February | 2013 | ADD . . . and-so-much-more

When you lose patience with your ADD kid

Friday, February 22, 2013 6 Comments

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Read THIS for an instant Reframe

reposted by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Posted in my FaceBook Feed
Part of the What Kind of World do YOU Want? series

No matter how hard it seems,
the longer you persist
the more likely your success.
~ Jack Canfield

Strongest Dad in the World
by Rick Reilly

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons.

Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming. and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars – all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.

Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father?
Not much – except save his life.

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, F3. What kind of World do YOU want? Tagged with ADD perspective, Advocacy, Courage, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Rick Hoyt, Rick Reilly, What Kind of World series

The Procrastination Puzzle & the ADD Brain-style

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 15 Comments

from deviantart – by ~F3LiPaO

Organizing Oopses

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, MCC, SCAC
About Procrastination — Part 2
part of the Intentionality Series, with links
to Organization and Task Completion

Review Part I first: Procrastination and Task Anxiety – or the “Mr. Amygdalla” comments & “certainty and cognitive dissonance” info will be half as effective as they could be.

Jigsaw Juggernauts

People with the ADD brain-style (EFDs) seem to have difficulty “putting it all together” – which tends to lead to disorganization and what the rest of the world labels “procrastination.”

In a youthful “neurotypical” brain, inputs from the outer world (i.e., through our senses) seem to be recorded with some kind of tagging for sequence, in some fashion science doesn’t exactly understand yet.

Metaphorically only, what was observed first gets position #1, while an incoming data bite some 90 seconds later might be “tagged” with something like #321 (and all of the bits and bytes seem to be able to hang on to their little tags until called on to perform!)

That makes it fairly easy for them to call all the bits back and line them up at showtime — for example, when attempting to stay tracked on the threads of a conversation, facilitating dialogue in ways that “make sense” in terms of what is said in response to what, as well as when various pearls of wisdom get dropped onto the conversational ping pong table.

For those of us with Executive Functioning challeges – not so much!

When our attention wanders, our brain’s do what all brains do with incomplete pictures: they fill in the holes with what they expect to find there, based on what’s in its “files” of past experience.

The human brain is nothing so much as a pattern recognition machine – a puzzle put-together champ of the highest order.

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Filed under A5b. Activation, A5f. Organization & Task Completion, ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder Tagged with ADD and ADHD, ADDCoaching, Amygdala Activation, Decision-making, explanation, intentionality, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Phillip Martin - artist-educator, Procrastination, Taskmaster, TBI help too

ADD-ADHD/EFD & Underfunctioning: Einstein at the Patent Office

Sunday, February 17, 2013 20 Comments

Swimming Upstream

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
ADDendum to the 5-Part ADD Overview Series

Quoting loosely from the ADD blog authored by Yale’s Dr. Thomas E. Brown, on the website maintained by Psychology Today. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back when it was believed that anyone with ADD would outgrow those problems by the time they were about 14 years old, ADD was seen as simple hyperactivity, not as a problem with attention and EF (executive functions).

Longer term studies have shown that for about 70-80% of those with ADD, attentional symptoms tend to persist into adulthood.

This is true even in those individuals where former problems with [gross motor] hyperactivity can no longer be observed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This more recent research indicates that, while there ARE about 30-80% of the ADDult population who do not continue to struggle with ADD to the degree seen in childhood, they are over-represented in the literature.

Since they are functioning better than 70-80% of us, they are ABLE to run their own lives with enough time left to blog, write books and articles, develop websites and blogs, and organize and speak to podcast audiences – while the rest of us work twice as hard for half as much, as ADD expert author Dr. Edward Hallowell continues to say.

