After just one meeting with Dad, one meeting with the whole family, and one meeting with a new high school sophomore I got this email from Dad: “Thank you very much. I have this very strong feeling that you are going to make a difference for [name] when no else has been able to.” That is why I do this.  Usually it takes a little longer to get such a positive response in writing. (See the “success stories” page.) But the truth is that for many kids (and adults) I can make a difference. I LOVE that! 

My children had, at one point, had 7 out of 12 days off from school due to snow. And… next week is February vacation. Hoooray! Funny how your perspective changes when you are a parent. Anyway, I’ll give you one short post for now, but hopefully March will settle down and I’ll get back to posting regularly.

I finally started the other blog that I’ve been planning for almost a year. If you are interested in gardening and/or cooking, check it out.

Please check out The “BSP” Extra on Cognitive Dissonance. I had trouble finding a link to it. It isn’t a numbered episode but is available on iTunes.  I think it will teach you tons about how we view the world.

I don’t think I’ve posted about this before… A client hipped me to a podcast a few years ago called “The Brain Science Podcast.” It is pretty intense and is often at a pretty high scientific level. I will admit that not all episodes are up my alley. Some are over my head. Some are boring. But the episodes that are in my “wheelhouse” are exceptional.  The newest 20 episodes are free. The older ones will cost you a buck. I’m working through some older episodes right now, so I may recommend ones that not free anymore. Sorry I’m behind. Not all of my Brain Science Podcast recommendations will be strictly about ADHD. But, they may be about topics that I think will effect everyone of us for one reason or another. I encourage you to give them a try. Even if you aren’t into the first one, please try a few. I think you’ll find at least one that has information that could change how you look at your life and your brain.  I suggest starting with Exercise and the Brain (BSP 33) I think it might change your thinking!

As part of my involvement with the New England Chapter of the National Assoc. of Professional Organizers. I’ll be a featured speaker at our Go Month organizational expo this Saturday.  Click here for details!

As of tonight, I am officially a member of the MGH Patients and Families Advisor Council. I’m super excited to be on this council and help make policy for one the best hospitals in the world. Apparently, there is much strategic planning and HIPA related stuff. So I may not be able to share too much, but I will do my best to keep everyone updated on what I can share.

I recently had a grandparent post on our CHADD website about… let’s say overwhelming stress while managing her ADHD grandchild. I’m sure many parents/ care givers end up in a similar place. I wanted to pass along two resources I’ve become aware of. If you are worried about losing control with your kids… Parental Stress line: 800-632-8188   or   www.parentshelpingparents.org And, if you are worried about you… Samaritans: 877-870-4673 The courageous thing to do is ask for help.

So, I can’t give all my secrets away on my blog, but…  There are three things we need to manage to be successful human beings. As ADHDers we may struggle with all three. They are Tasks, Time & Stuff. I’ll speak to managing task for a minute now. The best way I have found to manage tasks for us to a “simple” To Do List. However that list is not so simple. By my count there are 10 specific aspect to a really great and useful TDL. I’ll talk a little about one today.  The idea is to have one master list for things to get done in your personal life and one master list of things to get done at work I usually talk to clients for about 10 minutes about this aspect of the List and explore it pretty good depth. However, today I’m going to talk about the exception to the rule.  When we have one huge project with many moving parts or many sub-tasks it is usually better to create a side list. (The is the advanced lesson for most, once they TDL basics are mostly mastered.) I thought to mention this today, because I have a big project in my house. Since our second was born in April, the basement has been a $#!% storm of old baby stuff, new baby stuff, hand me downs, donations, etc. Not to mention my tools… As a professional organizer, it is the one place in my life, I’d be afraid to let a client see. And it really bugs me because the ease of finding what I need has decreased radically.  I went down the other day to game plan. I will admit I was overwhelmed. So, I picked one small aspect of the room and tackled that, then another small…

If you or your child takes a generic type of Concerta you need to read this: FDA generic Concerta update If you don’t know what generics are, please check out two posts ago for the basics.

Many ADHD children struggle with getting up to speed in terms of executing regular every day correctly. I find this particularly applies to handling the morning and evening routines. I don’t know if my five year old has ADHD or not, but I often realize that I am teaching him things in a way that would work for me. (I think there is an older post about how I give our weekend structure by letting him know what’s coming next.) Another way that I realize I have taught him something by giving it structure is getting dressed independently in the morning. As soon as he was old enough to get dressed on his own (with supervision,) I started laying his clothes out the way you see in the picture. That taught him the right order of putting stuff on. Now (on his cooperative days) he can go in to his room pick out his outfit and get dressed completely on his own. Of course this isn’t every day and sometime it seems to take him 3 hours to do it. But we haven’t had any days where he comes down with his undies on the outside on not wearing any at all. I’d say that’s pretty good!

If you are not familiar with how generic medications work, here are the basics: It often cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug. As a result, new drugs are protected from competition for a period of time after development. (Currently 12 years.) They are the only game in town and the company who owns the patent can charge top dollar to make back the investment they made developing the drug. Once that period of time expires other companies are permitted to offer competing “generic” drugs that are deemed equivalent to the original.  Those generic drugs are required to have the same active ingredients and be “bioequivilent” to the original, meaning that that active ingredient is delivered and works in the same way. I will tell you from personal experience that this is not always exactly true. I respond differently to some generics versus the name brand original and in some cases I respond differently to the generics made by different companies. This can present a problem for many of us.  The insurance companies don’t recognize that the generics don’t always work the same. In fact, pharmacies are mandated to substitute a generic when available unless the doctor specifically writes “no substitution” on the prescription. In the larger picture this makes sense and helps keep our healthcare cost down. Though, in many cases, even with the doctors authorization the name brand will be prohibitively more expensive. In fact, there is one medication that I take to counteract stimulant induced insomnia that the insurance won’t cover at all, even at a tier 3 price. Luckily there is one generic that works pretty well and I can have my pharmacist get it. So, you’re not necessarily crazy if you think your generic doesn’t quite feel like the original, or you don’t think it is working quite the same since it “changed” shape…