Welcome back to become a calm mama. I am your host. I'm
Speaker:Darlyn Childress. I am a life and parenting coach and the host of
Speaker:this podcast. And today, I'm gonna talk about rethinking ADHD.
Speaker:I did an episode a while back called Understanding
Speaker:ADHD with Lainie Donnell, and that was she's an educational
Speaker:therapist, and that was a really great episode. And a lot of you have told
Speaker:me how important that episode was in helping you understand a
Speaker:little bit more about the dynamics of ADHD. And I wanted to do
Speaker:another episode where I'm just talking to you and sharing with you
Speaker:about what I understand about ADHD and especially
Speaker:understanding how to raise someone who has ADHD.
Speaker:So one of my kids has, you know, pretty severe ADHD.
Speaker:Definitely was a big issue when he was littler in terms of,
Speaker:you know, hyperactivity and impulse control and those kinds of things. And
Speaker:now as he's gotten older, it's a little bit more around understanding
Speaker:time blindness, which I'm gonna get into and in in attention
Speaker:and motivation and all of these things. So I'm speaking to you.
Speaker:I'm not an expert on ADHD, but as a parenting
Speaker:coach, a lot of the people that I work with have kids
Speaker:who have ADHD or the parent has ADHD.
Speaker:It's funny because I'm gonna, like, get ahead of myself here. But with
Speaker:ADHD, a lot of times, the child
Speaker:needs to borrow our executive function,
Speaker:our thinking brain, and they need to borrow our
Speaker:nervous system in order to calm themselves. And what
Speaker:I find sometimes as a coach is some of you hire me because you
Speaker:wanna borrow my nervous system because you're highly aroused and
Speaker:activated and reactive as a parent, and you want tools to
Speaker:calm your stress response. Yeah. And then
Speaker:some of you are, like, I just need to know, like, strategies and how
Speaker:to think about parenting and what to do. And in that way, you're borrowing
Speaker:my prefrontal cortex. Right? My thinking brain. So
Speaker:all of our children, when they're born, they do not
Speaker:have advanced or mature prefrontal cortex and
Speaker:their nervous system is also highly reactive and
Speaker:difficult to regulate. And so your children are always borrowing
Speaker:your nervous system and they're borrowing your prefrontal cortex. They're borrowing
Speaker:your ability to manage your feelings and they're borrowing your thinking.
Speaker:Now, that's true for all of our kids, whether they have
Speaker:ADHD or not. The difference if you're raising
Speaker:a kid with ADHD is that they are going to need to
Speaker:borrow those skills from you for a
Speaker:longer period of time because of the way their brain is wired,
Speaker:those neurons and the neural pathways that
Speaker:can be developed, that will be developed, they are harder for
Speaker:them to access. And they need support and they need
Speaker:help. A kid who has ADHD as a as a
Speaker:little kid isn't gonna use a phone or, like, a
Speaker:calendar system or some sort of alarm system. Right? They're
Speaker:not going to be, cued by technology.
Speaker:But then if you have an adult who has ADHD and they learn all
Speaker:these strategies to, like, cue them or their partner is willing to cue
Speaker:them and support them and give them, hey, remember, you gotta get going on
Speaker:this project because it's due tomorrow and, you know, how what's your process?
Speaker:And prompting them with those questions. People
Speaker:with ADHD need that support, and adults who
Speaker:have successfully learned how to manage their ADHD
Speaker:bring those supports into their life. They build their life in a
Speaker:way that supports them. When they are
Speaker:children and young adult and adolescents, they're gonna be
Speaker:borrowing you. You're the one who really
Speaker:creates order out of the chaos that's going on for them.
Speaker:And that can be difficult because if you're raising a
Speaker:kid with neurodivergence, you might be talking
Speaker:to another mom about your kids and your
Speaker:experience is vastly different. What they're dealing with
Speaker:or what you're dealing with is very different from what they're dealing with
Speaker:because your child is delayed. They are neurodivergent.
Speaker:They are diverging from typical. So we have neurotypical
Speaker:neurodivergent. We have a typical pathway, what a
Speaker:typical brain would go through, and then we have a divergent pathway.
Speaker:So if you're raising a kid who's neurodivergent, they're gonna go through milestones
Speaker:at a different pace. You're gonna have challenges that look differently.
