Upsides to ADHD: Overcoming Your Sense of Underachievement

One of the distinctive aspects of ADHD in adults is an overwhelming sense of underachievement. Sometimes this is due to them never getting out of the gate while their peers race ahead, and sometimes they have actually accomplished a great deal, but from the wrong ToDo lists. Both examples can leave ADHD adults with a pervasive feeling of underachievement, even if they accomplish a great deal more than their peers.I imagine the skeptics out there are sitting up and asking,“But doesn’t everybody miss goals? Don’t even overachievers miss goals? Everybody misses goals!” I ’ve heard similar comments like that for years from people who believe ADHD is a myth. It makes me wonder if they are the type of people to dismiss the sickness of a loved one with“What are you complaining about? Everybody sneezes. Everybody coughs.” As you can guess from the example, it ’s not the symptom itself that marks a problem, it’s the intensity and quantity of the symptom. Yes, everybody does indeed miss goals here and there. It’s a part of life. What makes this unique for people with ADHD, is that the sense of underachievement is overwhelming, sometimes to the point of becoming debilitating. Many adults with ADHD are so used to falling short of the mark that they come to expect it of themselves.Therapists will focus on this sense of underachievement, giving the patient advice on how to think better about themselves, how to be better focused, and how to give themselves credit for wha...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Goodreads Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs