Edge Foundation Blog

Editor’s Note:
This is the third, and final, installment in a three part series on ADHD and depression. The first post revealed that people with ADHD have a higher incidence of depression than the general population and urged all teens and young adults to be screened for depression as part of their annual physicals. The second part looked at the various types of depression. This post, as promised, shares some things you can do about depression.

ADHD and Depression is Serious Business

It’s important to start this post by saying that depression can be a serious, life-threatening condition. If you are feeling hopeless, worthless, irritated, chronically exhausted or have lost interest in things you once loved, you should start by talking to your physician or a therapist. Look for someone who has experience in diagnosing ADHD and working with the co-occurring conditions that can come along with ADHD. (The last thing you need to do is see someone who doesn’t understand or even believe in ADHD!)

A professional can help you determine what the appropriate course of action  to help you break free of your depression. You don’t have to suffer depression alone. Get some help for yourself, right away.  Talk to your parents, friends or even a crisis hotline.  Don’t suffer alone!

What to Do About ADHD and Depression Starting NOW!

Sure calling a doctor or therapist is a great idea, but you may be wondering what you can do for depression right now. After all, depression is something that can be hard to overcome.   (And it doesn’t take holidays!)   You can use all the help you can get to breaking through to the other side of depression! Why not try what Gayle Wilson, ADHD coach, shares with her clients. She calls it her “Depression Busting Toolkit” or “12 Mental Lifesavers.”

ADHD Depression Busting Toolkit: 12 Mental Lifesavers

1. Talk about it.  Pour out your soul to a sympathetic ear.
2. Go to the dogs (play with your pets).
3. Run away (literally). Do something physical. (Yes, we keep saying this over and over. Exercise is critical to healthy living with ADHD!)
4. Laugh your head off. Watch a funny TV show, ask someone to tickle you, Google “funny” or “hilarious,” check out the comedy channel on hulu.com, or watch an old Road Runner cartoon, etc.
5. Get to work. Lose yourself in work.
6. Compartmentalize. Focus on what you can do right now. The old adage, one day at a time, has stood the test of time because it works! Sometimes getting off the couch and doing something, anything, can make a big difference to feeling better.
7. Write. Right now. Paying attention to what you are thinking. Write it down. Be sure to turn off the critical inner voice and just let your thoughts go.
8. Identify something you care about more than yourself.  Is that a friend? A charity? Your grandparents?  Now do something, anything about it.
9. Bring beauty into your life. Buy some flowers, take some pictures, make a painting, clean your room.
10. Learn the lesson. Explore what there is to learn in what you are experiencing.
11. Be well read. Let fiction carry you away.
12. Have faith. Turn to your spiritual practice
13. Curb self-defeating and negative thoughts with an ANT.

Daniel G. Amen, M.D., author of Healing ADD and Change Your Brain, Change Your life, coined the acronym A.N.T.’s — or automatic negative thoughts. Turns out there is a connection between what we say to ourselves and how we feel. If we control what we think, we can control how we feel.

Gayle Wilson gives each of her clients a little plastic ant and a poem. Print out the poem and put it on your desk. Read it when you need to turn your thoughts away from the dark side. Sure it’s a little dorky, and Gayle’s no poet, but these simple words have helped many other people. So there’s no harm in trying it, huh? You can control what you think and change how you feel about yourself.

A.N.T.s: AUTOMATIC NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Gayla Wilson 12/07

Place this little Ant on your desk, in your pocket or your purse.
Let it remind you, your thoughts can be adverse.
Listen to what your brain tells you
The next time you get into a jam
and you hear “I’m stupid”; “I always mess up”
“Why can’t I ever just push through?”
Write it down, tell it to scram.

Is this thought a fact?
Or, is it the same old you?
If it’s true…change it.
If it’s a lie, answer back.

These are your thoughts
You write the script
Be they pleasant and pleasing
Or harmful…
They’re your thoughts,
You can answer back

The damage CAN be reversed.
It is up to you
Their weight and importance
Are set by you. You take control.
Kill the ANT!

Do you have tricks that help you beat the blues? Please share them!

Fail it Forward

Is it possible people who have not failed are people who have never gone too far…never gone far enough? What side of the coin do you fall on? The “I have failed side” or the “I played it safe side.”

How can we ever know how far we can go unless we are willing to fail? Playing it safe requires us to live inside the boundaries of our limitations. A diagnosis of ADHD can mean a limitation of too few neurotransmitters (the thingies that help us focus and concentrate). This doesn’t mean we have to live inside this limitation. We can manage this in several ways; education, coaching, medication, exercise, diet and therapy just to name a handful.

You know the game we all play sometime; “What would you do if money were not a concern.” I ask my coaching clients “What would you do if you knew you would not fail.” When we strip away the “yeah, buts,” “if onlys,” “shoulds,” “I can’ts” and my favorite “I tried that and it didn’t work” what do we have left?

I can. I will. I am.

It takes great strength and courage (an “I told you so” occasion for the nay-sayers in your life, real and imaginary) to consider the possibility of failing. To know in your heart you might fail and then decide to take the plunge and do it anyway. Anis Nin said, “Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” What will it take for you to feel courageous?

