ADHD professor support group

[chiecon]

Hi all,

I work in academia and could really use a support group of fellow academics to serve as an accountability group but also to brainstorm ideas on teaching, writing, etc. Does anyone know any of any such groups?

[Gettingittogether]

I'm a professor also, and I know of no such specific groups. I'd recommend you find an ADHD coach--something familiar with academics and productivity pressures.

The biggest thing I did for teaching after I got my diagnosis was to simplify. I mean REALLY simplify. And to be really honest about the hardest parts of the job. I did hire a coach who showed me that there were multiple ways I was making the work harder than I needed to.

One key thing my coach emphasized was leading with your strengths. What are your strengths? You got to maximize them if you have ADHD. I have great presence in the classroom and great people skills. I started to see those as assets and then built classes around those assets. I also figured out the organizational and tedious stuff I had to do and just practiced over time doing it. Example: before diagnosis I didn't always take roll.

I learned after diagnosis that since I was creative in class, I needed the structure of taking roll each class. Now, I had to keep this easy. I just take roll and write down absences in my online learning platform used by my class. In my case. It's Blackboard. I create a discussion thread called "Attendance."

Week 1

X absent

Week 2 ... I open the thread to edit and write down:

X & Y absent ... hit save ...

So there's no book for me to check. And students can easily/publicly see their attendance records.

The roll is in the course, right next to assignments. I put the attendance roll in week 1. There are a thousand little tweaks like this that I did over time once I realized that the goal was EASE and simplicity.

I have colleagues that grade every piece of homework their students do. I do NOT do that. I simply mark complete/incomplete. I am satisfied with the quality of my students' homework even though I don't grade every piece of it. Actually I skim their homework to see how they are getting the key concepts ... that's what i do ... Otherwise Blackboard has a program that will count the number of completed homework posts ... and that's what I use. I do no manual counting.

On the writing/research part of professor life, there's a ton of writing on procrastination and writing and it's a problem faced by all researchers in all professions and you don't have to have ADHD to have a serious procrastination problem. We are just much more likely to have such a problem and to have a deeper, more intractable problem.

[chiecon in reply to Gettingittogether]

This is great! Thanks for sharing! How did you find a coach that’s familiar with academia or has experience working with professors? If you have any referrals that would be super helpful!

[Gettingittogether in reply to chiecon]

Actually any good coach can help you ... and if they can't you can fire them. Basically you describe your job and duties to the coach ... and a good coach will help you brainstorm solutions that are simple to carry out. They do this for ADHD lawyers, office managers, CEO's (who keep it quiet) and on and on.

Professor job responsibilities are pretty easy for an organization coach to grasp. I will say this: I also did tons of therapy ... and I gotta say: getting my anxiety down was one of the best things for making my ADHD issues less of a problem. When I was panicking and being critical about every possible problem, I was undermining and stressing myself. These days my online homework assignments may have dropped words and typos (especially when I've recently written a new assignment) ... and there are times when I was sure I had posted homework .. and turns out, I didn't.

I can now feel that reflex of "I'm in trouble" and then let it pass and send a note to students and keep going.

Developing routines is a key part of managing ADHD. You don't want to have your brain solving problems on the fly. So keeping a planner is key ... but interesting: you have to experiment to figure out how to best use a planner and to find a planner you don't mind using.

Tip: you can learn from your most organized students. One, they all use paper planners, still to this day. Two, highly organized students don't just complete work on time. They PLAN and remind themselves (multiple times) about upcoming work and deadlines. And they spend time thinking about how to make their work easy. Look up "pomodoro" if you haven't. There are versions of this to make starting work easier ...

[Mkkell]

I don't know of any existing groups but I'm also a professor with adhd and I love talking teaching strategies! I'd be happy to connect.

[RichmondGreyhounds]

I have also been a professor (taking time off with small kids at the moment) but I'd like to get back in the classroom probably next school year. I have a feeling the "absent minded professor" trope is at least ADHD adjacent.

A support group would be fantastic! Anyone have any executive function to spare to set one up? 🙂

I was only diagnosed in the last year, so the last time I taught, I was not aware that some of my struggles were probably ADHD. I usually teach larger intro courses and I LOVE the creative teaching elements. And I actually like 1st or 2nd year students.

But the grading was always my Achilles heel. My department required weekly reading check assignments that had to be assigned points not complete vs incomplete as well as larger projects and papers. Any tips on you get through the grading slog (without a TA for budget reasons)?

[czechamy]

I am unaware of any groups like this but would probably really benefit from one, too! Not sure if anyone has the time and executive functioning to spare starting one but I would appreciate it if anyone had the time and capacity to do so.

I'm also curious about how to find an ADHD coach that has knowledge of working in higher ed. Also, when does anyone have time to complete these types of self-care tasks? Every moment is occupied with work, work, and more work and then family needs. You are all amazing for being able to do it all!

[FeeToo]

There is an advocacy and information group called ADDA.org. They have several support groups, some that focus on specific work disciplines. I would try there. Many of these groups are facilitated by clinicians. Good luck !

[lodopo]

Oh wow, I so want this.. I am a therapist with adhd sometimes..

I would love to be meeting with some of you online.. Let's start a group!! [e-mail]

[wrigleyrose]

Have you listened to the podcast, All the Things ADHD? It's two professors diagnosed late in life. They're Candian and I absolutely love listening to their banter and it's full of great info on ADHD because they're researchers, writers and women living with ADHD.

[PenguinPerson]

Not sure if anyone is still following this post, but I'm another ADHD academic. And I love the All the Things ADHD podcast.

[GoFar in reply to PenguinPerson]

PenguinPerson and all previous responders - I'm another ADHD academic, diagnosed last year and would really like to meet with you all. How can we get this restarted?