The theme around ADHD awareness month last October was girls with ADHD so I was pleased to add my thoughts via the success of Late to the Party about how this area is so underdiagnosed – girls vs boys diagnosis is currently 1:3. This is in spite of the condition affecting both equally.
Back copies can be bought from ADDISS the National ADHD Information and Support Service whom I raised money for with the show in Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Brighton Fringe.
A great eleven minute plug for Late to the Party the performance for the Brighton Fringe, covering horse whipping by teachers; the damned of the village; nicknames; Rory Bremner’s recent diagnosis and other random facts about ADHD.
https://www.brightonfringe.org/box-office/shows/view/late-party
Looking forward to putting ADHD onto the stage at The Brighton Fringe next month.
We all know that ADHD’s impulsivity can mean the difference between doing something and not doing it. And in business, that can make a big difference when coupled with an ADHDer’s intuition. This is the finding from the latest UK study published in Science Daily this month offering business leaders a different way of looking at entrepreneurial skills. See below for the full findings…
The symptoms of ADHD foster important traits associated with entrepreneurship. That conclusion was reached in a study conducted by an international team of economists, who found that entrepreneurs with ADHD embrace new experiences and demonstrate passion and persistence. Their intuitive decision making in situations involving uncertainty was seen by the researchers as a reason for reassessing existing economic models.
I love this line in this FT journo’s farewell column today. Susie Boyt neatly sums up that ‘overwhelm’ that so many of us Adhders experience, and frames it in a positive way. On the eve of a New Year…when I can feel a city going crazy.
“A small part of me still believes that to be the person in the room with the most feelings is to be the best person. I know it’s not wise or fashionable to say so, but it is one way of having maximum life”.
Beautifully put. Happy New Year!
Sari Solden is the best champion there is for women with ADHD, she’s been a psychotherapist in the US helping women specifically with ADHD for 30 years, and has it herself. Although her first book Women with Attention Deficit Disorder was published a long time ago, 1995, her new book “Journey Through Adulthood” manages to be both instructive and intuitive as it handles the complex emotions that dealing with Adult ADHD may bring up – particularly for those diagnosed late.
She joined the podcast crew on the ADDA (Adult ADHD) website for ADHD Awareness month and gave a short 9 minute talk on how the diagnosis can be the beginning of something new and exciting, rather than the normal doom and gloom peddled around Continue reading “Sari Solden -poster girl for ADHD women”
And a big thanks to our friends across the pond, including the irrepressible Dr Ned Hallowell for wading in with the positives of this condition – in a TADD talk here . For anyone who hasn’t heard of ADDA, the Adults with ADHD part of the volunteer-run US website, it’s been going for over 20 years, and has a lot of access to experts and professional articles. Keep up the good work ADDA, and I’ve just joined at $5 a month to put my money where my mouth is.
I thought this survey on ADHD and their partners was fascinating because of the Gappiness between what how the ADHDers thought they were doing, and how they were actually doing. It is also kind of heartbreaking how the initial attraction of spontaneity begins to grate over the years and turns into unreliable.
There is also something touching about the generosity that is afforded the ADHDers, although one can’t help feeling that it is linked closely to the fact that no partner seems to be attracted to their financial management. Continue reading “Is it you, me or ADHD? Author on relationships surveys…”
For me, the Take-Home tip from this podcast – was the “Do Not Disturb” on your phone. Usually when writing, I leave my phone downstairs but today I didn’t by mistake – and I was tempted by the constant boings of push-notifications to read emails half way through. Damn, I then lost my thread.
Her idea to turn on the Do Not Disturb mode on the I-phone (if you swipe up from the bottom as if using the Torch, it is a “crescent moon” shape on the tool bar) is genius.
There’s a great blog by an American author called Tess Messer, a mother of an adopted ADHD-er with Combined Hyperactive and Inattentive, and an ADHD biological son who is Primarily Inattentive. She herself had it as a child and writes eloquently, in an All-American fashion about what it is like to sit in 5th Grade with it here on her blog
“I wanted to give you a sense of how a child with Primarily Inattentive ADHD might appear at school.
Do you see that kid in the corner of the room. She is in 5th grade and is lost in her own thoughts. She knows better than to look out the window. She is staring straight ahead. She has not heard a word the teacher has said. She is thinking about why her teenage cousin is so obsessed with that boy with the funny hair.
Now everyone has reached for their math books. Now all the math books are on the desks. Now everyone is writing. Where is my math book? What page are they on? Where is my pencil? She wonders. She finally finds her book and her pencil and manages to sneak a look at the desk in front of her to find the correct page but the lesson is over. The teacher is talking about homework. She is confused and way behind.
