Six Super Skills to Build Executive Functioning in Adults with ADHD (with Lara Honos-Webb, Ph.D.)

Executive functioning is the ability to plan, to take action rather than procrastinate, to consider multiple possibilities when solving problems, and to stay focused. This webinar will review the latest research on improving executive functions by increasing attention, motivation, and positive moods in adults with ADHD.

Dr. Lara Honos-Webb will discuss the emerging science of attention management and the six super skills that unlock stronger executive function

3:30 Executive Functioning
7:18 Six Super Skills
9:29 Find Gifts
16:10 Assessment
18:58 Types of Goals
22:20 Chunking: Most Powerful Skill with Immediate Progress
29:55 Motivational Interviewing
33:40 Motivation is Closely Related to Managing Mood
41:45 Find Focus
42:48 Sleep
43:16 Nature as Medicine



Related Resources:
1. Read: 6 Secrets to Goal Setting with ADHD

4. eBook: Secrets of the ADHD Brain

[serenityjewel]

FYI for my fellow ADHDers - Increasing the speed to 1.5 to 2.0 on videos like this - informative but boring - really helps me stay focused on videos. Otherwise everyone talks to slowly and I lose interest quickly.

[jamesdevries]

3:30 Excutive functioning
7:18 six super skills
9:29 Find Gifts
16:10 Assessment
18:58 Types of Goals
22:22 Chunking : Most Powerful Skill with..

29:55 Motivational Interviewing
33:40 Motivation is closely related to managing mood
41:45 Find Focus
42:48 Sleep
43:16 Nature as medicine

[jimwilliams]

I don’t know. I noodle with these types of presentations and never get very far. No question that I am hard to guide, though I’m presumably not unusual for the audience. But on the chance that this is useful for service providers to hear, this is what turns me off every time:

The basic gist always seems to that positive thinking is the key to it all. But for me and maybe others, positive thinking is an outcome not a starting strategy. At the getgo, depression issues are talked about, and what I think I hear suggested is that the solution here is to change my thinking: here are the logical reasons why I should realize I’m not a disaster. I imagine it sounds extremely sensible to someone who is not depressed or ADHD. The problem for me is:

I’m low on dopamine which makes me sluggish and have a depressive baseline mood.

Hypofrontality means my prefrontal cortex is a weak proponent of logic.

Stress and depression have made my limbic system and especially my amygdala dominant, so what I feel is paramount and shades my logic circuits heavily, and not in a positive way. Negative emotions fight with positive ideas and win. This is literally how It works physiologically: the stronger area suppresses the weaker.

Now with antidepressants or stimulants, I may be able to give my PFC a leg up. Then I am able to move this way, positive logic can win. Maybe these strategies work once that imbalance is corrected. But if we are talking about trying to improve by CBT techniques on their own, I need them to start where I am, not where I want to be. Concepts that apply are the ones like chunking where you do something without giving it lots of thought, sneak some minor achievements in, get a few dopamine hits and small habits going, and start an upward spiral.

Maybe if I can listen to the whole thing I will perceive these aspects more clearly. But for me these things too often start with a pep talk about thinking differently. To a person prone to depression at least, this gets really close to the whole “you just need to adjust your attitude” thing. That’s downward spiral material for a depressed person in the same way that “you just need to have more discipline” is for a person with ADHD. SO...I submit that “you need to take a more positive attitude toward being disciplined” is a message that may resonate with NTs, but is a lose-lose for a depressed ADHDer.

[GilliMarieMoody]

1. I usually watch the YouTube ADHD experts who are ADHDers themselves. 2. This particular video is in more of a lecture format than I was expecting for YouTube. 3. I truly feel that for a lot of peeps who have ADHD, it means having to take concrete breaks before being able to get back up on the horse again. 4. WHAT exactly the horse that get’s you going is depends on you. Some of us, like me, need medication. …Great luck🌬️❤️‍🩹.

[mercysmartt]

This is interesting but I'm finding some of the tips near the end a bit inaccessible as they're framed in a classically neurotypical way, eg, "Eat the frog" can literally put me straight into ADHD paralysis for the whole day. It sounds like "just do it", which feels very demoralising when you just can't. A more ADHD friendly approach might be to try to snowball momentum from completing smaller less overwhelming tasks to build confidence and start taking some kind of action

[kietro]

All of the intros and “housekeeping” at the start of ADDitude’s videos can be a little tough to get through for a viewer w/ADHD.

[xannaz]

Amen. These long intros are killing for those of us not needing all the housekeeping stuff. And very very ADHD unfriendly.

