08-13-2025
Here’s my list of what I’m exploring this week.
Featured Article
Our Creative ADHD Thoughts and Behaviors: You’re Normal!
By Terry Matlen, LMSW
When I was a young girl, oh, around eight or so, growing up in Detroit, I had a friend down the block, a year older than me, but much bigger and more worldly. She bossed me around, but I took it because when you’re that age, a year is like ten years- I was bewildered that she would want to be my friend.
She had a hell of an imagination and would make up stories because she got a charge out of scaring the shi* out of me. Her favorite was explaining in great detail that bugs sneak up into your mouth, lay eggs, and parade out of your nose and ears.
With that, I’d scream in terror and run to my mother.
Where am I going with all this? It’s an example of how our ADHD brain often works. If someone is talking to me and I get bored, I can jump into a memory like this and mentally leave this universe. I’ve learned to look straight into the person’s eyes who is talking to me, nod, smile, do the uh-huhs, yet have no idea what that person is talking about.
Of course, this wouldn’t happen if I were talking to YOU because I find people with ADHD to be utterly fascinating. I am an ADHD magnet- many of my friends have it (many are undiagnosed) but wow, do I love how their brains work. Note: I have ADHD, too.
Our thoughts can go from how to make scrambled eggs like Gordon Ramsay to wondering what kind of shampoo The Bee Gees used. (I must be in a Brit kind of mood today!).
The associations we make seem so random, don’t they? Our memories flex their creative muscles to such random things. Writing this now, I think of when I was around 12, at my Aunt Betty’s house in E. Lansing, Michigan and walking around the huge empty fields behind her house. I love nature and animals and came upon a little field mouse. I couldn’t help but reach out to touch it. It bit me!
WHY this came to mind right now is beyond me, but that’s how many conversations between two people with ADHD can play out.
It’s normal. It’s fun. It can be problematic, too. Like when a friend tells you her uncle is dying of some horrible disease and your mind goes ping-pong on you and next thing you know, you’re on a farm watching your little brother try to milk a cow for the first time.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: we all try to be so-called normal. To fit in. But with a brain that is vastly different for the most part from the norm, well, we can feel shame about it. We can be angry with ourselves. We can retreat.
Or we can own up to it, apologize for going way off track, and we can seek help: not to change who we are, but to learn to LIVE with who we are.
In that vein, I’m hoping you will consider joining my group- or I should say: my community, Powerful Women with ADHD. Here, you’ll be embraced, supported, and you’ll learn about all kinds of interesting aspects of living with ADHD, as well as actionable skills. Things we didn’t learn in school. Things we didn’t pick up along the way to adulthood, whether you’re 18 or 88. Like how to fold sheets. Or how to put together a dinner for four. Or how to get along better with people.
I hope you’ll join me- at www.PowerfulWomenWithADHD.com. More info is below.
What I’m Excited About
Join Me and 20 Other ADHD Experts!
My dear friend and colleague, Alan P. Brown, ADHD/productivity coach and creator of the award-winning ADD Crusher™ program, is bringing together 20 ADHD/EF experts (including moi) to help ADHD adults, students and their parents with proven, practical solutions to get you back into action with better focus, improved mental performance and productivity and a healthier work/life balance so you can feel less overwhelmed and more in flow.
Register today for free and join us August 25-28.
https://www.alanpbrown.com/a/2148145244/FjtuNP2V
Watch my session, Is it ADHD, Trauma, or Both? How Proper Diagnosis Leads to Proper Treatment Tuesday, August 26.
This free virtual summit runs four days (August 25-28) and every day, Alan will share 5 short-but-solutions-packed interviews. The videos will be available to watch anytime within that 24-hour period.
(WOW! Something BIG is Happening NOW!)
EXCITING UPDATES AT Powerful Women with ADHD
My/our community is evolving and expanding!
NEW! Starting THIS MONTH, in addition to all the other resources I’m offering, enjoy face-to-face, informal, friendly group sessions with me! I’ll be discussing new topics and opening the Zoom room for Q/A.
Plus: more!
NEW! I’m adding:
- Thursdays with Terry
- Skill Sprints
- Hints and Hacks
- Terry’s Picks
- Weekly Online Meetups by Categories (AuDHD, hormone concerns, ADHD and LGBTQ+, organizing tips to share, etc.)
Got a topic you’d like me to cover? Join the Powerful Women with ADHD group and let me know what you’d like the group and I to discuss.
Finally! An interactive hour for you, me, and other women with ADHD.
Powerful Women with ADHD
Sign up Today at
www.PowerfulWomenWithADHD.
Community Support, Action-based Skills, Working Together to GET THINGS DONE
100% Shame-free Zone.
Questions? Email me at support@addconsults.com
PS: I’m looking for ADHD Coaches who would like to volunteer to monitor my chatrooms, plus Coaches/Professional Organizers, and ADHD experts interested in running a group, especially on skill-based topics, ie HOW-TO: organize, plan, time management tips, social skills, etc.
Great for experience, exposure, and helping women with ADHD.
Email me at terry@addconsults.com.
I will promote you, your work, your website, etc.
Watch your inbox for my announcement of an upcoming special webinar where I’ll be talking about ADHD and Hypersensitivities.
Tip from Terry
Can’t remember if you or your child took your meds or not? After you take them, turn the bottle upside down!
CAN I HELP YOU?
Do you have an ADHD-related problem you’d like help with?
Personal ADHD Consultations with me on Zoom or Email! Hurry- Spots fill up fast.
(PS Consultations are not therapy, but we work together to help you get unstuck and on track.)
Learn more and sign up here.
What I Recommend
Cleaning Schedule and Checklist
How cool and helpful is this?
Cleaning Schedule and Checklist: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Household Planner.
Where to find Terry Matlen:
Website: www.ADDconsults.com
Coaching: www.QueensOfDistraction.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ADDconsults
Twitter: twitter.com/TerryMatlen
Instagram: www.instagram.com/terrymatlen_adhd
TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@terrymatlen
LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/terrymatlen/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/terrymatlen
MY BOOK! The Queen of Distraction
Email: terry@addconsults.com
Wait: Like this article? Please leave your thoughts, resources, hacks, etc. in the comment section below.
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* ADHD- friendly disclosure: Some of the links above earn me a tiny commission at Amazon and elsewhere. The end.