A life of unmet potential is easier and less painful.

Those of us with ADHD have had our fair share of bumps in the road. Sometimes we settle for a life of unmet potential because it is just plain easier and less painful. Henry David Thoreau’s famous quote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” describes it well. Thoreau sought to learn to live deliberately and without resignation. He did not want to discover that he had not lived. Bob, my husband, has quoted this passage many times to me over the years. It has become his mantra, a reminder, as he learned to move through his daily challenge with ADHD. Like many adults diagnosed late it life Bob has had his fair share of bumps.

Many of us have learned to rely on the strategy of defensive pessimism. This strategy anticipates a negative outcome and then we take steps to avoid that outcome. Not necessarily a bad strategy, but certainly a limiting one. Yes, we must learn from our past mistakes. The learning and wisdom we gain from those mistakes guides our future…fail it forward, get it? As we side-step our way to the comfortable use of the word failure we can live firmly in the present. Fail, learn, grow, and succeed.

Want to think on this topic some more? You might also be interested in http://www.edgefoundation.org/blog/2009/07/14/adhd-is-it-a-good-or-bad-thing/.

How do you view failure in your life?  Do you agree that you can’t learn if you don’t fail?

Edge Foundation has been busy this fall appearing at conferences and meetings where people living ADHD are talking about it and figuring out what works and what doesn’t to cope.  We’ve loved meeting so many of you and are inspired by your stories, struggles and triumphs.

Next up, our Executive Director, Sarah Wright, will be speaking at the ADD Resources annual conference entitled Acceptance is Empowering and held in the Seattle area on November 14, 2009. Her session, A is for Anxiety, focuses on how to keep anxiety at bay and builds on the material in these Edge blog posts: ADHD and Anxiety Overview, Common Anxiety Disorders and ADHD, and Non Drug Treatments for Anxiety Everyone Can Try.

If you haven’t heard of them before be sure to check out ADD Resources. This non-profit is a great resource for people living with ADHD. They have a large library of podcasts, books and articles that are free to members or offered at a very low price for non-members. Their November conference will offer a wide range of breakout topics aimed at the parent or student who has ADHD. If you are in the Seattle area next week, be sure to consider attending.  If you aren’t able to make it, be sure to check out the wide range of articles we have on file in our blog and watch for our upcoming post about coping with depression.

If you’d like to find out where Edge Foundation board or staff will be appearing and other inside information about Edge, be sure to  sign up for our Newsletter. ,

Last month we started a three part series on ADHD and depression. The first installment revealed that people with ADHD have a higher incidence of depression than the general population and urged all teens and young adults to be screened for depression as part of their annual physicals. This month we’ll be looking at the types of depression.

Depression comes in many forms

The National Institute for Mental Health outlines three types of depression each come with their own variation of symptoms, severity and persistence.

Major depression (also known as major depressive disorder) comes with a whole host of symptoms that interfere with the ability to function in everyday life.  Symptoms include:

• Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood.
• Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism.
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness.
• Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyable, including sex.
• Decreased energy, fatigue; feeling “slowed down.”
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
• Trouble sleeping, early morning awakening, or oversleeping.
• Changes in appetite and/or weight.
• Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts.
• Restlessness or irritability.
• Persistent physical symptoms, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain that do not respond to routine treatment.

A major depressive episode can happen just once. But many people will suffer several episodes over their lives. Some people who suffer this type of depression require treatment indefinitely.

Dysthymia (or dysthymic disorder) is a less severe type of depression. People with dysthymia have long-lasting chronic symptoms that keep them from feeling well but without seriously disabling them. Many people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes during their lives.

The third type of depression is bipolor disorder (or manic depressive illness). People who are bipolar swing between extreme highs (also known as mania or being manic) and severe lows (depression.) In the depressed part of the cycle the person exhibits some or all of the symptoms of a major depressive episode listed above. In the manic cycle, people often may be overactive, extremely talkative and exhibit poor judgment. Untreated, bipolar disorder is very dangerous to the long term mental health of a person.

If you think you are suffering from depression, start by talking to your physician or psychiatrist. He or she will be able to help you assess your depression and work out a treatment plan for you.

Next time, we will discuss what to do about depression so it doesn’t get you down.  For more information about the types of depression, visit: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml.

If you have ideas you’d like to share about how you cope with depression, drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.

Every week we post stories, information and tips about living with ADHD.  Most of them also talk about how an ADHD coach can help you acheive your full potential.  We thought this week that perhaps hearing from two students who have benefitted from having an ADHD coach might give you a different perspective on how an ADHD coach can really work.

The first student talks about how a coach helped him set an keep his goals.

audio interview 1

The second student shares how a coach helped her change the whole way she viewed herself.  She went from feeling like she was always a day late and a dollar short to a view of herself as a successful, competent person.

audio interview 2

We hope that after you hear these stories, you’ll feel inspired to sign up to talk to an Edge coach.  There’s no obligation.  But why not take the first step to finding out more today?  All you have to lose is your old self image.