A Day in the Life - part 9 - Why is my life just so over whelming ?

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Phew!! 

I have just wateched a brilliant TED Talk on ADHD. Here is the link for those who are interested.

 http://connect.additudemag.com/videos/watch/127/

I am so encouraged by the definite shift in ideas around what we do with ADHD which will mean a greater freedom for those of us who are ADHD and who have children who are. A day is coming when our children will be able to use their ADHD profile and traits.

I digress!! 

One of the issues that kids with ADHD struggle with is this very real feeling of being overwhelmed. Our older son who is on the ADHD spectrum is now able to recognise when he feels like all is just too much and he is now able to articulate this to us. What a joy to hear him say, " mom, I feel overwhelmed." 

It is an aha moment for me. A time to stop and help.

In these moments he can be so distressed and so sad that the tears just flow down his cheeks. I am so thrilled that he is growing in his ability to articulate hims struggles. Oh that all my children would do that. Some might view asking for help as weakness, but in this home we view it as great strength - a courageous and brave move.

He often feels overwhelmed around quantity of work. I know, once again all people fell like this from time to time, but our ADHD children do not have a cooking clue just how exactly to tackle the problem and so what they would invariably do, if left to their own devices, is to leave the mountain of overwhelming work and go kick a ball. :)

and so the mountain remains a mountain and never gets done.

I try in these moments to help my son break the big down into its smaller parts. We made a long list of all the tests and projects due this term ( and heck they have alot) and we put all the ones due together, together and so on. Just that simple act caused a relief to flood. My new favourite saying is .... Hoe do you eat and elephant? the answers are delightful .... on a roll or braaied etc but the answer I give and you all know is .... one bite at a time. I hope that this mantra will be owned by these beautiful children of mine and so they can flourish and not be overwhelmed so.

There are countless other ideas to try and help children feel like they can manage a big task. Learning how to break something down into its smaller parts is a great life skill. There are many more ideas on ...

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/6201.html