On March 12, the United States once again sprang forward into what is known as “Daylight Saving Time.” This is bad news. Daylight Saving Time (DST) is bad for everyone’s health, but it is especially bad for those with ADHD. In this blog post, I will explain why and what we can do to fight back against this foolish practice.

When we think about dealing with our ADHD, we use words like “control” and “manage.” What I would like to propose is that we change the way we talk about ADHD management. What if we started using words like “play” or “harness?” How would that change the way we think about ADHD? I maintain that this is a better way of approaching things. Now, I am not proposing to make ADHD a superpower. I am not one of those people; I see the dangers of ADHD. In fact, I have called ADHD the “ignored public health crisis.” However, I think the answer to this public health crisis is play and fun.

I have big plans for 2023. Reset ADHD will be moving forward with several projects in the months to come. It is an exciting time for me, but it is also kind of difficult. With so many projects to balance, it can be hard to plan my time and stay moving forward on all of my goals. If you are like me, you have a lot of things you would like to do but are unsure of how it will all get done. I thought I would share what I am doing to stay productive during this busy time in the hopes it will help you to stay productive.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Adderall shortage. It has been dragging on for months and shows no sign of ending anytime soon. Word on the street is that other ADHD medications are beginning to see shortages as well. This is bad news for those of us who take our medication daily to combat the effects of ADHD. Many are finding it hard to find their medication which raises the question: What is an ADHDer to do? Here are some ideas.

As mentioned on this blog before, ADHD often comes with “tagalongs.” One possibility for a co-morbid condition is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). According to an article written by Amitai Abramovitch, Ph.D. and Andrew Mittelman on the International OCD Foundation website, “over 35 studies have reported that an average of 21% of children and 8.5% of adults with OCD actually have ADHD as well.”

2023 will see three books released by Reset ADHD. I am excited about this project, and I hope you will consider reading these books. In this blog post, I would just like to give you an overview of what each of the books covers. If this inspires you in any way, I hope you will share this news with someone you care about who is affected by ADHD.

Last week, I wrote about what makes Reset ADHD unique. In that blog post, I said I would probably write a follow up about what else makes my coaching practice unique. While thinking about how to follow up with that, I wondered if I ever told the story of why I decided to become an ADHD coach. I thought I had, but as it turns out, I have not written that story down. What I thought was the story of why I became a coach was, in fact, a letter to myself about why I am a coach, in case I ever doubt myself and my chosen career. If you want to read more about my why for being a coach, give it a read. However, if you are simply interested in a story version of why I am a coach, this is the blog post for you!

What is Reset ADHD? Reset ADHD is owned and operated by Alex R. Hey, PCAC (AKA me). It is first and foremost an ADHD coaching practice. I do write blogs, but my main focus is coaching. In this blog post I hope to describe what makes coaching with Reset ADHD unique.

Are you looking for an ADHD coach? Are you worried that all coaches are the same? I assure you we are not. We are all unique. Some coaches make you check in with them every day; I do not. Some will talk a lot; others (myself included) will hold plenty of space for you to think, process, and speak.

I have been thinking a lot about my ideal client lately. Put another way, I have been asking myself, “Whom do I enjoy coaching?” It is not an easy question, but it is one that business gurus say I need to know. That is one end of the spectrum. My belief, in my time as a business owner/ADHD coach, has been that I do not need to define my ideal client. That is the other end of the spectrum. These two ends of the spectrum are all I have been exploring in my time in business. I do not like the idea of turning away potential clients, so I clung to the idea that defining my ideal client is unnecessary. This is black and white thinking. One end of the spectrum is black, and the other end is white.

November 17–19, I attended the 2022 International Conference on ADHD. It was three days of presentations, networking, and spending time with great people. I enjoyed myself, but I also learned a lot. I would like to share with you 10 things I learned while at the conference.