Speaker:So it's important that you don't compare your
Speaker:child's development with their peers who are neurotypical.
Speaker:You wanna be really comparing your child's development to
Speaker:themselves, their past self to their present self
Speaker:and their future self. Where are they going creating that positive vision
Speaker:about what they're going to learn how to do and
Speaker:trusting that they're gonna figure it out? So that's one of the
Speaker:first things I wanted to talk about with this topic of rethinking
Speaker:ADHD is that really we want to
Speaker:recognize that all children borrow our nervous system and borrow
Speaker:our prefrontal cortex. They borrow our thinking and
Speaker:feeling brains, and we are helping them learn how to think and
Speaker:learn how to feel. Right? They know how to feel, but how to process that
Speaker:feeling. Right? They know how to think, but how to communicate what they're thinking. So
Speaker:all kids do that, and then neurodivergent kids, particularly kids with
Speaker:ADHD, borrow those systems longer.
Speaker:That is normal for them. And the more the
Speaker:sooner you're able to recognize that they're on their own
Speaker:timetable, they're on their own path, the less frustrated you'll
Speaker:be when you see some of the traits and behaviors that come up with
Speaker:ADHD, which I'll get into in a few minutes. Now why is it
Speaker:important to rethink ADHD? Why is it important for me to come on
Speaker:this podcast and talk about this topic with you? And the
Speaker:reason it's important is because a lot
Speaker:of kids who grow up with ADHD
Speaker:end up with a negative self-concept. They end up with
Speaker:a collection of thoughts about themselves that are negative.
Speaker:My vision for all of you, right, is to heal the next generation
Speaker:in advance. I want your kids to not spend their twenties
Speaker:thirties healing from childhood trauma.
Speaker:Instead, I want them to have all the tools and coping
Speaker:skills and awareness and all of that positive mindset and all
Speaker:those things that they take with them into their twenties.
Speaker:They take them with them into their thirties. So they're, like, emotionally
Speaker:healthy from the beginning. That's my goal. Okay? And
Speaker:so when I think about ADHD and I think about my own kid and his
Speaker:own struggles, like, with his self esteem,
Speaker:I'm not gonna get into his details or anything. But in
Speaker:general, it is easy for a kid with ADHD
Speaker:to grow up thinking negatively about themselves.
Speaker:Here are some of the labels that kids with ADHD
Speaker:tend to give themselves because these labels have
Speaker:been reinforced. So for example, you're a troublemaker.
Speaker:You're my problem child. You're lazy. You're stupid.
Speaker:You don't try hard enough. You don't reach your potential,
Speaker:which essentially means you're wasting your potential. You're
Speaker:wasting, right? You're a disappointment. You're too
Speaker:much like, quote unquote, you're too much like you're intense, you're a lot.
Speaker:That leads the child to feel to grow up
Speaker:feeling isolated, misunderstood, thinking
Speaker:they suck, and feeling broken. That's the
Speaker:last thing I want for your kids. Because I
Speaker:actually am gonna make a case for ADHD brains that are is pretty they're
Speaker:pretty cool, actually, if we accept the way they are
Speaker:and the way they think and what they need, and we love their brain,
Speaker:then what they can offer is really, really amazing.
Speaker:Now, when we talk about self-concept,
Speaker:we there's these two things. Brene Brown kind of explained this
Speaker:really well. She said the difference between shame and guilt is
Speaker:this. So shame is believing that something
Speaker:is wrong with you. I'm a screw up.
Speaker:I'm lazy. I'm a jerk.
Speaker:I'm selfish. I'm whatever, right? I'm a
Speaker:troublemaker. That's shame. Shame is when you create an
Speaker:identity around a behavior, When you create an
Speaker:identity around something that you've done.
Speaker:Guilt is when you are able to say I did
Speaker:something wrong and you externalize it. So
Speaker:shame is I'm a screw up. Guilt is I screwed up.
Speaker:Guilt is, I've made a mistake. Shame is I am
Speaker:a mistake. Guilt is I've done something wrong. Shame is
Speaker:something's wrong with me. So one is internalized at
Speaker:your core. There's something wrong with you. And then one is externalized
Speaker:that you've done something on the outside of you. At your core, you are
Speaker:good and lovable and worthy and perfect and you showed up in a
Speaker:way that caused a problem. So we wanna help
Speaker:our ADHD kids understand their brain
Speaker:is what is driving their behavior and how they
Speaker:think and and how or how they don't think. Right?
