ADHD and Overwhelm

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Description

Dr Caitlin Walker and Cheryl Winter will be talking together about their experiences as coaches and leaders on the subject of ADHD and overwhelm - and how a clean approach to ADHD coaching can support understanding and clearer advocacy for what you need, leading to more sustainable change and to inspiring capability in individuals, families and teams. 

They will be looking at ADHD and overwhelm from a systemic point of view, and sharing the skills and tools of clean questions and Clean Language to enable team members to be curious, and develop self-supporting systems to inspire capability in you and your teams. 

This is a conversational workshop. Caitlin and Cheryl will be having a live conversation and sharing experiences, and will then invite you to do some self-modelling and to share your own lived experiences to raise the intelligence and experience across the group.

As a taster of the topics that we will cover, we plan to touch on each of the following potentials for overwhelm:

Executive function difficulties: 
Challenges with planning, prioritising, and time management can make it feel like there are too many tasks, and the ADHD brain struggles to sort them. 

Emotional dysregulation: 
Experiencing emotions more intensely and difficulty regulating responses can cause a strong "fight, flight, or freeze" reaction. 

Sensory sensitivity: 
Challenges managing sensory input, which can lead to overstimulation in certain environments and contribute to feeling overwhelmed. 

Overthinking and racing thoughts: 
Regulating a mind which can be continually focussing on multiple things at once. Ideas, worries, rehearsing conversations, and tasks can create overstimulation, leading to lack of focus.

Burnout: 
Chronic stress from constantly struggling with ADHD symptoms can lead to burnout, a state of profound mental and emotional exhaustion. 
 

How some coachees manage overwhelm

Identify triggers: 
Pay attention to what situations or environments consistently lead to feelings of overwhelm to better prepare for them. 

Break down tasks: 
Instead of looking at a large project, break it down into the smallest possible steps to make it feel more manageable. 

Prioritise: 
Take a moment to plan and prioritise what needs to be done first, rather than trying to do everything at once. 

Establish routines: 
Structured routines can reduce the mental energy needed for daily tasks and minimise the feeling of being constantly bombarded by decisions. 

Manage sensory input: 
Be mindful of your sensory environment. If possible, choose quieter settings for social events or use tools like noise-canceling headphones. 

Take breaks: 
Allow yourself time to rest and recalibrate before you reach a state of burnout. 

Seek support: 
Specialist ADHD or Neurodiversity coaching and mentoring can create the scaffolding required to identify your strengths and develop resources and strategies to be at your best more of the time. Peer support can be a huge resource. Therapy can help to unpack and release shame and trauma that is exacerbating or caused by processing issues.

Cheryl and Caitlin will be recording this conversation for future use. If you don't want your questions, experiences or answers linked to you, we recommend renaming yourself and keeping your camera switched off. We can support you with the tech in the 15 minutes before the conversation begins. 

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Your trainer(s)

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Venue