Edge Foundation Blog

There’s been so much attention the past few  days about whether Ritalin is effective for treating ADHD, you may have missed the news that fidgeting can help manage ADHD.  That’s right, fidgeting actually helps kids with ADHD stay alert.  Time Magazine reported last week that a new University of Central Florida study shows that ADHD kids move around in order to help them stay focused.  In fact kids with ADHD may actually learn better when they are fidgeting!

Teachers in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been experimenting with flexible desks that allow children the option to either stand or sit at them.  The New York Times reported that researchers from the University of Minnesota have been studying the impact of these flexible desks on the academic outcomes of children using them.

Finally, a study published in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that doodling actually improves your ability to remember details, rather than indicating your mind is wandering.

Here at Edge, we know that fidgeting can be used successfully to help manage ADHD symptoms.  In 2005 our Executive Director, Sarah Wright, co-authored, Fidget to Focus:  Outwit Your Boredom: Sensory Strategies for Living with ADD.  Next month we’ll tell you more about this book that started it all! In the meantime, take a look at these reports – perhaps they’ll give you ideas of things to do at school or work to improve your focus.  An ADHD coach can also help you discover which strategies work best for you.

Did you already know that fidgeting was a way that helped you focus?  Tell us about it.  We’d love hearing from you about how you keep your edge!

The statistics on ADHD teens and driving are scary. How do allow our teens to drive, but make it safer for our kids behind the wheel?

AD/HD & Driving – A Guild for parents of Teens with AD/HD, by J. Marlene Snyder  is the first and only book on ADHD, teens, and driving.  It is a must-read for all families who have or are contemplating having a teen with ADHD as a driver in the household.  (Note:  The book is out of print, but you can still find plenty of new and used copies on Amazon.com and other ADHD book selling sites.)

ADHD teens are neurologically more prone to speeding, and accidents.  And it’s critical that parents set clear expectations for ADHD teens when they get behind the wheel.

Chapter titles include:

When you have finished reading the book you will be armed with strategies to use to encourage safe driving behaviors in your teen — observation tools, topics to that require extra emphasis, work sheets and sample contracts.

An ADHD Coach can help your teen be a safer driver

Teaching your ADHD teen these new skills can be challenging.  We interviewed Marlene Snyder about the role of a coach in helping your ADHD teen be a safe driver.  Watch it here.  Next time we’ll outline some other tools that are on the market that can help you be sure your teen is driving safely – even when you aren’t in the car.

What have you done to keep your ADHD teen driver safe?  Here are a few ideas for your teen driver to consider.  Please leave us a comment and share what’s worked for you.

Did you know that you’re not fully grown up until you’re 25?

That’s right!  Your brain keeps growing well past the time you reach your full height.  Studies by the National Institute of Health and UCLA show that the risk assessment area of the brain isn’t fully developed until age 25.

Teen drivers at risk

So it shouldn’t be a surprise then, teen drivers are at risk when driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, teens are only 7% of licensed drivers, yet they account for 14% of fatal collisions.  In 2003, 3,657 teen drivers were killed, and an additional 308,000 were injured in crashes (Source:  AAA Foundation of Traffic Safety).  Put another way,  that means a 16 year old is twice as likely to have an accident as someone in their 80s!

The property damage costs of teen driver accidents is staggering – over $31 billion each year.

ADHD teens – an even greater driving risk

A few sobering facts about ADHD teens and driving. When compared to other teens…

1. ADHD teen drivers are seven times as likely to have been in 2 or more accidents.
2. ADHD teen drivers are two times as likely to have a speeding ticket.
3. ADHD teen drivers are five times as likely to have a traffic citation.
4. ADHD teen drivers are four times as likely to have been in an injury accident.
5. ADHD teen drivers are four times as likely to have been at fault for the accident they were in.

Families of ADHD teen drivers have a higher risk of:

1. Serious injury or death of their child,
2. Property damage,
3. Higher health care costs,
4. More involvement with legal and liability issues, and
5. Higher motor vehicle insurance rates.

Do we keep ADHD teens from driving?

Of course not! Driving is an important rite of passage in this country. It gives freedom and responsibility to our young adults and helps families manage complicated schedules.  BUT…

There are things you can do to keep yourself (or your teen) safe in the early years of becoming a skilled driver.  Next time we’ll show you how.

Have questions about ADHD teens and driving?  Ask them here, and we’ll do our best to answer them in a future post.

If you’ve recently received an ADHD diagnosis, you’ve probably spent a lot of time looking at web sites, books and videos to learn more about ADHD.   There is a lot of information, and misinformation, about ADHD on the web.  We’d like to help simplify that step in your journey by providing a list of top recommended books and videos in the field.

You may not be aware that the Edge Foundation board and advisory boad has consisted of some of the leading experts on ADHD (ex Nancy Ratey, Dr. Patricia Quinn and Dr. Ned Hallowell).  So you can trust that the resources we list are accurate and based on sound scientific evidence.

ADHD Coach can help sift through it all

One of the things an ADHD coach can help you with is sifting through all of the resources out there.  A good coach has read most of the books, received substantial training and keeps up with the latest therapeutic and scientific studies.    Sign-up today and a coach will contact you within the next business day to get started with your personal action plan.

ADHD Management by Russell Barkley

If you are interested viewing a long, but comprehensive, video about ADHD Management, check out this one.  Dr. Russell Barkley is one of the leading scientists studying ADHD today.  He is Professor of Psychiatry at Medical University of South Carolina and Suny Upstate Medical University and has written numerous books on the topic.

Ever wonder how ADHD coaching works?  We’ve put together these two videos to give you some insight into the ADHD coaching process.

