Dr G's ADHD Chat

Virtually everything humans do is because they were trained to do it. There is very little that is related to “talent.” Research by Daniel Coyle and others indicates that so-called pockets of talent like Australia for Tennis or the Dominican Republic for baseball or Kentucky for Blue Grass musicians are not caused by in-born talent or genetic codes, but by the training and coaching they receive. The number of star performers is related to a combination of training and motivation. The same applies to your ADHD child. If they get good training and are motivated, they will succeed. The only difference is they need a special kind of training -More hands-on and less abstract.

I came by my interest in ADHD honestly. First, I married into a family with members who were ADHD. (This was before ADD or ADHD were official diagnoses) Later we had a child who was definitely ADHD. There was a giant lack of information or research about ADHD. I had friends who had post-doctoral training in pediatrics and they were unable to provide any diagnosis or helpful information on how to handle my young son who was having humongous temper tantrums and was clearly hyperactive. At this stage, I decided I was going to have to do the research and find out what was going on with my young man. I read numerous books and journal articles and attended conferences. I, not only became knowledgeable about what later became named ADHD, but I also found that I like the people in the ADHD world. It seemed to me that they were brighter than average, had more energy than most, had great senses of humor and were eager to learn (in their own way, of course). I also began to wonder about the incidence of ADHD in my own family of origin. So that’s how I came to spend 40+ years working with and studying ADHD.

The holidays- Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah- can destroy the routines that maintain at least a partial equilibrium and balance in ADHD homes. The changes in diet, guests or being the guests, the disrupted sleep schedules and the travel can all disrupt routines. It is most important to keep all the routines as close to normal as possible. Sleep is absolutely the most important routine to maintain. This is followed closely by exercise which helps increase dopamine levels. It also tends to make it less likely that the holidays will completely taken up by computer games. Next is trying to keep sugar consumption down.

Humans learn through trial and error. ADHDers may make more mistakes than neurotypicals. What's important is that mistakes are not interpreted as failures or even worse, a reason to quit. It's vitally important for you to teach your child to interpret mistakes as a chance to analyze and learn to improve their performance.

Many parents fear starting their ADHD child on stimulant medication. They fear that it will be a “gateway drug” leading to abuse of stronger drugs. Although stimulant drugs can be abused, ADHDers who use the medications as prescribed are actually less likely to abuse drugs than ADHDers who are not being treated.

Opioids are a serious problem for ADHDers looking for relief from ADHD symptoms like emotional dysregulation and hyperactivity. There are serious interaction effects with opioids and medications used for treating ADHD. There are also serious problems with addiction and death. The recent development of Fentanyl has increased these concerns.

Marijuana, drug of choice for the hippy generation is not now the same drug as it was because research has increased the potency by increasing THC. For ADHDers there are likely problems because marijuana causes difficulties with attention, memory and executive functioning. These are cognitive functions with which already have difficulties. The most common claim I’ve heard for using marijuana by ADHD patients is that it makes them feel relaxed.

Those of us of a cerrain age remember Dr Timothy Leary urging us all to”tune in, turn on and drop out” by using hallucinogens like LSD. Like many substances of abuse, there is not a tremendous amount of research. It is widely believed that hallucinogens were dangerous to some people and that they would have a bad trip and never come back to reality. Dr Leary’s contention was that tripping with hallucinogens opened up one’s mind to a higher level of consciousness. There are those that suggest that using LSD did indeed open their minds up to a higher level of awareness. There is, However, little research support for this contention.

Inhalants, such as aerosols and spray paints became popular in the 1970s and 1980s with the “huffing” craze. The craze more or less died secondary to the negative cognitive effects of repeated huffing, but it’s still around.

There’s not a lot of research on ADHDer’s abuse of sedatives. Like for every one they become dangerous when combined with alcohol. Informal views suggest ADHDers don’t like sedatives because they don’t stimulate.