropriate ways, ignorance of or indifference to social norms, high intelligence, and difficulty with transitions, married to a preternatural ability to concentrate on the minutia of the task at hand."

The Asperger's spectrum ranges from people barely more abstracted than a stereotypical "absent-minded professor" to the full-blown, albeit highly functioning, autistic.  Symptoms of Asperger's have been attributed ex post facto to successful figures, but these care the fortunate ones--persons able to invent outlets for their ever-welling monomanias.  Many are not so lucky, and some end up institutionalized or homeless.

Source: Parallel Play by Tim Page in The New Yorker, August 20, 2007

Is Your ADD Getting In The Way of Your Coaching?

I’m always surprised when I hear from a client that their previous coach was often late for coaching appointments, sloppy with billing, and sometimes appeared distracted during calls.

Are you a good role model for your clients? Do you inspire confidence? As ADD coaches we need to maintain a certain level of professionalism. Our clients need to know that they can count on us for structure and stability, despite our own difficulties.

Although having ADD may build a certain amount of camaraderie between you and your clients, you need to make sure that it is not getting in the way of your coaching relationship.

If you are a coach with ADD – get your own coach or coach yourself through your difficulties. You are your greatest testimonial!