ADDA Regional Conference
This past weekend the regional ADDA conference was sponsored by Brown University and held in Providence RI. As a presenter at the conference, I thought I would share with you some of my experiences and some information I found interesting. For example, did you know that the founder of Johnny Rockets (148 Restaurants Nationwide), Lloyd Sugarman is diagnosed with ADHD. His story is inspiring and encouraged many in the audience with ADHD to remain positive and focus on ADHD strengths such as being creative, taking risks, and thinking outside of the box.
In addition to traditional approaches to treatment, there were seminars on Laughter Yoga (one of my favorites) and how walking a Labyrinth helps adults and children deal with some of the symptoms of ADHD. In addition, there were many success stories shared over the course of the weekend. During the last forum, Vicki Ball, a leader in the ADHD coaching field encouraged a panel of highly successful professionals with ADHD to answer the question: “What gadgets/strategies have helped you the most with managing your ADHD?” the responses were at times emotional and heart felt. Here are some of my favorites:
- Always utilizing Outlook pop-ups for reminders about meetings and important due dates.
- Using Post-it notes for urgent items only. For example, one successful lawyer described putting a post-it on her front door with a list of items “not to forget”- again not everyday, just urgent items. Similarly she places a post-it on the corner of her computer if she must send an email by the end of the day and places a post it on her telephone if she must return a call that day.
- One heavy sleeper who had great difficulty getting up in the morning used an alarm clock for the deaf to make certain that she woke up.
- For people who work in a cubicle, wear a headset to improve concentration on telephone calls and to limit other people interrupting you.
- Turn wristwatch around as a reminder that something important has to be done. It was reported that the discomfort was a great trigger/reminder
- Respect your energy! Use your energy when you know you have it
- Ask yourself regularly: “Does it have to be me and Is it really important?”
In general, all of the panel agreed that negative self-talk was pervasive before they learned about ADHD and that it was invaluable to them to learn to “kill the ANTs” which stands for Automatic Negative Thinking. Finally, the group finished with an inspirational quote from Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right”
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