A quarter of the prison population has ADHD, and ADHD has been linked to re-offending. What is it that makes ADHD so common in criminals? Are there similarities between ADHDers and criminals? Structurally, speaking there is.

Whether you are managing ADHD or fighting some other battle, you can sometimes feel like you are climbing a mountain. Climbing a mountain is daunting and takes hard work, as does battling ADHD. If you are on a mountain, there are some things you should know.

The struggles an ADHDer faces on a daily basis can take a toll on their mental health. When you mess up as much as an ADHDer does, you start to believe the negative messages you hear both from internal and external sources. This is especially relevant if the ADHD diagnosis does not happen early in childhood. The longer one goes without an ADHD diagnosis, the more one wonders, “What is wrong with me? I must lazy and/or dumb.”

Recently, I was talking about ADHD to a group of college students, and I said, “Basically, if humans do it, ADHD affects it. I had ten minutes to explain all of ADHD to these students (NOT ENOUGH TIME!), so I did not take the time to expand on that. However, I will here!

One of the best ways for a person with ADHD to stay focused and be productive is to carefully choose the environment in which they operate. What do you need to succeed in each setting for each situation? You might need one thing while working and another while reading a book. Here are some things to think about when deciding on your ideal environments.

I recently read (okay, listened to the audiobook of) Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by renowned sleep researcher Matthew Walker, PhD. IT. BLEW. MY. MIND. Sleep is crazy important. Because I read that book (okay, listened to that audiobook), I made several changes to my life. My sleep schedule is now quite strict, and I bought a new bed to ensure maximum comfort. In short, I learned that, if you don’t get eight hours of sleep every night, you’re basically screwed.

Those of us with ADHD have terrible working memories. One of the problems this causes for me (and I’m sure many other ADHDers) is remembering people’s names. I am terrible at remembering names. This causes me guilt when people who know my name say hello to me and use my name. I can remember their face and how I know them, but I have no idea what their name is. This is an area where I want to improve, so I did what any millennial would do. I googled how to remember names. This is what I found.

We all have stories about our lives. There are good stories and bad stories. But, what determines whether or not a story is good or bad? We do. We have the choice to make a story good or bad. The stories in our past that we view as negative, perhaps, just need to be seen in a different light.

Knowledge is power, and it is even more powerful when it is self-knowledge. One of the best things you can do to manage ADHD and improve your life is to know yourself better. Self-exploration is something everyone should do, regardless of whether they have ADHD or not. When you know yourself and your needs, you are better able to articulate what you need from others. This takes time, but it is well worth it.

One of the things that will inevitably occur when learning to manage one's ADHD is encountering pain. The ADHD brain is not a neurotypical brain, and the world was made for neurotypical brains. This leads to the struggles ADHDers face on a daily basis.