The ADHD Industrial Complex

What's up, Cadre fam? Evan here, your resident mental health and addiction therapist. So here we are, two days in a row live. I had a makeup one to do. Anyways, today I wanted to talk about a topic. I wanted to switch it up a little bit, and I wanted to discuss something that's been widely talked about over the past couple years, and that is ADHD. And there's a lot of misconceptions out there about ADHD, and you probably hear a lot, and you've been hearing a lot more about it, and, you know, there's some controversy.

And so I thought I'd just break it down. And, you know, look, maybe you're like, what do I care about ADHD? Maybe you find it interesting from a psychological perspective. There's probably a good chance you have a friend or family member who has it, and you may know or you may not know. A lot of people have it, and they don't know they do. So I thought I would break it down a little bit and maybe talk about some of the controversies, perhaps even get my opinion on some of it. And that may be of help to you, a friend, family member, someone with ADHD.

So, first off, what is ADHD? So ADHD is what we call a neurodevelopmental disorder. Now, neurodevelopmental basically means, like, from birth, you know, development at birth, something that you are going to be born with. Stop it. And what up, Carrie? So neurodevelopmental disorders. So when you look at the diagnostic and statistical manual, right, of disorders, they actually do it in order of when a disorder would develop. Right. So another example of a neurodevelopmental disorder would be autism.

And there's some similarities there as well. Yeah. So it's basically a brain structure that's kind of what I look at it, is having a different brain structure. And some people maybe as a controversy, like, well, should we even classify this as a disorder? I mean, these are people with different brain structures. And it's known that people with ADHD often have, like, certain abilities and talents that other people don't as much. Right. Or they're just more likely to have certain talents that others who are what they would call neurotypical nowadays would.

So sometimes people refer to these things as, like, neuro atypical. Right. Having that different brain structure, functioning, pattern, whatever you want to call it. Right. So autism, adhd, dyslexia, that are associated with different behavior patterns. And so I think one of the reasons why we tend to classify it as a disorder is because it causes a lot of problems in that individual's life. Even though there may be some benefits, there tend to be a lot of downsides to having it. And, you know, for example, especially in children who maybe struggle with impulse control, hyperactivity, they really struggle in a school environment.

And for a kid, it's really important to be able to excel in that environment, to develop and learn and that kind of thing. So learning is very important for children, and sometimes that could be more difficult for them to learn in a more traditional environment. So they struggle in a traditional classroom. They may have different learning styles, and, you know, often people get misdiagnosed or, you know, they don't see it. It's usually the kids that are, like, very hyperactive, that it gets caught really quickly or highly inattentive.

Oh, what's up, Luke? We got the crew here, so. Yeah, so usually when children, it may be more severe, just more obviously, when they have ADHD as children. Now, what you're seeing is, like, a big push for identifying adult ADHD. And a lot more people are getting diagnosed because of the level of awareness that's out there. There's just a lot of social media, probably most of it driven by social media. There's a lot of social media content, not just from professionals, but people who have it. And it's really popular, and a lot of it's pretty good.

But the other side of that is a lot of people, like, are tending to, like, self diagnose. Because the thing is, with ADHD, you could have these, like, personality traits, and you could identify with those personality traits, right. Where you're like, oh, I'm like, hypersensitive to sound. Oh, yeah, I don't like these sounds. Or, like, you know, I hate doing mundane tests. Well, I hate doing mundane tasks. Right. But for people with ADHD, it's more dialed up. So Luke had a question here. Like, get this dark background.

Are there foods or things that heighten the effects of ADHD, like caffeine, etcetera, or is that a fallacy? You know, I would be hesitant to say that. You know, maybe there may be something like caffeine could increase someone's, like, impulsivity. I think there are people with ADHD who find that they want to drink more caffeine or need to, and that it could exacerbate the symptoms. But I don't know. I think everybody is different and that you have to get into some nitty gritty research on that, and it depends on who you ask.

There's some doctors that are more controversial, and they'll say, like, oh, if you have this type of ADHD, you should be on this type of diet. But I don't know. I'm very cautious when it comes to nutrition, nutrition research and stuff like that, you know, because it's constantly changing and contradicting itself. And everybody's body and mind are different. But I think there are some, like, principles that apply, and some of the principles would be like eating healthy. Right. You know, it's like, generally known, like, you don't want to do things that, you know, spike your blood sugar.

Right. And kind of, you know, get carbo loading. Crash. Right. And so that would probably be unhelpful for having a lot of different, you know, mental conditions or physical conditions. Right. So that could exacerbate some symptoms of ADHD or just, you know, you know, be burdensome in general, but it'd be something to look into more. I would just caution people to be very cautious when it comes to anything with nutrition, you know, and really get nitty gritty on the research if you're going to do that.

