Self talk part 2 ——— ADD Tip o the day 53

Every one does self talk.  If we have ADD, it tends to be negative self talk.                        

We can call it “the old tapes”.                                                                                              

Sometimes we actually hear the parental  voice.                                                

This negativity is destructive.                                             

We may be able to stop it, but that is hard to do.      But we can counter it:

1. we can counter it, with facts-“Wait a minute, that’s not true.  I finished the Grant job and on time, and I did a good job on the Smith project. “

2. we can counter it with encouragement-   “Come on, you can do it.  You know some good strategies now and you’ll use them and you’ll get it done.”  (How you might talk to a kid.)

We may not be able to stop the negative self talk, but we don’t have to let it have the podium all to itself.

It is also useful to label it, or “spot”it –  “Ah, I know what that is! That’s the old negative self talk.  I’ve heard that before.”     

Things are hard enough without us pulling ourselves down.  These strategies are ways of coping with the demoralizing and damaging negative self talk.    We get better at using them with practice.      

doug

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