The ADHD Company

​​Craig's ADHD Story

I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2015 at the age of 36. My wife noticed that I exhibited the symptoms and tried to get me to talk to my doctor about it, but I didn't feel like that made any sense. If I had ADHD, then what was I supposed to do about it? Surely I am who I am.

Eventually, relationship challenges overwhelmed me, and I spoke to my doctor because I was desperate for solutions. My doctor confirmed that my symptoms were typical of ADHD but said that a diagnosis would require more testing. A specialized clinic in Toronto confirmed our suspicions and started working with me on treatment. YES! There was treatment! 

The clinic and I started exploring a regimen of medication, coaching, and daily exercise. My struggles with organization, focus, impulsivity, and memory were turned on their head. While these challenges have waxed and waned over the years, the message is that there is hope.

My background is in coaching sales and management personnel, but my move to Barrie presented an opportunity for change. Having transformed my life primarily through coaching, I wanted to give back in the same way. I now practice as an ADHD coach to help you find your way back to hope. 

#MidLifeDiagnosis #Business #InattentiveADHD #Depression #Anxiety

I am in Barrie, ON. I can help. I am: $75/hour - video call | $110/hour - in person
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Isabella's ADHD Story

I was diagnosed after my eldest daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. My youngest daughter was diagnosed before us with autism. I noticed that I was a lot like both of my kids which led me to realize that I must be neurodivergent too.

  

I have an inattentive presentation of ADHD. The struggles I have faced with ADHD have impacted my employment, career, and motherhood. Masking and people-pleasing were huge challenges that took a lot out of me. Procrastination and distraction created ongoing turmoil in my career. While I have maintained a position in teaching over the years, I have also moved from vocation to vocation as I constantly looked for new and interesting things. I started out with a burning passion for hospitality, I have studied tourism, and later on, I spent time in sales. On top of that, I was on a constant search for my next dopamine rush, moving to yet another continent and learning foreign languages.

  

I dealt with all of this, meanwhile facing the challenges of being a busy single mother and living with the comorbidities that come from my ADHD. Though I have always been told that I am very bright, I stood out for being disorganized and distracted. I got tired of hearing I should "just try harder" and decided to work with my ADHD and not against it.

  

I came to coaching while searching for a coach for my daughter. I wanted someone she could relate to and talk to openly, someone that would not judge her and would understand her needs and struggles. I wanted to provide her with the tools I had not been provided in my own childhood. This search lead me to the ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA), the school that had wonderful reviews and that all the coaches I liked came from. At that precise moment, I decided to be a coach, to help not just my daughter but all of the people that needed help with ADHD.

  

Having now studied coaching through ADDCA, I realize how many people are alone with their struggles and how long the waiting lists for a good coach are.

  

#SingleMom #German #Spanish #Polish #Business #Autism

  

I am in Panama City. I can help. I am: $65/hour video call | $100/hour in-person 
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​​Belle's ADHD Story

I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017; I was in my eleventh-grade year at high school. I had been referred to a psychiatrist through my family doctor for concerns about depression, not ADHD. However, I only had a couple of sessions with the psychiatrist before he told me that he thought I had ADHD. He said it very casually, as if it was so obvious that I should already know.

The diagnosis didn't really click with me at first. I had never even considered that I could have ADHD. When I thought about ADHD, I pictured young, energetic boys who couldn't sit still in class and got terrible grades. I always got excellent grades (except sometimes in gym and French), I loved to read, and I'd been working at the same job for more than a year. I only started to put the puzzle together once I did some research on my own. I learned about inattentive and combination presentations of ADHD. I began to connect it to my life and realize how often I'd leave things around, or lose track of the time, or pick up a new hobby and forget about it after a week. Still, though, I didn't do very much about it. It felt more like a personality type, a label - like the Myers-Briggs test - than something to worry about. 

The diagnosis festered until a family member who also had ADHD began to talk to me about their experiences. I started to realize how much of an impact my ADHD was having on my life. I was getting good grades because my brain would send me into overdrive the night before something was due. I was constantly late, even when I tried my hardest to be early, because I was experiencing time blindness. I described myself as "an open book" because I had no filter in conversations, not because I was just really trusting. Everything snowballed from there. I sought out specialized ADHD treatment and began taking medication. By being kind to myself, focusing on realistic goals, and working with my ADHD rather than resisting it, I've become a successful university student. Some days are harder, longer, and sadder than others, but I discovered a special, unbreakable faith in myself and my abilities.

As a coach, I work with anyone, but especially teenagers and young adults who are struggling, like I was, in this very transitional time in life. I'm passionate about showing you what you can do if you believe in yourself. My background includes twenty hours of coach training with the Coaches Training Institute, and many more hours of experience as a coachee myself. 

#Student #HighSchoolDiagnosis #InattentiveADHD #Depression

I am in Ottawa, ON. I can help. I am: $35/hour - video call | $70/hour in person
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ADHD Coach Academy (ADDCA)

The ADHD Company uses tools, methods and models created by ADDCA. 

The ADDCA Coaching Foundational Principles represent our ways of perceiving and being when we are coaching. Each Foundational Principle expresses a basic understanding about what it is to be human. They are as follows:
  1. Every individual is uniquely wired and has divine talents and strengths.
  2. While we all have some things in common, great strengths can be found in unique differences.
  3. People are naturally curious and want to contribute; persons with ADHD sense their potential and fear never reaching it.
  4. Every person perceives life through his/her own special lens – beliefs, culture, assumptions, culture, mental models, stories – whether they realize it or not, and that influences their choices and actions.
  5. Individuals seek to understand (find meaning) and make sense of their world and be part of conversations where they are heard.
  6. When we pay attention to what we’re paying attention to, we can take action, learn, create, and uncover experiences of success which build a confident personal foundation. (Neurons that fire together, wire together.)
  7. People crave and grow from connection with self, others, and their world, though persons with ADHD may not enjoy connection to self.
  8. People seek integration for a meaningful life.
  9. True freedom comes with the ability to pause and be consciously present and able to act on our choices.
  
©2005-2021 ADD Coach Academy | Policies & Procedures | v.6.0 Library

ADDCA provides training that can be very valuable to every day living of the ADHDer and understanding those close to us who have ADHD. More information on ADDCA programs can be found at:
https://addca.com/adhd-coach-training/ADHD-Education-Programs/