The ADHD medication shortage has consequences and they’re ticking me off. Not all my ADD coaching clients take meds, but those who do need them. Their medications play a key role in allowing them to live more easily with ADD.

Take Janice, for example (no, that’s not her real name). Janice is a middle school teacher who hasn’t been able to get her afternoon dose of short-acting Adderall.

That little blue pill is pretty important to Janice. Without it her afternoon devolves into a wasteland of distraction and puttering. She can’t focus on her paperwork and she gets home late from work.

Janice’s problems snowball from there. When she gets home too late, she doesn’t eat a good dinner and she doesn’t have time to exercise or follow the basic organizing routines that keep her life running stress-free.

Without that afternoon Adderall boost, we’ve been forced to switch the focus of Janice’s coaching calls from achieving her goals of playing bigger in the world to more basic ADD / ADHD management skills.

Perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.

Janice will become more adept at managing her ADD without the medication’s help.

Yet because of the ADHD medication shortage, it’s no longer Janice’s choice of how she treats her ADD. I think that’s wrong.

What do you think about the consequences of the ADHD Medication Shortage?

If you take medication to manage your Adult ADD / ADHD you may have noticed an ADHD Medication Shortage at your local pharmacy. Actually, the ADHD Medication Shortage is effecting many parts of the United States.

A number of my ADD coaching clients can’t get their stimulant medication prescriptions filled. Obviously, it’s posing problems. These folks require their ADD medication to function. We’ve been forced to switch the focus of our coaching calls from achieving goals and playing bigger in the world to more rudimentary ADD / ADHD management skills.

Naturally, many of my clients look to me for news about the ADHD medication shortage. CHADD, the international, non-profit ADD / ADHD organization, has become my most reliable source for information.

Will you help CHADD keep their finger on the pulse of the shortage? Even if your ADHD prescription isn’t effected, can you spare a minute to complete a survey?

The quick, anonymous survey asks what ADHD medications you take, if you are having trouble filling your prescription and in what part of the USA you live. Your name and other personal information are not collected.

CHADD is requesting anyone who takes ADD / ADHD medications complete the survey even if they’re not effected by the shortage. The data collected will help CHADD know much more about the extent of the problem, all the medications being affected, and the geographic distribution.

Here’s the link to the ADHD Medication Shortage Survey

The ADHD Medication Shortage is complicated. The CHAAD web site has some useful posts to help you in managing the issue.

If you want to learn what has led to the ADHD Medication shortage, read “Why Can’t I Get My ADHD Medications?”

If you would like some tips on how to find a pharmacy that can fill your stimulant prescription and managing the ADHD medication shortage check out “Shortages of ADHD Medications.”

Please enjoy this poem by one of my favorite poets, Rumi. He lived in the 13th century, yet his wisdom still rings true; particularly for adults with ADD / ADHD.

You were born with potential,
You were born with goodness and trust,
You were born with ideals and dreams,
You were born with greatness,
You were born with wings,
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings,
Learn to use them and fly.

You are more than your ADD. Celebrate its gifts and embrace and manage its challenges. And remember always, you have the right to be successful.

May your world be filled with peace, prosperity and abundant good health.

Dana Rayburn is an ADD Coach dedicated to helping adults outsmart their ADD / ADHD and live more successful and satisfying lives. Read more free articles about living successfully with ADD / ADHD. 

Something happened to me last week that has entirely refocused my life and my thoughts about what is important.

Hence, I’m departing from my normal blog posts to write about something other than living more easily with Adult ADD / ADHD. Thanks for indulging me.

Was it only a week ago I thought balancing ADD Coaching clients with gift buying and baking was important?

Now, thanks to an impulsive in-the-dark, dash down our steep stairs I’m focused on surviving the next eight weeks with a fractured heel.

I’m thankful it’s a clean break and that the pain is moderate.

Yet to avoid future surgery my doctor says I can’t put any weight at all on my injured right foot. I also must wear a clunky boot, cast thing 24/7.

This means no walking, no standing and, gulp, no driving.

Suddenly, even the most simple task like taking a shower is an exhausting ordeal.

With this I must face head-on one of my greatest challenges; asking for help.

I don’t know if asking for help is an ADHD thing or not, though I do know many of my ADD Coaching Clients have a hard time with it, too.

At the risk of doing some unlicensed psychotherapy, I suspect I’m struggling with remnants of a childhood of undiagnosed ADD.

Those old messages that I can’t do much right. That I’m a failure and not good enough. Deep down I don’t think I deserve help.

