Many adults with ADD skimp on self-care. It’s not easy to balance many demands of family, career, health, friends, and personal interests. Add ADD to that mix and you can get some very overwhelmed and overworked adults who sacrifice their own self-care in order to take care of everyone else -- and everything else -- around them.

Never feel guilty for putting on your oxygen mask and practicing self-care! When you take care of yourself, you function at a higher level. When you function at a higher level, you find yourself less overwhelmed and more prepared to deal with your ADD challenges, as well as stresses of everyday life.

And when you are able to better manage and balance all aspects of your life, there is much more ‘quality you’ available to people around you.

There are many components of self-care that one must pay attention to. Here are 3 very important elements:

The Basics

On average, do you get sleep, nutrients, and exercise that your body requires? Sometimes, too little sleep can make you sluggish, but too much sleep can make you groggy. Excess sugar and caffeine can make you moody and speedy. And too little or too much exercise may leave you feeling tired.

It's difficult for most adults (with and without ADD) to balance proper sleep, nutrition, and exercise at all times, but most people agree that more time they spend paying attention to healthy habits, better they feel.

Medical Care

Medical science is, it seems, improving almost every day, and so plastic surgery does not now involve risks it once did. We all, however, have heard horror stories about people who have been permanently scarred by surgery that has gone wrong, and have even lost their lives. While we might all in theory say that we would give anything for a butt like J-Lo, we have to ask ourselves before surgery how realistic a statement this really is.