ADHD Roller Coaster: "Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?"
News and Essays about Adult ADHD, with author Gina Pera
You are currently browsing the archive for the ADHD Diagnosis Issues category.
A quick note to let you know that my book, Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?, is available as a download from Amazon.com for 
Kindle devices and Kindle applications for iPads, iPhones, PCs, and so forth. Just click on the book title above to go directly to the product page.
Please tell your friends in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom that the Kindle is available on Amazon.com in those countries. (This is the English version.)
Thank you for spreading the word.
Tags: Adult ADHD, Adult ADHD books, France, Germany, Italy, Kindle, Spain, UK
This morning, I had the pleasure of fielding some great questions from Totally.com community members in this webinar. (Note; there are a couple of commercials during the hour-long session, but they are pretty short!)
Having ADHD in the 21st Century means we enjoy a burgeoning body of knowledge as well as myriad media from which to access it. From books to blogs, videos to podcasts, there’s something for every learning style. Perhaps no one has made information available through more media types than Dr. Charles Parker. Here are some of my top picks from Dr. Parker’s YouTube Channel, with captions below each.
Summary: Why do so many people with ADHD experience problems with medication? One reason is not establishing targets before treating them. But there’s more to it….
ADHD Subset #1: “Acting Without Thinking” Many people think that impulsivity/hyperactivity is the only ADHD diagnosis and if the person is suffering from that, that’s a clear indication for medication. But impulsivity/hyperactivity represents only about 20% of the presenting issues. Moreover, it’s important to recognize that ADHD is a contextual challenge. When structure is good and variables are predictable, performance is better than when structure is poor and variables are unpredictable (think a structured workplace vs. home — just one of the reasons some people with ADHD become workaholics). In other words, just because you can focus on a video game doesn’t mean you don’t have ADHD.
ADHD Subset #2: “Thinking without Acting” : This can look like OCD if you don’t know what’s underlying this outer appearance. This is cognitive anxiety, not affective anxiety (thinking anxiety vs. feeling anxiety). You might not “feel” anxious but you might be overwhelmed with thinking. (This is often misdiagnosed as bi-polar disorder.) These folks might abhor therapy because they’re asked to think even more. (No more questions! I don’t need more to think about; my head is already about to explode!)
ADHD Subset #3: “I’m not going to think; I’m not going to act; please go away.”
Key concepts: Avoidance of self, avoidance of close relationships, avoidance of people in general (Looks like “social anxiety disorder” but the core issues are inattention and distractibility), avoidance of projects (too many unpredictable variables and lack of structure)
Before my friend Jack was diagnosed with ADHD, he used to call himself “Sluggo the Wonder Boy.” Highly educated, hard-working, and his heart set on big achievements, Jack still had problems around being, well, sluggish.
For example, when he sat in a chair, within five minutes he invariably slumped and slid until his head was on the back of the chair and his legs were stretched out, eyes half-closed unless something thoroughly grabbed his attention. It was a miracle of physics that he didn’t slide right onto the floor. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was chronically sleep deprived, but he slept well and regularly.
Only after ADHD was diagnosed and he began taking stimulant medication did he start sitting in a more erect and alert manner. Moreover, his pupils became fully visible. Finally, I could see that his eyes were a lovely shade of brown. Who knew?
Does Jack have a different type of ADHD? A sluggish type? I can’t say. But I can offer you this guest column from Robert F. Eme, Ph.D., on the possibility of a new type of ADHD that focuses on something called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: DSM for ADHD, Robert Eme, Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, subtype, Thomas E. Brown
There’s a cartoon floating around among my Facebook friends. One character says: “Come to bed, honey.” And the other character, at the computer keyboard, says, “I can’t. Someone is saying something wrong on the Internet, and I must correct it!”
For 10 years, I’ve resembled that character, rat-a-tat-tatting at my keyboard to counter fallacious information about ADHD on the Internet. The latest just this morning, which as both an ADHD advocate and responsible journalist, was too hard to resist. (If you’d like to skip my preamble, scroll to the end of this post to get to a recent CNN article and my response to it.)
