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Strewth! Rory Bremner and ADHD

As I crouch here, squeezed into… Continue reading »

Anger Management

The adult ADHD group in Harrow (NW London) has received a generous offer low-to-no cost anger management workshops specifically aimed at adults with ADHD. Details aren’t fixed yet – they need to see if there is enough interest, so if you are or know someone who has ADHD and would like help with anger management, and you’re in the area let them know:

ADHD Support Harrow, 35 Pinner Green, HA5 2AF
Tel: 020 8426 1719
E-mail: adhdharrow@btconnect.com

Bristol Adult ADHD Support Group Meeting (and Bedford)

The Bristol Adult ADHD Support Group will be meeting this Thursday, 12th May 2011 from 7 to 9 pm at The Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, Bristol.  For more information see our page here.

And there’s a meeting in Bedford, too. It’s at 4:30 at  the usual place – see post (much) further down for dtails…

Reminder (only just in time!)

Meetings tonight: Manchester and Harrow (north west London). And don’t forget Brighton this Wednesday.

New Scientist article on Evolution and ADHD

This week’s New Scientist magazine has an interesting article on human evolution and the spread of humans across the planet. It seems it might be to do with ADHD genes! Note: this isn’t the whole article, the ADHD bit was only mentioned at the end so we’ve cut out quite a bit for our ADHD readers (and editors). The full article on the NS web site is here. If you have trouble getting the full version let us know and we’ll see what we can do. Now read on…

Out-of-Africa migration selected novelty-seeking genes

AS HUMANS migrated out of Africa around 50,000 years ago and Continue reading »

Don’t like that picture at the top…

I can’t imagine who put that picture there at the top of the page. Rubbish. Needs something much better.

Suppose it’s meant to be symbolic or something. Long hard road. Dust, dirt and grime. Getting lost. Rubbish. Can anyone come up with a better one?

Asperger’s & ADHD

Some people are of the opinion that ADHD is specifically part of the Autism/Asperger’s spectrum but in fact there are a lot of people with ADHD that don’t have Asperger’s and some are  much less Asperger’s than the general population. It isn’t unusual for the two to go together, though. Having trouble switching tasks is something common to both.

But rather than drone on about the technicalities, we thought we’d do something more fun. Here’s a link to a quiz so you can test yourself for Asperger’s.

Help a student

Anyone wanting to help a student looking into ADHD and how it is dealt with might like to do the survey below:

I am currently at The University of York and working on my dissertation ‘how society deals with adult ADHD’
As i was diagnosed only last year after a long fight, i was hoping others could share some information with me by doing my survey.

The link is below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G6F6TN6

Thank you so much.

Sophie

Interesting video about ADHD from the Wellcome Trust

This came out a little while ago but we don’t seem to have taken the link with us to our new site, and it is well worth a look…

Bristol, London, Manchester meetings

Central London meeting Tuesday 3rd of April, same time, same place…

Manchester meeting 9th May, more details here :

Bristol Meeting should be Thursday the 12th of May (the second Thursday of the month) from 7 to 9pm at the Pieran Centre, map here.

It’s the ones without ADHD that are barking mad!

Honestly! Some of the advice we get for dealing with ADHD comes from Professors of The Bleedin’ Obvious at Bloodyuseless College, Oxford!

‘Top’ ADHD coach that shall remain nameless (unless enough of you ask!) has just issued a list of top tips for overcoming ADHD. The first one made me want to gnaw my own leg off:

Keep the goal in mind.

One of the hardest struggles for my clients is keeping their goals in mind. If you can’t see your goals, you’ll be more likely to get off track. Devise methods to keep the goal in mind, and to see, and track, progress. Mark your goals with colored markers on a monthly calendar and post it where you will see it throughout the day, in the kitchen, perhaps, or over your workstation or desk.

Keep the goal in mind. Thanks! I hadn’t thought of that! Well done! If you give advice for overcoming depression do you say ‘cheer up, misery guts!’? Do you deal with schizophrenics by saying ‘Don’t be such a loony!’? Of course it is one of the hardest struggles for your clients, because that’s the essence of the problem in the first place.

“Devise methods to keep the goal in mind”. Brilliant advice! That what they’re paying you for! How successful would a tennis coach be if she gave the advice “Devise methods for scoring more points than your opponent.”? Answer: not very.