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, E2a. Rants; Ruminations, E2d. ADD and Education, H. Brain Based Coaching/Training Tagged with ADD and ADHD, ADD implications, Attention, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Brain-based, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM, explanation, Hyperactivity, Impulsivity, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, New Diagnosis, underachievers

The Link between Procrastination & Task Anxiety

Saturday, February 16, 2013 23 Comments

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while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

Part 1 about Procrastination —
part of the Intentionality Series, supporting
Organization and Task Completion

The terror of tiered tasks

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

farm3.staticflickr.com

I’ve developed a new philosophy…
I only dread one day at a time.
~ Charlie Brown
(Charles Schulz)

A tiered task is one where you need to “insert tab A into slot B”, but first you need to insert some other tab into some other slot — which you can’t do until you insert still another tab into still another slot.

That’s it! Most people with attentional challenges can stay tracked for about three “tiers” before they begin to hear the warning signals of impending Boggle and run screaming to avoid it!

I know I do.

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Doctor answers ADD/ADHD Medication Questions – LIVE

Thursday, February 14, 2013 12 Comments

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Find out how much better you COULD be doing — directly from Dr. Charles Parker

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
An article in the ADD Advocacy Series

THIS is your shot – free of charge

As I said on an earlier post, Dr. Charles Parker, fellow ADD advocate, is one of the physician crusaders for specificity – of diagnosis and of treatment approaches – and he will be at your service on March 14th, 2013, no matter where you are in the world, at no charge whatsoever.

Neuroscientist, adult and child psychiatrist, Dr Parker is the originator of CorePsych, and the creator of an amazing amount of high-value web content in various formats on the CorePsych Blog.

He is also the author of two books containing information you are unlikely to be aware of or to fully understand unless you got it directly from his books, his blog, or the man himself.

I know I wasn’t, and I didn’t — and regular readers of this blog will attest that I personally know and understand A GREAT DEAL about ADD and the brain-body connection.

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Filed under A2b Medication, E2. Making a Difference Tagged with ADD and ADHD, ADD Treatment, ADDCoaching, books, Dr. Charles Parker, free webinar, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, New Diagnosis, TBI help too

Self-Harm Specifics – ADD girls at greater risk

Sunday, February 10, 2013 11 Comments

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In the What Kind of World do YOU Want? series
Part III of an article on Self-Injury & CUTTING
Intenational Self-harm Awareness Day – March 1

There are NO graphic photos or descriptions, BUT if you self-injure, make SURE you are emotionally protected so that reading this article will not precipitate an episode. Have a list of substitute strategies available to self-soothe in healthier ways – you are stronger than you think, nobody’s perfect and I’m on your side!

The Cycle of Self-Harm

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
CLICK HERE for Part II: SI/Anxiety link

How Pervasive
is the Problem?

Self-harm, or Self-Injury [SI] can be found with greater frequency in certain disorder-populations than its incidence in the population as a whole.

It has been listed in the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM-IV-TR] as a symptom of borderline personality disorder.

However, according to a 2007 journal-published study it is also found in otherwise high-functioning individuals who have no underlying clinical diagnosis.

(Klonsky, E.D.,”Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: An Introduction” – Journal of Clinical Psychology &
“The functions of deliberate self-injury: A review of the evidence” – Clinical Psychology Review)

Self-harm behaviour [SI] can occur at any age, including in the elderly population. The risk of serious injury and suicide is reportedly higher in older people who self-harm.

Acording to Klonsky, patient populations with other diagnoses who are more likely to be drawn to self-harm as a coping strategy include individuals with the following disorders:

substance abuse and eating disorders

post-traumatic stress disorder

schizophrenia

some of the personality disorders, and
as you might expect if you read the previous section of this article,

ANXIETY disorders

There is disagreement between experts as to whether SI is part of the symptom profile included in these diagnoses, or whether it is actually a separate diagnosis that is comorbid with a number of other diagnoses.

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Filed under A1a. Executive Functioning Disorders, A1b-1 Anxiety, Depression & Mood Swings, ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, F3. What kind of World do YOU want? Tagged with ADD and Anxiety, ADD-ADHD, ADDspectrum, Advocacy, American Psychological Association, Borderline Personality Disorder, cutting, Depression, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Self-injury, TBI help too, The Butterfly Project, What Kind of World series

Understanding the link between anxiety & self-harm

Friday, February 8, 2013 29 Comments

Trigger Warning for cutters

Part II of an article on Self-Injury & CUTTING
Intenational Self-harm Awareness Day – March 1
In the What Kind of World do YOU Want? series

aaaclipart.com

What do YOU do to beat back anxiety?

