I recently posted the multi-part series of Facebook entries entitled, Score Your Successes – which is based on what I teach in Way 9 of ADD Crusher™ Video II. This particular strategy is about...

1. Understanding our skewed perspective on our ADHD 'failures'

2. Putting these 'failures' in healthier perspective

3. Learning to acknowledge our successes – big and teeny, and...

4. Keeping track of our ADD ups and downs so that they provide positive motivational fuel

Then last week I was listening to one of the archived shows at Attention Talk Radio and learned about a much deeper dimension to our ADDer habit of not giving ourselves credit for anything -- and blaming ourselves for everything.

The Negative Self-Talk of ADHD

It's called negative self-talk, and host Jeff Copper interviewed Debra Burdick, LCSW and psychotherapist, about this topic in detail. In a nutshell, negative self-talk is the habit of talking to yourself in a way that reinforces the negative feelings you have about yourself and, ultimately, guides the things you do (not in a good way, of course).

We all do it – ADDer or not. But we ADHD sufferers of course tend to do it more than others. Think about it: We've been conditioned to feel we're chronically wrong/out of line/problemsome/etc. For instance, here's a beautifully painful exchange with a six-year-old patient Debra recounts:

6-yr-old boy: My new medication is working great!

Debra: How do you know it's working?

6-yr-old boy: Cuz nobody yelled at me all day!

Better Awareness and Understanding Are a Natural ADHD Remedy!

As with so many areas of our adult ADHD, the more we understand it, the better able we are to accept it, deal with it and crush it. And I realized, listening to this interview, that negative self-talk is an area of particular opportunity for creating our own natural ADHD remedy through greater awareness and understanding. For instance, have you ever heard yourself say anything like...

o "I'm not smart enough to get that promotion."

o "I don't have what it takes to start my own business."

o "I didn't deserve to win that award."

Toplines from the ADHD Negative Self-Talk Interview

Now, I can't do justice to all the information in the interview, but I'll summarize a few key points...

1. Become AWARE of your negative talk. (Confession: When I pull a bonehead move, which is usually trivial, inconsequential – I replay what I was often told as a kid and yell at myself, "You @#$%$ dummy!") Wow, gotta cut that out!

2. Identify the various types of of negative talk you engage in most (there are several, as described by Dr. Daniel Amen, who calls them "species").

3. Understand that negative thoughts are most often inaccurate, and always self-defeating.

4. Pay more attention to your successes (as described in ADD Crusher™ Video II, Way 9). We ADHD adults/kids tend to "filter out" successes in our thoughts and recollections – leaving only the 'failures'.

Again, can't really do justice to the interview, so give it a listen – it'll be time well spent!

-Crusher

Image: Pitt pen on watercolor paper. © Quinn McDonald

This entry was posted on June 25, 2012 at 6:35 PM and has received 1082 views. There are currently 4 comments. Print this entry.

I was honored to be interviewed last night by Jeff Copper on Attention Talk Radio. They've on occasion done interviews with various folks called "behind the scenes" – a sort of "unplugged" version of the show where ADHD personalities can let loose with tales of the darker/funnier side of their ADD.

My Undiagnosed ADHD Past: The G-Rated Version

I love telling stories about my dark years – mainly the years in my 20's when I had no idea what ADHD was, let alone that I was an epic ADDer. A lot of the stories are beyond "G"-rating, but even the ugliest episodes are worth remembering and retelling, because they shed light on the nature of ADHD and inspire me NOT to revisit those days or those behaviors (more about that in a moment).

Some highlights of my undiagnosed, untreated adult ADHD, much of which will likely sound familiar to many of you:

o Banged up or totaled very car I ever got my hands on, including at least 2 dents on roofs (that I can remember). How do you dent a roof?? Well, flipping it over is one way, but there are others -- trust me, I know.

o When you crack up 8 motorcycles, you're lucky to be alive – though most of those were on a race track, which is way safer than on the street believe it or not. I crashed one just a few weeks ago!

o Alcohol was my escape – and my constant companion.

o Drugs were my self-medication (though I didn't realize it at the time).

o Crime (most minor, a few major ones) for which I never got caught, amazingly.

