I’m a school social worker who provides counseling to high school students. Most of which have ADHD (I’m in an alternative program). Everything I read says CBT for ADHD but that doesn’t feel appropriate per say. So I wanted to ask you, people experiencing ADHD, what do you wish you got out of counseling in high school if you wanted it/had it? A lot of my students say that everything is fine and won’t open up even after a while of building rapport. I just want to do the best I can to serve my students.
What do you wish you got out of counseling in high school as someone with ADHD?
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I'd educate yourself by watching a bunch of how to ADHD on YouTube. She's respected and bases her information on facts and such.
They might say they are fine because they believe their struggles are due to lack of personal motivation, or think they are just lazy.
Maybe try to use the time to educate them about the disorder. Like defining terms like "executive dysfunction" and explaining the difference between explaining your struggles and blaming your disorder for a problem.
Maybe ask them about what is the biggest struggle for them is? And see if you can brainstorm ideas that would help them tackle the issue.
Otherwise I'd just read posts here and see what people are talking about. A lot of us have come up with coping mechanisms that help us but they took years and years of struggle to get to it.
The biggest thing I personally would have benefited from would have been not constantly telling myself I am just a lazy sack of shit because I can't sit down and just study, being mad with myself for procrastinating again, even though last time I said I would start early, forgetting things that were important to not forget, and the struggle of finding things I enjoyed for more than a couple of weeks at a time.