Speaker:So we wanna help them understand, like, this is not you. This is
Speaker:ADHD showing up for you. And we wanna set
Speaker:teach them to separate their behavior from their personality
Speaker:or their character. That means that you as a parent
Speaker:really have to be able to separate their
Speaker:identity from their behavior. So
Speaker:that's the second rethinking ADHD that I'm offering to
Speaker:you is that your kid is not their behavior. This
Speaker:is true across the board for any time your children are behaving.
Speaker:They are never their behavior. Their behavior is always
Speaker:an expression of their emotions or their unmet emotional
Speaker:needs or they're trying to cope with a negative circumstance,
Speaker:or they're trying to change a circumstance so that they feel better. So
Speaker:your children's behavior are always strategies.
Speaker:And with ADHD, it's not necessarily sometimes a
Speaker:strategy. It's just like the way that their brain is working at that time, and
Speaker:they need support and help. So my goal
Speaker:is to help you understand ADHD more
Speaker:because the more you understand, the more you can help your child understand.
Speaker:The more you understand what's going on for them, the more compassion you'll have and
Speaker:then the less critical you will be. So that's
Speaker:why I really wanted to talk about this today. Now I've gotta warn you, I
Speaker:have 5 pages of notes. And so I I don't think I'm
Speaker:gonna get through everything that I have learned about ADHD.
Speaker:So I'm gonna right now let you know what books I'm primarily using
Speaker:to source this conversation today. The first is
Speaker:called ADHD 2.0. It's by the people
Speaker:who wrote driven to distraction, Edward Hallowell and John
Speaker:Rady. And, that book has really been
Speaker:helpful for me. I've also taken in a lot of consideration
Speaker:of Gabor Mate's book, Scattered Minds, and
Speaker:that's the origins and healing of attention deficit disorder.
Speaker:I found, some good guidance in there. And then I'm
Speaker:also referencing a little bit of the book ADHD
Speaker:is awesome by Penn and Kim Holderness. They're the
Speaker:ones from the Holderness families that always do those funny parody videos
Speaker:that you see on Instagram or Facebook or wherever. And so
Speaker:Penn has ADHD, and he wrote this book. And I think there's a lot of
Speaker:beautiful tips and strategies in his
Speaker:book that are really easy to read and digest. So,
Speaker:like I said, you know, altogether, there's, like, 700 pages of text
Speaker:here. I'm gonna try to summarize as much as I can to be helpful to
Speaker:you. Alright. So let me give you just
Speaker:a couple of examples of what it's like to have ADHD. If you have
Speaker:ADHD, you might hear this and be like, oh, yeah, that resonates.
Speaker:So that feels true. So if you're a little kid,
Speaker:ADHD is like this. Like, imagine being in a really crowded room,
Speaker:like, you know, a conference or a
Speaker:concert or something like that. It's just like a really crowded room,
Speaker:and everyone around you is talking all at once. Right?
Speaker:There's just a lot of noise. No one's talking to you, but you're just
Speaker:hearing everybody talking. And then somebody
Speaker:suddenly asks you, what did that person next to you just
Speaker:say? You would have no idea because you have
Speaker:you weren't listening to that one person. You were listening to the entire room
Speaker:speak. And that's sort of what it's like to have ADHD.
Speaker:Lot of stimulation, a lot of noise, a lot of things happening, and then
Speaker:you're asked to to say what is one thing
Speaker:that's come happening in this room. ADHD can't figure
Speaker:out what they're supposed to be paying attention to.
Speaker:Another example would be you're stuck in the middle of
Speaker:heavy traffic at an intersection and your
Speaker:engine of your car has stalled and you're trying your best to get
Speaker:moving, but then everyone is yelling and honking at you, but no
Speaker:one's offering to help. So for ADHD, they're
Speaker:they're the kid or the person who's in the traffic jam
Speaker:and their car is stopped and everyone is looking at them like, what are you
Speaker:doing? Come on. Let's get going. And they're just trying to get
Speaker:get back on, you know, get back to it. They they're stalled.
