Little Gifts, Big Smiles: A Gift Guide for ADHD Adults

December 27, 2022U.S. guidelines for diagnosing and treating adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are long overdue.Adult patients with ADHD deserve high-quality care, and providers likewise deserve authoritative resources that outline effective, evidence-based practices for adult ADHD.

Willpower alone cannot increase productivity in the ADHD brain. Also not helpful: the standard tips, tricks, and strategies designed for a neurotypical person. If you’re searching for effective, ADHD-friendly ways to get things done, look no further than the ADDitude community — and other readers like you who have found winning strategies by trial and error.Recently, we asked ADDitude readers to share their experience with buzz-worthy productivity tools, including brown noise, binaural beats, and bionic reading.

December 30, 2022Adults with severe ADHD symptoms were more likely to be expelled and receive reprimands from teachers as school children compared to adults with less severe or no ADHD symptoms, according to a partial study published this month in the Journal of Attention Disorders.1Researchers compared the school experiences and intensity of ADHD symptoms in 1,518 adults from the Czech Republic aged 18 to 65. Participants answered questions from the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and were grouped according to symptom manifestation, or “ADHD type”: low, medium, and high.Findings revealed that those with higher ADHD symptoms were “significantly more likely to be expelled, receive notes for bad behavior, disturbing or forgetting, as well as receive reprimands from teachers” as children.“The results suggest that children with higher ADHD symptomatology are more likely to be forgetful, restless, and misbehave — which then gets written down by their teachers,” researchers said.

Click each image below to learn more about building and maintaining healthy habits this year.

“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin FranklinNo one knows this better than someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may lose, mismanage, underestimate, squander, and search for time daily. After all, warped time perception is a core facet of ADHD.That translates into poor time management in the moment, and problems organizing toward the future.

December 16, 2022The risk of developing depression is three to six times higher in girls and young women with ADHD who take oral hormonal contraceptives (HCs) than it is among their neurotypical peers on similar birth control, according to a population-based cohort study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 1Women with ADHD were three times more likely to develop depression than women without ADHD, regardless of HC use, according to the research.

December 15, 2022The months-long Adderall shortage persists nationwide and is now compounded by new restrictions on pharmacists related to the opioid crisis. As part of a recent $21 billion settlement, three U.S.

Persistent tic disorders, including Tourette’s disorder, affect about one in fifty children in the U.S. according to the latest research – more children than previously thought, and a figure that carries important implications for clinicians.1 What’s more, tic disorders are highly comorbid.

Is your child’s irritability a normal, age-appropriate reaction or an indication of emotion regulation difficulties (ERD)? It’s difficult to tell, leaving many caregivers feeling anxious and uncertain about their child’s diagnosis.A further complication: youth with ADHD are at higher risk for developing mood disorders, such as disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) or oppositional defiant disorder.During a recent ADDitude webinar on irritability, we asked nearly 1,000 attendees, “What is the most challenging aspect of emotion regulation for your child or patient?” Here are the answers they gave:Comments and questions submitted during the webinar, titled “Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Youth: ADHD Irritability vs. DMDD vs.

People with inattentive ADHD often go undiagnosed, as they don’t exhibit the symptoms of impulsivity and hyperactivity so frequently associated with the condition. But when untreated, the symptoms of inattentive ADHD — distractibility, trouble following directions and difficulty completing tasks, among other things — can lead to mental fatigue and other negative consequences. The first step in treating these symptoms is recognizing them.

Not available January 19? Don’t worry. Register now and we’ll send you the replay link to watch at your convenience.The benefits of ADHD medication are well-documented: Children with ADHD are more likely to improve their focus and academic performance when receiving proper ADHD treatment.

“ADHD emotions are not only unstable and mercurial; they overlap, butt heads, and fight for our attention. The fight to rein in our emotions is emotionally and physically exhausting; it also chips away at our self-worth and overall well-being.” —Kate MoryoussefThe flood of emotions associated with ADHD often comes on fast and furious, submerging everyone in its path.

The symptoms of Primarily Inattentive ADHD — distractibility, failure to complete work, forgetfulness, and disorganization — are often overlooked because they don’t typically cause the same behavioral and learning challenges that symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity do. These symptoms may be easier to overlook, but they can lead to significant functional impairment as well as distress in school, the workplace, and social interactions.In this webinar, Mary V.

ADHD medications do not place patients of any age, including middle-aged and older adults, at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new meta-analysis of 19 observational studies that included 3.9 million participants. William Dodson, M.D., heralded the groundbreaking finding as a “turning point,” particularly for older adults who have been unable to treat their ADHD with medication due to fears of cardiovascular side effects.People with dyslexia have strengths in experimentation, innovation, and searching for the unknown, all of which play a crucial role in how humans adapt and survive, according to a new study.

“Given what we know about challenges associated with ADHD, and the impact of estrogen loss on executive functioning in non-ADHD women, we can safely assume that women with ADHD are more vulnerable to challenges during menopause.” — Jeanette Wasserstein, Ph.D.Menopause and ADHD – both associated with impaired cognitive functioning and emotional dysregulation – share a unique and complicated relationship. In this article, Dr.

I recently shared with my Italian students a video of myself over-explaining the atmosphere of Wembley Stadium on the fateful day Italy won the Euro 2020 against England. After I watched the three-minute film, I had some revelations.I had no idea my fidgeting was so bad because I’m the only person in the room who physically can’t see it. (I don’t tend to talk into reflective surfaces other than the rare occasion when I’m reeeally drunk and giving myself the “God, it’s me … I got this, but just in case …” pep talk while looking at my watery reflection at the base of a pearlescent bowl, or I’m “being” James Bond in the mirror when no one’s looking.)Fidgeting is a big part of my ADHD.

December 3, 2022Over the years, persistent concerns by clinicians about the safety of ADHD medications have hampered treatment, particularly in middle-aged and older adults. The notion that ADHD stimulants were intrinsically toxic to the cardiovascular system, despite reliable evidence to the contrary, has now been debunked.A new meta-analysis of studies from the last 15 years, involving more than 3.9 million participants, concluded that “ADHD medication use was not statistically significantly associated with the risk of any CVD (cardiovascular disease) among children and adolescents, young and middle-aged adults, older adults, or overall.” The analysis, published in JAMA Network Open, was the most comprehensive to date on the association between ADHD medication and CVD risk.1The study found:[Download: ADHD Medications – Comparison Chart of Stimulants & Nonstimulants]Moreover, there was no increased risk of cardiovascular disease, regardless of the type of CVD the patient had when starting the ADHD stimulant, or that developed while they were taking ADHD medications.

My husband once explained to me, in pain-staking detail, why J. R. R.

Think a little less about managing your problems and a little more about managing your focus.Ready to finish the year strong?Inner peace and progress are both built through small daily victories. It’s the individual choices we make day to day that make us whole in the long run.