Status Updates From ADHD for Smart Ass Women: H...

As a gift, I'd like to give you complimentary access to my master class ‘What Do I Do with My Life? From Chaos to Confidence’, where you will learn more about who you are and how to make faster, more confident decisions. You can find this completely free gift at spyhappy.me/mc

‡Bianca Pinheiro Lanzetta-Valdo et al, "Auditory Processing Assessment in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: An Open Study Examining Methylphenidate Effects," International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology 21, no. 1 (2017): 72-78, https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0036-1572526.

A small study of twelve children with ADHD published in the ‘International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology’ found treating children with the ADHD medication methylphenidate (often prescribed under brand names like Ritalin and Concerta) for six months improved and even reversed‡ symptoms of APD.

† "When They Respond ‘What?’ ‘Huh?’ It Could Be Auditory Processing Disorder," ‘ADHD Weekly’, February 2, 2023 https://chadd.org/adhd-weekly/when-th... -auditory-processing-disorder/

…questions.
APD is common in children with ADHD†, according to Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), a program funded by the CDC.

Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a learning difference that affects how the brain receives, organizes, and interprets sound. People with ADP don't have hearing loss. Instead, their ears just aren't in sync with their brain, causing difficulty following directions, listening to multiple speakers, filtering out background noise, discerning the difference between similar-sounding words, and responding to…

…have normally allotted. This estimate also doesn't give me any buffer time in case I run into traffic or a friend at the store, both which can often occur. So if I pad my schedule with more time just in case, I realize that I need an hour to go to the store. By planning backward, I've learned to build more realistic time estimates into my day so I'm not late for my next activity or I don't fall behind schedule.

…evening out, replant a section of my garden, run an errand, or go to the grocery store in a half hour. By planning backward in the instance of food shopping for example, I'll realize that it takes twenty minutes to drive to the store, five minutes to park, twenty minutes to find the items I need, and five minutes to check out, all of which brings me to fifty minutes total—nearly double the amount of time I would…

…don't have thirty days to complete that personal project because we're working in an office three days a week, are on vacation for one week, and have two holidays in the middle of the month, whick means we have only seven days instead of thirty.
In my mind, I believe that I can do just about anything in thirty minutes. But if I pause and visualize the necessary steps, I often realize that I can't get ready for an…

Instead of focusing on how much time you have before needing to be somewhere or finishing a task, sit down and think about exactly which steps you need to take before that event or deadline. Our ADHD brains rarely think, “Wow, it's going to take a lot of time, so I'd better get on it.” Instead, we jump to, “It's not due for thirty days, so I have plenty of time.” But when we plan backward, we might discover that we…

…part of the reason I was always late was because I had no idea what time it was, I put analog clocks everywhere in my home so I wouldn't guesstimate in my ironic efforts to "save" time. Now whenever I look up and see the physical time on an analog clock instead of a jumble of numbers, I'm always surprised how helpful it is at keeping me on schedule.

Many of us with ADHD need to *see* time pass to be able to better manage it. When you look at an analog clock… you can see and feel how long a second, minute, and five minutes takes. For this reason, many experts encourage people with ADHD to install analog clocks throughout their home and office.
After I realized that…

…get ready in the morning, despite the fact that this was something I did every single day.
Time blindness among those of us with ADHD is on a continuum, meaning that some of us really struggle while others may not have any time management issues at all…

…also have issues with our working memory, which can cause us to forget what we're doing or what we wanted to accomplish once we become distracted by something else.
Because many of us don't have a practical understanding of time, we can also struggle with planning and figuring out how many minutes, hours, or days an errand, task, or project might take. For decades, I couldn't predict how long it would take me to…

…time conscious, we can let shinier tasks, activities, and interests derail us from our best aim unless we have a strategy that works for our ADHD brains.
Another reason we may lose track of time is our tendency to hyperfocus on those things that interest us: five hours can feel like fifteen minutes when we're engaged and interested in something while fifteen minutes can feel like five hours when we're not. We may…

…Because our brains are wired differently, we can struggle more than neurotypical people with estimating time and how long it takes us to complete tasks and activities, according to research. We can suffer from "time blindness," meaning that we're unaware of the passage of time because we don't pay attention to it and are distracted by other things. And while we may have the best intentions to be more…

ADHD challenges our executive function skills, or our cognitive skills related to planning, prioritizing, scheduling, self-regulating, and self-motivating, all of which affect our sense of time and degree of time management. For many of us, our brains feel the most comfortable when we can enjoy an unconstrained flow of time, moving from one thing to another whenever we feel like it…

ADHD challenges our executive function skills, or our cognitive skills related to planning, prioritizing, scheduling, self-regulating, and self-motivating, all of which affect our sense of time and degree of time management. For many of us, our brains feel the most comfortable when we can enjoy an unconstrained flow of time, moving from one thing to another whenever we feel like it…

…actions. I used to spend so much time trying to make sure that people understood who I really was and why I was doing what I was doing. Now I just do it.
At the same time, justice sensitivity and the need to be understood can help us be better friends. "I have this ability to see what is naturally good in people, and since it's so important for me to be understood, I want them to be understood as well…" [Catherine]

…treated has always been so important to me. I will usually stand up for the underdog even if it means alienating a friend or business associate. There are many times when I've asked myself, "Why do you always have to do this? Life would be so much easier if you just kept your mouth shut. Let other people fight their own battles." But I've also earned the power of being exactly who I am by following through on my…