Speaker:So that overstimulation is
Speaker:very overwhelming for someone with ADHD. And then
Speaker:when they're put on the spot to answer what's
Speaker:happening right now, describe what you just heard, that's very overwhelming.
Speaker:Or if their engine is stuck and they
Speaker:gotta get it going, it can be very challenging.
Speaker:So another example was, like, I heard was,
Speaker:the ADHD is like having a race car
Speaker:that you're driving. The engine is a race car engine, but you
Speaker:only have bicycle brakes. So once it gets going in
Speaker:one direction, it's very hard to stop and turn to another
Speaker:direction. It's like one track mind,
Speaker:but not always the track that we want it to be on. And then when
Speaker:we want the track to shift and want them to get to slow down
Speaker:or turn or be the brakes the braking system is
Speaker:very, very difficult to get to activate.
Speaker:It's like stopping a train with, you know, your
Speaker:arms. Like, that would be impossible. Right? So
Speaker:someone with ADHD, they they don't have
Speaker:an illness. It's like an impairment. Right? It's a disorder
Speaker:in terms of thinking of the word disorder not
Speaker:ordered. So someone with ADHD,
Speaker:they don't have a lot of order in their life. They lack a sense of
Speaker:organization. They're not really able to, like,
Speaker:consciously plan a sequence of activities. It's
Speaker:difficult for them to know where things are, know what they've done, what still
Speaker:needs to be done. It's a lack of order, which I think is a
Speaker:really cool way to think about it, is that's the executive function
Speaker:piece. Right? When I when I decide
Speaker:that I'm going to, get ready for bed, say,
Speaker:I have a whole system and routine that I go through.
Speaker:But when I first created that system and routine, it was
Speaker:innate to me. I was like, well, I'm gonna put on my pajamas and then
Speaker:I'm gonna go in my bathroom and brush my teeth and wash my face, put
Speaker:on my moisturizer, turn off the lights, get in bed. So there was
Speaker:like a sequence of events. For some of the ADHD, it's very
Speaker:difficult for them to create the original sequence of events.
Speaker:It's trying to find order within chaos. It's very difficult.
Speaker:So they need help defining that order and then keeping
Speaker:themselves on the track when they are
Speaker:supposed to be on that track. So it's it's a very big
Speaker:challenge for them. Their attention is
Speaker:disordered. Their life is disordered.
Speaker:Their energy is disordered. It's focused in in the
Speaker:places that maybe it's not necessary at the time.
Speaker:I actually think that ADHD can be a really fun and interesting
Speaker:type of, impairment. Because the
Speaker:people with ADHD, they're not focused on time. They're not
Speaker:focused on, you know, order
Speaker:and they have a lot more spontaneity and creativity and
Speaker:flow available to them and less
Speaker:restrictive in terms of, like, what they should be doing. So there's a
Speaker:lot of There could be a lot of freedom in it, but it's just challenging
Speaker:when we live in a society that sort of demands order.
Speaker:So I want you to think of it as an impairment and I want
Speaker:you to think of it as disordered attention and
Speaker:disordered life. Now, when you
Speaker:look at how it's diagnosed, the attention deficit
Speaker:disorder, We have the word attention deficit right in there.
Speaker:So it's it is a deficit of attention,
Speaker:but it's more like a difficulty in figuring out what to pay
Speaker:attention to. So someone with ADHD,
Speaker:they might have an attention deficit to something you want them to pay
Speaker:attention to because their attention is being paid
Speaker:somewhere else. So that's it's a
Speaker:deficit in terms of where we want them to be focused.
Speaker:So we think of it as poor attention skills,
Speaker:inattention. But really it can also be
Speaker:high attention, but just not where we want them to have
Speaker:focus. They also have impulse
Speaker:control issues. So someone with ADHD has difficulty
Speaker:delaying gratification, difficulty with
Speaker:procrastination, with understanding how time works
Speaker:and getting to, like, I have to do these 5 things before I can
Speaker:do this thing, making the sequence of things, they just kinda
Speaker:go to the the 5th thing. Like, they're just like, oh, I just gonna get
Speaker:there and rush and and don't always go through all the steps.