ADHD Coaching FAQs

The first video answers some of the commonly asked questions about ADHD coaching.  If you still have questions we didn’t answer, please leave them in the comments section.  We want to hear from you!

ADHD Coaching Demonstration

The second video is a short demo of what a coaching session might look like. It gives you an idea of some of the topics you might cover with a coach each week.

Got a question you’d like to see answered? Leave it in the comments and let us know how we can help you keep your edge!

Editor’s Note:  Stories from the Edge are real life accounts about how an ADHD coach works – as told by the student receiving the coaching.  This is the second installment from Kelsey Peterson who is a junior at Parson’s School of Design.  You can read her first post here.  We asked Kelsey to tell us what she’s working on this month with her coach.

One thing I’m struggling with this month that my coach is helping me with is balance with my homework.

Handling the reading load for my classes is challenging

I am taking one design class and three lecture style classes. Even though the lecture classes are very interesting and I love going to them getting the reading done for them is hard. They all assign a lot of reading and I’m trying to schedule my weeks to block out time to do them. It’s easy for me to do my design homework and forget about the reading until the morning of that class or the night before.

Using a day planner to make time in my schedule for reading

My coach has been helping me look at my planner and assign blocks of time throughout the week to go to Starbucks or the library and read. It’s been going better but still hard to stick to my schedule at times. During the day my friends and I are all out going to class or hanging out in a similar neighborhood in Manhattan so it’s hard not to meet up and get a coffee with my friends in between classes instead of doing the reading. So I have been trying to balance time with my friends with homework.

Basically I came up with a game plan for one of my classes that meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays we have a lecture and on Wednesdays a discussion class about the readings. So my new schedule is that I go to the lecture on Tuesday and do the reading right after so that the reading makes more sense to me and I’m still thinking about and digesting the lecture. This has been working really good and I’m still experimenting with the other classes and when the best time to get the reading for them is done.

When I look at my day planner with my coach I make sure to schedule things appropriately, for example I try hard to plan on doing my homework in the morning because I have mostly afternoon class and I like to hangout with my friends and my boyfriend after six. I don’t have time to hangout with my friends every evening but for the most part I’ve discovered what works best for me is to get up early and do as much as I can – and then after six have fun and relax.

Over the past several months, we’ve been focusing on anxiety and ADHD.

In January we introduced the topic of ADHD and anxiety with a report of how common forms of anxiety are much more common in people who have ADHD than the general population.  We also gave you a list of physical and psychological symptoms associated with anxiety.    Last month, we outlined the 4 most common axiety disorders associated with ADHD.  Remember half (52%) of adults with ADHD will experience general anxiety disorder during their lifetimes.

This month we’ll teach you a few things you can do to control anxiety.  Of course we need to start by saying that if your anxiety feels overwhelming or gets worse over time, you should begin by seeking the help of a professional, who might possibly prescribe therapy and/or medication.  There are, however,  easy, everyday things you can do to help control anxiety without taking another pill – that you can start right now!

1. Exercise
2. Eat right
3. Get enough sleep
4. Practice relaxation

Exercise Exercise Exercise

If you’re a regular Edge Foundation subscriber, you’ll have seen our review of John Ratey’s book, Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain.

In it Ratey explains that regular exercise alone can dramatically reduce symptoms of anxiety:

• Exercise releases neurochemicals that help you feel better (serotonin, the “feel good” neurochemical, and GABA, an important inhibitory neurochemical that basically gives the command to “stand down”. )
• Exercise helps relax your body, reducing the resting tension of your muscles and thus interrupting the anxiety feedback loop to your brain.
• Exercise teaches you that you have control over the symptoms of racing heart, sweating, and elevated breathing. That feeling this way physically is not the same thing as a panic attack.
• Exercise even helps you unlearn the habit of anxiety.

Diet

We are going to sound like your mother, but she was right.  Be sure to remember to eat regular meals.  You may be able to get by and skip a meal with a little help from caffeine or sugar, but did you know that both of these foods can mimic the sensation of an anxiety attack – and actually trigger one!

Sleep

Irregular sleep habits can actually increase your anxiety symptoms!  Stress and anxiety may cause the body to produce a “no sleep” signal in the brain that heightens arousal and makes sleep difficult. This alerting effect is a cause of more anxiety and may set in motion a cycle of sleeplessness and stress.

Sleep is such a big issue for many people with ADHD that we are planning a future post on the topic.  In the meantime, there is a lot of information on the web about sleep, sleep problems, and how to develop better sleep patterns. Here are a few places to start.

• http://www.sleepfoundation.org
• http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm
• http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/sleep/guide/info-sleep.htm

Relax Your Mind

Take a time out and pause to let your mind and body relax. When you are stressing, do something distracting and fun. Take a deep breath.  Or fill your mind with a challenging task like a Sudoku or crossword puzzle and you won’t have room to think about your anxiety

Relax Your Body

Relax your body and your mind will follow – we call this the relaxation response.   Relax your body and your

• heart rate decreases
• breathing becomes slower and deeper
• blood pressure drops or stabilizes
• muscles relax
• and your anxiety level decreases

Did we mention exercise?

Exercise can be a great way to release tension in your body.  There are non-strenuous ways to invite your body to relax as well.

• yoga
• medication
• relaxation excecises
• biofeedback
• and don’t forget to breathe.

Anxiety is a real and serious problem, but you don’t have to let it put you on the sidelines or eat you up inside.  It just takes self-awareness that your anxiety is getting the best of you and self-discipline to take steps every day to keep your anxiety at bay.  An ADHD coach can help you figure out which techniques are best for you and put a plan in place to help you stay on top of your anxiety.

Have you found any of these everyday habits have helped your anxiety levels?  Please share your experience in the comments.  We’d love to hear from you.