And then the ultimate: a monthly calendar. Well that’s new, I must say. No one with ADHD ever, ever thought of using a calendar. No, it is our appalling lack of knowledge of commonly used pieces of stationary that has been holding us all back all these years. Thank you so very much. Now I realise what all those funny bits of paper with the name of a month at the top and lines dividing the paper into boxes, with numbers are. Blimey, I’ve just got it. The numbers are consecutive, aren’t they? They’re days of the month! Hurrah! I’m cured! Continue reading »

This website is interactive, you know…

You can write in a comment on almost any page on this site. So please let us know what you think, or if you have a useful piece of information to impart to other people with ADHD, type it into the comments box.

Also, some articles are too long to fit on the front page without squeezing off the rest so only the first bit is shown. If you click the title you’ll get the whole article. (But not this one – far too short.)

Interesting Programme on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4′s psychology programme “All In The Mind” is looking at a new study that may lead to much earlier diagnosis (as young as six months old, perhaps) of developmental disorders. Details on the BBC site here or play the programme now here.

It is a very good series but we’ll be listening in with something else in mind – they don’t seem to have ever mentioned ADHD, adult or otherwise. It will be interesting to see if they mention it tonight. Anyway, apart from that it is generally a very informative programme. The bit about some forms of anorexia perhaps being a form of autism sounds fascinating too.

New support group meeting: Brighton

*** Note: the venue has changed***

First ever Brighton meeting:

7pm Wednesday the 11th of May at The Caxton Arms, North Gardens, Brighton (not far from station)

Click here for a map.

Any questions, contact the organiser here.

Are you a boss with a member of staff with ADHD?

Here’s an article from US website ‘Small Business Review’ about handling staff with ADHD. It was written by someone with ADHD so is quite interesting for employees too. (But the links are to US organisations so not a great help to those outside.)

The full article is here: http://smallbusinessreview.com/for_the_boss/Managing_the_ADHD_Adult/

Excerpt here:

Managing the ADHD Adult

By Nancy Snell

There are millions of ADHD adults in the workforce. Learn to make the most of their talents.

As a business owner or manager, the odds are that at some point you will have to deal with an employee or colleague who has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), commonly known as Attention Deficit Disorde. The presence of ADHD among children is well known. But it is also common in adults . Experts estimate that between 8 million and 10 million adults suffer from ADHD and two-thirds of children with ADHD will continue to have ADHD as adults.

When ADHD shows up in the workplace (usually it’s undiagnosed), there are potentially severe consequences—lost productivity, disruptions, mistakes. Without proper handling, the employee who suffers from ADHD or who starts to exhibit ADHD-like symptoms—distractibility, feelings of being overhwhelmed—can throw a huge monkey wrench into the workings of a small operation. On the other hand, with professional help and careful supervision, the ADHD adult can continue to function productively, and maybe even thrive. Rest of article here…

To answer a question about ‘natural’ remedies….

Some people (e.g. me) think this is just brilliant, others don’t. You have been warned.

Hello world!

We are testing out a new site for Adults with Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder UK. It is being done on WordPress. This is where the news will go…

*** JUST IN ***

From Lizzie Coultas, Acumen Field Work:

Apologies for the short notice but we have had some cancellations on a project we are recruiting for and so have some interviewing slots to fill in London tomorrow and Friday. Below are the details of this research. If you are interested in taking part please call myself or Anthea as soon as possible so that we can go through the details of the research with you :

We currently have a project where we are keen to speak to people with low internet confidence about websites.

We are specifically looking for people with the following conditions and disabilities:

ADHD, Aspergers,  Low reading age, Mild to moderate learning difficulties.

Participants will be required to attend a pre study briefing on 31^st March or 1^st April for 45 minutes at a venue in Hammersmith.

They will then be given a 14 day diary study to complete.  This diary study will take around 1 hour per day.

Midway through the study participants will receive a 1 hour home visit.

Finally, participants will be required to attend a 1 hour meeting in Hammersmith on 18^th or 19^th April.

Participants will receive an incentive of £230 as a thank you for their time and opinions.

Is this is something you might be interested in taking part in? If so we would be delighted to hear from you.

If this is relevant to a family member, friend or work colleague, please forward on.

Please do not hesitate to contact me on 0161 234 9940 or send me an email.  Please include a contact telephone number in any response.

Many thanks,

Lizzie Coultas, Medical Field Manager, T: 0161 234 9940, DD: 0161 234 9951

www.acumenfieldwork.com

3 CANAL STREET, THE VILLAGE, MANCHESTER, M1 3HE