The article below highlights the very real downside of having ADHD in a world that isn't very accepting of people who are different from them.
Not being able to do certain things as others expect us to like: be on time all the time, or get ourselves to follow through on our plans easily, or even get up early in the morning, can cause ADDers (even those with High IQs who do accomplish a lot) to feel like we can never really live up to our "potential."
In fact, this pervasive sense of underachieving haunts most ADDers constantly. It is one of the defining traits used to diagnosis ADD. And, it is a source of profound grief that often leads to chronic depression and anxiety among ADDers. This is partly why ADD is often misdiagnosed and is actually VERY under diagnosed in Adults. (Another reason being the myth that children "outgrow" ADHD.)
Growing up with undiagnosed ADD in an environment that does not value the gifts of ADD, but focuses instead on punishing and criticizing the differences and our inability to conform to other's values is inherently traumatic. Years of trying to please parents, teachers and bosses who with good intentions try to "fix" something that can't be fixed easily leaves the individual with an underlying sense of hopelessness and innate "not good enough-ness" that can be paralyzing in and of itself.
The thing is that ADD can't and never will be "cured" or "fixed". It is a different kind of brain! it can only be accomodated, managed and/or minimized with treatments such as education / awareness, right brain - left brain integration strategies, stress reduction, exercise and other self-care strategies, and custom organizing and time management structures / systems / approaches co-designed with the ADDers active participation. And yes, sometimes medication is needed as well.
In a recently released book called Getting Unstuck: Unraveling the connection between Depression, Attention, and Trauma , the author Dr. Don Kerson, says that being "stuck" is the result of a complex interaction between depression, attention deficit disorder and dissociation (a consequence of childhood trauma caused by living with ADD and the chronic negative feedback that comes with it).
The more I read this book the more I understand why I was so motivated and actually COMPELLED to create my coaching group called Getting Unstuck. Stuckness is a different thing from procrastination and the treatment is much more complex that glib tips like "Just Do it". The treatment for stuckness is complex. It includes biological, bio-chemical, environmental and organizational changes as well as exercises to heal and stimulate integration of the right brain and left brain (AKA the Planner and the Doer funtions of the brain as Dr. Kerson points out).
Effective treatment also requires ongoing support and understanding from people who accept you as you are...and who can help you release the shame and pain of years of chronic and constant negative feedback from both others and yourself for not being able to do things the way others do.
People don't realize it, but years of being told:
-
you think too much,
-
you try too hard...
-
you ask too many questions,
-
why can't you just do it? Why can't you just clean your room? or get out of bed when the alarm goes off? or follow the instructions I gave you? or hang up your clothes? follow that diet program? etc.
and on and on...is in itself traumatic and has profound consequences. These are negative and painful messages that say "if you need more details than I do in order to act on something, there is something very wrong with you." To the child and adult hearing those messages over and over again - that means "unloveable" and that has devastating consequences.
When parents, teachers, friends and bosses say things like that to someone, they don't realize that the recipient hears those messages constantly and from LOTS of people - over and over again - at home, on job performance reviews, even from their doctors! And it all adds up to magnify the condition of ADD and compound it with very low self-esteem.
I highly recommend Dr. Kerson's book...and in fact, it is now what I consider a foundational theoretical underpinning for my coaching group. Thank you Dr. Kerson for adding a layer of understanding from the field of psychiatry and mental health that I've been working on from an organizational and educational perspective. Your insights and work are much appreciated!
Getting Unstuck: Unraveling the connection between Depression, Attention, and Trauma
____________________________
And Here's the article that inspired me to write this....
Medical News Today
High IQ Is No Help For Those With ADHD, Yale Researchers Find
19 May 2009
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150478.php
Superior intelligence is no defense against the effects of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, Yale researchers have found.
About three of four ADHD individuals with an IQ of more than 120 - a score that ranks them in the top nine percent of the U.S. population - showed significant impairments in memory and cognitive tests when compared to people with similar IQ's who do not suffer from the disorder, according to the researchers.
The report, to be published in the September print edition of the Journal of Attention Disorders, is now available online.
"Many of these people are told they can't be suffering the loss of executive function (the ability to plan and carry out many day-to-day tasks) from ADHD because they are too smart,'' said Thomas E. Brown, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
The high-IQ, ADHD group lacked self-management skills and the ability to focus. They tended to procrastinate and be forgetful and had difficulty in harnessing their talent to complete many daily tasks, the study found. In fact, 73 percent of the ADHD population showed significant deficits in five or more of the eight measures of executive function.
"Each of these individuals might be compared to a symphony orchestra of very talented musicians who cannot produce adequate symphonic music because the orchestra lacks an effective conductor," the authors wrote.
Philipp C. Reichel and Donald M. Quinlan of Yale are co-authors of the paper.
Source
Yale University
