cheating is a survival mechanism, ok? it's fine.

cheating is a survival mechanism, ok? it's fine.

ADHD Cheatsheet!

“Okay, what’s all this fuss about ADHD? Why is everyone getting diagnosed with ADHD these days????” I’ll tell you why, grandpa.

Generations before us were obsessed with mass production, war, and living recklessly. Their parents did not heal or go to therapy. We inherited their trauma, and their parents’ trauma, AND the internet (which is so jokes and makes me feel like I’m living in a simulation sometimes, but it’s also sad and bad).

Trauma affects how we process stress and anxiety in our bodies. As a result, our brains are constantly in fight-or-flight because of the stress the world put on our moms and then on us.

We can’t work or “function“ in traditional work settings because the generations before us made work and greed their whole personality. Disrespectfully.

Mental health professionals all too often tell people of colour that their ADHD symptoms are more likely due to anxiety, depression, or personal failure rather than a neurological difference. But demographic estimates suggest that by 2035, more adults will be struggling with ADHD than children, and the health system will only fail more neurodiverse people of colour. We are no less impaired, and we face it no less frequently.

ADHD impacts all aspects of life - how we sleep, how and what we eat, and how we go through each day - forgetting and losing personal items, running late, rarely feeling prepared, underperforming, feeling judged, being misunderstood and sometimes outright rejected by others. We struggle to manage all aspects of daily life.

Thankfully, learning how to manage symptoms and becoming aware of how to work with your brain will massively improve your health and the quality of your life.

She got ADHD!!!! 

- Kendrick LamaR

Let’s learn about our executive (dys)function!

Executive function impairments are a part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.

To get an official diagnosis, you must show that you have at least 3 impairments that impact you in at least 3 areas of your life.

Often this involves bringing a third party with you to your appointment to vouch for you or provide insight about you that you might not be aware of.

Further down, I will break down how these impairments manifest in different areas of adult life.

  • The capacity to think before you act - this ability to resist the urge to say or do something allows us the time to evaluate a situation and how our behaviour might impact it.

  • The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behaviour.

  • The ability to hold pieces of information in memory while performing complex tasks. It incorporates the ability to draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or to project into the future.

  • The capacity to maintain focus on a situation or task, despite distractibility, fatigue, or boredom for a continuous stretch of time.

  • The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what's important to focus on and what's not important.

  • The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion.

  • The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.

  • The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important.

  • The capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests.

  • The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions.

  • The ability to stand back and take a Birdseye view of oneself in a situation. It is an ability to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluation of skills (for example, asking yourself, “How am I doing?” or “How did I do?”)

  • The ability to thrive in stressful situations and to cope with uncertainty, change, and performance demands.

 

Does executive dysfunction impact these aspects of your life?

  • School-related problems

    Underperforming in school

    Doing well on tests but not on homework

    Difficulty completing papers

    Behaviour problems

    Being told, “You’re so smart, you just need to try harder.“

    Difficulties in graduate or professional school, such as not completing a thesis or dissertation, not passing medical/law boards

  • Work-related problems

    Losing or quitting jobs due to poor performance or dissatisfaction

    Missing deadlines

    Never being promoted to the level that you feel you deserve

    Difficulty with paperwork

  • Life management problems

    Forgetting to pay bills

    Living in a messy, disorganized environment

    Smoking and/or drinking to excess

    Getting speeding tickets

    Struggling with depression and anxiety

    Procrastinating and having difficulty accomplishing projects, even projects that initially excite you

  • Relationship problems

    Losing your temper often or being easily frustrated

    Having high levels of conflict with those close to you

    Having marital conflict leading to separation and divorce

    Inconsistent and emotionally reactive parenting patterns

  • Family history

    Having children or siblings diagnosed with ADHD


    Family history of anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, learning disorders

terms we throw around more loosely

  • In the ADHD community, we call the amount of overages and surcharges that we regularly pay as a result of having bad working memory, short-term thinking and terrible object permanence ADHD tax. This tax includes how much extra we pay for parking tickets, groceries, late fees on bills, excessive debt from impulse spends, and chronic unemployment. Impulse spending is a dopamine hit. Y’all ever buy things you absolutely do not need, while fully convinced in the moment that you need them?

  • The tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection/shame. Nearly 1/3 of ADHD adults describe this as the worst part of living with ADHD. I think it’s just a manifestation of R-OCD and C-PTSD. But it is totally a dysphoric feeling.

  • Not being able to link past to future can lead to a really poor sense of self. You're often unable to remember your accomplishments, you have no real sense of time passing, and so you frequently struggle to stay on task to hand things in on time. But what is time?

  • Stimming is the act of making repetitive movements, actions, or sounds for self-stimulation or self-regulation. This applies for both ADHD and Autism, and can include a variety of movements meant to soothe the senses. A list follows, but it is by no means exhaustive - stimming can look different to anyone who might do it. Another thing worth noting, as a woman, is that you may have done these things and then learned to mask them if your peers called you weird - speaking from personal experience, as a former hand-flapper. You might:

    • twirl your hair, crack your knuckles, drum or snap your fingers, scratch yourself, feel something super soft, or tap your pencil (essentially, the act/feeling of doing something stimulating with your hands)

    • bite your nails, whistle, hum, click your tongue, chew on your pen or straw, repeat words, need to suck on something minty or sour (essentially, the act/feeling of doing something stimulating with your mouth)

    • rock your body, jump or bounce around, walk on your tiptoes, blink repetitively, flap your hands, tap your feet or shake your head (basically just vibing/doing stimulating movements that feel nice)