Speaker:And then hyperactivity, which you can also think of as hyper
Speaker:aroused. So these are the 3 major
Speaker:features of ADD. Now, what does that
Speaker:actually look like in regular life? It's
Speaker:missing details, making careless mistakes, not
Speaker:staying on task, doesn't seem to hear when spoken
Speaker:to. Remember, they're not able to pick out what they should
Speaker:be paying attention to. So it's all sounds like noise to them.
Speaker:Trouble organizing tasks, creating order, creating
Speaker:organization, avoiding tasks that require a
Speaker:lot of mental effort because it takes so much extra effort
Speaker:to stay attendant, to to pay attention to something that they
Speaker:don't care about that they can't really overcome. They
Speaker:can, but it's hard for them to overcome the boredom obstacle. And
Speaker:so instead of overcoming it, they just avoid it.
Speaker:Avoiding is a huge, huge strategy that ADHDers
Speaker:use. Like, I don't have homework. I already did it. It's not
Speaker:important. My test isn't today. They avoid it
Speaker:because the mental requirement to pay attention is
Speaker:so fatiguing. They'd rather just skip it.
Speaker:And then they feel bad later and it actually can create a lot of
Speaker:anxiety. So they avoid those tasks that
Speaker:require sustained mental effort. They lose things easily.
Speaker:They're easily distracted, and they're often forgetful
Speaker:in daily activities. It's like if
Speaker:you were to say to someone with ADHD, go get ready for bed,
Speaker:And then while they're walking like a little kid, they're walking to the bathroom,
Speaker:they notice a Lego guy on the floor. And then they pick up the little
Speaker:Lego guy or, you know, a barrette or something like that.
Speaker:And then they're in the bathroom and all of a sudden they're playing with it.
Speaker:And they they're, like, fixing their hair or they're
Speaker:putting the guy and, like, washing him in the sink and creating a whole world
Speaker:for the little Lego guy. And you walk in and you're like, what are you
Speaker:doing? You're supposed to be they don't know what they're supposed to be
Speaker:doing. So in that moment, they actually need your executive
Speaker:functioning skills. They need to borrow your
Speaker:thinking brain, but it's so, so frustrating, right, as a
Speaker:parent to let them borrow that.
Speaker:And we're so frustrated. That frustration
Speaker:is what they hear and feel instead of
Speaker:So if we can drop the frustration and just say, Hey,
Speaker:you can play Lego guy tomorrow as long as you get to bed tonight. Let's
Speaker:go. Right? You can delay that little gratification, that little
Speaker:motivation for tomorrow or later today. You know what? If you get your pajamas
Speaker:on and you get your teeth brushed before the timer goes off, then you'll have
Speaker:time to play Lego guy for a few minutes. So you can create
Speaker:small little dopamine event incentives in that moment.
Speaker:So that's inattention, also hyperactivity. If you see a kid
Speaker:fidgeting, tapping, squirming, getting up without
Speaker:permission because they're just not paying attention to, like, what's happening
Speaker:around them. They're just like, oh, that clock is wrong. And then they'll get
Speaker:up and go fix the clock. Like, you know, or like, oh, that window is
Speaker:open. I should close it. That that's just the only thing they're thinking about.
Speaker:They you know, our older kids can be extremely
Speaker:restless or or younger ones. They run about, they climb, they're
Speaker:unable to play or rest quietly. They're always on the go.
Speaker:They never stop. They talk excessively, blurt out
Speaker:the answer, trouble waiting to take turns, interrupting and
Speaker:retreating on others. Now, it's an important time to
Speaker:pause and say that all of these traits are common of children.
Speaker:Okay? It's when we
Speaker:see these traits that are
Speaker:atypical for their age, like most kids have grown out of those
Speaker:behaviors and they're still doing them, or that these
Speaker:behaviors, even with correction, are present for at least 6
Speaker:months. But we don't wanna diagnose like a 3 year old because
Speaker:a lot of these behaviors are pretty typical of 3. So
Speaker:a lot of diagnosis of ADHD happens around 6 or 7
Speaker:years old. That's when kids have often moved.
