Got an awesome (sarcasm) email last week. Decided to send a response. For your edification and amusement, check out a copy of my response below. Hey William. Sorry it has taken a few days to get back to you. But, I feel that it’s really important to do so. I invite you to thoroughly digest my (inline) response to your initial email below. I was browsing Google for content related to ADHD and came across your page here: Let’s be honest. You weren’t browsing. This is an email generated by a marketing firm or an algorithm. God bless anyone who falls for your personal touch. Looks great!  Thanks for the smoke blowing. But, if you’d actually read my site, you’d know that you wouldn’t like it so much. Adderall and prescription ADHD medications can be highly dangerous if abused. These stimulants have many adverse side effects and are known to be quite harmful to children despite being FDA approved.  Your ignorance on this topic is mind-blowing in 2017. As a matter of fact I would go so far as to call these two sentences patently false, dangerous, fear mongering. There have been literally hundreds of studies showing the safety an efficacy of stimulant therapy. The vast, vast majority of those studies have been conducted on children. As a matter of fact, I have participated in more than one of those longitudinal studies at MGH I was diagnosed at age ten and have been medicated for 29 years. So, in addition to finding your assertion professionally unconscionable, I find it personally offensive. Since Adderall abuse has grown to epidemic levels, our research team has compiled an article about the best all-natural alternatives to Adderall. Actually, that’s not true at all. Opioid abuse it at an epidemic level. Not so much for Adderall. You want to actually read…

When to work out? Knowing what is likely to work for you, your brain, your body, and your life is so important. I’ve always wanted to be that guy in the shoe commercial who gets up and goes for a run first thing in the morning. For years I beat myself up for not doing it. Then I finally realized…. I’m not that guy. My body doesn’t feel great in the morning. My brain is pretty focused, so I don’t really need the benefits of my workout yet. And, it doesn’t necessarily work with my schedule. Eventually, I realized that I work best if I have a break mid day to get my workout in. I need the opportunity to reset myself after a morning or work or parenting. It gives me a chance to be mindful, get my brain chemistry sorted, and refocus for my afternoon. I’ve learned that I have a sweet spot in my day between 10:30 and 3:30. Occasionally, when my schedule mandates, I can get a workout in the a.m. But it’s never a great workout. And, if I wait too long, I end up feeling antsy but lack the energy to want to really workout. The point is that it took me a very long time to recognize these things about me. I’m hoping that sharing my journey can help some of you get there faster than I did. Standard Disclaimer:  In an effort to foil my own perfectionist tendencies, I do not edit my posts much… if at all. Please excuse and typos, mistakes, grammatical errors, or awkward phrasing. I focus on getting my content down. An imperfect post completed is better than a perfect post that goes unposted.

Don’t push yourself until your workout is torture. It is really important to leave yourself feeling good or you won’t want to go back. For example, if you go to the gym with the goal of doing a 30 minute lifting routine and find that you don’t feel great and really feel like you only have 2 sets of 10 in you instead of 3 sets, that’s okay. If you have done all of the workout except one exercise that you hate and you’re want to be done, that’s okay. If you have done 25 minutes and feel like you’ve had a good workout and are ready to be done, that’s okay. 20 – 25 minutes of good exercise and a good feeling is far better than 30 minutes and leaving with a bad taste in your mouth. Slowly but surely you will start to change your thinking about your workouts. They will go from sucking your will to live to not so bad. Then they might actually be a thing you can learn to enjoy. Of course we do need to push ourselves enough that we are really getting enough of a benefit out of our exercise. I’m an athlete and a competitive son of a gun. So, pushing myself isn’t so hard. But, my wife, for example sometimes struggles with that. If you do struggle with pushing yourself, don’t think about pushing yourself for longer, just think about increasing your intensity. Think about hiring a good trainer to get you jump started. Or find a workout buddy who is self motivated. You can feed on their intensity as you learn to create your own. Also consider doing intervals. That really worked for my wife. She does interval sprinting on the spin bike (and watches tv while she does…

Dr. McDonnell is one of my favorite people in the ADHD community here in Greater Boston. Please consider checking this out.

