Practices

Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.

Narrowed down

6 practices

Medication and how it works Twenty minutes Struggling right now Clear all

How long you have · Twenty minutes

A minute 2 Five minutes 12 Twenty minutes 6 Longer 5

Who it is written for

A practitioner 6 Me 5 Someone I care about 5

Where you are right now · Struggling right now

Coping, mostly 19 Struggling right now 6 Getting ready for something 5

On your own, or with someone

Both of us together 3 On my own 2 Involves someone else 1

Theme · Medication and how it works

What ADHD actually is 10 Screens and attention 7 Systems for daily life 7 Feelings and focus 6 Moving your body 6 Food, caffeine and fuel 6 Medication and how it works 6 Reading, numbers and learning differences 5 Shame 5 Tolerate distress 5 Treatment and medication 5 Get started 5 Your nervous system 4 Cool the body first 4 Being seen and judged 3 Shame and stigma 3 Emotions as signals 3 Exercise, food and other supports 3 What anger actually is 2 Choosing your response 2 Letting it out safely 2 Remembering to do it 2 When you use something to cope 2 What worry does 2 Breaking the worry loop 1 The cost of avoiding 1 Equanimity and perspective 1 Getting assessed and diagnosed 1 Grounding and settling 1 When everything feels flat 1 Obsessions and compulsions 1 Question the thought 1 Your sense of time 1 Living with uncertainty 1 Use your strengths 1 What you are actually defending 1 Anger, alcohol and the body 1

Approach

Medical and treatment 5 ADHD skills 1

When

Any ordinary day 3 In a change 2 Under stress 1

A pharmacy refusing a valid prescription is often working from a made-up rule or a plain mistake. It can usually be escalated, and it usually resolves fast.

People have been turned away for having a prescriber in the next county, or told the shop does not stock narcotics for a medicine that is not one.…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksMedical and treatmentQur’an 5:87

Medication treats the attention difficulty. It does not teach reading, lift a depression, or repair a household that has been fighting for years.

Those things need treatment of their own, and they are often what the family actually came about. Treating the attention difficulty well can stop…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksMedical and treatmentQur’an 21:83

Smoking runs high in ADHD, and nicotine genuinely does something for attention. It helps to treat that as self-medication rather than as one more impulsive habit.

It changes what a conversation about stopping looks like. If a cigarette is doing a job, taking it away and leaving the job undone is a plan that…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksMedical and treatmentQur’an 39:53

With many of these medicines the unpleasant part turns up on day one and the good part takes weeks. Knowing that in advance is most of what carries people across the gap.

The first fortnight can feel like a bad bargain, because it is one: you pay now for something that arrives later. Put a date in the diary two to four…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksMedical and treatmentQur’an 94:5

Treat the first fortnight as a stretch that needs contact rather than silence. Say plainly that things may feel worse before they feel better, and arrange to hear from the person during that window instead of after it.

This is when most people quietly stop. Somebody who has been warned experiences a rough two weeks as expected; somebody who has not experiences it as…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksMedical and treatmentQur’an 3:159

When a medicine seems to be underperforming, look at what else is in the room before reaching for a higher dose. Anxiety, low mood and a wrecked sleep pattern can each blunt a good response or imitate a poor one.

Otherwise the dose climbs while the real driver goes untreated, and the side effects arrive without the benefit. Ask what a bad night actually looks…

Twenty minutesMedication and how it worksADHD skillsQur’an 16:43

Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.