Speaker:They have more control over their executive function. They have more control
Speaker:over their nervous system. They're able to self regulate more and
Speaker:you see a neurodivergence right around that point. There are a
Speaker:couple of phrases that I have found that have been really helpful for
Speaker:me to understand what's happening with my ADHD
Speaker:kid and other people in my life. So one
Speaker:is the phrase boredom is kryptonite. This
Speaker:has to do with the poor attention skills. Unless there's a
Speaker:high interest in the topic or the activity,
Speaker:the ADHD brain has a lot of trouble creating
Speaker:motivation to pay attention. And so if they are
Speaker:bored, it's not that they willfully stop paying
Speaker:attention. It's that their brain just is so
Speaker:hungry for something new to think about, for
Speaker:something exciting that it just starts to
Speaker:wander and play in its own into the brain to find
Speaker:something a little more interesting to either think about, pay attention
Speaker:to, or do. So listening can be very
Speaker:boring. They they have this, you know,
Speaker:tuning out this absence of mind. And when
Speaker:they decide something is uninteresting, it's not decide. When something is
Speaker:uninteresting to them, they check out. Their brain
Speaker:checks out. It's not intentional. It's not willful.
Speaker:Now, if you're in a relationship with someone who has ADHD and you're
Speaker:talking about something that you think is interesting and they are not interested in
Speaker:it, they might tune you out. Or if you're a little
Speaker:kid and you're in your own brain, you know, you're in your ADHD
Speaker:brain, and you're playing and having a good time, and you're playing your own game,
Speaker:and it's very exciting to you, you might not be socially aware of what the
Speaker:other kids are playing. You might not be able to take your turn or
Speaker:wait. So it does create social problems. We want people to
Speaker:listen to us. We want people to play with us. We want there to be
Speaker:a give and take in in play. And that can be hard for
Speaker:ADHD. And it's not because they're mean or selfish
Speaker:or not a good friend. So don't ever want you to be critical or judge
Speaker:your ADHD kids. Just notice that that probably means that
Speaker:they are restless and bored. Another part of poor
Speaker:attention skills is, like I said, that this phrase they
Speaker:lack a template for order. That's really helpful for me. So
Speaker:boredom is kryptonite and that the ADHD mind
Speaker:lacks a template for order. When I understand
Speaker:that my son has trouble creating
Speaker:a sequence of steps or a
Speaker:process, then my brain is so focused on
Speaker:process. It's so sequential and so step based
Speaker:as all my programs are. You can tell by my teaching
Speaker:is is that that's just how I'm wired. Like, I'm almost
Speaker:wired for order, while some brains are not are they're wired
Speaker:for disorder. And if you recognize that you can come
Speaker:alongside your ADHD child and help
Speaker:create order from the chaos in their brain. So
Speaker:ADHD mind lacks a template for order. They need
Speaker:you to bring it. Now, if you have ADHD or you're not very ordered,
Speaker:then you might wanna sit with your ADHD brain
Speaker:child and create order together. And I bet it will be
Speaker:very fun and creative. You'll take lots of breaks. It'll be interesting.
Speaker:You'll come up with fun games. Like, let your brain
Speaker:guide. How would you want to approach learning this and
Speaker:help your ADHD kid approach learning it too? So that's
Speaker:fun. Either way, you can support your children. The
Speaker:other two phrases that have been really helpful for me in understanding
Speaker:ADHD is the one I've already said is like a race
Speaker:car for a brain with bicycle brakes.
Speaker:Just their brain is moving 200 miles an hour
Speaker:and they're the brakes of, like, a bicycle is, like,
Speaker:not very strong. And so when you're trying
Speaker:to shift them from one activity to another, get their
Speaker:brain to focus from something to something else, you
Speaker:are probably going to need to work extra hard to really
Speaker:grab their attention. You can do that by creating a
Speaker:little game, a little challenge, a little motivation, a little
Speaker:short term distraction, so that they're more motivated.
Speaker:This 4th phrase has been really helpful for me is that
Speaker:your ADHD brains, I might have to slow this
Speaker:down, so you really hear me. ADHD brains only
Speaker:experience 2 times.
Speaker:Everything in their brain is either now or
Speaker:not now. So this is often called time
Speaker:blindness or time illiterate. If you tell an
Speaker:ADHD kid that you're gonna leave for something in
Speaker:2 minutes, They don't
Speaker:they're like: Great. Like, 2 minutes is infinite to them. They don't
Speaker:hear 2 minutes. They hear now or not now.
