Deborah Does Navel-Gazing » Mental Health Writing

Decluttering My Desk: Avoiding ADHD Pitfalls

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:06:50 +0000

So recently I decided that I couldn’t live with the clutter on my tiny desk anymore. Here’s a reminder of what my desk looks like pre-de-clutter:

The first thing I did was to take everything out and put it in a single big pile. There’s a good reason for doing it this way instead of doing one surface at a time. That way all similar items are put away in one fell swoop instead of being handled a few times.

via Decluttering My Desk: Avoiding ADHD Pitfalls – Organization at Home – ADHD.

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Decluttering My Desk: How Did the Mess Get Here?

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:04:12 +0000

So, I was finally fed up with not being able to find anything on my desk. I keep throwing things on it that never leave, and since I have a very small desk area, it doesn’t take much in the way of neglect to make it look like this (the bottom part is the keyboard shelf):

via Decluttering My Desk: How Did the Mess Get Here? – Organization at Home – ADHD.

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Life and Depression – Symptoms

Deborah — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:58:50 +0000

When we’re trying to diagnose depression in ourselves or someone else, we often look at how we person feel. We feel sad, hopeless, exhausted, empty and so on. But sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint how we feel, and we’ll get more insight into our condition by looking at our actions.

via Life and Depression – Symptoms – Depression.

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How Vitamin D Affects Depression – Prevention – Depression

Deborah — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:15:17 +0000

Two years ago, I spent nine months with sinus infections. I had one after another, and if I didn’t go to the doctor and get antibiotics, I got so sick that I would throw up. None of the doctors I saw could figure out why all of a sudden I was so prone to sinus infections. I saw an ear, nose and throat doctor and an infectious diseases doctor, as well as seeing almost every doctor and nurse practitioner at my GP’s practice. I had every test you can imagine. And no one could figure out what the problem was. Finally, when I was on one of my by now bi-weekly visits to my GP to get a prescription for antibiotics to fight the most recent infection, the nurse practitioner said, "Why don’t we check your Vitamin D level." Sure enough, I was extremely deficient. The standard range is 32-100 ng/mL. Mine was 20. I was put on prescription Vitamin D and voila! No more sinus infections.

via How Vitamin D Affects Depression – Prevention – Depression.

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Action Plan: Back to School Season with ADHD

Deborah — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:34:17 +0000

Ah, summer. Is there any time of the year more dear to children’s hearts? Its bliss is only marred by what’s at the end of it – back to school. After months of nothing more strenuous than camp, children’s brains are just not ready for the rigors of the classroom and the structured format of the school day. The switching of gears is especially hard on children with ADHD. They often need time to get used to changes, so a little preparation is in order to keep from the first day of school being a rude shock.

via Action Plan: Back to School Season with ADHD – In School – ADHD.

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Natural Depression Treatments

Deborah — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:29:03 +0000

Recently I was looking online for some information that family member needed about whether it was safe to take melatonin when you were on an antidepressant. I was pretty sure that they should not be taken at the same time. I groaned when I saw the answer that someone had posted to this particular question on a message board. The answer was, "Melatonin is herbal, so it’s safe to take it with anything."

Aaaaghh!

Herbs are considered safe by many people, under any circumstances, because they’re natural. But natural doesn’t automatically equal harmless. Almost anything natural can be toxic if not used appropriately. Sunlight is natural, but too much of it can give you a sunburn, or skin cancer. When I was a few weeks away from my wedding, I thought that I’d make sure I didn’t come down with a cold, so I took high doses of Vitamin C every day. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that I spent a lot of time in the bathroom before I wised up and settled for taking a multivitamin instead.

via Natural Depression Treatments – Depression.

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Treating Depression during Pregnancy – Depression

Deborah — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:24:17 +0000

When I found out that I was pregnant, I made three phone calls. The first was to my husband at work, the second was to my parents and the third was to my psychopharmacologist a doctor who specializes in psychiatric medication. My pregnancy was planned, so my doctor and I had already talked about what my options were in terms of antidepressant treatment. Even though I suffer from severe depression, I decided to taper off my medication once I became pregnant. I figured I’d just cross my fingers and hope that pregnancy hormones would protect me from depression, although my doctor and I agreed that if I became severely depressed, we would revisit the decision.

via Treating Depression during Pregnancy – Depression.

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Social Skills Training for Children with ADHD

Deborah — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:58:32 +0000

Very few children are naturals at social interaction and sail through childhood making friends effortlessly, but children with ADHD/ADD have a harder time socializing than most. I remember being laughed at when I marched up to my 4th grade crush and told him I liked him and wanted him to come over to my house in front of his friends. I was terrible at picking up on social cues and figuring out the unspoken rules. Even more painful than my own memories is the possibility that my son might go through the same thing, although his issues are a little different than mine were. For some reason, I was more ADD than ADHD when I was a kid, but my son is very definitely in the ADHD camp. As such, he often has problems with being bossy, interrupting other people and not wanting to take turns. If you’re the parent of a child with ADHD, you might be in the same position and wondering how to help.

via Social Skills Training for Children with ADHD – ADHD.

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Social Skills in Children with ADHD

Deborah — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:17:40 +0000

I’m dropping my son off at morning daycare. There are three other children there already, and they’re playing with those rings you toss like a Frisbee. While I’m signing my son in, I hear him say, "I’ve got something that’s much better than those." He’s holding up a Star Wars ship.

Uh-oh.

Under the pretense of giving him a goodbye shoulder squeeze (no hugs from Mom in front of other kids at his age), I whisper, "Honey, it’s not nice to say that your toy is better than someone else’s or to try to grab all the attention." "Okay, okay," he says impatiently. I stifle a sigh as I leave, crossing my fingers. I hope his school day will go well.

There can be positive aspects to having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when it comes to social skills. My son has never been shy with adults or other kids. We call him our "little cruise director" because whenever we brought him to/picked him up from school, as early as preschool, he greeted almost everyone he saw, adults and other kids, by name. While we were visiting California prior to moving out here, we went to a new park where, of course, he didn’t know anyone. Within five minutes of our arrival, I heard him saying, "Hey, kids! Let’s pretend the playscape is a pirate ship."

For the most part, however, ADHD tends to engender more challenges than benefits when it comes to social skills. Outgoing can become attention-seeking and boastful, as in my opening example, and take-charge can become aggressive and bossy.

via Social Skills in Children with ADHD – ADHD.

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ADHD – Simplifying Organization

Deborah — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:34:44 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a veteran of numerous organizational methods. I think many adults with AD/HD are. We’re always looking for that magic organization bullet. When we come across a new method in the bookstore or in a magazine, we think "Maybe this is it!" We buy whatever tools we need and set up the system according to the directions of the evangelist who swears this is an easy, effective way to stay organized.

I think one of the most popular targets for organizing methods is paper, as setting up a system is difficult and maintaining it takes a lot of discipline.

via ADHD – Simplifying Organization.

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