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Father and Mother, and Me,
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.

“We’re all islands shouting lies to each other
across seas of misunderstanding.”
~ both by Rudyard Kipling

As I said in the first part of this article, introducing
The Butterfly Project, “to my knowledge, cutting and
other types of self-injury are not true ‘ADD/EFD Comorbids.‘”

ANXIETY, however, is one of the comorbid disorders — BIGtime (although not always at levels that warrant an official diagnosis as a disorder, or so incapacitating it requires medication to manage).

Everybody deals with anxiety

In 25 years of experience in the coaching field, I have found the attempt to avoid feelings of anxiety beneath almost all of the ineffective strategies and maladaptive behaviors I have run across, in both “vanilla” and ADD/EFD-flavored coaching situations.

Why?

Although humans beings crave novelty to keep us interested and engaged, anything new and different carries a certain element of risk.

Risk has both feet in uncertain territory. Human brains tend to prefer safety and security to risk.

To feel safe once more — and quickly, too — we humans have a tendency to exhibit a range of ineffective or maladaptive behaviors when we are unsure.

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Filed under A1b-1 Anxiety, Depression & Mood Swings, ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, F3. What kind of World do YOU want? Tagged with ADD and Anxiety, ADD-ADHD, ADDspectrum, Advocacy, cutting, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Self-injury, The Butterfly Project, walking a mile in another's shoes, Walking A Mile in Another's Shoes Series, What Kind of World series

The Butterfly Project – works for some, not ALL

Wednesday, February 6, 2013 10 Comments

Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential
while you’re reading. They turn red on mouseover.

In the What Kind of World do YOU Want? series
Part I of an article on Self-Injury & CUTTING
March first every year is
Intenational Self-harm Awareness Dsy

Warning: If you self-injure, make SURE you are emotionally protected so that reading this article will not precipitate an episode. Have a list of substitute strategies available to self-soothe in healthier ways – you are stronger than you think, nobody’s perfect, and I’m on your side!

Self-harm and healing

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

An Eye-Opener for ALL
(essential for parents & grandparents)

To my knowledge, cutting and other types of
self-injury and self-mutilation are not true
“ADD Comorbids,” but the issue is one that
EVERY parent needs to be aware of.

Outside of suicide,
I’ll bet you a month’s free coaching
that most of you are not.

Your kids are only too aware, however.

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Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, F3. What kind of World do YOU want? Tagged with Advocacy, Courage, cutting, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Self-injury, The Butterfly Project, What Kind of World series

The not just ADD not-a-blog Blog

Saturday, February 2, 2013 11 Comments

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Hover before clicking for more info
.

Evergreens, Information & Neurodiversity

(c) Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

No, not the TREE!

I borrow the meaning of the term “evergreen” from its current usage in the podcasting community, in particular, in reference to Dr. Ginger Campbell’s amazing evergreen podcasts of brain-based information and interviews with leading scientists and science writers in the neuro-fields: The Brain Science Podcast.

“Evergreen,” in this context, refers to content that is not designed to “age-off” — information, written to remain relevant.

On ADDandSoMuchMORE, the content is ALSO designed to build upon itself, providing “background explanation” links for newly written content, rather than making every single post as long as a BOOK!

If you’ve been reading since Day-ONE, keep up as I post, and can remember what you read, you may not need to jump back to read the older content (over 450 info-dense articles and counting!)

It’s THERE if you need it or want it — and for newer readers trying to play “catch-up.”

I try to write each article so that it makes sense without a lot of “off-post” background explanation, but you will get A LOT more value from the content if you do click and read the linked information. Your choice.

By the way – I revisit several of the older posts every single week, adding links and editing content (where indicated) to keep things current.

THAT’s why it’s EVERGREEN!!

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