Such silly old messages. Especially as I’m blessed with a considerate husband and supportive friends and family. My people want to help me.

Asking a neighbor to give my daughter a ride to basketball practice because I’m under doctor’s orders not to drive doesn’t mean I’m an incompetent failure.

Asking my husband to lug in a load of firewood doesn’t mean I’m lazy.

Though I won’t go as far as saying I’m glad my heel is fractured, I will say I’m thankful for this opportunity to tackle my reluctance to asking for help.

May you and yours have an enchanted and peaceful holiday and a New Year brimming with ADD Success.

I’m pleased to report  surviving the holidays is possible, despite the stress of managing adult ADD / ADHD.

It helps that I really do love Christmas.

I love the quiet and beauty in the few days right around the holiday, the twinkling lights, our beautiful tree and the music. I love nestling in with my little family all cosy and warm. I love the neighborhood cookie parties and the caroling.

It just takes so much planning and doing to get to that point.

I’m getting smarter as the years pass. I’ve learned to accept and outsmart my flavor of ADD.

I’ve ditched the Christmas cards. I’ve reduced the number of gifts I give. I decorate when I feel like it which is usually pretty close to Christmas. We stay home instead of traveling hundreds of miles to family gatherings.

If other people don’t like it, that’s too bad.

Sure, it’s still extra stuff piled on a life that is too wonderfully busy to begin with, but at least it’s extra stuff I enjoy and find meaningful.

What about you?

What will you do to survive the holidays with Adult ADD / ADHD this year? How will you simplify and what will you focus on?

The holidays and adult ADD / ADHD can be a painful mix.

We’re overwhelmed by day to day living as it is. Suddenly, December rolls around to burden us with a cartload of extra tasks and activities.

Worse yet, we expect ourselves to juggle it all with style and an even temperament.

It’s torture. At least for me and most of my ADD coaching clients.

No matter how many lists we make or how organized we are, it’s still too much.

Other than huddle in a fetal position in a corner, what can you do?

To Survive the Holidays With Adult ADD / ADHD – Simplify and Focus

Cut out the extra stuff; the things you do because you feel you should.

Instead, center your holidays on the people and things that bring you joy and meaning.

Yes, it can be difficult to let go of the shoulds. But, if you have ADD you probably have a reputation for being eccentric as it is. Revel in it.

Simplifying and focusing to create a holiday that’s meaningful to you is the secret of surviving the holidays successfully if you have Adult ADD / ADHD.

Do you ever wonder why adults with ADD / ADHD procrastinate until the very last minute? No matter how important something may be, until it’s looming overhead, ADD Adults simply can’t take action?

I call that the Now / Now Not Effect. If you have Adult ADD / ADHD, it’s a very real phenomena.

You can read more about the Now / Not Now Effect in my article The Unique Time Management of Adults With ADD / ADHD.

ADHD’s Now / Not Now shows up for me in a major way each Christmas.

Every November I’m shocked when the Christmas rush starts so early. Christmas isn’t for weeks, yet all around me people seem obsessed with shopping, baking and decorating.

I’m Procrastinating About Christmas Again This Year.

Here it is, December 7th and our house sports no decorations, and I’ve bought only three gifts. We haven’t enjoyed any egg nog or baked one Christmas cookie.

Years ago, before I’d stumbled upon the Now / Not Now Effect, this lack of Christmas spirit would have seriously bothered me.

Along with wondering what was wrong with everyone else, I also wondered what was wrong with me. I felt guilty being a Grinch.

Now I know I’m not a Grinch. Christmas simply hasn’t yet become a Now for me.

I now know I’ll be doing my typical Grinch song and dance until I seem to magically embrace the spirit of the season. Literally overnight I’ll switch from Humbug to Ho, Ho, Ho.

You see, my Christmas spirit increases with REAL deadlines associated with the season.

About five days before the packages to my distant relatives must be mailed, I’ll start humming carols and bustling off to the mall.

My ‘get it in the mail’ deadline flips Christmas from my Not Now to my Now time frame.

I’m not a Scrooge. I just can’t get ready for Christmas early.

What about you? What effect does the Now / Not Now time management approach of Adult ADD / ADHD have on your holidays?

Many years before I’d heard of Adult ADD or ADHD, I was determined to learn how to be an organized person. Playing Harriet the Spy, I secretly observed the organized people in my life to see how they did things.

My discoveries became the foundation of my personal organizing strategy which eventually morphed into my then professional organizing business and now my Organized for Life program and ADD coaching practice.

