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Coronavirus and ADHD – The Unique Challenges

Sol Jakubowicz — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 13:57:07 +0000

Coronavirus and ADHD. Survive the COVID-19 Lockdown

By now, we are all aware of the new pandemic Coronavirus (or it’s formal name COVID-19), but there is a unique challenge for Coronavirus and ADHD families.

It is wreaking havoc all over the world, and now in the US. Schools in many locations are closed. Many workplaces are closed and employees are being forced to work from home – if they are lucky. Public places for entertainment and even restaurants are closed. Public gathering in general are being discouraged.

This is a tough situation for all of us, but for Children with ADHD, this unprecedented set of circumstances presents an especially difficult challenge.

ADHD kids may be out of school for a long time, and besides needing to be kept busy during this time, the simple lack of routine can also be an additional challenge.

Tips for helping our precious ADHD children cope during the COVID-19 Crisis

1. If they are out of school, create a routine for them. Many children with ADHD will perform better when their daily routine is structured and scheduled. This includes sticking to their regular wake-up times and bed times. In between, their eating, play time and scholastic work schedules should be maintained. Allowing ADHD kids to go through the day without a routine will hinder their ability to cope with a situation that is already stressful enough for everybody

2. Provide plenty of age-appropriate mental stimulation. Besides schoolwork (from home), encourage kids to read books that are fun for them or interesting to them. Activity workbooks, coloring books, puzzle books and all kinds of educational material can be found free online – however not all online resources offer a necessarily educational experience. A good approach for parents to find good quality educational material is to search for teacher resources. In effect, during these Coronavirus days, you are their teachers. We Are Teachers has a great list of free teacher resources. What is great about this list is that includes sites such as National Geographic, NASA, the Library of Congress, Smithsonian and other top notch educational sources. One particularly excellent source is this official USA government site providing lesson plans. On this page you will find a small list of lesson plans, each of which could be a stand alone topic you and your child can make into a project. Why not take this time and teach kids about Taxes, Branches of Government or the court system? Many of these lesson plans have activities built in.

3. Build in Physical activity and exercise regularly during the day. This can’t be stressed enough. Don’t let your kids become couch potatoes, or too wired from excess video games. It’s not good for their bodies or their brains.

4. Minimize Anxiety. Your child may be anxious about the huge changes in all our daily lives. They be hearing news or talk on the streets that can easily scare them. Be very careful of what you say , and how you say it in talking about the situation. If your child hears your anxiety, imagine how that will get processed in his/her mind.

5. Watch out for OCD. We are all being encouraged to practice good hygiene, including washing hands often. Now, imagine how a person with OCD may respond to this. Make sure your child is taking the proper hygienic precautions, but not overdoing it. If they do show signs of overdoing it, you will need to help them find the right balance.

Adults with ADHD

If you are an adult with ADHD, or living with one, all of the above tips are still relevant and can adapted to an adult version. For example, for and adult with ADHD, working from home can be a bit more of a challenge due to a change of routine, and household distractions.

If you are one of those “lucky” enough to be working from home, make sure to set up a proper work desk. This will help set the tone that while you are sitting there, you are at work. Working from the couch is not a great idea.

Set up a timer to give yourself regular intervals. Make sure you stay focused during those times, and likewise, be equally disciplined to take breaks at the set times. Only you can decide what the time structure should be – everybody is different. But setting up this structure in advance will help prevent you from floating from one activity into another and will also ensure you get the correct physical and mental break.

Looks like this major disruption in our lives is here for a long haul. Everybody is struggling with it. People living with ADHD will need some extra effort to get through this crisis with the additional challenge of the Coronavirus lockdown.

But our ADHD community is strong, and we will get through this too.

The post Coronavirus and ADHD – The Unique Challenges appeared first on ADHD Notebook.

When Your Spouse Has Adult ADHD

Sol Jakubowicz — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 08:32:15 +0000

As anyone who is married will tell you, it is fairly easy to find fault with a spouse. When that spouse is forgetful, disorganized, distracted, and overwhelmed, it is doubly easy. These are just the traits that go along with adult ADD/ADHD. Being married to someone with attention deficit disorder is challenging but can be manageable once you understand the disorder.

Since the symptoms of adult ADD/ADHD can also have an effect on a person’s work life, the stress factor is potentially very high in marriages where one spouse has ADD/ADHD. The first step in solving the problems that come along with this frustrating disorder is approach this as you would any other marital issue. You and your spouse must identify the problem and then work together to find workable solutions. If you understand that your spouse is not behaving this way just to upset you, but rather, that he or she has a chemical problem that causes these behaviors, you can start to heal and have a healthier marriage.

Sometimes adults with ADHD had a diagnosis of ADHD as a child. Or, the person may not have been diagnosed but rather learned to compensate for his or her deficiencies and coped throughout childhood. The diagnosis of adult ADD/ADHD often comes when an adult is balancing a number of aspects of life, including a career and family. When a person with ADD/ADHD is overwhelmed by responsibilities, he or she cannot continue to compensate. Organization, temper, and focus begin to fray.

When a person is younger, has fewer responsibilities, and less stress, coping is much easier. So it is safe to say that you may have married a person who was unaware of his or her ADD/ADHD problem. The fact that both spouses struggle to understand what is going on until a diagnosis of ADHD is reached increases stress even more.