I still think I'm on the verge of getting caught for stuff I did, or somehow in trouble. I see a cop car, and I think he's looking right at me and knows every bad thing I've done! And on some level or another, nearly ALL adult ADDers – particularly those who went undiagnosed for a long time – have this kind of baggage. But, there are lessons to be drawn from our darker days...

Lessons from Dark Days Can Support Alternative ADHD Treatment Efforts

As I've said in this space many times, there are forms of alternative ADHD treatment in not only hard-fought changes to life habits, but also in simple acts and even simple thoughts and keener awareness. Here are lessons from my past that likely mirror some that any previously undiagnosed ADHD adult might have:

• Understand your past . Know why you did what you did. For instance, I did drugs because I was self-medicating; I committed crimes because of stimulation-seeking and willingness to do stupid things for peer approval.
• Come to terms with it . Don't regret it – see it as part of the "quilt" that makes up your interesting life history. You're your stories!!
• Use the painful memories as forward-moving fuel . This is what I call a Negative Nag, which can combine with a Positive Nag to provide consistently strong MOTIVATION (Way 2).
• Know that we ADDers have the risk-taking, stimulation-seeking gene – and most importantly, see the difference between stupid risk-taking and worthy risk-taking.

There's one more section of this blog – the ADHD strategies I developed to emerge from the darkness. But I'm running a bit long, so I'll pick up on those in a later blog (they're of course the foundation of what's taught in the ADD Crusher Videos, which you can preview here.

And By the Way...

Whether you're a regular Attention Talk Radio listener or not, I announced on the show a special discount code for ATR listeners: ATR15. If you're reading it here, you're entitled to use it for 15% off any purchase at ADDCrusher.com. Go for it!!

This entry was posted on June 21, 2012 at 5:14 PM and has received 490 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Is a recent success/victory overshadowed by some minor "failure" that happened this morning? Is your most recent faux pas still ringing in your ears – a missed deadline, a forgotten appointment? Fact is, we ADDers are masters at acknowledging and remembering past failures, but terrible at acknowledging and remembering successes. Itsa-no-good!

It's funny/sad that for ADDers, failures seem to have double or triple weight. You could succeed three times and fail once, and still, that one failure would weigh in your mind more than the three successes. It's detrimental...and, um, ridiculous.

We Gotta Put Failures in Healthier Perspective...

ADDer life can feel like a continuous stream of losing this, forgetting that, being late. But what ARE these "failures"? Well...

• They're NOT a character flaw
• They're NOT moral failings, and...
• They will NOT be erased or avoided in future by ANY amount of self-punishment.

In fact, most 'failures' don't exist the moment after they happen – except in our mind, so we carry them around like an ID card.

ADHD "Failures" Arise from Our Neuropsychiatric Condition

They're the result of our differently wired brain trying to operate in an intensely paced, left-brained world. That's not failure – that's just a mismatch. See that for what it is and work with it. You can't eliminate failures or completely erase your weaknesses. But you CAN manage them, and even be positively motivated by them.

For the ADDer, Success Breeds Success

That is, IF we give ourselves credit for successes. A forgotten success has no motivating power. But, make a habit of celebrating successes is like a natural ADHD remedy -- you trigger a cascade of positives that re-fill your motivational fuel tank, build up confidence, reinforce your good habits and weaken bad ones, and keep you positive when inevitable setbacks arise.

But what IS a success? A success is not just the COMPLETION of a difficult task. It is any measure of effort TOWARD that completion. Getting started on a task and slamming 20 minutes on it, then running out of gas and moving on to something else is NOT a failure. That is a success. As is every additional INCH toward completion. So celebrate every effort no matter how small.

