Preparing for the Next Crisis: Your Circle of Care
Can you really prepare for your next ADHD-related major hurdle or upsetting incident without suffering needless worry or forecasting doom? Well, yes… and no. In the words of Mark Twain, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Since none of us has a crystal ball showing what the…
Read MoreThe Downside to Technology for Students with ADHD
IN A STUDY CARREL AT YOUR LOCAL COLLEGE CAMPUS, a sophomore sits with sixteen open windows on his laptop. The latest YouTube video pops up just as he starts to write the first sentence of his International Relations paper. Then three friends text about making weekend plans. Two emails come in regarding campus security alerts…
Read MoreTreating ADHD and Cannabis Use Disorder
Joyce Cooper-Kahn, PhD, interviews Kevin M. Gray, MD Kevin M. Gray, MD, is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and assistant provost for research advancement at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist and physician-scientist, Dr. Gray is dedicated to addressing youth substance use and related problems by…
Read MoreParenting Your Child with ADHD for Career Success
What drives a person to choose a major, a field, a job? This is an extremely complex question. Research shows, and my experience supports, that several factors weigh into early career decisions—including teacher and parent feedback, interests, known aptitudes, as well as some healthy fantasies about what the day to day will look like. Often…
Read MoreUneasy in the Harness: Reconsidering ADHD Motivation
For kids growing up in farm and ranch country, work was always easy to find for willing hands. When it came time of year to work cattle, this often involved horses. For moving cattle, we had a special kind of horse known as a “cutting horse.” These brilliant animals were bred and trained to intuitively…
Read MoreTailored for Young Learners: SMARTS Elementary
HOW DO WE EMPOWER CHILDREN to tackle difficult problems and achieve personal goals, both in school and in life? Lynn Meltzer, PhD, president and director of the Institutes for Learning and Development, says one possible way is to immerse them in a school culture that values, fosters, and celebrates metacognitive awareness. “Metacognitive awareness is the…
Read MoreWhat Makes a Good Accommodation?
PARENTS AND EDUCATORS OFTEN STRUGGLE when it comes to deciding whether or not to provide a child with an accommodation or modification. In giving a child a “leg up” or a “crutch” are we making them more dependent? Are we preventing them from trying their best? Are we giving them a message that they aren’t capable…
Read MorePositive Features of ADHD
This research update focuses on one overarching topic: potential positive and helpful features of ADHD. Are there positive aspects to having ADHD? The first paper utilized qualitative interviews to explore and describe positive aspects of ADHD. Researchers interviewed six adult males with high-functioning ADHD (i.e., recently receiving an ADHD diagnosis and medication prescription while also…
Read MoreHow Can Couples with ADHD Keep a Strong Relationship?
Carol Ann Robbins, PhD A licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD across the lifespan, Carol Ann Robbins, PhD, is the clinical director of the Annapolis ADHD Center. She also works at the Chesapeake ADHD Center of Maryland. Dr. Robbins has served as coordinator of the Anne Arundel County Maryland…
Read MoreADHD & Recreational Marijuana: What’s the Attraction?
THE PERCEPTION THAT MARIJUANA IS THERAPEUTIC FOR ADHD continues to increase in popularity. Anecdotes from people with ADHD who feel that recreational cannabis use provides therapeutic benefits are common. There is little clinical research to support these claims, however. Despite an absence of research, there is much chatter online. A relatively recent study looked…
Read MoreADHD and My Drug Addiction: Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Into the Light
One September day when I was 29, I stopped as I often did at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City to hold my dying mother’s hand as she fought her final battle with ovarian cancer. And as I always did, I soon grew antsy and impatient, and said to her, “I’m sorry I can’t…
Read MoreBeyond Fight, Flight, or Freeze—the Fib
When did you first tell a lie? You were likely very young (maybe two or three years old), afraid or ashamed of a situation, and used language to protect yourself. What if some fibbing is not a character flaw? What if fibs are a self-preservation response, an outcome of challenges with inhibition, emotional regulation, working…
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