7 Intervention Strategies For Help With Your ADHD
ADHD can be the chain holding you back from your success in life.
Some nights you lay awake at 3am wondering what more you can do to optimize your success. Surely there are other strategies that can help with ADHD?
You’ve been using self-help strategy after self-help strategy to give yourself the best possible advantage. Maybe you’ve even noticed an improvement in your symptoms.
But deep down, you know it’s not quite enough and wonder what else is out there to help.
Here are seven intervention strategies for you to consider. Some you can do on your own; some require a professional or a prescription.
The Transdiagnostic Interventions
Transdiagnostic intervention is a fancy term for a single treatment that applies to and is effective for multiple disorders rather than just one.
Five of the seven strategies I’ve laid out here fall into the transdiagnostic category, which is especially helpful if you’ve got more than one disorder. For example, if you also have an anxiety disorder – like many people with ADHD do – these treatments will help with that too.
Here are the first five:
- Nutritional intervention: because there’s evidence that deficiencies of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) could be related to ADHD, supplementing your diet with a combination of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids could help improve your ADHD symptoms. Although better results have been observed with children and teenagers, this treatment also holds promise for adults.
- Cognitive retraining: cognitive retraining programs focus on building specific skills like attention, problem solving, or reading comprehension. Your skills are improved by games and exercises. Most modern brain training programs use video or computer game formats, while some in-person programs use physical games or worksheets. You can find helpful do-it-yourself cognitive retraining tools online, or you can consult a professional.
- Brain stimulation interventions: one that shows promise is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is a non-invasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of ADHD. The second is transcranial direct current stimulation, another non-invasive, painless brain stimulation treatment in which direct electrical currents are used to stimulate specific parts of the brain. These must be administered by a trained professional.
- Psychotherapeutic interventions: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to have significant benefits for ADHD. CBT exercises for adult ADHD include training in time management, prioritization, organization, problem solving, motivation, and emotional regulation. You’ll need to work with a cognitive behavioral therapist.
- Yoga, mindfulness, and meditation-based interventions: these interventions had a statistically significant effect on the outcomes of ADHD symptoms such as hyperactivity and inattention, as well as executive functioning and on-task behavior. You can find a wide variety of training for all three of these modalities both online and offline.
Pharmacological Interventions
Pharmacological interventions are the first line of treatment of adult ADHD and have definite benefits in the short term; however, less is known about either the long-term benefits or risks of these medications. Keep this in mind if you need sustained treatment.
- Stimulants: stimulant medications are the most common type of medicine used to treat ADHD. They work by increasing the availability of certain chemicals in the brain, causing the brain pathways to work more effectively. Stimulants are commonly prescribed for a reason: they lessen ADHD symptoms in 70 percent to 80 percent of people who take them. But some people – maybe even you – experience bad side effects. Which takes us to the final of seven treatments on this list.
- Non-stimulants: there are several options of non-stimulates including ADHD-specific drugs, blood pressure medication, and antidepressants. Non-stimulants don’t tend to cause agitation, sleeplessness, or lack of appetite like stimulants do. They also don’t pose the same risk of abuse or addiction. You’ll need a prescription for these, same as for stimulant medications.
Give Yourself An Extra Advantage
You’re determined to succeed at your goals and not let ADHD hold you back.
You’ve already shown that you’re open to trying different strategies to give yourself an advantage; to succeed despite your ADHD
Now that you have this extra knowledge, see which of these seven intervention strategies might give you an added advantage.
Free yourself to get on with your goals!
Raz Coaching specializes in helping people with executive function challenges associated with ADHD, PTSD, Stress, TBI’s and ASD find careers they will love and land them. Read more at www.razcoaching.com/about Or sign up for the weekly blog or purchase my new book Happiness+Passion+Purpose.
