Stacy Mautner ADHD Coach and Advocate, LLC

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Stacy Mautner ADHD Coach and Advocate, LLC

Stacy is well trained coach who specializes in ADHD.

Her work is focused on helping clients, both adults and children, who struggle daily with the ADHD brain and looking for a better quality of life for themselves and/or their family.

11/15/2025

Had a blast attending this years International ADHD conference! Loved catching up with friends, learning new things, and snuggling some puppies!

10/30/2025

Halloween can be a challenging day for individuals with ADHD due to many reasons such as sensory overload, difficulties with routines, and increased emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Please be aware of the challenges ahead of going out to trick-or-treat.

There are many ways to combat the challenges by putting manageable strategies into place.
1. Plan and prepare: Plan the trick-or-treating route ahead of time with your child.
2. Manage the environment: Try to visit houses that are not so overwhelming with decorations and lighting. Choose a less crowded neighborhood to trick-or-treat in. Allow for breaks when your child shows you they need one.
3. Choose a comfortable costume: Avoid anything too tight, itchy, or with a mask that obscures vision. Avoid anything that can cause sensory issues. Opt for looser-fitting options or wear a costume over comfortable clothes.
4. Set expectations to help with transitions: Clearly define what "trick-or-treat" means. Establish a plan for what happens after trick-or-treating. Plan a calming activity when arriving home to transition from the high-energy evening to bedtime.

10/28/2025

All too often I hear from people that it's never about having the intention to do something, however, it's always the follow-through that they struggle with. This is all very well true! Individuals with ADHD struggle for many reasons on why they just can't follow-through. It's not due to laziness, but to a neurological difference in how to brain handles tasks!

Here are a few reasons why individuals with ADHD struggle with follow-through and a few strategies on how they can improve their follow-through.

Why Follow-Through is Difficult:
- Executive function challenges: ADHD is linked to executive dysfunction, which can make it hard to organize, stay on track, and complete tasks.
- Working memory issues: Holding multiple steps of a task or instruction in your mind can be difficult.
- Motivation and dopamine: The brain's reward system, which is influenced by dopamine, may not be consistently activated by boring or repetitive tasks, making it hard to start or finish them.
- Temporal discounting: Individuals with ADHD may have a stronger tendency to prioritize immediate rewards over long-term benefits, making it difficult to start tasks with distant payoffs.

Strategies to Improve Follow-Through:
-Externalize your to-do list: Whether it's sticky notes on the bathroom mirror, voice notes, whiteboards, or alarms- find a way to write down your to-do items out of your head so that you don't have to internally manage information.
- Match tasks to energy: Our energy levels and ability to focus change through the day, so plan your to-dos accordingly to when you have most brainpower and energy.
- Create deadlines: Creating artificial deadlines and consequences that are immediate can spur you into action.
- Build a balanced routine: Create order in your life with routines and healthy habits. Intentionally build breaks into your daily schedule and do things for you.
- Consider your surroundings: Seek out environments that will allow you to perform at your best.
- Break down tasks: Divide large projects into smaller, more manageable steps. This makes the task feel less overwhelming.
-Find immediate rewards: Link a task to an immediate positive reward to help motivate yourself.
- Prioritize and organize: Use tools like calendars or task apps to prioritize what is most important and urgent.

For more information on ADHD and follow-through, reach out to Stacy at www.stacymautner.com

10/22/2025

Often I get the question of what are good books to share with my ADHD child. Well, it just so happens that an article came out from Attitude Magazine with new books that spotlight characters with ADHD. Check out the below link to find out what the books are and what age they are appropriate for. You won't regret checking these books out!

https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/book-characters-adhd-students-love/?ecd=wnl_additude_251022_cons_adhd_school&goal=0_d9446392d6-7ac4f928e1-318596538

10/14/2025

Many people with ADHD naturally engage in fidgeting behaviors- small, mindless movements such as tapping a pencil, bouncing a leg, or playing with a stress ball. It's important for those people around the ADHD person to understand why the ADHD person is fidgeting and it may provide insights into the neurological and psychological aspects of ADHD.

- Neurological variations can result in a need for physical activity as a way to help manage internal restlessness and maintain focus.
- Fidgeting can serve as a means to stimulate areas of the brain that regulate alertness, helping individuals stay engaged with tasks.
- Physical movements increases blood circulation, which enhances oxygen to the brain, which subsequently boosts alertness and cognitive functions
- Fidgeting allows individuals with ADHD to release pent-up energy.
- Engaging in small movements can help them balance their energy levels and improve their focus on tasks that might otherwise feel monotonous or boring.
- The act of fidgeting may help individuals with ADHD to concentrate better by providing a form of sensory input that keeps them alert.
- Engaging in small movements during learning activities can enhance memory retention.
- Fidgeting provides sensory input that can help regulate arousal, allowing individuals to achieve a state of alertness conducive to focus- it can alleviate discomfort that arises from sensory overload or boredom.
- Individuals with ADHD often experience higher rates of anxiety- fidgeting can provide a way to regulate that stress effectively.

By understanding the science behind fidgeting, greater appreciation for the positive impacts of fidgeting becomes apparent.

