This is a tiny snippet of a much longer presentation Dr. Barkley made for parents of kids with ADD/ADHD. It's incredibly comprehensive compared to what is normally available to the public.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in the early 2000's in my mid-twenties and randomly prescribed a new-ish drug called Strattera and shoved out the door after a couple of counseling sessions. The drug made substantial changes to my ability to function, but I had no frame of reference, so I thought that would be it.
Saw this video sometime in the last year and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Contacted Dr. Barkley directly via email and asked him for a recommendation in my area for treatment. Got hooked up with the NYU ADHD program and have been working with the program there for 6+ months and have been on new meds (Concerta) which is like emerging from underground for the last 16-17 years.
If you know someone with ADHD or family with ADHD, watch this whole thing. It's long, but phenomenal. A potential life changer for folks who haven't received help or may be getting the wrong help.
For folks who are poking fun and saying, "I guess have ADHD too!"
That would be like saying you have an eating disorder because you have trouble not eating a box of chips when someone with an actual eating disorder clears out the refrigerator. Or saying you have multiple personality disorder because you occasionally talk to yourself. Or saying you have epilepsy because you get shaky when you are hungry.
Everyone struggles from time to time to pay attention to things and focus on long term goals and lessons learned in the past. That's the human condition.
ADHD/ADD makes it literally impossible to integrate long term thinking into action, both in the future and remembering the successes and failures in your past. Trying to engage structure surrounding things that I am not directly threatened or rewarded by sends me wandering around the room, physically and mentally. Unless I am constantly getting rewarded or punished or don't have some massive impending reward or punishment on the horizon, I can't stay focused on the task at hand.
TLDR: The original video is almost three hours long and changed my life. Don't mock people who have ADHD or pretend to for attention. Attention deficit is crippling. My current treatment is helping a LOT and has changed my life for the better.
I was diagnosed at 16 and put on the same drug. I absolutely hated it. It made me slow down in the worst ways. It sucked the joy out of everything. Even watching a movie or moving was effort. I had to stop taking it. That was 10 years ago.
I've just learned to live with it but it hasn't been easy by no means.
Yeah. My "joy" off meds was primarily focused around really unhealthy behavior that stunted my physical, psychological and mental growth. Weeds video games, overeating shitty food, surfing the net, more weed and cheap sex.
My wife saw something more in me. God knows how. And I have a five year old and two year old now. I run my own business. I only started the Concerta maybe 6 months ago? I had to change something. I was failing her and my kids.
And medication just made all of the difference. My effort started to mean something.
Keep trying different meds. Something WILL work. If you want things to be different, change them.
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u/supercali5 May 30 '17
This is a tiny snippet of a much longer presentation Dr. Barkley made for parents of kids with ADD/ADHD. It's incredibly comprehensive compared to what is normally available to the public.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in the early 2000's in my mid-twenties and randomly prescribed a new-ish drug called Strattera and shoved out the door after a couple of counseling sessions. The drug made substantial changes to my ability to function, but I had no frame of reference, so I thought that would be it.
Saw this video sometime in the last year and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Contacted Dr. Barkley directly via email and asked him for a recommendation in my area for treatment. Got hooked up with the NYU ADHD program and have been working with the program there for 6+ months and have been on new meds (Concerta) which is like emerging from underground for the last 16-17 years.
If you know someone with ADHD or family with ADHD, watch this whole thing. It's long, but phenomenal. A potential life changer for folks who haven't received help or may be getting the wrong help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCAGc-rkIfo&t=2428s
For folks who are poking fun and saying, "I guess have ADHD too!"
That would be like saying you have an eating disorder because you have trouble not eating a box of chips when someone with an actual eating disorder clears out the refrigerator. Or saying you have multiple personality disorder because you occasionally talk to yourself. Or saying you have epilepsy because you get shaky when you are hungry.
Everyone struggles from time to time to pay attention to things and focus on long term goals and lessons learned in the past. That's the human condition.
ADHD/ADD makes it literally impossible to integrate long term thinking into action, both in the future and remembering the successes and failures in your past. Trying to engage structure surrounding things that I am not directly threatened or rewarded by sends me wandering around the room, physically and mentally. Unless I am constantly getting rewarded or punished or don't have some massive impending reward or punishment on the horizon, I can't stay focused on the task at hand.
TLDR: The original video is almost three hours long and changed my life. Don't mock people who have ADHD or pretend to for attention. Attention deficit is crippling. My current treatment is helping a LOT and has changed my life for the better.