Recognizing attention deficit disorder symptoms in adults is vital to building a healthy marriage, in spite of the diagnosis. In an adult, ADHD symptoms manifest differently than in a child. Some of the symptoms overlap, but here are some typical attention deficit disorder symptoms in adults:

Concentration and focus problems (either lack of focus or too much focus on an activity)
Disorganization
Forgetfulness
Impulsivity
Lack of motivation
Restlessness
Short temper
Low self-esteem

Now, everyone exhibits one or more of these traits from time to time, but if your spouse displays many of these attention deficit disorder symptoms most of the time, it is time to let a professional evaluate the situation. Because these symptoms can also indicate other emotional problems, it is best to seek professional help. For many reasons, even if you suspect the diagnosis, the news may be accepted better from a neutral party, such as a doctor or psychologist.

Once you have a diagnosis of ADHD, it is time to implement a treatment plan. The good news is that the prognosis is excellent for people with ADD/ADHD. There are many approaches to helping people live with the disorder and improve their lives and relationships. Therapy can address organizational issues, financial planning, and understanding the disorder and how it affects those around the person with ADD. Attending a support group with others who suffer from the effects of ADD can make a very significant difference. Sometimes drugs to treat focus problems or depression are helpful, as well.

The important thing is that both spouses recognize ADHD symptoms and support one another in living day to day with the disorder. Many marriages suffer because of conflict over financial issues, lack of motivation, and disorganization, but when they understand that these can all be a direct result of ADD/ADHD, they can move forward together.

Since my husband has ADD, I understand how being supportive all of the time can be a challenge. Even though I understand the disorder and even though we have worked together to put a plan in place, we sometimes backslide. When, for instance, my husband has played his thirtieth consecutive game of online chess, I want to scream, but reminding myself that hyper-focus is actually a coping mechanism for my husband mitigates my initial reaction. And, later when I remind him that he is tuning out, he can appreciate that I have not overreacted and that I am his partner in helping to modify his behavior. On a good day, he shuts down the computer and initiates a conversation. But because this is a lifelong disorder that needs constant reinforcement, there are still days when he plays that thirty-first game of chess. And, I have come to accept that this is part of being married to a man with attention deficit disorder.

The post When Your Spouse Has Adult ADHD appeared first on ADHD Notebook.

Diagnosing Adult ADHD

Sol Jakubowicz — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 08:31:20 +0000

ADHD is often thought of as a childhood disorder but that is a myth. As many as 60% of children with ADHD will carry their disorder into adulthood. That means that as many as 4% of adults have ADHD. The symptoms of ADHD in adults are different from those in children. An adult with ADHD might have trouble focusing and “zone out” in the middle of conversations without realizing, have a difficult time paying attention while reading a book or listening to others, struggle to complete even simple tasks, have a tendency to overlook details, and have a difficult time following directions. Interestingly enough a person with ADHD might overcompensate by hyperfocusing, which is a way of tuning out the chaos around him. This is when the person becomes completely oblivious to the things surrounding him and focuses exclusively on the one thing he is doing, like reading a book for example. This becomes problematic when he begins to neglect what he is supposed to be doing because he is too engrossed in what he is busy with. An adult with ADHD might have poor organizational skills, procrastinate, have trouble starting and completing projects, forget appointments, and constantly misplace things. Most adults with ADHD are not hyperactive (as opposed to children with ADHD) but of those who are their symptoms involve being risk takers, becoming easily bored, and doing a million things at once. An adult with ADHD might also have emotional difficulties such as a sense of underachievement, low self esteem, and trouble taking criticism.

If you are an adult who isn’t sure if he needs an ADHD evaluation ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you have an inconsistent job history? Do you lose or quit jobs frequently?

2. Do you have a history of academic underachievement?

3. Do you have difficulty managing day to day activities (paying bills, household chores etc.)

4. Do you have relationship problems due your inability to remember things, complete tasks, temper etc.?

5. Due you have chronic stress over your inability to complete tasks and meet responsibilities?

If you decide to go through with an ADHD evaluation it is important to come prepared. Try to bring old school records, reports from previous psychological testing, and any job evaluations that you might have. Many doctors will provide you with a questionnaires to fill out prior to your appointment. You will also be asked to bring a significant other with you to be interviewed by the doctor.

The most important part of the appointment will be the interview in which the doctor will ask you a series of questions in order to determine whether or not you fit the diagnostic criteria for ADHD (those criteria are set out by the DSM-IV-TR. See my article on “Diagnosing Children with ADHD” for a description of the criteria). The doctor will question you about your developmental history, childhood, academic history, family, marital history, and medical history. The doctor will also try to rule out other disorders that resemble ADHD or co-exist with ADHD. Studies have shown that it is quite common to find other co-existing disorders with ADHD such as anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and substance abuse, and it important to treat all co-existing disorders.

Next the doctor will interview your significant other in order to get a wider perspective of the situation. Often people with ADHD have incomplete memories of their childhood and a have a limited awareness as to how their behavior affects others. It is important for the doctor to get the full perspective of the situation.

Following all the necessary interviews the doctor will perform a medical exam if you have not had one within the past 6-12 months, in order to rule out other possible medical causes for your condition such as seizure disorders or thyroid disease, both of which can resemble ADHD. Once all the information has been gathered the doctor can assemble it and make his diagnosis with a recommendation for treatment.

As an adult it can be difficult to make that first step and call your doctor for an ADHD evaluation. But if you suspect that you have ADHD getting diagnosed is an important first step. Once you have identified the problem you can begin to learn how to deal with it.

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