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How Therapy Helps Me Manage My ADHD
How Therapy Helps Me Manage My ADHD
After an Instagram comment spurred me to look into whether I might have ADHD, I was eager to bring up the idea to my longtime therapist at our next appointment. Spoiler alert: I have ADHD.
Many of the books I’ve read recently emphasize how people living with ADHD can significantly improve their relationships, workflow, and even self-image by working with therapists (and coaches) specializing in ADHD.
I’m a huge proponent of talk therapy generally: I can say without a doubt that sessions with my therapist led me to understand and effectively process nearly every significant high — and low — of my personal and professional life over the last decade. Though my ADHD diagnosis didn’t come until spring 2021, my therapist has helped me with problems related to my poor executive functioning since day one.
Therapy for ADHD doesn’t seek to cure you of the disorder (spoiler alert: There’s no cure, and I don’t think I’d personally want there to be). Rather, ADHD-focused therapy can help you develop tools to maximize the good things about your complex brain. It also serves to arm you with skills that will aid you in minimizing the fallout from its less positive aspects.
ADHD
One of many unexpected revelations over the last 6 months was that my therapist himself was diagnosed with AD.. many years ago. I’m tempted to say his diagnosis is a blessing in disguise, but it’s not disguised at all: It’s an obvious bonus for me to be working with a therapist who understands ADHD from both a practitioner and patient perspective.
As I write this, I’ve come up with a few more things I want to talk about with my own therapist. Happily, I’ll see him first thing tomorrow morning, and I hope to take some good notes during our session.
