With ADD or ADHD we tend to get critical and down on ourself. That’s demoralizing.
I play the guitar – usually I would have put a self depreciatory comment here, or put “play” in quotation marks, but not today.
I am not very good. Sometimes when I hear someone who is good, it’s discouraging and it gets hard to pick up the guitar for a while. But I’m a lot better than I used to be, have learned a lot, know a lot, can do a lot. Tho not good, maybe good enough. Get a little better every month. Well, it’s been 50 years,but looking back to where I started, I am actually pretty good. And that helps me pick it up again, and get better, instead of getting down and letting it go. A strategy. 
doug
problem is i have no talent, except for remembering songs, that’s a gift, and no rhythym. but i do pretty well.
the book is doing pretty well, selling about one per day, and good reviews – it is really helping some people, very gratifying. thats what its about.
ADDadultstrategies 
I used to suffer terrible depression as a child and as a young teenager. Still to this day I am my own biggest critic. But, there was a change and the critical nature I have now is actually quite positive. The catalyst for this, in my case, happened to be a conversion to Christianity but that just got me onto the right road of thinking. What I was able to do was ‘start again’ and consider myself to be rock bottom at everything and be ok with this. From then on, rather like the “glass half-full” idea, I took anything and everything that I happened to do right or well as a bonus. If I made improvements in anything I learned – even if everyone else around me was better – I rejoiced and delighted that I had ‘bettered myself’.
I’ve stuck with this for over 20 years and rarely have a down mood now. If I do, I bounce back within a day or so. I don’t think too highly of myself and I don’t beat myself up about stuff. I do tons of stuff but I’m happy to be ‘pretty crap’ at all of it. When, from time to time, it turns out I was better than that, its a good day. But I’m content with myself and the criticism I give myself is always one of driving ahead. “Ok, how can I do this BETTER today?” I don’t beat myself up about it and I encourage my students and children to think the same way.
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this is a great story. It is good to remember that we are a child of God. the criticism is only self defeating, so giving credit for every accomplishment is a great strategy. a good habit is to pause to do that – think that will make a blog post tip. thank you for commenting
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my pleasure! 🙂
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