About Me The Author

Hi there, I am Dr. Terry Southern, and this page is about me, the website’s author. My goal in creating this website was to provide a place where newly diagnosed ADHD adults could go for information on succeeding with ADHD.

My Journey

My ADHD journey began in December 2007 as the Great Recession and Real Estate Correction was starting. I and tens of thousands of others in Colorado were losing jobs, and finding decent jobs became problematic as businesses across the United States tightened their belts. It would be almost four long years before the Country would return to anything resembling normalcy.

I saw the writing on the wall and knew that providing for my family would become increasingly difficult without an education. I began researching fields where I would have the most excellent chances of success with a recent college degree. I settled on Business Management, which had the highest opportunity for me to find a great job in almost any field. As luck would have it, most class credits from my Associate’s program transferred, shortening my Bachelor’s program to six trimesters or two years.

One month before starting my Bachelor’s program, I began seeing a Psychiatrist to understand why I had so much trouble with Math and English. One week later, at 58, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Because of time constraints and a lack of adequate income, I quit seeing the Psychiatrist four weeks later, but now, I had answers, as brief as they were.

In January 2009, I entered my first Bachelor’s program class and got my head in the books. I was surprised that, despite earlier failures in education, I loved my classes. Studying was easy until it wasn’t, and I spent more time in the books. Out of desperation, I bought a fountain pen, cartridges, and a journal for taking detailed notes in class, and thus began a period of almost coasting through my Bachelor’s program. I would study my notes and scan those chapters in the textbook just before a test or exam. I averaged less than three hours per week studying and graduated with a 3.87. At the end of my 5th trimester, my wife and I started a new business, “Whimsy Paint and Sip Art Studio”, in Erie, Colorado. Using the principles I was learning in Business Management and from books on Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation, we opened the studio in December 2010, in 237th position in a seven State region.

As I closed in on graduation, I was deep in my ADHD research and compiled over 600 references. As I continued to research, I realized the vast majority of research I was reading occurred within the previous fifteen years! Aching to talk to anybody about what I found out, I began to get significant pushback from a community that believed A
DHD was a manufactured condition to sell drugs! I began to dig further back and discovered ADHD was first diagnosed at the end of the4 17th Century and, therefore, couldn’t be artificially created in the mid-1960s.

I graduated with honors in December 2011 with my Bachelor of Science in Technical Business Management. Our business was taking off, and my SEO efforts were beginning to pay big dividends, so I decided to work full-time for the company. We had six artists working for us, teaching classes, and we had a liquor license that brought in almost as much as our classes did! During my first couple weeks working full time, I hit on a novel marketing idea. Every company has those few individuals who are the bane of the company’s existence! These individuals live on social media and post about every part of their lives and events they attend. We were no different and had our three problem customers. After a particularly nasty exchange with one of them, I jokingly remarked to my wife how, if things were different, these people could be our walking/talking billboards, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The next day, I invited all three to a special event for the Chamber of Commerce in Erie. They were to attend as our guests as a way of saying thank you for being loyal customers. They received the same treatment as the rest of our special guests. Everyone from the Police/Fire Departments to the President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor of Erie attended. A week later, our SEO jumped significantly as rave reviews from the three began filtering down, and it only got better from there! 45 days later, the company was in good hands, and I started checking out Master’s programs. On January 11, 2011, I walked into my first Master’s level class.

Halfway through my Master’s program, I hit a wall! I was taking a Statistics class, which was kicking my butt! Ultimately, I felt lucky to get 83% for the course, my lowest grade of any class through my doctorate! The pain of that class drove me to research the different types of memory and how I might leverage this information to understand better what I was studying. At this same time, our business was teaching an average of two classes per day, seven days a week, and I had to teach art classes several evenings per week, which cut into my study time. I needed a way to get more out of studying with less time spent studying.

I pleaded my case with the Psychiatrist who had diagnosed me, and he suggested I read Dr. Edward Hollowell’s book, “Driven To Distraction,” which I consider the ADHD bible for laypersons. After reading the book, I devised and implemented a plan during the next semester of classes. My plan worked so well that I could return to studying an average of three hours per week! I outline this plan in detail in Study Habits For ADHD Adults on this website!