See attached flyer for info about Dynamy’s open house. They are a gap year program that I think sounds pretty good. Not cheap, but so is failing out of college because you’re not ready.

Hey everyone. I know there are at least a few of you who read the blog regularly. So I had my web guy add a subscription option. I generally try to post every Friday, but if you’d rather get an email to remind you to check in when I post a new entry, sign up now!

I’ve always felt that as ADHDers we often feel completely at the mercy of inertia. The ADHDer in motion tends to stay in motion. The ADHDer on the couch tends to stay on the couch. If you take this as given, and add in our difficulties with self regulation, initiation, and transitioning… Let’s just say that it’s not always as easy at is looks for us to get off the couch, and go work out. Bearing this in mind, there is some “psychological Kung-Fu” that you can use to get yourself moving. One of the best ways to insure that you won’t go work out is to get in a mindset that a certain amount of time, distance, reps, etc is the only way to have a successful workout. For example, if you frame success as only 40 minutes, or 5 miles, or so many suicide runs, you’ve set a high bar. That effort level might not feel worth it enough in the moment to get you moving.  Try encouraging yourself to exercise with no expectations of how long you will go for. (Of course, you should budget enough time for fit in your best case scenario.) Look at it as a victory if you just get into your workout clothes and get on the bike or to the gym. Because, believe it or not, that’s the hardest part. Once you are at the gym, or on the bike you are in motion and it’s not so hard to keep going. If your best case is a 5 mile run, a 4 mile run is great, a three mile run is more than enough, and a two mile run is a great “easy day.”  Simply by going you are establishing good habits and a routine. Consistency if far more important in…

So, even if you don’t love exercise, there has to be something that you wouldn’t hate to do to get yourself moving. I will admit that I have somewhat of an advantage in that I’m an athlete and was also the hyperactive type when younger. But even for me, if I don’t like it, I won’t do it.  I have come to a place in my life where I almost enjoy running. And, I certainly enjoy the feeling after a good run. Until recently I still played Ultimate Frisbee semi regularly. One of the best investments I ever made was buying a spin bike. (See attached picture.) It has been my experience that you should get a sturdy durable one in the $500 – $700 range. They don’t take up much space and get you a great low impact workout. Great if you are just working your way back. And, you can watch TV while you ride. So, I can run, do one of my two lifting routines, use the rowing machine at the gym, or spin. That give me 5 different workouts to mix up if I need variety. I have clients who are  rock climber,  bikers,  martial artists,  tennis players,  crossfit people, runners, gym rats, hikers, squash players, and boffers (Foam sword fighting – Yes that’s a thing!)  Don’t fall into the trap of thinking there is only one way to work out. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Get out there. It’s good for you!

My Dad sent me this article from the Globe a week or two ago. (Yes, he’s old school and actually rips out the article, puts in in an envelope, licks it, uses a stamp, and mails it to me.) I’m going to post the link for your digital consumption: This article stood out in several ways to me. One, I read the whole thing. Two, I really identified with it so much so that I kept thinking about it for days, like when you see a good movie and it sticks with you. And, when talking to friends and clients over the subsequent days, it became even more clear how dead on it was.  I already make an effort. But much of that effort involves having whole families over for dinner. My effort to carve out time for my own social life is there, but not nearly as robust. So, I’m going to redouble my efforts to get my buddy Russell out of the house. I’m going to make it a point to go to Mike’s horseshoe Thursdays this fall. I’m going to try to revive my monthly poker night. And, yes, ask new guys on platonic “man dates.” (Gulp!) Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Get out there and get social guys! 