That's a really good question. So how does ADHD differ from anxiety? Okay, that's a good question. Now, it's interesting because people with ADHD have higher rates of anxiety. Why that is, I'm not necessarily sure. It's just a thing, right. So when we talk about neurodevelopmental disorder for ADHD specifically, it is a. And we're learning so much, and there's, like, new research on this, but it is basically a dopamine. They used to think it was just more of a deficiency, but it's not necessarily.

It's more of the way the dopamine system works. They thought it would be a underregulation of the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain that, like, thinks ahead. It's the more, like, human part that we have more so developed than animals where we can, you know, project into the future. We can make decisions now that will benefit us for the future. Right. And so for folks with ADHD, a lot of times it's in the here and the now, and the future is over here, and it just, like, doesn't even exist.

Right. So a lot of times they're doing things in the moment now, a couple things, you know, now, because of that brain structure, the dopamine system, perhaps that has an effect on someone's anxiety where they're more, like, ramped up. But I think a lot of times, from people who have it they report that they have a lot of anxiety because it's harder to manage life. Now. Think about people with ADHF have trouble, let's say, paying their bills or staying organization trouble managing finances. Right.

There's just some, like, deficits that, like, legitimately, folks with ADHD really struggle with. So if you are. Yes. Oh, thanks, Carrie. I mean, this is an area I'm like, I've become very interested in over the past, like, year or two. And I may or may not be someone who has it as well, but it's, where was I? See, theory of the train of thought. If you listen to me speak, you could kind of see how that happens where it's like, you kind of talk in these circles, right? But eventually I get back to the point, oh, yeah, we're talking about anxiety.

So anyway, a lot of times that anxiety comes from, you know, life management and it's kind of like, oh, s***, like, what decision did I make? Like a month ago? Like, when's the ball gonna drop? You know, it's like maybe you cut a corner or you, you know, it's like, okay, I didn't like you. You know, I was supposed to have this responsibility to do these, like, mundane and just reports or something. I had to type up these spreadsheets and reports and, you know, I've been not doing them and I've been kind of covering my tracks.

However, it's piling up. Right. Let's say, like, I've seen it with, like, mental health professionals with, like, charting where it's like, hey, I'm really good at the, like, hey, I'm talented. I'm not saying me, but, like, maybe me, but it's like, I'm very, I'm talented at working with clients in the interpersonal and I'm a great therapist or I'm a great medical, I've seen this too with friends. You know, like, I had a friend who was a doctor. He was a family medicine physician. And he was, like, kind of getting towards retirement.

I mean, he'd been doing it a while, but he really struggled with managing the paperwork and it became, and it caused him a lot of anxiety because it was piling up. And so, you know, he really, like, needed help and eventually he, like, kind of asked for some accommodations because again, it's like this mounting thing piling. And I've seen that people, like, I haven't done my charting, you know, in months and months. Of course, things like that will give anxiety. I would guess. There's probably both the practical reasons and potentially some other disorders that associate, like depression, anxiety, actually, people with autism are more likely to have ADHD and vice versa.

So it is comorbid. It occurs more often with other disorders. So that's why it's another thing. It's a really big struggle. So other things, things that people with ADHD report is sensitivity, and they call it ras reactive. I keep on saying, like, reactive attachment disorder. That's rad. But I don't know, it's just kind of something they came up with. But RSD rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria, right? So this really hyper awareness, a hyper vigilance towards feeling like you're being rejected, difficulty taking criticism, taking things, like, very personally.

And so that could be really hard, and it could be hard for people's relationships. And then also people with ADHD, often, they can often drive people in their life a little bit crazy. They tend to be more fun in general. And this is my experience, right. Folks with ADHD are, you know, they're spontaneous. They tend to be fun. They tend to have a very good sense of humor. They can be really funny. They're good talkers. But, you know, sometimes there's those deficits. I kind of call it like the swiss cheese brain, where it's like this great tasting, amazing cheese, but there's kind of, like, holes in it, you know?

So it's like, you know, it could be very black and white, but so it could make people a little crazy. Like when you're disorganized, like when you're late, you know, if you're running late all the time, sometimes, like in a work setting, that could really cause a lot of, you know, people who are neurotypical to be frustrated with the things that they struggle with, because it's kind of like, why can't you just do this? Why can't you just do this report? Why can't you just show up on time, right?

You forget people's birthdays. You know, it's like you're kind of living in this space world. And so sometimes it could, you know, it could cause trouble in relationships and romantic relationships. Sometimes folks could come off as, like, selfish, you know, sometimes childish, sometimes, you know, you know, you're forgetful, right? So again, you forget birthdays or you forget. And so people, you know, I think a lot of times people mischaracterize folks with ADHD as being, like, uncaring. You know, they'd be like, well, you forgot this.

