How to ADHD: An Insider's Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It)

Jessica McCabe

Jan 2024 · Sold by Rodale Books

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this honest, friendly, and shame-free guide, the creator of the award-winning YouTube channel How to ADHD shares the hard-won insights and practical strategies that have helped her survive, even thrive, in a world not built for her brain.

“The world of ADHD has been waiting for this book with bated breath for many years. If there’s a fairy godmother of our lot, it’s Jessica McCabe.”—Edward Hallowell, MD, coauthor of Driven to Distraction and ADHD 2.0

Forget “try harder.” When your brain works differently, you need to try different.
 
Diagnosed with ADHD at age twelve, Jessica struggled with a brain that she didn’t understand. She lost things constantly, couldn’t finish projects, and felt like she was putting more effort in than everyone around her while falling further and further behind. At thirty-two years old—broke, divorced, and living with her mom—Jessica decided to look more deeply into her ADHD challenges. She reached out to experts, devoured articles, and shared her discoveries on YouTube.
 
In How to ADHD, Jessica reveals the tools that have changed her life while offering an unflinching look at the realities of living with ADHD. The key to navigating a world not built for the neurodivergent brain, she discovered, isn’t to fix or fight against its natural tendencies but to understand and work with them. She explains how ADHD affects everyday life, covering executive function impairments, rejection sensitivity, difficulties with attention regulation, and more. You’ll also find ADHD-specific strategies for adapting your environment, routines, and systems, including:
 
• Boost the signal and decrease the noise. Facilitate focus by putting your goals where you can see them and fighting distractions with distractions.
• Have less stuff to manage. Learn why you have trouble planning and prioritizing, and why doing more starts with doing less.
• Build your “time wisdom.” Work backward when you plan, and track how long it actually takes you to do something.
• Learn about your emotions. Understand how naming your emotions and letting yourself experience them can make them easier to regulate.
 
With quotes from Jessica’s online community, chapter summaries, and reading shortcuts designed for the neurodivergent reader, How to ADHD will help you recognize your strengths and challenges, tackle “bad brain days,” and be kinder to yourself in the process.

Ratings and reviews

This is the book I didn't know I needed until I've randomly chosen to read it. I've learned so much: information, strategies, perspective and self-acceptance. I only gave it five stars because I couldn't give ten.

Just started reading this amazing book. Jessica does an amazing job of blending scientific language, lived experiences, and simple language. The amount of white space on the pages and easy-to-grab headings make this the most ADHD-Friendly book I've ever read. It does not read like a textbook OR a self-help book, but it truly is both of those; for both ADHDer's and non-ADHDer's alike. Read it cover-to-cover, or just jump to whatever chapter you need at the moment, there is no wrong way to read this book! (Unless you don't) Whether you are looking for something to help you with your own ADHD or learning how to support a loved one with ADHD, this is a must-read.

About the author

Jessica McCabe is the creator, writer, and star of the award-winning, pioneering YouTube channel How to ADHD. Since its founding in 2015, How to ADHD has grown to over a million subscribers. The channel—widely respected by treatment providers, ADHD researchers, and especially the ADHD community—has become a trove of scientifically backed and experientially affirming information on how people with ADHD might work with their brains in a world not built for them. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, ADDitude Magazine, Today online, Upworthy, and more.