Now that I’ve spent the summer talking about food prep and kitchen organization, I think it might be a nice change to talk about workout strategies. I’ll start with the overview and then do smaller posts on each aspect of the overview. Why exercise? Because it’s good for you, dummy! Just kidding. You should exercise because it is one of the best ways to help manage your ADHD! It’s true. There’s research to prove it. Getting your heart rate up of a substantial period of time, (let’s say 20 to 40 minutes) directly produces dopamine, which allows you to concentrate better, and serotonin with positively affects mood and anxiety. All the research indicates that the best thing you can do to affect a positive outcome for ADHD is medication intervention. The second best thing you can do is behavioral intervention. In my opinion, the next best things to do are get enough sleep and exercise regularly. So, in case you need to see it in black and white, let’s review the positives of exercise for us humans with ADHD: Better attention. Less anxiety and better, more stable mood. Better sleep. (See how those tie in!) Less stimulation seeking behavior, especially by eating. You will be healthier. You will probably look better. And there’s no downside or nasty side effects. I will note that I’ve never known anyone with substantial ADHD who could manage it solely through exercise, but it is definitely part of the solution. Here are some of my top workout tips for ADHDers: Pick activities that you enjoy. (Or at least not hate it.) Have a variety of activities so that you don’t get into a rut. Don’t fall into black and white thinking. For example, don’t convince yourself that the only good workout is a 40 minute run.…

Planning a big project is always a challenge, especially for those of us with executive function issues. Most ADHDers are so “planning averse” that they just dive right in. Occasionally this works, but most of the time it results in a variety of mis-steps, including:  avoiding starting because there isn’t a clear beginning middle or end, not finishing on time,  not finishing at all,  inconveniencing other due to the project being “in process” when it shouldn’t be,  having to redo things that weren’t done correctly,  realizing that the project is beyond one’s capabilities,  wasting time wasting money making a mess not leaving time to clean up and general inefficiency  Of course there are things you can’t plan for, but I’ve found that most of life requires a good deal of planning. I always think about the invasion of Normandy by the Allies. That assault was planned down to the smallest detail for over a year. In fact they even planned for the exact time of day, tides and weather. The landing was almost put off for an additional day due to cloud cover. (Apparently it lifted just in time.) Not that any of us are invading Nazi held France. But, on a smaller scale, we have our own D-Days. My current project is the updating of my office, our dining room, living room, and front entryway. I’ve been going a room at a time this summer with painting etc. Now it’s time to think about electrical, scraping the popcorn ceiling, and refinishing the floors. I was hoping to get all this done before the week after labor day. But, things haven’t been as light as I thought they would be work and family -wise this week. So, I was literally lying awake at night, stressed about when/if I would get…

I recently received an email from a parent about getting a neuropsych. for her daughter. I thought it was important enough to post as a blog entry, not just respond to her directly. So here’s my 2 cents… A comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation is not the only way, and generally not the best way to diagnose ADHD. The “gold standard” for diagnosis of ADHD is an in depth clinical assessment by a qualified MD or PhD. For kids this involves a thorough history, evaluation scales, parent surveys, and often teacher surveys.  I rarely recommend a neuropsych. for adults. I very often recommend them for kids though, especially in cases where it is important to ascertain whether or not the child is dealing with comorbidities. 80% of ADHDers have at least one co-occurring condition. However, there can be as much as a 30% false negative for attentional issues because the test is delivered one on one in an environment that is designed to be minimally distracting. Also, particularly bright kids will often not fully demonstrate their weaknesses in such on such a test because their intelligence compensates in some ways. And, there always is the issue of whether the test administer/evaluator is adept enough to see more subtle deviations from the norm. Plus they are really expensive and very often not covered by insurance.  So, if you are primarily concerned with ADHD and there doesn’t seem to be any other issues, seeing a competent clinician for an evaluation and (potentially) medication treatment is probably the best place to start. If medication gets complicated, the symptoms aren’t adequately addressed, or the clinician thinks there may more going on, that would be the time to seek further testing. Or, if the school system demands it in order to allow accommodations. Though, then you can usually get them to administer and pay for it. But,…