[gghhiiyy]

There are YouTube videos on how to clean each room for people who don’t like to clean. It breaks it down into sections or layers and it has helped me a lot. Also setting my timer for 10 minutes will help me get started bc I tell myself just 10 minutes not 4 hours (like my mind is imagining)

[TeaandLaceJournals]

Cleaning the kitchen is DEFINITELY worthy of chunking for me and the level of severity of ADHD not to mention the physical energy and sensory overload. Cleaning my kitchen is the most overwhelming task I can think of in the home.
Ex:
1. Throw away all trash.
2. Move all dishes into the sink area.
and sort silverware to soak.
3. Put items (that have a home in the kitchen) away.
4. Move items that doesn’t belong in kitchen out.
5. Wipe down counters
6. Wash dishes

Other tasks that might be included:
Sweep
Mop
Clean out refrigerator
Organize

[deborahanneking]

This is incredibly helpful and informative. I struggle with procrastination, feeling overwhelmed, missing details appointments etc. Thank you for posting this video.

[stephen]

I don’t have an answer, but reward and motivation is not a part of ADHD, so when I have something to do and chunking gets me to see what is involved and steps to take, I still can’t dive in and do it! I need some kind of way to dive in!! At this point I don’t care about minimizing the negatives and magnifying the positives. It’s almost like I want to go on a 10 day hike and come back to tackle my task from a different, more rounded and inspired person.

[julybutterfly]

Essentially this webinar is pressing upon the ADHDer to conform and fit into the neuro-typical box using willpower, which is a constant fight for those of us with ADHD. I don't know about you all, but I'm not interested in staying in fight mode my entire life, which I may add will use up all my available energy, therefore leaving little ir no energy left for self-care. I mean if one more expert tells me to break things down into smaller chunks, my emotional disregulation is goung ti make me lose my s#%t! All i heard was "research shows this, and that", not research specific to the ADHD brain. ADHDers cannot be lumped in with gen. pop.

[whowearereally]

Prioritization and too many things on the list have put me in freeze mode and I am having a real issue getting out I’m currently not working for the first time in my life. I cannot collect unemployment had to sell my car. It was a back up car so that being said… But things are getting interesting, I need to pull myself back. I haven’t had a drink for over a month but I did have a beer last night which really really helped me put things in a perspective because it slowed my mind down one beer FYI.

[Chicken_Mama_]

I honestly only found a few points here helpful. It seems that the general goal setting/getting strategy is more for “advanced” levels of executive functioning. My goals ARE only the basic level of just cleaning my kitchen and having to chunk that down into smaller tasks. I’m not trying to become a clown, travel to Greece, make a career advancement, etc. I need to have basic hygiene, feed myself, have a functional living space, pay my bills. These are not long term goals, it’s daily “to do list” items I struggle with.

The idea of “tell yourself to focus on completion” is laughable. This is my entire problem. Just telling myself to do it doesn’t help and can be in and of itself a form of negative self talk (although I did like the ideas about not bullying yourself and working through what my strengths/gifts are as mindset does help).

Idk, I just don’t think it helps improve executive function to just focus on getting better at skills you have a deficit in. I’d rather have strategies to lower the demand on my poor executive function rather than double down my effort in an area I already struggle in (suggestions in other videos about point of performance have been way more helpful, for example).

[Kampy_]

I seriously thought the introduction might go on for the entire hour... those 3 and a half minutes felt like 3 and a half HOURS 😳

[serenityjewel]

A lot of her suggestions work great for motivational challenges faced by people with ADHD. People with ADHD are not aliens with extraterrestrial brains. We're still human beings. She took motivational tools and adapted them to work better for someone who has ADHS. Some of what she suggested I already do and it helps a lot. I'm going to implement some of her other suggestions.

Something she didn't talk about much that works great for me is exercising or doing a really good stretching and breathing practice, preferably outside, before I do something that's boring or not interesting to me. Calming my nervous system by decreasing the amount of energy I'm feeling makes it way easier for me to get started on projects. Just throwing that out there for other people who would like to try something more active.

[Johnjingleheimerschmidtt]

Adhd will never, ever, ever be a gift. It is a remarkably challenging disorder and the only value this "adhd is gift" mentality has is for selling books, courses, and seminars. I highly recommend that everyone watch Dr. Russell Barkley to counter this dangerous ideology.

[laurabone]

If you're watching YouTube clips instead of doing the "thing" you're supposed to be doing right now. You're off the hook. This is amongst the best presentations and tutorials I have seen on executive function. I've saved this clip into my YouTube account to repeat it again. Right now I feel like I have the tools to tackle my day. Ms. Honos. If I don't forget your name or where I filed the video. I'll be sure to look for more of your work online ;-)

[elizabethsydnor]

This has been the most helpful videos, giving us SPECIFICS! God bless you, BIG TIME!!!

[karlready]

67 years old, just diagnosed with ADHD, but I can see that I have had it my whole life. I have many talents, praise the Lord for that, but I can't see which is my best talent. I'm a Golf Pro, I was a good athlete, but I drank a lot and stuff and both my hips are artificial, I've had one for 28 years and the other is only 22 years old. I can still play golf quite well, but not much else is good these days. I study the Bible when I get my focus working well.
This looks like a lot of work, I keep dosing off every couple minutes but I am determined to make it through and more than once.