Article: How Does Fidgeting Enhance Focus for Individuals with ADHD? By, Roland Rotz, PhD. Attention Magazine, Feb. 2025

10/09/2025

Task paralysis may seem similar to procrastination, but the two are most definitely not the same. Task paralysis occurs when a person is overloaded with information, tasks, or instructions. They begin to shut down and freeze, and this response is typically out of their control.

People who experience task paralysis may manifest it in different ways. Some of the following symptoms are associated with it: overthinking or overanalyzing problems, unable to start a project- even when it's a high priority, unable to prioritize and manage tasks, unable to maintain focus and is easily distracted, poor time management, time blindness, rapid mood and emotional changes, difficulty making decisions, and unable to listen actively.

For more information on task paralysis or how to overcome task paralysis reach out to Stacy at www.stacymautner.com or on facebook.

10/08/2025

People with ADHD can experience boredom more frequently and at a higher intensity than those without ADHD. Boredom can cause feelings of frustration, anger, or even depression. According to a 2018 study, one of the key symptoms of ADHD is an increased tendency to feel bored, which is also known as Boredom Proneness. This means, people with ADHD find it more challenging to maintain their attention on a task and for an extended period of time.

People with ADHD may also have lower levels of dopamine, which is a chemical that forms part of the body's reward system and links to feelings of motivation and pleasure. Decreased levels of dopamine can contribute to reduced motivation, so a person with ADHD will require higher levels of stimulation to keep their brain engaged in a task. Lower levels of dopamine makes the brain unable to "activate" to start or focus on a task.

The lack of stimulation in the brain doesn't just feel boring. It can be a source of distress, frustration, agitation and even a sense of hopelessness for people with ADHD. Emotionally people with ADHD may feel fatigue, lethargy, dullness, irritation, and impatience.

Lastly, people with ADHD may feel task paralysis. This means the person may enter a state of being unable to start or complete a task. This can often be due to overwhelm, fear, dread, or indecision.

For more information on ADHD and boredom, reach out to Stacy Mautner either by her website www.stacymautner.com or facebook.

10/01/2025

October 1 signifies the start of . All month long, I'll be proving you with information, tips, and tricks. If there is something you want to learn more about, put it in the comments for me!

If you or a loved one is looking for support around ADHD reach out at www.stacymautner.com or on facebook or instagram!

02/22/2025

Come join me and other vendors at the D27 sponsored Mental Health Fair. This is a community fair so everyone is welcome in Northbrook and neighborhood communities. Were at Wood Oaks Junior High from 10-12. Hope to see you there!!

10/30/2024

The idea that parents cause ADHD came to be from the naive observation that children with ADHD frequently misbehave, along that the belief that misbehavior was a sign of bad parenting. Although it is true that bad parenting can lead to misbehavior, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT BAD PARENTING LEADS TO INATTENTION, HYPERACTIVITY, AND IMPULSiVITY that defines ADHD.

Another myth that bad parenting causes ADHD also comes from the fact that when professionals teach parenting skills to parents, the behavior improves. While this is true, it is also true that teaching parenting skills does not improve the symptoms of ADHD.

Children are often stigmatized as "behavioral problems" because their underlying neurological condition is not evident to the outside world. To add another frustrating problem, traditional paradigms for parenting are often not only ineffective, but counter-productive for children with ADHD.

For more information on parenting the ADHD child, reach out to Stacy at www.stacymautner.com

10/29/2024

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, or better known as RSD, is not a formal diagnosis but one of the most common and disruptive manifestations of emotional dysregulation, a common but under-researched and misunderstood symptom of ADHD, particularly in adults.

Dysphoria, the greek word meaning unbearable, emphasizes the severe physical and emotional pain suffered by people with RSD when they encounter a real or perceived rejection, criticism, or teasing. The emotional intensity of RSD is well beyond all proportion to the nature of the event that triggered it.

If these triggered emotions are internalized, the person can instantly appear as if they have full Major Depressive Syndrome complete with suicidal thinking. If the feelings are externalized, they commonly are expressed as rage at the person or situation that wounded them so severely. The moods return to normal very quickly, so a person with ADHD can have multiple episodes of mood dysregulation in a single day.

For more information on RSD and ADHD reach out to Stacy at www.stacymautner.com

Information provided by How the ADHD Brain Works e-book.

10/23/2024

It's easy to see why many people believe that ADHD is just an excuse for laziness. Individuals diagnosed with ADHD may focus well on playing a sport they enjoy, playing video games, making art, playing music, or any other hobby. Yet- they are unable to demonstrate the same focus and self-management for their schoolwork or their job.

Noticing this contrast from one situation to the other can certainly lead someone to ask, "If you can do it for this, why can't you do it for these other tasks that are MORE important? You're just being lazy!!"

The fact is that ADHD often looks like a lack of willpower, an excuse for laziness when that's not the situation at all! ADHD brain wiring is different chemical dynamics. It's not under voluntary control. Their ADHD symptoms are the result of neural messages in their brain not effectively being transmitted. For people with ADHD, neural messages related to tasks that strongly interest them tend to be strong, bringing intensified motivation. For tasks they do not perceive to be interesting, the neural messages tend to be weaker. If messages are not sufficient enough to activate a person, it is likely to make them seem unmotivated or lazy.

- Information from Thomas E. Brown.

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