Speaker:And then the now is
Speaker:what creates urgency.
Speaker:So I think about it as like emerging urgency.
Speaker:An emergency for ADHD is when
Speaker:things become urgent, and they can get a lot done at
Speaker:one time. They can be super fast because of that ability.
Speaker:Once they're motivated and they're paying attention, their full attention is
Speaker:on doing whatever it is they've gotta do. So they can hyperfocus when they
Speaker:have to. And they often only hyperfocus if it's
Speaker:motivation that there's something that they want to be interested in.
Speaker:If they're not bored, they can hyperfocus or they
Speaker:can hyperfocus when they
Speaker:have now. Like, if it's now, then they can create
Speaker:urgency. So emergencies create hyperfocus and high
Speaker:interest creates hyperfocus. They can get a lot done
Speaker:in a in a short amount of time. But if you think about now
Speaker:or not now, that means there's no future.
Speaker:So it's very hard for an ADHD brain to plan for the
Speaker:future and to stay motivated in a long term goal.
Speaker:So, like, graduating from high school, that's a really long term goal
Speaker:when you're 9th grade or or going to college. That's a really long term
Speaker:goal. So we wanna create more short
Speaker:term goals. So thinking about some
Speaker:strategies, I wanted you I wanted to offer you some strategies.
Speaker:So your child is not able, like we've
Speaker:said, to shift attention very easily. And so
Speaker:what we wanna do is help them if they're stuck in
Speaker:1, either hyperfocus or inattention.
Speaker:We want to help them switch out of
Speaker:that, you know, passive attention into active
Speaker:attention or out of active attention into passive attention. We wanna
Speaker:help toggle them from their
Speaker:prefrontal, like, in their prefrontal cortex. So how do you do that?
Speaker:You give them a small constructive task that
Speaker:they should do right now. So like an easy dopamine or easy
Speaker:oxytocin hit. So you can say,
Speaker:you know, that's why I love, like, the limit setting formula is so
Speaker:helpful for ADHD brains, especially short term. Like,
Speaker:Lincoln, you can get in the car once you have your shoes on
Speaker:and it's time to put your shoes on now. And then he's like, What? Okay.
Speaker:And then he puts his shoes on and he gets in the car and he's
Speaker:super fast at it. And that is why you
Speaker:wanna use that limit setting. Like, if you have another kid that
Speaker:doesn't have ADHD, you could do a little bit more long term. Like,
Speaker:hey, as long as we're ready for school 5 days in a row, I'm happy
Speaker:to take you on Saturday to the park and play or
Speaker:whatever. But with ADHD, it's a little easy to be a
Speaker:little bit more close together and you want to break
Speaker:those those limits down into smaller
Speaker:fragments. So once you have your teeth brushed, you can wash your
Speaker:hands. Once your hands are washed, you can go potty. But you
Speaker:are teaching them, like, you're staying close with ADHD.
Speaker:You're right there like, okay, you've brushed your teeth. Now you're welcome
Speaker:to go potty after you have put your pajamas on or whatever the
Speaker:order is. So with when they're little, you're trying to bring
Speaker:that prefrontal cortex. You have to work at creating the sequences
Speaker:and those routines and those habits and those patterns that requires
Speaker:a lot of intentional parenting. And that's a challenge when you have
Speaker:an ADHD kid because you feel like they should know this
Speaker:already. And they don't. They can't.
Speaker:They're disordered. Their brain does not have a template for order.
Speaker:There's boredom is kryptonite. There's only now or not
Speaker:now. And that means that you have to create a little
Speaker:bit of that motivation. You have to create urgency,
Speaker:and you have to support them with the sequencing of of
Speaker:events. Now, do you have to do this forever? Nope.
Speaker:You just have to teach the brain the sequence
Speaker:without waiting for them to learn it themselves. So
Speaker:I didn't have to teach Lincoln how to get ready for school for the for
Speaker:5 straight years. Just focused on creating that neural
Speaker:pathway and that sequencing until it was embedded. But it took
Speaker:6 months or something like that to get him into the morning
Speaker:routine. Took a long time to get him into the bedtime routine
Speaker:to sequentially embed that neural pathway. I couldn't
Speaker:just teach it one time. I did it over and over and over
Speaker:again. And now he has that neural pathway.
