Author Emma Mahony and journalist Clare Catford ignore Brexit and Covid to offer their three positive intentions for this New Year. So, what would yours be?
ADHD Lockdown 3 diaries – New Year intentions
Category: Adult ADHD
ADHD Lockdown 2 diaries – Blessed are the cracked.
Emma Mahony talks about how spiritual beliefs can help greatly in managing ADHD with journalist Clare Catford, ADHDer and presenter of many BBC radio programmes on faith.
ADHD Lockdown 2 Diaries – Women vs Men
Following the launch of Emma Mahony’s book Better Late Than Never about ADHD late diagnosis, and the tricky interview on Woman’s Hour with Jane Garvey, we are joined by journalist Clare Catford to discuss the differences between men and women’s experience, particularly in the light of the broadcaster Adrian Chiles’ podcast in the Guardian .
The ADHD Lockdown diaries – #BLM final
In this final ADHD Lockdown 1 diary, Clarissa Vorfeld offers a Swiss view from across the channel of the new normal with Covid-19 
restrictions lifted, while Emma Mahony talks to Dr Jude Smith Rachele in the US about the need to slow down to examine the impace of the #BlackLivesMatter protests.
Attention Management not Time Management
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.
Hyperfocus – confused? You will be…
Hyperfocus
For all that scattered attention, mindwandering, forgetfulness and disorganization there is an even more confusing aspect to ADHD that is often cited as evidence for why the person can’t have it at all. Hyperfocus, the ability to lose time and be completely absorbed by some interesting occupation, and interesting is the crucial word here, seems to suggest that the adhder can pay attention when it suits them.
Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired
When Dr Ned Hallowell, the ADHD expert from America, came to the UK – I was surprised to learn that he controlled his own ADD symptoms with coffee rather than medication. Any ADHDer is likely to LOVE coffee, or have an on-off relationship with it, knowing that overly wired means that you just do stupid things faster. Here is a neuroscientist explaining how to use coffee to your best advantage….
Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world, but few use it to maximal advantage. Get optimally wired with these tips. Continue reading “Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired”
ADHD is real – so why question it?
The British ADHD organization – ADDISS – ran a campaign a few years ago in ADHD awareness week (this year happening on October 14 ) called “ADHD IS real”. I can’t think of many Awareness weeks that have to focus on the fact that the condition they are campaigning about actually exists.
Few mental health issues seem to suffer from the same stigma as ADHD. When I asked the head of the UK ADDISS, Andrea Bilbow OBE, to explain to me why I could only find well-funded parenting groups for Autism and Aspergers in my area, and nothing for ADHD, she explained: “Autism has the Aaahh factor, people feel sorry for the sufferers or carers. ADHD is just seen as annoying”.
Continue reading "ADHD is real – so why question it?"
The Times of London reports: Substance abuse among the older generation in the UK
Yesterday’
s Times published a new report by the Home Office showing that although illegal drug use has fallen among the young in the past year, it has increased among older adults for the past 18 years. But Why? Continue reading “The Times of London reports: Substance abuse among the older generation in the UK”
Now Dr Saul wades in with ADHD doesn’t exist
Doctors are getting themselves in a right twist. In response to the previous post on the New York Times piece, Behavioural Neurologist Dr Richard Saul in Chicago has waded in, puffing his provocatively titled book called “ADHD does not Exist” (ironically reviewed by Belinda Luscombe on the same site as one of the Top Ten ADHD books here ). Dr Saul’s stance argued on the Time Magazine’s website here has a particular beef with the new diagnostic manual for mental health (DSM V), which awards ADHD to anyone displaying a minimum of five out of 18 possible symptoms.
His views will no doubt curry favour with Daily Mail readers, who do see this massive upsurge in ADHD diagnosis and medication as a problem, and also with those who feel that taking medication for ADHD is in some way “cheating” in life – whether offering extra focus at school or in the workplace (something that is shown to be not the case in the more level-headed recent Time Magazine piece by Denise Foley in another piece . Foley points out that even with meds, the attention of an ADHD child is still below the par of a “normal” child in school).
Without blamming the reader with any more Time Mag pieces to read, what Dr Saul does not to address in his piece, Continue reading “Now Dr Saul wades in with ADHD doesn’t exist”
