See if this sounds familiar: it started out as one task but ended up being forty more things on your to do list; all of them needing doing now! Then you found you couldn’t think straight because there were so many things to do and you forgot the time, which left you late for the meeting, and the report isn’t ready…
You may have been like this for years, brain fog and being disorganised aside, you’re doing well. But then everything comes crashing down when, yet again, you get side tracked from the task you were meant to be doing. Frustrated, you heard about adult ADHD and you just wondered whether that might explain why you were struggling…?
I thoroughly enjoy working with adult ADHD’ers who are ready for a better life, including adults who are showing signs of Executive Function disorder. [Executive Function is how you keep on-track and functioning.]
A recent client was a young adult who had been holding down a responsible job in London but came to me in a state of overwhelm and distress. They had a long list of difficulties and things they couldn’t face doing. They had no sense of time, their priorities were all over the place and they were incredibly messy; all of which reinforced how they felt about themself.
The thing to understand about ADHD’ers is they don’t hang about. Urgent action was called for – and we started immediately!
We spent two weeks on the fundamentals of how to operate in the world including communication with yourself and others. When I say two weeks, I mean two weeks of one-hour sessions, once-a-day, full-on coaching/therapy that matched my client’s operating speed. And boy, were we in a hurry.
Gradually, we reduced the speed to a more manageable level.
We spaced the sessions out [every other day] while we focused on how to build and maintain good relationships, and we covered overwhelm including my client’s permanent list of 58 [sic] things to do; that’s enough to put anyone in overwhelm! Lately, we’ve been installing new strategies for what to do when they find themself frustrated at being unproductive.
Being unproductive is a challenge when you’ve got so many wonderful things to think about and do, all at the same time; but productivity beckons when you know how to do it.
I’m now touching base with my young client once a month. They arrive motivated to achieve and with a list of questions, all of which we cover. And they laugh more too.
Gently my client has come to realise that ADHD offers many skills that can be looked at as amazing qualities, and they are proud to embrace the ADHD experience. They now have a compelling future, have updated their CV and are applying for jobs in industry sectors that best complement their skills and where they feel passion to work. A great reset for this young person.
I, too, am proud of a client who has completely transformed in a short space of time. Now, they are aware of ADHD’ing and they have a strategy for stopping, turning it around and being super productive, when appropriate.
To your success, health and wellbeing,
Caroline D’ay
Wellbeing and Trauma Recovery
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