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Comment by kevinqinhu | Hacker News Reader

Interesting concept. Personally, I'm not a fan of therapy (tried it 3 times and it didn't stick) because I felt like I wasn't learning anything tactical that I can apply to my life. I'm a founder with ADHD so I'm very focused on building and "unblocking" myself -- e.g. getting myself to do the thing I know I need to do but can't do for some reason. If having a coach who can help unblock me quickly when I'm in a state of executive dysfunction, I can see how it'd be worth the monthly fee.

Thinking of giving it a shot. I'm curious though, how long does it take to start seeing results from the coaching? I suspect that it'll take some time for your coach to get familiar with you and recommend strategies that actually work.

Also curious about what retention looks like. I tend to try a bunch of different methodologies to manage my ADHD but have trouble sticking to them -- I've tried so many productivity tools lol. What's going to get me to stay?

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> I tend to try a bunch of different methodologies to manage my ADHD but have trouble sticking to them

a therapist is going up help talk you through this but the point is you have ADHD so it's no system is going to stick, so what you need to do is reframe it so that it's not that you tried a system and it failed, but to look at the 3 days/weeks/months and celebrate the time that you had with it, and to see that as positive. from there, launch into being able to pick up systems, new or different, doesn't matter, and use them to improve your life within your means. with practice it gets easier and easier and suddenly things aren't in shambles anymore.

I love this.

Another ADHD founder here. I've found that having someone else around when I need to to that thing, or a "body double" ( https://doubleapp.xyz/blog/body-doubling-proxy ), is a super useful tactic to "unblock" myself and overcome motivational hurdles like the ones you may experience.

Flow Club is a great body-doubling app anytime you want (https://www.flow.club/coworking-for-adhd).

I realized when I was rather young that I performed much better when I was around other people. I always chalked it up to being a show-off or needing someone else's validation.

TIL this is a thing.

You got me a chuckle here!

I have the same. Body doubling is the single most effective strategy I use whenever I can. I'm extremely accountability (or maybe... validation?) driven.

I'm sorry that therapy didn't work out for you. It could be therapy being misaligned with your goals, or unfortunately it could also just be a bad fit in therapist-client match. I'm in the same boat though, I struggled to find a therapist who was ADHD-informed and solution-focused under my insurance. However, I did find good therapists in the past for my eating disorder and for some other more mood-related challenges present in my family.

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but it's definitely an "it depends". Statistically, 83% of our members say by 2 months they're seeing improvement in reaching their goals but I must admit for now it's quite a high level metric with a lot to unpack. It'll depend on a few factors including how specific your goals are, how much time/effort you're willing to put into it, your attitude/mindset coming in, the coach/client rapport, to name a few things. For example, you could come in with 1 laser focused goal and achieve in a few weeks, or you could come in with the want to unpack your goals and find a new career trajectory etc., and that would take quite longer.

Most of our members work in 3-month goals. Some of our members are on their 2nd set of 3-month goals. However, of course there are some that found that they couldn't fit coaching into their life in the way they want and didn't continue after the initial 4 weeks. We do ask that all folks commit to trying for 4 weeks and giving it their best shot since as you mentioned, it's important to develop the coach-member relationship, set proper goals, and start to create some action plans!

Another ADHD founder here. I got value from the first session. I've always had massive issues with punctuality (I got fired from a CTO job because I rocked up late to a crucial board meeting among other things) and talking it through with my coach helped me come up with strategies I hadn't thought of (using Alexa/Google Home style devices to give me audible alerts). I was able to implement the strategies immediately and have found the follow up sessions similarly valuable. My punctuality has been heaps better in the last three weeks :)

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