Making progress doesn't always mean COMPLETING an important job or task. We can ALWAYS be moving something FORWARD. Even if that forward is an inch...credit yourself for reaching Successville. The most impactful way to take credit for successes and be positively motivated by setbacks is to record them – to keep SCORE.

An Action Step to Do Just That...

Make a postcard-size scorecard with 7 columns for the days of 1 week. List down the left side good and bad habits you'll track (eg, screensucking or ADD-inducing junk food...positives like cardio, or when you pushed aside fear to attack a task). Keep it with you and note -1 for setbacks and +1 for positives – then add 'em up & see if you can create a positive trend!

This is an adaptation of Way 9 from ADD Crusher™ Video II – if you like the written version here, you'll totally love the video version!

-Crusher

This entry was posted on June 13, 2012 at 4:34 PM and has received 410 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Having established in the last post that ADDers tend to possess the ADHD "risk-taking gene" – I suggested that there is a way to go beyond the inherent RISKS of having it (um, addiction, climbing high things, jumping off of high things, exceeding 160mph, etc.), to see its potential BENEFITS.

The ADHD Risk-Taking Gene in Creativity

The New York Times recently did a piece on Craig Venter, the guy who...

• Decoded the human genome

• Created the first synthetic organism

• Charted a worldwide sailing trip during which he idendified more new species than anyone in history...

...and who is now plotting the creation of a man-made microscopic "bug" that will one day clean up oil spills, or one that "could swim in a pond and soak up sunlight and urinate automotive fuel"....or one "that could live in a factory and gobble exhaust and fart fresh air."

How does he think up this stuff? As the Times continues, "He may not appear to be thinking about these things. He may not appear to be thinking at all. He may appear to be riding his motorcycle through the California mountains, cutting the inside corners so close his kneepads skim the pavement. This is how Venter thinks. He also enjoys thinking on the deck of his sailboat, halfway across the Pacific Ocean in a gale, and while snorkeling naked in the Sargasso Sea surrounded by Portuguese men-of-war. When Venter was growing up in San Francisco, he would ride his bicycle to the airport and race passenger jets down the runway. As a Navy corpsman in Vietnam, he spent leisurely afternoons tootling up the coast in a dinghy, under a hail of enemy fire.

"What's strange about Venter is that this works -- that the clarity he finds when he is hurtling through the sea and the sky, the dreams he summons, the fantasies he concocts in his most unhinged moments of excess actually have a way of coming true."

This is the risk-taking gene in ACTION!! You see, Venter understands how taking risk – injecting stimulation into his thinking sessions – opens the window to creativity. It's a form of meditation – much like the meditative state I enter when doing 160mph on a motorcyle (on a race track, of course – NEVER on the street, which is risk of the very stupid kind).

The Risk-Taking Gene in Business

We've all heard the stats about entrepreneurs being disproportionately represented by our ADHD brethren (and sistren, if that's a word). Surely, this has a lot to do with our disdain for rigid career paths that begin in a cubicle and end in a bigger cubicle with maybe a window. And certainly has to do with our hyperactive mind's desire to always be trying something new, exciting, even scary. But it's also that genetic code that says, "Hey, I'm willing to sell all my crap and move to Montana to start an organic horse radish farm...or build a freakin' race track...or both!" All great entrepreneurs possess the risk-taking gene – or they wouldn't be entrepreneurs...they'd be kickin' back in their cubicle.

The Risk-Taking Gene as Alternative ADHD Treatment

In ADD Crusher™ Video I, I teach the power of two "nagging desires" – to keep the fires of forward movement burning – a "negative nag" and a "positive nag". The negative nag can be the collection of stupid things you've done (many, thanks to your risk-taking gene) and maintaining a healthy regret to ensure you don't dope off again. Your postitive nag might be your strong desire to have independence – career, financial, personal, or otherwise – and your risk-taking gene can help carry you along that path, keeping you from weaseling out of tough decisions or following the path of least resistance. In this sense, the gene can be a form of alternative ADHD treatment!

