ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Please note: We are not able to conduct formal assessments for ADHD. If you are seeking a diagnosis, please reach out to a psychiatrist with a special interest in ADHD, such as Mind at Peace (see below). If you need support for your ADHD symptoms while you seek a diagnosis, we can help. Book an appointment with one of our therapists to learn more about yourself and how to manage your challenges.
When seeking an ADHD diagnosis, we recommend Mind at Peace Psychiatry.
Mind at Peace Psychiatry is a boutique telehealth service providing psychiatric assessments to patients all over Australia. Their team of psychiatrists is handpicked, to ensure consistency and excellence in psychiatric care. The Mind at Peace psychiatrists have a breadth of experience across both public and private hospitals. Due to their clinical expertise, they have held leadership positions in major metropolitan hospitals and have been involved in service development. Dr Radhakrishna has a special interest in ADHD and ASD.
The Neuroscience of the ADHD Brain
ADHD brains have low levels of a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine.
Norepinephrine is linked arm-in-arm with dopamine.
Dopamine is the thing that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centre.
The ADHD brain has impaired activity in four functional regions.
Frontal Cortex
This region controls high-level functions:
- Attention
- Executive function
- Organisation
Limbic system
This region is located deeper in the brain. It regulates our emotions and attention.
Basal Ganglia
A deficiency here can cause inter-brain communication and information to ‘short-circuit.’ This results in inattention or impulsivity.
Reticular Activating System
This is the major relay system among the many pathways that enter and leave the brain. A deficiency here can cause inattention, impulsivity, or hyperactivity.
ADHD Blogs and Articles
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What Do I Need To Prepare For An ADHD Assessment?
With the help of this checklist, you will be able to save yourself from endless hours and frustration by ensuring that all of your questions have been answered.
What Treatments Are Available for ADHD in Geelong?
Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation helps you to understand the symptoms of an ADHD diagnosis. It helps you cope and live with this condition and supports you with accurate information. People with ADHD often have mental health challenges that contribute to their difficulties in life.
Social Skills Training
Social skills training can help build skills in communication to feel better in social environments.
Anger Management and ADHD
- Irritability – difficulties with anger management and chronic or persistent negative feelings between incidents.
- Lability – frequent, reactionary mood changes during the day.
- Recognition – the capacity to identify other people’s feelings correctly.
Individuals with ADHD may be prone to overlook other people’s emotions until they are pointed out.
Psychotherapy is used to support people with ADHD to take control of their anger and make meaningful changes. We help them learn distress tolerance and emotional regulation.
The following techniques are commonly used:
Validation therapy
Helping people better understand their own feelings and emotions, accepting them calmly, identifying the feelings that trigger anger.
Self-Control Training
Breathing exercises to control the physical signs of anger.
Cognitive Restructuring
Reducing negative thinking which can assist in changing the way we feel about ourselves and others.
Cognitive therapy and ADHD
Cognitive therapy helps master thinking skills. These activities involve role-playing and working out how to face situations.
The goal is to assist you to have a better understanding of your own thoughts and emotions. This helps develop greater self-control, which can reduce hyperactivity and impulsivity.
ADHD Coaching Interventions
ADHD Coaching can help people struggling with ADHD find the skills they need to make decisions and work well in school or at work. Coaching will also provide you with relationship management tools so that your relationships go more smoothly.
ADHD Coaching is a strengths and evidence based approach. It helps by teaching organisation skills, problem solving, time management skills, and social skills like managing difficult conversations or how to be assertive instead of aggressive.
ADHD Coaching also helps adults with ADHD to boost their stress management abilities, decision-making skills, social skills, work-life balance, and performance.
The goal is to support not only the individual but also their family members because many times families live in chaos due to someone’s ADHD symptoms. The coach will teach the whole family coping strategies so they can all function better together as a team.
Can You Get Help with ADHD Symptoms?
ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a neurological condition that affects the way children and adults think and behave.
People who have been diagnosed with ADHD will be very familiar with the challenges that their condition presents, with inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity being the predominant symptoms.
These symptoms can often be at odds with the expectations in certain social settings, such as educational settings and workplaces. However, the features of ADHD are not always problematic and can actually be viewed as unique strengths or advantages. Despite this, some people with ADHD may also experience challenging feelings of shame or embarrassment surrounding their diagnosis.
Symptoms of ADHD
If adult ADHD symptoms are interfering with your mental health and your ability to achieve your set goals, the therapists at Create Balance are here to support you.
They are motivated to work collaboratively with you to help you build a positive mindset, increase your self-esteem, confidence and secure sense of identity by working through your limiting beliefs.
They are also eager to help you to recognise ADHD symptoms as a unique set of skills and to develop strategies to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.
- Impulsiveness
- Disorganisation and problems prioritising
- Poor time management skills
- Problems focusing on a task
- Struggling with multitasking
- Excessive activity or restlessness
- Poor planning
- Low frustration tolerance
- Frequent mood swings
- Problems following through and completing tasks
- Hot temper
- Trouble coping with stress
The Most Challenging ADHD Symptoms
Impulsiveness is when you do not stop and think about what you are doing. You might forget about things, and have more problems with impulsive behaviour.
Disorganisation means that you can’t find things or put them in the right place. Disorganisation also means your time won’t be well used.
Excessive activity is when you do too much. When you’re more active than usual.
Too restless is when you can’t stay still. It’s like your body needs to be moving sometimes or it feels uncomfortable.
People have a hard time when they start a task and then don’t finish it. It can be difficult to complete things, but you can still try.
People with a low frustration tolerance are not able to deal with problems well. They can’t handle it when things don’t go their way.
People with ADHD have executive dysfunction. It affects their thinking and concentration. This can make it hard for them to do things that take a long time, like school work.
Individualised ADHD treatment Geelong
Every person who seeks therapy is unique. Depending on the demands of their client, the mental health professionals at Create Balance will draw from a variety of therapeutic approaches. They may look at behaviour modification, strengths identification, problem solving, skills development, goal setting, or EMDR.
Don’t let the diagnosis of ADHD negatively influence your life or define your identity. We’re here to help you reach your full potential Call Create Balance today to book an appointment with an understanding and empathetic therapist.