A word I hear used a lot in the ADHD community is accountability. I am not sure that is something we should be doing. We talk a lot about having an accountability buddy or accountability partner to help us get things done. I think the ADHD community needs to re-examine our use of the word “accountability.” I have used the words “accountability buddy” in a blog post before, so I am not just lecturing others. I am just as guilty as others when it comes to misusing the word accountability.

This blog post is scheduled to be released on the last day of ADHD Awareness Month 2022. Every year, I find the end of ADHD Awareness Month bittersweet. All of the cool activities designed to raise awareness about ADHD end, but at the same time, there is a relief. As someone who works with those with ADHD, I feel pressure to include ADHD awareness in my marketing during the month of October. This year, I did that. Other years, I have not. However, I am of the belief that ADHD awareness is for the whole year, not just October.

For the first few years after my diagnosis, I did very little in terms of managing it. I took my medication, and that was pretty much it. However, when I started noticing I was still struggling, I began to do some more research. Learning about ADHD quickly became a favorite activity. I now love learning more about how my brain works. I hope this will inspire you to go out there and learn all you can. To me, this is crucial for proper ADHD management.

I write these blog posts on Thursdays. So, as I type these words, it is a Thursday, specifically Thursday afternoon. I have two things on my to-do list for this afternoon before I need to coach a client. I found myself debating which one I should do first. The issue was my nervousness about being able to get both done. “If I can only do one,” I thought, “which one would be best to get done?” I finally said to myself that my blog is something that I do for my business and the other thing is not. Yes, both are important, but between the two, my business is of higher priority. Therefore, I chose to start with this blog post.

One of the most common questions an ADHD coach gets is: What is the difference between coaching and therapy? I have been writing this blog for over four years, and I have yet to address this issue in a blog post. One of the reasons for that is it is not an easy question to answer. There are similarities between the two. However, they are definitely different. I hope my thoughts will help clarify the difference.

I just saw a Facebook post from a parent of a kid I know has ADHD. It is his first day of school, and I find myself hoping he has a good school year. This is because I had a lot of not good school years. Were any of my school years complete disasters? No, but there are things that I definitely wish could have gone differently. I thought I would write a list of things I wish my teachers knew back in the day. Hopefully, it inspires some teachers to treat their students differently and inspires some students and parents to advocate for their students.

If you have followed this blog for any period of time, you may have noticed my passion for sleep. Getting plenty of sleep is crazy important. In short, if you are looking to step up your ADHD management game, try getting more sleep. There are plenty of posts on my blog that go into how to get a good night’s sleep.

However, followers of my blog may have noticed a glaring omission in all of my writings on sleep. There is one aspect of sleep about which I have not written. That topic is naps. Why have I not written much about it? The short answer is there are not a lot of definitive answers out there on the subject of naps. That has left me confused on the topic. Are human beings meant to take naps? Are naps good for you? If they are, how long should one nap? I do not have answers to those questions. I only have one bit of insight on naps.

It is important to identify your needs as an ADHDer. The world will not identify them for you, and even if the world does identify “needs,” they may not be your specific needs. We are all different and have different needs, so what is needed for one person may not be needed for you. You need to identify your specific needs in order to live a fulfilling life.

Ever wonder why you struggle to focus or get started on a project you do not want to do? The explanation behind it is that those of us with ADHD have an interest-based nervous system. This means that our brains are attracted to whatever is interesting to us in the moment. Interest, in this case, is anything that stimulates the brain.

It is important to point out that this stimulation can be positive or negative. So, you can be engaged by a crossword puzzle or rumination.

Dogs are great. I have written before about why every ADHDer needs a doggo in their life. I wrote it around my dog Charlie’s birthday in 2018. A couple of months later, I got a second dog, Ace. Charlie has since passed away, but I still have Ace. Charlie and Ace have taught me so much. In this blog post, I want to talk about some things we can learn from dogs. This will not be a pitch for getting a dog. Rather, I want to look at dogs and how they live their lives, and I want to enumerate what ADHDers can learn from them.