Speaker:

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.