Wired Differently: An Adult ADHD Workbook
A 14-module research-based workbook for adults with ADHD who want to deep dive into how it impacts them. This workbook covers the neuroscience of ADHD, the seven executive functions, emotional experiences, rejection sensitivity, masking, treatment options, and practical strategies for building a life that works with your brain. You will have personal reflection prompts throughout.
Wired Differently: An Adult ADHD Workbook: A Research-Based Path to Understanding Your Brain and Building a Life That Works
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You have probably spent a long time being told the wrong story about yourself. That you are lazy, scattered, unreliable, or too much. This workbook is designed to help you reframe your story, grounded in current research, written in plain language, and designed to help you understand what is actually happening in your brain and what to do about it.Â
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Wired Differently is a 14-module workbook for adults with ADHD, adults who suspect they may have it, and the partners and family members who love someone navigating it. Each module pairs research-based information with personal reflection prompts so that learning about ADHD becomes the process of genuinely understanding yourself.
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What You Will Find Inside
The neuroscience, explained clearly. What is actually different about the ADHD brain, why those differences matter, and why understanding them changes the way you see your own history.
All seven executive functions. A detailed look at each one, like self-awareness, inhibition, working memory, emotional regulation, motivation, planning, and time sense, with real-life adult examples that finally make sense of things you have been struggling with for years.
The full symptom picture. Beyond inattention and hyperactivity: hyperfocus, time blindness, rejection sensitivity dysphoria, sensory experience, emotional dysregulation, and sluggish cognitive tempo.
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria. A thorough module on RSD including both CBT and ACT perspectives on understanding where it comes from and how to work with it.
Masking, identity, and late diagnosis. A compassionate look at what masking costs, what diagnosis stirs up emotionally, and how to begin rebuilding a more accurate and kinder understanding of yourself.
Health and life expectancy. The research most people with ADHD have never been told, and what it means for how seriously to take treatment.
Learn about treatment options that can help you. An evidence-based overview of medication, CBT, ACT, and coaching, including what the research does and does not support.
Building a life that works. Practical strategies for externalizing working memory, managing motivation, making time physical, and designing your environment to work with your brain rather than against it. Includes the full 7 R’s framework for sustainable behavior change.
Two modules for partners and family members. Written specifically for the people who love someone with ADHD and want to understand what they are actually seeing.
Suggested resources. The ACE grounding formula, the 7 R’s at a glance, a clinician directory, and a full reference list citing every source the workbook draws from.
This Workbook Is For You If:
You were recently diagnosed and want a thorough, honest place to start. You have known about your ADHD for years but have never had a clear explanation of what is actually happening. You are a partner or family member who wants to stop taking things personally and start understanding the neurology. You are already in therapy and want a structured resource to work through between sessions.
Format: PDF, printable or screen-friendly.
Length: 14 modules with personal reflection sections throughout, 63 pages total.
Grounded in: Barkley (2015, 2019), Harris (2020, 2023, 2024), McKay, Davis & Fanning (2021), and peer-reviewed research on ADHD, neurodiversity, and evidence-based treatment.
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This workbook is educational and does not replace professional assessment, medical/mental health advice, or therapy. If you are looking for clinical support, Thrive West offers counseling and consulting services for adults with ADHD.
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