Great news for all of you! Twelve hours of interviews with world experts on ADHD next week and they are absolutely F.R.EE!

It’s the very first "Succeed with ADHD Web Summit" (http://tiny NULL.cc NULL.adhdsummit)and I am honored to be an invited speaker. I was even more humbled when I saw others on the speaker list included such ADHD luminaries as Kate Kelly (who wrote the book "You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Crazy, or Stupid?"), David Giwerc (founder of the ADHD Coaching Academy) and Nancy Ratey, MCC (author, coach and ADHD celeb).

It all starts MONDAY at noon; Just register and you can listen live to two interviews each day (one at noon, one at 9 pm Eastern time) and if you miss your favorite, you can listen to the recording afterwards, also for fr.e.e.

My session "Confessions of an ADDiva" will be live at noon on Thursday July 28th when I will talk about the success track for midlife women with ADHD.

Wanna attend? Just register…here’s the link 

http://tiny.cc/adhdsummit 

(I shortened it for simplicity’s sake). It has all the details. And if you miss a session, you can listen to the recording afterwards, too. No charge!

Can’t wait to hear from everyone– it’s gonna be a great summit. Hope you’ll join me (and Nancy and Kate and David and Carrie and Roland and….all the rest)

Hugs and ADDiva love

LInda

919-309-9300
here’s the link again   

http://tiny.cc/adhdsummit

Landed in Amsterdam yesterday (with Victor who is working) and wondering if there are any ADDivas in the Netherlands (OK, it’s actually Nederlands in this part of the world).

Would love to connect if you’re available. I love ADDiva dining – ask anyone!

Here’s the view from our apartment window — right on the canal!

Last night was the Triangle Adult ADHD Meetup and I played portions of Dr. Russell Barkley’s CHADD keynote about emotion and ADHD. It was well received, even though some of his assertions are still controversial and unproven.

You can catch a snippet of the idea here:

www.youtube.com/watch (httpv://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=7cw8jHUkHiA)

Bottom line is that Barkley now believes that emotion is a key component of ADHD. He has convincing arguments that our ADHD emotions are NORMAL emotions but because of the faulty control mechanism in our pre-frontal lobe, we can’t regulate those emotions. He is adamant that many (not all) of the conditions that are "co-morbid" (co-exist) with ADHD are misdiagnosed. He talks about "bottom up" inappropriate emotions that manifest in conditions such as bipolar disorder and sometimes depression but in his opinion ADHD is a TOP DOWN emotions issue. The emotions are normal not pathologized. He also pointed out some obvious but potent reminders that negative emotions play a major role in ADHD ("people can forgive your happiness, but they can’t forgive your hostility"). In particular, he says relationships suffer, driving (especially road rage), drinking while driving, car crashes (but not speeding surprisingly) and employment suffer, too. Just wanted to give you a heads up…emotion is a key word for ADHD this year. Expect to hear more.  

OK, I have a Confession about “Confessions of an ADDiva,” the book I am determined to finish before I leave the beach a week from tomorrow.

I slid on the slick hardwood floors of the beach house and …broke my elbow! Are you KIDDING ME? I broke my ELBOW???

I was trying so hard to avoid hitting my hip that I came down on my wrist which then transferred the weight to my elbow and …ouch! Went to the Urgent Care on Emerald Isle and they x-rayed it. Not too bad, but it sure did swell. It happened last Friday and today is the first day I have been able to take off my rings (thank goodness it was my left hand because I am a rightie).

Ah, the challenges of writing a book. That which does not destroy us, makes us stronger!

Hugs

Linda

I don't know about you, but I am a bit commitment phobic – especially when it means announcing my commitment to people who live outside my body (that's you and everyone else in the world!).

Why? Because I am leery of failing, falling short of my intended goal. And if I am gonna fail (which I do regularly, sorry to say), I'd rather do it privately. If nobody else knows what I attempted, then no one is the wiser that I tried (again) and fell short (again). I hate the cycle, but there it is.

So I am nervously announcing to all of you that I have gone back to exercise. Finally. At last. Whew.

There isn't a single thing that isn't improved by exercise: memory, focus, heart, lungs, muscle tone, longevity….I could go on and on. But for the last 6-7 years I have KNOWN the benefits but haven't EXPERIENCED the benefits. Lots of excuses: I'll do it next week. No time. No place to go. The basement/exercise room is under construction. I don't have the right shoes. No time. I need different shorts. I need a treadmill or elliptical or weights or video. No time.

And gradually, I have chipped away at the excuses. I have a treadmill. I even have an elliptical. And weights. And videos. But I still had trouble getting myself IN THERE to work out.

FInally (as in last October) something snapped and I called a low profile gym that about 10 minutes from my house. I had been pointed toward a personal trainer named Patrick who was supposed to be terrific. He invited me to come in that day. So I did. And I signed up. And I started going to the gym.

Did you hear that? I STARTED GOING TO THE GYM!!!

Mostly because Patrick was waiting for me and expected me to show up (gotta love that accountability!). But heck, I don't care what got me there. I was going!

And I am still going. Well, not since I got to the beach three weeks ago. I did bring some weights and an intention to join the local gym on a week by week basis (I didn't). I did promise to text Patrick to let him know what was going on with my workouts (not yet though). But yesterday, I got up, put on a video and WORKED OUT!

My whole day was better. I was more energetic, more optimistic and more eager to WRITE.

So, there is it. My intentions are exposed. I want to get back into shape…never the shape I was before the docs stole my estrogen patches. But at least in as good a shape as possible for an almost 59-year-old. (OMG that sounds so OLD…ick).

Off to the exercise room…I am going to burn those little fat cells to death!

Got migraines? Me, too.

Got ADHD? Me, too.

And now we know the two may be related! A new study released in December 2010 shows a link between migraine headaches and adult ADHD. The Journal of Attention Disorders (http://jad NULL.sagepub NULL.com/content/early/2010/10/31/1087054710385784 NULL.abstract?papetoc) published a study based on Norwegian prescription histories of patients with ADHD and migraines. The researchers found a significant overlap between the two, leading to the conclusion that there may be a link between ADHD and increased migraine headaches.

The implications aren't fully understood (that's the case with most recently published data) but it could explain a lot of headaches associated with ADHD. I guess the question really is: what came first, the headache or the ADHD that CAUSED the migraine??