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Dr. June Kaufman's Attention Defecit Disorder Blog Diary
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I am a practicing clinical psychologist who works with AD(H)D children, adolescents, and adults helping them develop strategies for optimum functioning with their brain style. I have lived my whole life with AD(H)D, and despite all the challenges, I
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Is it Adult ADHD or Just Impulsivity?
The diagnosis of AD(H)D in children includes short attention span, impulsivity, and often, hyperactivity. In adults, the hyperactivity often takes the form of restlessness or fidgeting. AD(H)D adults also have issues of time management, remembering i...
Coaching Challenges For The ADHD Coach
ADD coaching presents a number of problems simply because the same issues occur in the coaching process that occur in the every day life of the ADDer. They include the failure to initiate or complete goals, forgetfulness, poor task management and org...
Is Julie in 'Julie/Julia' Movie an ADHDer?
In this movie, Julie announces that she has ADD because when she started to do a task in a variety of career areas, she never reached any meaningful goal, and left tasks in the middle. She finds a true passion (to complete all five hundred+ recipes i...
An ADHD Wedding - Part 2
In the last blog, I described how my ADHD son and his ADHD fiancé became engaged and “planned” a wedding and wedding date. They finally settled on January 30,2010. It is to be a very small wedding with close family members. My older son in Washi...
An ADHD Wedding
In April of this year, my ADHD son became engaged to a lovely ADHD young woman. At first they decided to avoid stress and elope. I said,”No way, I want to see you two married”, So next they picked a wedding date in October 2010. The date had to...
Self-Absorption(Narcissism) in the ADHDer
A non-ADD partner of an ADD client I coach, asked me why the client often complained about her problems , while at the same time not showing any empathy for my issues, even during times when I had more stress than she did?I told her that regardless...
ADD and Addiction
There is evidence pointing to a “novelty” gene which is thought to be present in both ADD and addiction. Both addicts and ADDers seek high levels of novelty and stimulation. Although addicts seek drugs, ADDers can find other avenues to high arou...
Attention Deficit Disorder and Addiction
There is evidence pointing to a “novelty” gene which is thought to be present in both ADD and addiction. Both addicts and ADDers seek high levels of novelty and stimulation. Although addicts seek drugs, ADDers can find other avenues to high arou...
ADDers Thrive in Stimulating Situations
ADDers do well in stimulating and novel situations. As an ADDer who coaches, I love to travel to new and exciting places. Just returned from a 2 week trip to Turkey, and strongly recommend traveling to the ADDer. Of course I’m back now to a fairly...
Treating Couples with an ADHD Member
Many couples come in to therapy because they are frequently in conflict due to their different “brain styles”. As a clinical psychologist, one characteristic brain style I see is the AD(H)D type. The member who has this brain style may actually h...
Excessive Worrying: Distraction or Stimulation for the ADDer
I am a clinical psychologist who coaches ADDers. But I have to admit that as an ADDer myself, I am constantly learning new things that go along with ADD. For example, I've always been a worrier, I even can worry excessively about happenings I can't ...
WHY DO ADDERS SEEK COACHING?
These days, many ADDers take stimulant medication but find it is not sufficient to accomplish their challenging tasks. I see ADDers who are seeking out coaching for ADD in my office for the first time. A few, who have been diagnosed ADD, are found to...
A BAD DAY IN AN ADDER'S LIFE
Unless you are an ADDer, you can't imagine how differently one can function in a structured versus an unstructured environment. At work, where I coach ADDers and treat a variety of clients, I am so focused and not easily distracted, that no one wou...
ADHD AND ACADEMIC SKILLS
I have adult clients who tell me that they have trouble with reading, spelling or math because they have ADHD. Years ago, when I started giving workshops to parents with ADHD children, many reacted angrily because their child was taking stimulant...
CAFFEINE AS A STIMULANT FOR THE ADDER
In working with a family with an ADHD child, the family was totally against the use of common stimulants. They were afraid of their child becoming a 'zombie'. Even though I told them that while that was possible, the effect was not probable.I remembe...
10 Ways an ADDer Can Distract From Accomplishing a Task
1. Do a household chore that can be done at another time.2. Before beginning the task check all e-mails.3. Call a friend you just spoke to yesterday and waste some time.4. Convince yourself that you can wait until later because you have plenty of fre...
INCONSISTENCY IN THE ADDER
When I worked with children who had AD(HD) their parents did not understand that inconsistent behavior was one of the hallmarks of this disorder. Rather, parents reported that their ADD child did not try hard enough and was lazy and irresponsible. Ac...
THE ADDER SEEKS STIMULATION
Most ADDers fluctuate in their levels of arousal and have a high need of stimulation in jobs, home life, school and social situations. Nowadays a large proportion take stimulant medications to keep their attention focused and maintain a high enough s...
ADULT ADD: MEDICAL ISSUES WITH STIMULANT MEDICATION
There have been documented severe medical problems with a small percentage of children taking stimulant medication. One stud reported five deaths in children taking Adderal. The deaths were attributed to known cardiac impairments prior to taking the ...
DOES MINDFULNESS HELP ADDERS?
Yes, it does. Mindfulness is learning how to be aware and focus on the here and now, that is, to be in the present moment. In my coaching experience, ADDers are far from mindful. They are easily distracted or not paying attention to the task at hand...
ARE YOU EMBARRASSED ABOUT HAVING AD(H)D?
I hope not. I just treated a young adult who is ashamed of being AD(H)D, particularly since her friends are constantly picking on her about it. I told her to tell her friends to get more information about AD(H)D, and they will find that it’s a brai...
AS ADDers SAY: “IT’S JUST TOO MUCH TROUBLE!”
My personal experience with ADD as well with the ADD clients I coach is that tedious tasks unfortunately are accomplished not by looking at positive consequences but by the pressure of significant negative consequences. Here are some examples: Freq...
ARE YOU DEPRESSED OR IS IT ADD?
From my clinical experience there are several possibilities. ADD and Depression can coexist, or ADD can result from Depression, or ADD can at times cause Depression.How do you figure this out? You need to go to a clinician, who has expertise in ADD t...
How Do You Stop The URGE to interrupt?
How do you stop the “urge” to interrupt an ongoing situation. I just shared a house on Cape Cod with three other people. They were all absorbed in reading for an hour or so. I became restless and inadvertently kept interrupting the three with qu...
Takes One to Know One!
I am a practicing clinical psychologist who works with AD(H)D children, adolescents, and adults helping them develop strategies for optimum functioning with their brain style. I have lived my whole life with AD(H)D, and despite all the challenges, I...
Living with an AD(H)D Brainstyle
I have lived my whole life with an AD(H)D brain, and it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve learned quite a lot personally and professionally about this brain style. To tell you what it’s like now, it was extremely hard to start writing this blog with...
Living with an AD(H)D Brainstyle
I have lived my whole life with an AD(H)D brain, and it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve learned quite a lot personally and professionally about this brain style. To tell you what it’s like now, it was extremely hard to start writing this blog withou...