You don't think about this where, you know, deep down they do. They just have trouble organizing and managing, you know, multiple things. And I think with, you know, also how the way, you know, our modern society is structured, including social media, it becomes harder and harder because there's more you have to keep track of, and that's fragmented. And my phone bill and this and my insurance and, you know, all these things that, these, like, mundane tests. People with ADHD hate mail. That's one.

Laundry. That's a tough one. Laundry mail, you know, there's just certain little things that a lot of people, you know, and again, you may be like, I don't like laundry. And that's kind of where sometimes people get a little in a little bit of trouble, where they start to relate these very normal experiences. Like, who likes opening mail? Maybe some people are like, oh, yeah, I get my letter opener and I open it, da da da. But most people probably don't like that. Most people probably don't love doing laundry.

But for folks with ADHD, it's things that are taken to extremes where they will go down to the last pair of underwear and flip them inside out, you know, because it just, you know, they avoid it like the plague. So it's really, I mean, it's really interesting. It's, like, other thing, like, working struggles with, like, working memory. They could be, like, very good at certain things. Like, so let's talk about. Okay, so we talked about all these, like, negatives. All right, so let's talk about some of the positives.

So, you know, folks with ADHD often have, like, a really good verbal intelligence. They are highly creative. Their mind just works in a different way. They're often extremely good problem solvers. They're able to kind of see solutions to problems that others aren't. They think quick, right? I mean, they could, like, run 50 different scenarios in their head in, like, seemingly a second and kind of come up with this creative solution to problems, right? A lot of times, their processing speed is very fast of certain things, like, in, like, verbal language, like, they're kind of, like, a lot of times, someone with ADHD will, like, space out a lot because they're, like, bored with you talking at a normal pace.

I kind of think of it like a fly, you know, it's like when you try to, you know, like, this year, I had a ton of flies for some reason. Like, and they would always be in my office here and drive me nuts. And you try to hit them, right? And it's like, basically they see you in slow motion and they get away every time because, like, you're just, like, to them where you think you're going really fast, right? But for someone with ADHD, they're often just like, they'll lose focus just because you're talking too slow.

So, you know, very quick processing speed in certain areas. Right. Getting the swiss cheese in some areas, like amazingly so, and others not at all. But, yeah, high, high levels of creativity. Artists, they make often very good artists, but folks with ADHD actually excel in a lot of environments if they're able to use their talents. And folks with ADHD, you know, have to kind of learn coping skills to kind of polish the rough edges, right? So, for example, like, there's some very specific, typical things folks with ADHD will, you know, do that.

They find, you know, it's like they have to put everything in a calendar. You have to put everything on a list, right? It has to be like a tactile list. You know, maybe people do online, but, like, are electronic, but there are these things that you have to do to stay organized that you don't necessarily want to do. But if you're able to get in the habit of doing that, you tend to succeed a lot better because you're rounding those rough edges, you're filling the holes of the swiss cheese, and you're able to be more successful because a lot of times, folks with ADHD may be very talented, but if they can't harness some of these things, then they're going to really struggle.

They'll struggle in a work environment and they won't really reach their potential, and it could be really sad and they could struggle in their relationships. And a lot of times people have this. They don't even know it. They don't have the language. They don't know that it is ADHD. That's why it could be really important to get diagnosed. But honestly, I think I just, you know, in the last 1520 minutes or so, however long this has been going on, I scratched about 10% of what I wanted to talk about.

But, you know, Luke and Carrie had some great questions. And, you know, sometimes as I start to talk about these topics or I write a script for a video or something, I'm like, oh, like, this could be like ten videos. So maybe. Maybe we'll stretch this one out a little bit. But I think in this video, really, we're breaking down what is ADHD and what are some of the struggles people have with it, but also, what are some of those positives that we talked about? But, I mean, I think maybe next time I could throw another live up and talk about kind of what next.

Like, what are some of the different treatments? You know, I talked about some of the different coping behaviors that we work with people on, but, you know, we didn't talk about medications, which is the primary mode of treatment for someone with ADHD. Right. And some of the controversies with medications and the different beliefs that are out there. So maybe we'll break that down next time. We'll just do a brief review at the beginning. But anyways, yes, I think I'll leave it there. We gotta move on to the next thing.

But that was awesome. Thanks for the good questions and stick around. I'll throw another live up, and we'll do part two of the ADHD industrial complex. All right, folks, that was awesome. I hope you have a great rest of your day. And until next time.