I began sending admission letters to several university doctoral programs during my final Master’s program semester and was accepted at two. I chose the University I would attend based on its stellar Organizational Psychology/Transformation program, emphasizing Change Management. Of my 135-member Cohort, there were only three of us who knew what our dissertation was going to be on. Mine was on ADHD in the workplace, specifically, how HR could become the intermediary between an organization’s most creative (ADHD) professionals and management, who had a long history of friction between the two elements.

By graduation, I had written almost 2,000 pages of assignments, defenses, and symposium presentations, primarily on ADHD! My dissertation, resulting from 14 months of research by a team of five, was successfully defended in October 2016 in front of a half dozen subject matter experts from inside and outside the University! After more than seven years, I was a Doctor!

The Adrenaline Junkie

I have accomplished a lot in my lifetime! My wife says I’ve lived three lifetimes. An adrenaline junkie from an early age, I was drawn to speed! Whether racing a sports car, dragging a knee at a buck and a quarter road racing motorcycles, or bombing Boulder Canyon from Ward to Boulder at 50+ miles per hour on a bicycle, I loved living on the edge. Truth be known, I don’t know how I’m still alive except that I was better than almost anyone else at cornering at high speed!

Today at 72, I race kayaks in endurance events ranging from eight to sixty miles! I run a type of kayak called a Surfski, a long (20′) and narrow (19″) lightweight (23lbs) carbon fiber speedster that is quite tippy until you get used to it. My surfski gave me regular swimming lessons during my first year, and I had lots of practice remounting the kayak. I’m fly fishing for big Bull Redfish in the 40-50 pound class when not racing or training.

I never realized my vision of leading a team of change managers. Ageism is alive and well due to greedy politicians in Congress who voted to fill their own pockets rather than vote for their constituency! Am I bitter? Not at all! Today, I work as an aircraft mechanic on commercial jets and love what I do! The job keeps me in good shape and keeps my blood pressure down. Because up to 80% of airline mechanics have ADHD, I’ve had many opportunities to continue my research. In my spare time, I mentor ADHD adults who want to start their businesses as a side gig.

Reality Check

We sold our business to finance a year and a half of research for my dissertation. We rented a 3700 square feet monstrosity that was built in the 1950s and cost us a fortune in upkeep, not to mention issues with a 25-year-old pool. In 2017, we moved to the East Central side of Florida, where I once again sent out more than a hundred resumes. Everyone was interested until they saw how old I was, and the deal was over! Am I upset I haven’t been able to use my doctorate? Not! I’ve become the person I always wanted to be. I have the respect of my peers and respected within my community!

In June of 2023, I created the website I dreamed of. A website for newly diagnosed adults with ADHD and, for that matter, anyone interested in learning more about adult ADHD! A website designed for the sole purpose of helping adults with ADHD to become their best selves!

Life is good, and as long as I can still work full-time, my wife and I are living our dream.

Future Plans

My plans for the future include:

• Competing in the Crossing For A Cure, a 100-mile human-powered watercraft race from the Bahamas to Ft. Lauderdale, across the Straits of Florida and the Gulf Stream, in 20 hours or less!
• Publish a tongue-in-cheek book on adult ADHD in the workplace
• Publish a book on my life as a boy called “Me & Buff,” a collection of stories from my past with my first dog.
• Publish a book on my experiences as an aircraft mechanic from my first day through my last day and the organizational failures by organizational leaders who know nothing of leadership or management called “sobering thoughts.”
• Publish a manual for Human Resources on how they can become the intermediary between ADHD professionals and management to retain the organization’s most creative and innovative professionals.
• Put together a class for professionals with ADHD who are interested in reaching for the stars.

Conclusion

While things don’t always go as planned, you can succeed if you are open to opportunities! Opportunity sometimes only knocks once before going elsewhere. If you answer the door and recognize the opportunity for what it is, you’re in! If not, I hope you’re happy. Life is what you make of it. Sometimes you get Gold, and sometimes you get Lemons. When you get lemons, please make the most of it and pour yourself a nice cold glass of lemonade as you plan your next journey.