Category: ADHD

  • The Preneur Family  –  Halfpreneurs and Others

     “Preneur”  is French in origin and means taker, someone who seizes opportunities, someone who takes action.

    My guess was that the solopreneur, a person who sets up and runs a business entirely by themselves, acting as the sole owner, operator, and worker without any partners or full-time employees came first, but historians say I may be wrong.  In early villages, towns, and cities, only one person worked as the doctor, lawyer, tailor, seamstress, blacksmith, barber.   There may have been multiple tailors or blacksmith but each ran their own business. 

    Many people still work today as solopreneurs and it works well as a business form for those nearing or of retirement age.  The key characteristics of the Solopreneur are: 

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  • Finding a Job Match for Seniors with ADHD

    Part-time work or active volunteering provides the essential structure, social engagement, and mental stimulation that seniors with ADHD need during retirement.   Work replaces structure, preserves identity, and regulates dopamine.   The ADHD brains need novelty, purpose, urgency, and feedback and the removal of work often removes time anchors, identity validation, dopamine loops.

    Even if you find a job that is great fit, ADHD symptoms can pose day-to-day challenges.       Here are some tips for managing ADHD in the workplace.

    Use Structure and Routines: Develop daily routines to provide external structure. For example, create a morning ritual to organize your day, or set specific times to check email instead of constantly checking. Routines help automate things you might otherwise forget. Also, schedule brief “short breaks” between tasks—a short walk or stretch can reset your focus. Regular breaks help prevent burnout and keep ADHD individuals focused.

    Take Advantage of Hyperfocus: When you find yourself in the zone on a productive task, ride that wave (as long as priorities allow)! Just be careful to come up for air as needed. You might communicate with your colleagues that when your door is closed or status set to “do not disturb,” you’re in deep focus mode.

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  • ADHD and Retirement

    There has been very little research on ADHD, prevalence or impact in the latter stages of life.  It was not until 2013 that ADHD was recognized as a lifelong neurological difference and diagnosis of adults became more common. It is not a static condition, and it is not a new disorder.  It has been noted by physicians for hundreds of years but under different names.  Before the 1980s, the disorder was known in the United States and Western Europe as minimal brain dysfunction or hyperkinetic reaction, diagnoses physicians rarely gave. From the early 1980s until 2013, it was considered a disorder of childhood and outgrown by adulthood, although some clinicians and ADHD adults knew better.

    Symptoms often improve in adulthood when individuals find jobs that suit their interests, temperament and personality.   We now realize work provides a powerful external structure that compensates for ADHD’s executive function deficits, as some adults with ADHD survive, even thrive in structured work environments.  ADHD often seems to disappear until retirement is seriously contemplated or begins.  

    The loss of structure that work provided is a problem for many people in early retirement, as retirement is a critical transition from a structured world of work to a more open and fluid way of living.  This change, however, is a major issue for those with ADHD.  Why?   A  structured work environment provides conditions that are difficult to create at home and on your own:

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