Summary: Addressing Adult ADHD Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes AllCEUs.com Counselor Education Podcast Hots: Counselor Toolbox, Addiction Counselor Exam Review, Happiness Isn’t Brain Surgery Objectives ~ Identify current points to remember about ADHD ~ Learn how to help motivate a person with ADHD ~ Identify ways to get someone with ADHD started even without motivation ~ Review treatment goals for clients ~ Identify interventions that can help people reach treatment goals ~ Explore an activity to help clients develop their action plan. Note ~ While boys are diagnosed with ADD three times more often than girls, this is likely because, in girls, the disorder typically presents as the “inattentive” or “dreamy” type (staring out windows or drifting off midconversation), as opposed to the “hyperactive” type. ~ Giftedness and ADHD often co-occur ~ The brains of people who are gifted operate faster than non-gifted leading to ~ Interrupting ~ Movement Things to Remember ~ ADHD is not a character flaw ~ ADHD recovery is a team effort ~ ADHD often responds well to medication ~ Pills do not give skills ~ Keep an inventory of things the person does right ~ People with ADHD find it hard to demonstrate what they know to someone else Things to Remember ~ Motivation is essential (ED) ~ The importance of a task and the rewards of completing it don’t motivate a person with ADHD to get things done ~ Embracing his deeply held values or things that are important to him can help an individual with ADHD get things done and stay focused. (JFK) ~ Competition can help. Even if it is only against self ~ Improved sense of competence also helps Motivation Prompts ~ What excites you or recharges your batteries? ~ Think about a time in your past when completing a similar type of task wasn’t so hard. What was different? Can you bring some of those elements into the situation now? ~ How can you break this task down into three pieces so it feels more manageable? ~ How will you reward yourself when you complete this? ~ What needs to change to turn this “should” into a “want”? ~ What are you good at? Motivation ~ What self-talk do you notice that you can let go of? ~ What about this task is important or meaningful to you? ~ When is the best time for you to do this task? ~ What support do you have to get this task done? ~ What obstacles are preventing you from completing this task? Which of these can you eliminate now? ~ How can you make this task fun, interesting, or enjoyable? Motivation ~ See the goal ~ People with ADHD forget the purpose of their tasks, so they are uninspired to finish them. ~ Imagining the negative consequences of not doing something is not a potent motivator ~ Imagine how great it will feel to get to your goal works better and add visual reminders of the goal—including daily creative visualization. ~ Hint: Put a medication reminder app on his phone to remind him each morning to do his creative visualization for handling that issue Motivation ~ Envision the end result. ~ Instead of: You need to get these applications done for college ~ Try: Think how awesome it will be when you get in college and can finally start learning the stuff that is important to you! ~ Try: How great will it feel when you have been accepted to college and can see how your hard work paid off? Get Started (Even Unmotivated) ~ Get started ~ Create urgency ~ Keep a list of must-dos (bills, dishes, homework) ~ Work with a buddy ~ Reward yourself ~ Start with the goal of good enough ~ Work during peak times Goals ~ For each goal ask ~ How has this issue caused you problems to identify specific goal targets ~ How will your life be improved when this is resolved to help the person visulaize Goals ~ Chronic lateness ~ Be on time to work/appointments 90% of the time ~ Difficulty controlling anger and low frustration tolerance ~ Reduce anger episodes to less than 1/day ~ Reduce intensity of anger episodes from a 5 to a 2 90% of the time Goals ~ Forgetfulness ~ Improve memory by reducing “f
