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| I. INSIGHT AND EDUCATION |
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| 1-Be sure of the diagnosis. |
| 2-Educate yourself. |
| 3-Coaching, it is useful for you to have a coach, for some person near you to keep after you, but always with humor. Your coach can help you get organized, stay on task, give you encouragement or remind you to get back to work. Friend, colleague, or therapist can be a coach. |
| 4-Encouragement. ADD adults need lots of it. |
| 5-Realize what ADD is NOT. |
| 6-Educate and involve others. |
| 7-Give up guilt over high-stimulus seeking behavior, understand you are drawn to it. Try to chose them wisely. 8-Listen to feedback from trusted others. |
| 9-Consider joining or starting a support group. |
| 10-Try to get rid of the negativity that may have infested your system if you have lived for years without knowing what you had was ADD. |
| 11-Don't feel chained to conventional careers or conventional ways of coping. |
| 12-Remember that what you have is a neurpsychiatric condition. It is caused by biology, by how your brain is wired. |
| 13-Try to help others with ADD. |
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| II PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT |
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| 14-External structure. Tedious to set up, once in place structure works to keep you on track. Make frequent use of: lists, color-coding, reminders, notes to self, rituals, files. |
| 15-Color coding. Many people with ADD are visually oriented. |
| 16-Use pizzazz. Make your environment as peppy as you want it to be without letting it boil over. |
| 17-Set up your environment to reward rather than deflate. 18-Acknowledge and anticipate the inevitable collapse of X% of projects undertaken, relationships entered into, obligations incurred. |
| 19-Embrace challenges. |
| 20-Make deadlines. |
| 21-Break down large tasks into small ones. Attach deadlines to the small parts. |
| 22-Prioritize. Avoid procrastination. |
| 23-Accept fear of things going well. |
| 24-Notice how and where you work best. |
| 25-Know that it is ok to do two things at once. |
| 26-Do what your good at. |
| 27-Leave time between engagements to gather your thoughts 28-Keep a notepad in your car, by your bed, and in your pocketbook or jacket. |
| 29-Read with a pen in hand. |
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| III MOOD MANAGEMEMT: |
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| 30-Have structure "blow-out" time. |
| 31-Recharge your batteries. |
| 32-Chose "good", helpful addictions such as exercise. |
| 33-Understand mood changes and ways to manage these. |
| 34-recognize the following cycle, which is very common among adults with ADD: |
| A-Something "startles" your psychological system, a change or transition, a disappointment or even a success The precipitant may be quite trivial. |
| B-This "startle" is followed by a mini-panic with a sudden loss of perspective, the world being set topsy-turvy. |
| C-You try to deal with this panic by falling into a mode of obsessing and ruminating over one or another aspect f the situation. This can last for hours days, even months. |
| 35-Plan Scenarios to deal with the inevitable blahs. |
| 36-Expect depression after success. |
| 37-Learn symbols, slogans, sayings as shorthand ways of labeling and quickly putting into perspective slip-ups, mistakes, or mood swings. |
| 38-Use "time-outs", go away, clam down. |
| 39-Learn how to advocate for yourself. |
| 40-Advoid premature closure of a project, a conflict, a deal, or a conversation. |
| 41-Try to let the successful moment last and be remembered. |
| 42-Remember that ADD usually includes a tendency to overfocus or hyperfocus at times. This hyperfocusing can be used constructively or destructively. |
| 43-Exercise vigorously and regularly. |
| 44-Make a good choice in a significant other. |
| 45-Learn to joke with yourself and others about your various symptoms. |
| 46-Schedule activities with friends. |
| 47-Find and join groups where you are liked. appreciated, understood, enjoyed. |
| 48-Don't stay long where your aren't understood or appreciated. |
| 49-Pay compliments. |
| AND 50-Set social deadlines. |
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