Of course, this is not to say that we should be running around taking unnecessary risks. It is simply to say that there are impulses and tendencies we have that don't ALWAYS have to be viewed negatively. Listen to your ADD DNA. Take some smart risks...and reap the rewards.

- Crusher

This entry was posted on June 10, 2012 at 10:22 PM and has received 668 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We ADDers are said to possess the "risk-taking gene" – that bit of DNA that makes us chase stimulation beyond what would normally satisfy non-ADDers.

The ADHD Gene

In her book, Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention, author Katherine Ellison tracks her family history back to immigrants who couldn't help but seek the new – despite many risks along the way – and leaving their less hyperactive cousins back in the Old Country. She notes that America in particular has a disproportionate number of people with this let's-pick-up-and-move-again gene.

America's Unique Place in the ADD/ADHD World

We are indeed a nation of immigrants who were A) antsy as hell in their home countries and B) willing to risk all to come to a new continent? I'm not saying that we're a land of ADDers, but you have to ask yourself...

· Why IS America so full of risk-takers?

· Why ARE we the creators of Jazz and Rock n' Roll – the two most ADD-infused musical forms that ever were?

· Why were WE the ones to venture to the moon?

· Why do we seem to own every land speed record in the books? Is it just because we boast the Bonneville Salt Flats (just a few miles from where I wrote this, while watching ADD Crusher™-sponsored racer Josh Galster #74)? I don't think so.

For ADDers, Risk Can Bite...and Bestow

It's in our genes. And this is why I find myself at a motorcyle race again this weekend, along with a whole bunch of other ADDers. We love the noise, the speed, the risk – and most of us here love it not just from the grandstands, but from the seat of a bike...on a racetrack.

Of course, our risk-taking gene is what gets us into crashes (as my 8-inch titanium plate with seven screws holding my shoulder together will attest) and plenty of other trouble. But next post, I'll go out on a limb and propose how we ADDers can put that gene to work for us.

This entry was posted on June 3, 2012 at 12:53 PM and has received 391 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Of the 22,000+ ADD Crusher™ fans on Facebook, a disproportionate number are connected to the worlds of motorcycles and motorcycle racing. Not a majority by any means, but certainly more than their representation among the general population. As I'll cover in a couple of posts to follow this one, it's no coincidence, for we ADDers all share a gene for stimulation-seeking and risk-taking...which are of course both intertwined with motorcycles and moto racing.

Motorcycle Racing as ADD Altnernative Treatment

Of the many purported natural remedies for ADD/ADHD, there's one I know that works pretty good: motorcycle racing...

· If you're a spectator, watching this beautiful-yet-dangerous sport is healthy downtime -- perhaps even a natural ADHD remedy in the form of quasi-meditation. (Think of the bliss you're in as you watch any of your favorite sports – or your kid playing one: this one is very ADD-friendly.)

· If you're a motorcycle rider/enthusiast, it's a celebration of the art and science of man-and-machine and, as such, a mind-soothing joy.

· If you're a track day junkie like me, it's psychotherapy, pure and simple. When I'm on the racetrack, every trouble disappears and all mental noise ceases – as it must, lest your thoughts drift to the proverbial squirrel/butterfly and you crash at 165mph.

Then of course there are the sounds and smells of the sport that cater to our inherent demand for general stimulation. Blasting engines, roaring crowds and the lovely scent of expended racing fuel.

ADD Crusher™ Puts Its Money Where Its Mind Is

All this affinity between moto racing and ADD/ADHD is why we are proud (and wise) to sponsor AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Racer Josh Galster #74. I'm here today at Miller Motorsports Park watching Josh compete in the fourth round of the AMA season, and sitting among a stimulation-seeking audience of tens of thousands who are probably disproportionately ADDers.