Speaker:One thing I didn't teach him, which I regret, is I
Speaker:didn't teach him how to create a neural pathway for getting ready to do
Speaker:schoolwork. I just didn't really like, they didn't
Speaker:have a lot of schoolwork in elementary school, And so I didn't have a a
Speaker:way to model that for him at home. And so we didn't really
Speaker:create a lot of pathways. In middle school, it was
Speaker:challenging. I I I was doing it as much as I could and then the
Speaker:pandemic and it kind of all fell apart. So he had to create a
Speaker:neural pathway to getting schoolwork done really late high
Speaker:school and all in college and he's doing it. He has a whole
Speaker:system now and he has a routine and then he's used to it and that
Speaker:he knows what he needs in order to create that
Speaker:environment that is just the right stimulation, just the right
Speaker:motivation, just the right amount of breaks, all of that.
Speaker:So I want you to realize that you wanna work with that
Speaker:ADHD brain instead of fighting against
Speaker:it, instead of judging it and criticizing it. You want
Speaker:to understand the main strategy here is that you
Speaker:are the warmly supportive adult that your child
Speaker:needs in order to learn how to regulate
Speaker:their emotions, regulate their attention,
Speaker:regulate their, their,
Speaker:energy. All of those struggles for your
Speaker:ADHD kids, it's gonna take them longer to learn
Speaker:it, but it's not impossible. And you're teaching them how
Speaker:to cue themselves and how to create order.
Speaker:And they might, you know, even in high school, if they understand their
Speaker:brain enough, be like, I don't really have a good system for this.
Speaker:Can we talk about it? That's an amazing amount of awareness. Like, I
Speaker:keep losing my keys or I keep, you know, speeding or
Speaker:I keep, running out of money or I
Speaker:keep, you know, my laundry is not done and I keep not having
Speaker:clean clothes. Like, once they feel frustrated by
Speaker:those behaviors, if they feel that you're supportive and you're not
Speaker:gonna criticize them and judge them and say, I've already told you this a 100
Speaker:times. Instead, they can come and say, hey. I
Speaker:need some help. Let's help me create a system here.
Speaker:That's, like, my favorite question in the world, by the way. If anyone ever asks
Speaker:me, help me create a system here. I'm like, yes, please.
Speaker:So when you think about your ADHD kid,
Speaker:I want you to remember that their brain works different and
Speaker:that they need your support, and they're gonna need it longer
Speaker:than you think is necessary, the longer than what is typical.
Speaker:And if you make that shift and you rethink ADHD in that
Speaker:way, I promise you'll have an easier time in your relationship with
Speaker:your kid. They will be more compliant because they they
Speaker:actually do wanna be compliant. They are motivated
Speaker:to please. They just have a disorder
Speaker:disorder brain and they need your help. So if you approach them this
Speaker:way, they they will feel closer, you will get more compliance,
Speaker:and they will feel better about themselves long term.
Speaker:So don't give up, don't give in,
Speaker:and don't get frustrated. And if you do get frustrated, come to the
Speaker:Com Mama Club. I feel like almost everybody has kids with ADHD in the
Speaker:club. Maybe not. That's not true. But it
Speaker:does feel like we're all kind of in the same boat working with
Speaker:kids with neurodivergence or ourselves. We're neurodivergent
Speaker:and, you know, we want support. So I encourage you the calm mama club. It's
Speaker:$30 a month. You get weekly coaching with me. We have specialty
Speaker:groups for, parenting kids, teens.
Speaker:There's a full online course. There's the workbook, the handbooks, and
Speaker:you also have access to get getting coached with me. So that's really cool.
Speaker:$30 a month. CallMama Club. We're gonna link the books to
Speaker:the show notes. We're gonna link the CommMama Club. Obviously, I
Speaker:always encourage you to book a consult a consultation with me.
Speaker:And also just know, like, I've been
Speaker:through it. I've raised a kid with ADHD,
Speaker:and I'm happy to share my experience with you. So if you are
Speaker:curious, reach out and we can talk more about it. Alright, mama.
Speaker:It's a little longer episode, but I had a lot to say on this
Speaker:topic. I hope you're having a great week, and I will
Speaker:talk to you next time.