ADHD can cause inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behaviors that make simple daily things — like focusing, completing tasks, and listening to instructions challenging.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs a person’s ability to manage a task, role, or situation effectively. People with ADHD typically struggle with self-regulation, which makes it difficult to organize, initiate, and sustain functional actions over time. Consult the best Psychologist near me at TalktoAngel to learn more about ADHD.
Symptoms of ADHD
- Short attention span
- Making silly careless mistakes
- Constantly jumping on activities
- Difficulty in organizing the tasks
- Excessive physical activity
- Unable to wait for the turn
- Disrupted sense of danger
- Acting without a second thought
Therapy techniques for ADHD
ADHD medication combined with behavioral therapy is the most effective treatment for children with ADHD, particularly those who also exhibit oppositional behavior. ADHD therapy is used by many children and adults to teach behavioral, social, and academic skills that can help manage ADHD symptoms throughout life. This therapy can be done through online counseling.
Consult with an online counselor to determine the best type of ADHD therapy for you or your child and you can also use this overview also.
- Behavioral Therapy: By structuring time at home, establishing predictability and routines, and increasing positive attention, behavioral therapy addresses problem behaviors common in children with ADHD. A good behavioral therapy plan starts with good parenting.
ADHD behavioral therapy plans should include the following elements:
- A reward system can be used to reinforce good behavior.
- Ignore negative behaviors to discourage that behavior
- If the negative behavior is too serious to ignore, revoke the privilege.
- Remove common bad-behavior triggers.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for ADHD is essentially brain training. It is a type of short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy that aims to change negative thought patterns and reframe how a patient feels about herself and her ADHD symptoms.
CBT does not address the primary symptoms of ADHD, which are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Rather, it aids in the reduction of life impairments associated with ADHD, such as procrastination and time management. There is no evidence that CBT can replace or even allow lower dosages of ADHD medication, but research does suggest that it helps adults with ADHD more than other forms of therapy.
- ADHD Coaching: ADHD coaches assist children, teenagers, and adults with ADHD in organizing and taking control of their lives. Coaches can specifically assist their clients in achieving emotional/intellectual growth, strong social skills, effective learning strategies, compelling career and business exploration, and careful financial planning.
A professionally trained ADHD coach can realistically help his or her ADHD clients develop skills such as:
- Managing time, tasks, and space
- Motivation and persistence
- Creating successful systems
- Communication and relationships that are healthy
- Perspective and strategic planning
- Making informed and prudent decisions
- A simpler and more orderly existence
- Developing a healthy, balanced lifestyle
- Brain training and neuro-feedback: In children and adults with ADHD, neurofeedback uses brain exercise to reduce impulsivity and increase attentiveness. Neurofeedback helps to control ADHD symptoms such as impulsivity, distractibility and acting out by training the brain to emit brain-wave patterns associated with focus rather than those associated with daydreaming.
Although some patients report improved attention, it has little effect on other ADHD-related problems. Others have reported significant improvements in neurofeedback patients.
- Play Therapy: Play therapy is used by the online counselor to assist children with ADHD in connecting, learning, providing reassurance, calming anxiety, and improving self-esteem. Therapists can reshape children’s perceptions, cognitions, and behaviors through play. Children communicate metaphorically through play. It’s like giving a sweet pill instead of a bitter one as a therapeutic tool. Playing with a young child helps her feel connected, secure, and attached.
- Music Therapy: Music therapy improves attention and focus, reduces hyperactivity, and improves social skills in three ways for patients with ADHD:
The structure is provided by music. Music has rhythm, rhythm has structure, and structure is soothing to an ADHD brain that is struggling to regulate itself in order to stay on a linear path.
Music stimulates synapses. According to studies, listening to pleasant music raises dopamine levels in the brain. This neurotransmitter, which regulates attention, working memory, and motivation, is deficient in ADHD brains.
- Art Therapy: Art therapy benefits children and adults with ADHD and other neuropsychological disorders who communicate more easily through visual images and art making than through written or spoken words. Art therapy can be especially beneficial for active, busy children with ADHD because it keeps their hands moving and triggers an acute mental and emotional focus that talk therapy does not always achieve.
- Equine Therapy: Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is an experiential ADHD therapy in which clients interact with horses instead of talking about their problems, under the supervision of a specially trained mental health professional and an equine specialist. Natural Lifemanship is an EAP model that works well for treating ADHD. It is a trauma-informed approach based on neuroscience and the importance of connected, healthy relationships. Clients learn to control their body’s energy. Feel free to connect with the best Online Counselor at TalktoAngel for more information on ADHD.