So, if you need an invitation to take up moto racing as a new sort of ADHD alternative treatment for yourself, here it is. If you like, kick off your new hobby by Liking Josh's Facebook page!

This entry was posted on May 27, 2012 at 2:00 AM and has received 320 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We ADDers tend to forget important things and lose important stuff. Not just misplacing a business card and forgetting to water the plants – but misplacing the car and forgetting to feed the kids! The culprit is weak working memory: inability to temporarily store and call up info.

A Built-In ADHD Alternative Treatment Solution

Sure, medication, diet, exercise can help us mitigate that weak working memory. But we have a kind of built-in natural treatment solution: Our unique way of seeing the world. See, we ADDers tend to be visual-spatial thinkers -- we learn and handle information better visually and with pictures than with our ears and through text. Knowing this relative strength can help us with our weakness for losing and forgetting.

For ADDers, Seeing is Remembering

Putting something in a drawer or in a pile –- and therefore out of sight -- is the same as burying it in the Sahara. It's not just 'out of sight, out of mind', it's 'out of sight, out of EXISTENCE.' So we ADDers must do everything we can to keep important and easily-lost items IN OUR LINE OF SIGHT.

Therefore, associate every losable item with an easily VISIBLE SPACE that it will call home. Good example is an "entrance center" near the front door. When you get home, keys, glasses, phone, umbrella, etc., all go there. It's a table or a cabinet or just a cleared space on the dining room table. It also of course functions as an "exit" center for when you head out.

An Action Step to Help You Stop Losing/Forgetting

1. Make a list down the left side of a piece of paper of the two or five or 500 things you misplace the most. Thought-starters: keys, wallet, purse, glasses, medicine, cellphone, remote, small pets.

2. Next, draw three columns to the right. Title them Home, Body, and Office (or dorm or car or whatever makes sense for you).

3. For each, write in a very specific location that makes sense in terms of how/when you use it, keeping in mind that places in your line of sight are best (on top of the dresser, not third drawer down).

4. Finally, go back through the list and with each item and location, call up the mental picture of it. The keys on the hook, the remote in the tray.

When you can see them IN YOUR MIND'S EYE in their proper place, and also WITH THE TWO EYES IN YOUR HEAD, you're on your way!

Here's a snippet from Video I, Way 5, on this topic.

This entry was posted on May 10, 2012 at 4:33 PM and has received 453 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

In ADD Crusher™ Video I, Way 3, I talk about how to shut-up-a-you-mind – quieting down your brain to power it up (preview here: http://tinyurl.com/com4h8j). We ADDers need a quiet mind, which is more easily had in a quiet/clean space. Ya, peace of MIND is aided by peace of PLACE.

For ADDers, Visual Noise Equals Stress

The more stressed out we are, the more our ADHD is in charge. And we add to our stress with what we allow into our environments. Consider the sight of a cluttered desk. Or a cluttered room. The visual noise PLUS the ugly reminder of frustration and chronic non-finishing of things. Ain't NO peace in that, my fellow tribespeople.

Creating a Place of Peace is Easy

NO, you DON'T have to empty out the house. All you really need – at least to start – is ONE place of peace, where you can shut...up...your...mind. One small part of your home to de-clutter, keep visually quiet, and visit on occasion. One room or a corner of a room. Could even start with just your desk. Could even start....NOW!

Take a mental or actual tour of your entire home – whether a McMansion or studio apartment. Where might you create a place of peace? Need only clear out a space for little more than a comfy chair. Next time exhausted by mind-cluttering BS or a complex project, head there – if only for a sec. You'll find renewed energy, if you allow your mind to...get...quiet.

Tricks for De-Cluttering

Four key tricks of the visual de-cluttering trade are...

1) If you haven't used it in 6mos, it's probably useless – trash or donate.

2) Get a clutter-busting buddy and give her AUTHORITY.

3) If alone, work in 20min spurts, then rest or switch tasks. Otherwise you'll burn out.

