Blogs
Can you train yourself to overcome ADHD? You can if you remember to do it. Of course, with ADHD that's a tall order.
The task last week seemed simple enough. It was my first week back on the job and I wanted to impress. Write two new blogs and find people to be interviewed for the HealthyPlace TV & Radio shows. I could do that—easy.
It's true that the first blog was a day late because we hadn't worked out all the details of my rehire, but I wrote it in time even if it wasn't posted in time. But what happened to the second blog?
When I got diagnosed, I was attending a university and on my way to getting a bachelors of computer science. I was a pretty fastidious student in my first year and my grades were excellent. But before I knew what a mental illness was, I became sick and my grades dropped. It was only some time later that it became clear it was because I had bipolar disorder.
And after months of treatment, nothing was working and one day, my doctor said to me,
"You should drop out of school; you're never going to be able to finish your degree."
Really? Pshaw.
If you are already a member of the HealthyPlace community, then you know how beneficial online support groups can be. If not, I invite you to check out the mental health forums and chat on HealthyPlace.com and get involved. I have been a member of the online mental health community for the past two years making video blogs and participating in forums. It has been an amazing and therapeutic experience to talk to so many people that really understand what I am going through.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
I believe we all dream of making a positive difference in the world. I am lucky enough to say that one of my dreams is about to come true. In about two weeks, The ADHD Awareness Book Project: 365 Ways to Succeed with ADHD will be published!
As an ADHD Life Coach, I help people living with ADHD understand their disorder, reduce their challenges, get things done and find hope. For the past nine years, I have individually done my best. However, having worked in the mental health field for over 25 years, I also know that, proportionately, not that much has changed in the overall awareness of ADHD. I meet clients every day from age seven to
My last boyfriend had no clue that I suffered from depression. Some people may find that difficult to believe, but it's actually very easy to mask your feelings and symptoms. In my case, it was very easy to choose a partner from whom I could hide the truth and, therefore, to prevent myself from having a healthy and successful relationship.
Social connections in sobriety are touted by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to greatly aid an addict's recovery. But there are requests for more research into not only the benefits of AA's methods, but how those benefits are achieved. Are social connections in sobriety a piece of the answer?
When I was first diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, despite my young age, I was told that I would need to take medication. Probably for the rest of my life. I wondered, as many people do, if medication would change me. Sure, I was told it would make me well and make my life easier, but I was not sure what that really meant. Would I still be me?
When my son, Ben, finally began treatment for mental illness, I kept careful notes on all the symptoms I saw between appointments. At best, Ben would see his therapist and/or psychiatrist for 1 hour a week and was often able to hold it together for that one hour in a much better way than he'd been able to do all week with us. So I made an effort to fax these notes to the provider the day before the appointment.
Some read it. Most did not, citing "no time" as the reason.
Really? What kind of session can you have if you don't have all the facts? Families know. They know a lot.
“How drunk do you have to be before cutting your own hair starts to seem like a good idea?” Taz Mopula
Long ago, I had a hypothetical girlfriend we’ll call Prunella Entwhistle. Indeed, it was so long ago I was not yet sober and still cheerfully diving headfirst into debauchery as one might leap into a swimming pool. This was during that blissfully ignorant period in my life when I believed that, as a result of facing down bipolar disorder and defeating it, I had become bulletproof.
By then I’d recovered from several devastating battles with the terrifying illness referred to at the time as manic depression. I had even written a memoir (Invisible Driving) that chronicled my ordeal. Having walked through fire and survived, I bristled with self-satisfied cockiness and swaggered through life like a cowboy breaking in new jeans.
It's hard enough trying to decipher the behavioral symptoms in children who have psychiatric illness. Trying to determine the root cause of physical complaints where no obvious cause exists is next to impossible.
My point being, I'm right there with you. I hate the rollercoaster. I just want to live life without being in a state of constant fight or flight mode, only for his character to change and de-escalate and I fall for the person I fell for all over again.
Exhausting is a horrible word. The understatement of all understatements, if you will.
I wish there were better support groups for this kind of mental health condition.