Back in my Professional Organizer days I taught a workshop called The Secret Habits of Organized People.

Now there’s a Secret Habits of Organized People chapter in my Organized for Life! program.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times a week I share some aspect of the Secret Habits of Organized People with an ADD Coaching client.

Naturally Organized People Don’t Delay

Even now, when I observe naturally organized people I notice they rarely put tasks off to handle later. They do things immediately.

Of course, I’m not a naturally organized person. I’ve had to learn to be this way. And, though I’m much better than I used to be, I don’t think I’ll ever fully develop that, “I’ll do it now” attitude. Though my do it now habits are pretty well formed, side-stepping delay still takes constant awareness.

That’s why I rely heavily on written and visual reminders. So when I don’t do something right away it doesn’t fall through the cracks. I call it Strategic Delay.

Is all this ADD management worth it?

Yes! My awareness and organizing strategies have greatly reduced the power Attention Deficit has over my life. It’s merely something I need to be aware of so I can manage it.

That’s what I want for you. A more effortless way of living with ADD / ADHD so you can find true ADD Success.

Delay and ADD / ADHD has been a hot topic here at ADD Success World Headquarters the past few weeks.

I don’t know why. Perhaps I’m just noticing it more. Perhaps there’s something in the air. Lately, however, delay and its costs seem to come up in most ADD coaching calls.

When I talk of the cost of delay, I don’t simply mean delay’s financial cost, but its organizational, emotional and time costs as well.

Take a look at your ADD / ADHD and organizing challenges, and I’ll bet you find delay buried somewhere near the root.

• That pile of clothes on the chair in your bedroom? Delay plays a part. Would your clothes be in a wrinkled mess if you’d tossed them in the hamper or hung them up when you took them off?
• The late fee on your electric bill? Thank delay. If you’d handled the bill when it arrived instead of tossing it in a stack to deal with later you’d have saved a few bucks.
• Late for a meeting? If you’d left when your timer went off you wouldn’t have had to frantically race across town and walk in late making excuses. (You do use a timer, don’t you?)
• Lost an hour frantically searching for your car keys? Delay again. If you’d put your keys back in your pocket instead of thinking, “I’ll do that later,” you wouldn’t have missed half the ballgame.

(By the way, those are all real life situations from recent ADD coaching calls.)

Now that you know eliminating delay is one of the key ADHD Management strategies, what can you do about it?

Your first step, as with many things Attention Deficit is increase your awareness.

Start to notice when you delay and the problems it causes. Also notice what you’re thinking or saying to yourself when you delay. Until you notice it, you can’t fix it.

When you are able to tune into your delay patterns and clues, then you can employ delay stopping strategies. I recommend you learn to immediately handle a task when it makes sense. Socks in the hamper instead of on the floor or shred the paper instead of tossing it in a “shred later” pile.

What about those times it doesn’t make sense to immediately do the task? That’s when you strategically delay. You decide when you’ll do the task and how you’ll remember to do it. These are the habits, routines and systems your ADD coach will help you create.

I urge you to start noticing delay and it’s impact on your life and business. Eliminating or strategically managing delay is key to living successfully with Adult Attention Deficit.

I just hate being overwhelmed. Don’t you? It’s an awful feeling. Yet since overwhelm is a common symptom of Adult ADD / ADHD we ignore it at our own risk.

When I’m overwhelmed I feel panicky and confused. Overwhelm makes me procrastinate which only makes everything worse.

How do you overcome ADHD overwhelm?

I’ve learned to face overwhelm head on. The second I notice I’m ‘spinning’ I take action to shut that overwhelm down fast.

You’ve got to remain on constant guard for overwhelm or else it will sneak up on you.

That’s why I’m pleased to tell you about a FREE teleseminar my friend and fellow ADD coach Jennifer Koretsky is giving for ADDclasses.com next week.

Here are The Details of the Free ADHD Teleseminar

Title: Overcome Chronic Overwhelm

Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Time: 9:00 – 10:00 pm ET* (New York Time)

Instructor: Jennifer Koretsky

Cost: FREE

Where: Listen Live on the Phone or over the Internet.

Click here to register for Overcome Chronic Overwhelm

Can’t make the call? Don’t fret. You’ll have access to a recording for a week. You do need to register in advance, however.

How convenient is that!

NOTE: If you’re reading this after November 8, 2011 you will find a recording of this teleseminar (along with many others) on the ADD Audio Library at the bottom left of ADDclasses web page.

If you’re ready to break the cycle of ADHD overwhelm be sure to register for this ADDClasses.com teleclass today.