4) If you can't figure out what to do with stuff, cover it up or hide it in that room.

Throw something out today. Then, do the same thing tomorrow. If it has no legitimate, frequent, or strong sentimental function, throw the damn thing out. It's liberating and eliminates stressful clutter. Stuff is usually ego-gratifying crap. "Ooh, I visited Florida/France! Check out my amazing Florida/France crap!"

Give stuff away every week. Take it down to the donation center and get a receipt to save you some money on your taxes. If you think about it, you'll be putting useless stuff to work triple-time: saving you money, saving you space AND saving you stress.

Think about the relative mental peace you have when you are visually confronted by nothing more than a blue sky, or the surface of a lake. Make the surfaces you live with more like that. Peace, baby...yaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Here's a bonus: A piercing perspective on "stuff", via the late, great George Carlin. Note there are a couple S-bombs in here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

-Crusher

This entry was posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:38 PM and has received 363 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

ADD Crusher™ really started the day I was diagnosed – which came well into adulthood – nearly 15 years ago. Leaving Dr. Ira Bergman's office after being described as "a classic case", I headed straight to the bookstore so I could dive into an understanding of and fixes for this thing called ADD.

ADHD Books Are Great – If You Love Reading

And I found loads of books – more than I had expected to find, in fact. And lots specific to ADULT attention deficit disorder. But one thing was common to almost all the books I leafed through: lots of pages, lots of text, zero pictures...zero user-friendliness, in my book, anyway (no pun intended).

Now, let's not gloss over the fact that some of the greatest advances in society's understanding and grappling with ADHD have come thanks to the many great books written to date: Driven to Distraction, Delivered from Distraction, You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?, and many others that have shined a light, opened a door and improved a part of life for so many of us.

The Future of ADHD Books

But here's what Crusher's gonna do one of these days – and pretty soon, if I have my way...We're gonna bust out with an iPad app that brings all the elements of ADD Crusher™ together into one medium – Video, Audio Companion, Toolkit, mobile app, etc. In other words, we're gonna make a "book" that is so alive, it'll knock your hat off your head – and provide a very cool and effective tool for people who want to CRUSH.

Stay tuned.

-Crusher

This entry was posted on April 10, 2012 at 2:50 AM and has received 298 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry.

One of the benefits of ADD Crusher™ is that it's in a way the closest you can get to having your own ADHD coach. Ideally, everyone would have their own ADHD coach – the people who often work miracles for us adult ADDers. Alas, it does cost money.

Making Coaching Affordable

Luckily there's ADD Crusher™, AND there are people like Diane Dempster and Elaine Taylor-Klaus, who created ImpactADHD, a resource for parents of kids with ADHD – and for parents with ADHD, including affordable group coaching. And they have designated the month of April 2012 to be... Power of the Parent Month

They will be providing quality programming, inspiring elucidating conversations, and offering parents of ADHD kids new confidence – and power. Here are two their free teleclasses for April:

• Less Chaos More Calm, with Elaine Taylor-Klaus; Friday April 13, 2012 at 12:30pm?

• Organizing 101-- How to C.O.P.E. with Clutter, ?with Elise Marinos; Tuesday April 17, 2012 at 12:30pm

Each class offers a chance to explore a topic in greater depth and develop a personal plan of action. Please share with those you think would benefit.

Coaches' Club

They also have a Coaches' Club where, for a modest fee, you can get great group coaching twice a week. Here are some deatails on that:

• Coaches' Club Members participate in weekly coach-led group phone sessions, providing strategies, tools and coaching support.

• Coaches Club Groups Meet Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 12:00pm EDT

• April Topics: Picking Your Battles, Button Pushing

• April's Special: ?1 Free Private Coaching Session ?when you join Coaches' Club

Hope you check them out and reap the benefits...

-Crusher

This entry was posted on April 6, 2012 at 5:38 PM and has received 255 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.