Secrets of Your ADHD Brain

Most people are neurologically equipped to determine what’s important and get motivated to do it, even when it doesn’t interest them. Then there are the rest of us, who have attention deficit.

by William Dodson, M.D.

The ADHD Brain Part II
Don’t Turn ADHDers into Neurotypicals

The implications of this new understanding are vast. The first thing to do is for coaches, doctors, and professionals to stop trying to turn ADHD people into neurotypical people. The goal should be to

• intervene as early as possible, before the ADHD individual has been frustrated and demoralized by struggling in a neurotypical world, where the deck is stacked against him. A therapeutic approach that has a chance of working, when nothing else has, should have two pieces:

Level the neurologic playing field with medication, so that the ADHD individual has the attention span, impulse control, and ability to be calm on the inside.

For most people, this requires two different medications. Stimulants improve an ADHDer’s day-to-day performance, helping him get things done. They are not effective at calming the internal hyperarousal that many with ADHD have. For those symptoms, the majority of people will benefit by adding one of the alpha agonist medications (clonidine/Kapvay or guanfacine/Intuniv) to the stimulant. (This talk of medicine does not represent an endorsement by Larkin Oates).

Medication, though, is not enough. A person can take the right medication at the right dose, but nothing will change if he still approaches tasks with neurotypical strategies.

Inattention + Hyperactivity = ADHD??

The second piece of ADHD symptom management is to have an individual

• Create your own ADHD owner’s manual. The generic owner’s manuals that have been written have been disappointing for people with the condition. Like everyone else, those with ADHD grow and mature over time. What interests and challenges someone at seven years old will not interest and challenge him at 27.

Write Your Own Rules!

The ADHD owner’s manual has to be based on current successes.

• How do you get in the zone now?
• Under what circumstances do you succeed and thrive in your current life?
• Rather than focus on where you fall short, you need to
• Identify how you get into the zone and function at remarkable levels.

I usually suggest that my patients:

• Carry around a notepad or a tape recorder for a month to write down or explain how they get in the zone.

Is it because they are intrigued? If so, what, specifically, in the task or situation intrigues them? Is it because they feel competitive? If so, what in the “opponent” or situation brings up the competitive juices?

At the end of the month, most people have compiled 50 or 60 different techniques that they know work for them. When called on to perform and become engaged, they now understand how their nervous system works and which techniques are helpful.

I have seen these strategies work for many ADDers, because they stepped back and figured out the triggers they need to pull. This approach does not try to change people with an ADHD nervous system into neurotypical people (as if that were possible), but gives lifelong help because it builds on their strengths.

by William Dodson, M.D.