Focus and flourish: A coaching manual for ADHD Self-Esteem (The Psychology of Wellbeing Series Book 2)

You know exactly what you should be doing. You just can’t make yourself do it.

You’ve read the articles. You understand the neuroscience. You can explain rejection sensitive dysphoria to someone else while simultaneously experiencing it so intensely you can’t get out of bed. And still, somewhere underneath all that understanding, the quiet conviction remains: there is something fundamentally wrong with you.

There isn’t. But knowing that and feeling it are two very different things — and most ADHD books stop at the knowing.

Focus and Flourish goes further.

This is a clinically grounded coaching manual for adults with ADHD who are done performing wellness and ready to build something real. It addresses what actually drives low self-esteem in ADHD brains — the accumulation of “not enough,” the decades of masking, the RSD that makes disapproval feel like an emergency, the shame that grows in the dark. And it gives you practical, honest tools for dismantling that architecture and replacing it with something more accurate.

Not affirmations. Not a morning routine. Not a list of famous people who were probably also neurodivergent.

Evidence. Structure. A self-concept that belongs to you.

Inside you’ll find:

• A clear, honest explanation of what is actually happening in your brain — and why it was never a character flaw
• The neuroscience of rejection sensitive dysphoria and emotional dysregulation, and what to do with it
• A framework for building real self-esteem on values rather than performance
• Practical strategies for focus, environment design, and working with your brain’s actual operating conditions
• Tools for relationships, communication under pressure, and asking for what you need without the apology tour
• A personalised support system you design specifically for your brain

Dr. Melanie du Preez is a clinical psychologist with over 26 years of experience working with neurodivergent adults. She is also late-diagnosed AuDHD herself — which means this book is written from both sides of the desk.

This is the second book in the Psychology of Wellbeing Series: clinically grounded coaching manuals for neurodivergent adults.

If you have spent years wondering why everything that seems easy for other people feels like wading through wet concrete — this book was written for you!