Edge Foundation Blog

You may have noticed that the Edge Foundation has never taken a position about whether or not to use of medication (ex. Ritalin, Adderall etc.) in treating ADHD symptoms. The reason for this is simple: we believe that whether or not you take medication is a personal decision that each family must make after consulting with a qualified doctor. It is not our place, nor the place of people who aren’t living with your ADHD to have any say in the matter.

Yet, there are plenty of vocal opponents to ADHD medication. You don’t have to look far to hear the criticism that we are overmedicating our children in this society. We say to them, walk a mile in ADHD shoes before you start to criticize. Judith Warner has done just that.

Author discovers over medication is a misconception

When best-selling author Judith Warner landed a book deal, she believed that American children were overmedicated. Surprise - turns out she was wrong! What she discovered instead was that this common misconception couldn’t be farther from the truth. “Not only has Warner never met a parent who lunged for the medicine cabinet to dope up their kids, but some fought the medication route as long as they could, to the detriment of their child,” says Kirkus Reviews, Dec 01, 2009.

Warner’s book, We’ve Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication, ended up being a thoughtful exploration of how we can help our children live successful lives using all of the tools we have at our disposal - including medication. We hope Warner’s book will help assuage the shame, fear, guilt and embarrassment felt among many people who have decided to use medications as part of their ADHD treatment plan.

Medication doesn’t cure ADHD

And we also want to underline the importance of understanding that medication is not a cure for ADHD. “Medication should be viewed as a useful tool to help individuals with AD/HD make positive changes in their lives as a part of a multi-modal approach which should include positive behavioral management and supports such as ADHD coaching,” says Edge Foundation Executive Director, Robert Tudisco. Tudisco is much more concerned about the diversion of AD/HD medication to individuals who have not been prescribed to use them by a doctor such as sharing them with friends to help them pull an all-nighter, or failing to safeguard prescribed medication that is stolen on campus and either sold or taken by individuals without medical supervision. He is currently working on an article on the subject to be published in Attention Magazine later this year.

The important thing for parents and students alike to know is the best person who can know whether or not medications are for you, is you (along with your physician’s guidance.) And as for those who are misinformed, operating under popular misconceptions, or trying to sell a product, we encourage you to get the facts from a qualified physician and point them in the direction of Warner’s book.

Do you dread January’s New Year’s resolutions? Does it feel like just one more opportunity to let yourself down? This year try something a little different: think small, make only ONE resolution.

The Kaizen Approach to Self Improvement

Unless you work in a manufacturing business, you probably haven’t heard the term kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese quality management philosophy that directs continual improvement in all aspects of a business - from the CEO to the assembly line.

In his book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer takes the kaizen principal and applies it to everyday life. As the title suggests, Maurer recommends focusing your energy on taking small steps towards your goals instead of rushing and attempting to accomplish them in one big bite.

This might seem counterintuitive for the ADHD brain that can find it boring without going “all in” on a New Year’s resolution. But total immersion is hard to sustain and often leads to failure. We’ve all done it. Resolve to exercise 6 days a week. And we do, for the first week or so. But by the end of January, other parts of our lives have gotten in the way, and our “perfect record” is filled with holes. And by February we are discouraged and it’s easier to “forget” our goal than to keep failing at it.

Small Goals: Big Accomplishments

Maurer, a Kaizen expert, suggests setting small goals for yourself. Even large goals, like a doctoral thesis, can be broken down into a series of tiny steps that you take each and every day. Take piano, for example. Instead of trying to learn a whole piece of music on the first sitting, many musicians break down a new composition into a series of measures or bars. They work on these discrete units of music until they nail them. Only then do they move onto putting them all together. If you practice only one measure a day, you can still quickly learn an entire piece. But try to learn the whole thing in the first sitting and you’ll tire, your focus will lag, and discouragement can quickly follow.

Make Only One New Year’s Resolution

So instead of focusing on the big picture, try setting one or two small, achievable goals for yourself each day. Let yourself enjoy how great it feels to get those steps accomplished every day. How would the New Year look different to you if you just made one New Year’s resolution for yourself?

“I commit to doing one thing every day to achieving my intended purpose.”

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.

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.

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.

John Ratey’s book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain is a book everyone should read - whether you have ADHD or not.  And we mean everyone:  you, your spouse, your parents, your kids, their teachers, your doctors. EVERYONE!

You might have seen this book and put off opening it figuring it would be dry and technical, but it’s not at all. Sarah Wright, Edge Foundation Executive Director, reports “It so compelling and easy to read I could hardly put it down.” The evidence in Spark is incontrovertible: aerobic exercise physically transforms our brains for peak performance.

John Ratey is no newcomer to the ADHD community.  He co-authored (with Edward Hallowell) the best selling, Driven To Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood, and is the spouse of ADHD expert and founding Edge Foundation board member, Nancy Ratey.

The book highlights the best findings of hundreds of papers Ratey read in researching this book - most published in the last decade - giving you insight into the latest understanding of how the brain works.

A sampling of John Ratey’s brain research findings

• Exercise is truly the best defense against everything from mood disorders [depressions] to ADD/ADHD to addiction to menopause to Alzheimer’s.
• Getting your heart and lungs pumping can mean the difference between a calm, focused mind and a harried, inattentive self.
• Aerobic exercise has been shown to be as effective as antidepressants in treating anxiety
• The Brain works much as muscles do-growing with use, withering with inactivity.
• Exercise even sparks new brain cell growth!

How to buy Spark!

Of course you know how to order a book on-line, but did you know if you click on the link embedded in this article below, Edge Foundation will receive a small fee for every book you purchase on Amazon.com during that visit?

Click here to buy Spark and support the Edge Foundation today!

And here are a couple of other great books on ADHD:

Fidget to Focus:  Outwit Your Boredom:  Sensory Strategies for Living with ADD — written by Edge Foundation’s Executive Director, Sarah Wright.

Driven To Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood

We’d love to hear what books you’ve found helpful for discovering how to live with ADHD.  Post them in the comments and we will review more books in future months.

Edge Foundation board member, Nancy Ratey, publishes a new book: The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents (St Martins Press April ‘08)

“This is a book about possibility,” says Ratey “It’s both a practical guide to taking control of the symptoms with which individuals with ADHD struggle, and an inspirational summons to believe that living a rich and balanced life – a life you love – is possible.”

The book addresses the common issues confronted by the ADHD adult:
“Where did the time go?”
“I’ll do it later, I always work better under pressure anyway.”
“I’ll just check my e-mail one more time before the meeting…”
“I’ll pay the bills tomorrow – that will give me time to find them.”

The strategies for managing time, staying on task, and accomplishing your goals are simple, and they work:

• The Parking Lot – Distracted by someting you need to do later?  Get it out of your mind by writing it down on your ‘parking lot’ note pad, where it will be safely stored for later.

• Beat the Clock – Have a deadline on a report? Take your laptop to the park, pop in the battery, and get going. Watch the power drain as your report gets done. Hit save before the battery runs out!

• Appoint a “Watch Dog”—Saying or doing things you regret? Enlist a trusted friend to watch over you and your actions. Give him permission to be very honest and to confront you if you are about to do something you might be sorry for, like calling an old flame or walking off your job.

Nancy A. Ratey, EdM., MCC is a strategic life coach specializing in coaching professionals with ADHD and an internationally recognized expert on the subject of ADHD coaching. Her work has been featured in The NY Times, Newsday, Wired, and Vogue, and has appeared on ABC, CBS and NPR. Click here for more on the book.