During the adult years, especially the early adult years, most individuals are faced with many new adjustments and important choices that will shape their future in both the short and longer term. For those who suffer from ADHD syndrome, these challenges are especially difficult. As one young man with ADHD syndrome described it:

I’ve always had a hard time making choices. I switched my major five times in the three years I was in college. I keep trying things out and then I get bored and feel like something else would be better, so I switch. Finally I dropped out to try getting a job. Figured I’d go back to school after I knew better what I want. That was four years ago and since then I’ve had seven different jobs. All of them seemed OK for a while. I came in on time and worked hard to learn the job and do it right. Then I always started getting bored and coming in late and slacking off. And sometimes I’d get in trouble for being too mouthy with the boss. Once I got fired for that. The rest of the jobs I just left because I had an idea of something else that might be better. I do the same thing with everything. When I’m watching TV I have to hold the remote because I always have to keep changing channels to see what else is on. Same with girlfriends. For a while I like this one, then I see someone else who looks better. So I drop the first one and then hook up with the other one for a while, until someone else comes along. Recently though I’ve been remembering something one of my professors said: “As we grow up, life has to be succession of amputations of possibilities.” I always like to keep all my possibilities open, but I don’t know where I’ll end up when I’m forty if I keep doing this.

This young man was very bright. His tested IQ was in the very superior range. He had perfect scores for both the verbal and math portions of the SAT. His grades in college courses varied widely, usually between “A” and “F” with not many in between. He explained, “It all depended on whether I was interested in the course.” Professors in a variety of subjects often commented that his papers were “brilliant” and encouraged him to follow through with more advanced studies. This “hyper” man was also very creative: he was skilled at playing many musical instruments and had won awards for photographs he had taken. He had an appealing manner and a quick wit. But he was also very impulsive, hyperactive, and restless, both cognitively and behaviourally.

What is important for that student is to seek interventions. With a professional partner he could be committing to the following:

Prioritizing
Structuring
Planning
Organizing