How to ADHD

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

By: Jessica McCabe

Narrated by: Jessica McCabe

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.

perfect

I LOVE. this author! I discovered her on YouTube when trying to show my sister something about ADHD and it completely changed my life. I never knew that so many of my problems were from my adhd. I stopped hating myself so much! the book is just as good. written in a way that is easy to understand and stay engaged in.

p. s. ty so much Jessica, your journey has truly changed mine and my sister's lives.

THE book we’ve all been waiting for

Jessica McCabe delivers the crucial information and perspective everyone with ADHD needs to know. In her unique style and voice, she breaks down complex concepts and science-based strategies so everyone can apply them to their own toolbox.

Relatable truth!

Relatable and Authentic! Will help so many people who are truly suffering and don’t need to be.

Buy This Book!

I really wish I’d read this books decades ago! (Yes, that would have been quite a feat since it was just published.)
This book and Jessica’s YouTube channel have changed my life. Changed how I work and certainly changed my marriage.
You are doing Good Work, Jessica. Thank you.

Lots of aha moments

Lots of things I hadn’t considered until I listened to the book and went- oh, now I get it. It was enlightening and inspiring. Thank you:)