ADHD Center for Success

I’ll admit that I’m following my recommendation these days regarding the importance of exercise for ADHD. Exercise can be a brisk walk, swimming, bicycling or for me it has been regular swing and zydeco couple dancing. For me it’s time to get back into the gym for some strength building exercise and a return to yoga for flexibility and stamina.

You’ve probably also heard me promote Dr. John Ratey’s book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run.

Today I came across this incredible article/video posting that announces a new study that obliterates our current recommendations about how much exercise is good for you. You’ll want to view this video that advocates at least 15min of exercise per day. READ or VIEW  – ‘New Study’

Who doesn’t have 15 minutes for exercise?  See you on the dance floor or at the gym…

~CoachRudy

I want to introduce my readers to Peter Shankman. I enjoy his thinking so I try to follow his blog. Peter is a real ‘out-of-the box’ kind of guy, non-stop energy, creative and generates boundless  ideas.

Since it is now officially the New Year 2012, I thought I’d share this posting from Peter regarding ‘annual resolutions’.

**Here is what Peter has to say:

Remember at the beginning of 2011, when you made all those resolutions, and by mid-January, they were roadkill? Here’s a suggestion for you this year – Don’t make resolutions. They’re not worth it. Instead, start creating rituals. Rituals last. That’s why they’re rituals! Here’s a great ritual to start: Get up a half an hour earlier each day. Here’s how to do it.

As an ADHD Coach, I will add that I too am not a promoter of ‘resolutions’. They simply don’t work. My thinking is that ‘annual resolutions’ are simply ‘good ideas’. Like fireworks, ‘resolutions’ come on to the scene with a burst of energy and simply fade into the sunset before too long… replaced by regrets and/or the next ‘good idea’.

Those of you who have worked with me or who have heard me speak know that I promote ‘Recipes for Success’. A proven recipe will (if followed to the letter) most often produce reliable, consistent and replicable results – whether your favorite dish or a desired behavior. I’ll write more about his in a future blog. Meanwhile dump those resolutions.

~CoachRudy

The use of drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was not associated with an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke in young and middle-age adults, researchers found.

In fact, the rate of heart attack, sudden cardiac death or stroke was significantly lower in current users of the drugs compared with nonusers, according to Laurel Habel of Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland and colleagues.

But that finding, reported online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was likely the

result of a healthy-user bias stemming from an overrepresentation of white, college-educated individuals among current users, the authors noted.

Read this story: ADHD Drugs and Adult Hearts

HOT OFF THE PRESS…

After nearly 10 months, the nationwide shortage of ADHD drugs has taken a toll on people’s lives across the nation. The shortage has effected school performance, work performance, relationships and more. 

The issue drew renewed attention Thursday, when the White House issued an interim rule that requires drugmakers that are the only producers of certain critical medications to report to the Food and Drug Administration all manufacturing interruptions that could disrupt supplies.

READ FULL STORY

Four gene variants, all members of the glutamate receptor gene family, appear to be involved in vital brain signaling pathways in a sub-set of children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), researchers from the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported in the journal Nature Genetics. The authors add that their findings could help create drugs that target those pathways, offering potential therapies for ADHD patients with those specific gene variants. There are an estimated half-a-million American children with ADHD and these gene variants.

Study leader Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., said:

“At least 10 percent of the ADHD patients in our sample have these particular genetic variants. The genes involved affect neurotransmitter systems in the brain that have been implicated in ADHD, and we now have a genetic explanation for this link that applies to a subset of children with the disorder.”

** READ FULL ARTICLE **

As if the ADHD adult doesn’t have enough stress to contend with, consider the potential added stresses of the holiday season. For some, the holiday season is both joyous and stimulating. Yet others of us may already be struggling to manage our current pre-holiday “To Do” list.

So consider the potential additional challenges for the ADHD adult faced with tending to the seasonal tasks of holiday shopping and contending with the hoards of ‘friendly” shoppers. But wait! There’s more: Don’t forget the gift wrapping and possible looming deadlines for shipping. Do I hear the sounds of stress and rising blood pressure?  

Here are some hints to support you:  

Plan:  There is a well know adage that say’s, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. 

1. Take time to put your “To DO” list on paper. Get it out of your head!
2. Create a time line using a calendar. What’s due by when?
3. Prioritize your list. What’s most important and most urgent?
4.  At the end of each day – review your ‘TO DO’ List and cross out all those tasks that you managed to complete for the day.
5. Next, add those additional tasks that you completed that were not on the original TO DO list and cross those off as well.
6. I know it sounds redundant but be sure to make a new ‘TO Do” list every day.

Be Gentle to Yourself. I recently heard someone say, “It’s hard to move forward while you’re kicking yourself in the butt”. Be gentle with yourself. Do the best you can and be aware to not judge yourself if you didn’t complete as much as you had intended.

Take time to enjoy the holiday season.

1. Spend quality time with friends
2. Take time to exercise regularly. It’s good for your body and reduces stress.
3. Eat healthy and mindfully …slow down.
4. Speaking of slowing down, try meditation, yoga, deep and gently breathing and relaxation.

Celebrate your successes and your holiday season.

 ~ May your holiday season be filled with joy, happiness and gentleness.  

Thanksgiving Greetings

Eliminate Time-Draining E-mail Habits 

If you are feeling overburdened and stressed at work, your online habits may be partly to blame. Poor e-mail management often is a sign—or the cause—of other time management woes. A top culprit: mismanaging incoming messages.

Marsha Egan, president of The Egan Group, a success-coaching firm, offers a self-management program that teaches you how to eliminate time draining e-mail habits and boost your productivity. First, Egan says, you need to alter your perception of e-mail: Stop viewing the act of checking e-mail as a task in itself; come to see e-mail as merely a task delivery system. Then adopt these habits:

• Empty your inbox every time you check it.
• Live by the two-minute rule. If you can handle any incoming message in two minutes or less, do so immediately. That could mean replying to, forwarding or simply deleting a message.
• Use a filing system. Create action folders and use them temporarily to file e-mail messages that will take longer than two minutes to respond to. Treat those messages as items on your daily to-do list.
• Control incoming messages—instead of letting them control you. Change your “send and receive” e-mail function from “Automatic” to “Every two hours.”

Source: Success Magazine July/August 2007

 There are many possible reasons for putting off until tomorrow what you intended to do today. It is only once you know why you are doing it that you can figure out what to do about it.

Source: “The Organized Life: Secrets of an Expert Organizer” by Stephanie Denton

More info re ADHD medication shortages.

I just received an email from ADDiva Linda Roggli. I cannot verify the following information but Linda is a trusted Coaching colleague. I’ve listed her note without editing…

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