How to Thrive with ADHD- the Ultimate Beginners Guide
Maybe you’ve just been diagnosed, or maybe you’ve known most of your life. You could just be relating way too hard to the content you’re seeing on your feed, or maybe a friend/family member recently got their diagnosis and you’ve seen the impact it's had on them.
Either way, welcome to the club. Whether you’re here for yourself or for someone you care about - this blog will help you cut through the noise and the overwhelm and get to what really matters. Having a deep understanding of how ADHD shows up for each individual is the key to harnessing it, and with my experience as a certified ADHD Informed Coach - I’m here to help you Thrive with ADHD.
So, why is this important?
Left unchecked and unsupported - the consequences of ADHD can be devastating. Add to that the likelihood of having a late in life diagnosis - the impact can run deep within our families, relationships, careers and general health and wellbeing. ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is not a “trend”, it is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects the way people think, their behaviour and their emotions. It is part of the neurodivergent umbrella of conditions - which include Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, OCD, Tourettes and many more. It often co-exists with one of the aforementioned conditions, and is highly genetic - so if you’ve recently had a child diagnosed…have I got news for you!
So, how do you thrive with ADHD? And where do you even start?!
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Without a doubt - this is THE most important step to thriving with ADHD. You can’t make changes if you don’t know where the starting line is - so take the time to learn about this condition. We all know the cliche “naughty little boy in class” stereotype that has become associated with ADHD, but it is much more complex than that. ADHD impacts our executive functions (basically the different parts of our brains that allow us to be productive, functioning members of society), and studies have shown these to be up to 30% less than non-ADHD brains. Always losing your keys? Physically unable to start on your taxes? Emotions go from 0-1000 with little to no warning?? Yup. This is your brain's dopamine receptors and neurotransmitters not quite hitting the mark.
On top of the executive functions dysfunctioning, we also have these fun things to contend with:
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Oppositional Defiance Disorder
Object Permanence
Hyperfixations
Choice paralysis
Over-stimulation & Under-stimulation
Sensory processing disorder
Auditory processing disorder
And more…
It can be a lot to take in, and unfortunately for a good half of the population (aka females), this was missed as primarily all the research, studies and science up until recently had been based around white male boys. It was also assumed to be a childhood condition that you grew out of. Spoiler alert - that’s not a thing.
One of the key things I wish everyone knew about ADHD - is that we have an interest-based nervous system, not importance-based. This means, if you can find that thing in life that lights you up - you’ll probably manage just fine. But if you haven’t found that thing - then things might get a little bumpy (aka boring). And that is where the problems can start.
2. ASSESS YOUR OWN ADHD
Right - so now we’ve covered the ‘what is ADHD’ section - the next part to truly thriving with ADHD is looking at how it shows up for each individual. Everyone is different, and think of it as a more circular experience rather than a linear approach. Some people may be chronically late to everything (hello time blindness!) while others might be anxiously early to everything. Take some time to journal about past experiences related to the ones in step 1. Take note of things like where you were, who you were with, what task you were doing at the time - and really reflect about why this experience stands out to you and the potential impact/fallout.
Maybe you’re reading this trying to find ways to support someone else - in that case, looking at the first step - can you see ways that someone you care about may have been impacted? What do you think could have set them off/triggered the series of events?
“Once we have a clear view of how our ADHD shows up, we can then start supporting it”
3. ACCOMMODATIONS
Now you have a clearer picture - how do we support it?
Enter - accommodations. Some of these things you might already be doing without even realising. Got a mate that is ALWAYS late? Maybe you start giving them an earlier time to allow for that buffer. Have a co-worker that clearly struggles with getting distracted in an open plan office? Find them some noise cancelling headphones. Got a kid that’s bouncing off the walls? Take them outside for a good run about.
Accommodations with ADHD make all the difference. Added to the understanding of how someone's ADHD impacts them, it helps reset the expectations and standards around behaviour or reactions. You wouldn’t get angry at a fish for not being able to climb a tree - so don’t get angry at an ADHDer because they forgot an important message. Remember, we don’t choose to forget these things - we have a shortfall in our brain's wiring that means our working memory (one of the executive functions) doesn’t quite connect the dots for us. So help us. Use reminders, calendar notifications, text messages, phone calls, visual things we can’t miss - these all help.
4. FIND THE STRENGTHS
ADHDer’s excel at cool sh*t. We’ve seen it more and more in the news lately - famous people coming out the woodwork and declaring their ADHD diagnosis. Musicians, actors & actresses, high-performing athletes, politicians - you name it. When we lean into our strengths rather than our shortfalls - we are unstoppable.
Figure: Screenshot from Positivity Project 2025, https://posproject.org/character-strengths/
You’re 300x more likely to become an entrepreneur if you have ADHD. We’re the risk takers, the big picture thinkers and the pattern recognisers. Our impulsivity and rule breaking means we aren’t afraid to step outside the box and think differently. We have no other mode! I can guarantee that whoever invented the wheel was definitely ADHD.
We inherently know all the things we’re bad at. By the age of 12, a child with ADHD will have received 20,000 more negative messages than a neurotypical. The seemingly innocent “why can’t you just…”, or “you need to do…” - or my most hated phrase “YOU JUST HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL”. Genuinely, nothing will make an ADHD brain shutdown faster than that last one. WE. KNOW. ALREADY. What's not working is the fact that society says we should be one way - and that anything that deviates from the norm is considered broken.
But we’re not broken - we’re just different.
So, there you have it. A super basic, beginners guide on How to Thrive with ADHD. If you are wanting to do a deep dive and find out more, I have created my ADHD for Beginners course that will do just that. Short, digestible videos with easy to read content - but will help you get a better understanding of this incredibly complex condition.