And yes, it’s been a personal mission, though it hasn’t kept me up late at night and I aimed for surgical strikes, not omnipresence. As a writer and editor with a long-held reputation for fairness and accuracy, though, I’ve found this new “medium” of the Internet by turns extremely exciting yet unsettling. Read the rest of this entry »
This is perhaps the #1 question about Adult ADHD. To answer it, in part: I offer this adapted excerpt from my book, Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?.
This post includes the current DSM criteria for ADHD as well as the criteria proposed by Dr. Russell Barkley and colleagues for the upcoming DSM revision (you know it’s “not just for kids” when one diagnostic point involves driving!).
Please use the handy links above and below (see the “share” tool) to spread the word about how an evaluation for ADHD should be performed.
The Adult ADHD Diagnose-o-Meter
There is no single test to evaluate for ADHD. No computer test. No fill-in- the-blank test. No blood test or genetic test. These practical facts are commonly wielded by the anti-psychiatry fringe element as proof that ADHD does not exist. A-hem, just for the record, neither can you measure headaches, backaches, or many other maladies with a quiz, a blood test, or a genetic test.
More importantly, “You also cannot measure a person’s pain or suffering in life by clinical tests,” notes psychologist Thomas E. Brown, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and associate director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders.
It’s important to remember that ADHD symptoms essentially represent an extreme on a normal continuum of behavior that varies in the population, much like IQ, weight, or height. That’s why its diagnosis is not a cut-and-dried matter. To ascertain if a person is “over the line” on this continuum, the evaluating professional must gauge the severity of the symptoms and impairment. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ADHD diagnosis, DSM criteria for ADHD, new DSM criteria for ADHD, Russell Barkley, Thomas E. Brown
Do you have your grade-school report cards handy? These artifacts can be useful when it comes to being evaluated for Adult ADHD because the diagnosis requires evidence of symptoms in childhood. Case in point: the childhood reports (below) for San Diego-based psychotherapist and ADHD specialist Lew Mills, who has graciously agreed to share them here.
Such records aren’t mandatory, however, so when I hear from readers whose physicians demand such, I suspect these clinicians simply don’t want to (or don’t know how to) conduct a proper evaluation. In other words, it might be a stalling tactic. A wearing-you-down obstacle to diagnosis. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Adult ADHD, childhood report cards for diagnosis of ADHD, late-diagnosis ADHD, Lew Mills
Welcome to a new department here at the ADHD Roller Coaster blog: ADHD in the News Monthly Roundup. In this spot, you”ll find links and summaries to key ADHD-related news stories, starting now with the March 2010 headlines. (Please note: Some sources might require registration or a fee.)
Topics include: Vision therapy for ADHD, Adderall abuse on college campuses, sensory integration disorder, George Will’s opinion on the new DSM, requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health treatment, and more.
As always, your comments welcome!
Summary: An estimated 140 million Americans, most of them covered by employer-provided group insurance plans, are the beneficiaries of a new federal law designed to guarantee mental-health parity in insurance coverage. In other words, the brain is finally being acknowledged as a physical body part!
Excerpt:
Denise Camp was resigned to the double standard that had long applied to her medical bills, forcing her to skimp on other expenses so she could pay for mental health treatment. While visits to her internist for physical problems required a $20 co-pay, her weekly therapy sessions with a social worker cost $50 and trips to the psychiatrist who prescribed her medication were $75. A similar disparity applied to medicines: Drugs to treat the crippling depression that ended her engineering career cost her twice what she paid for an antibiotic. Click here to read the rest of the story.
Summary: To better understand the mechanisms of ADHD, particularly the dopamine pathway, scientists created genetically modified mice.
Excerpt:
Although it’s typically considered an adolescent curse, ADHD actually affects about five percent of adults as well. New research in a mouse model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder suggests that the root of the psychiatric disorder might be the over-activity of a protein that regulates dopaminergic pathways. The work suggests a path toward new treatments for symptoms including inattentiveness, over-activity and impulsivity. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adderall on college campus, ADHD in the News, ADHD news roundup, Judith Warner, mouse model for ADHD, sensory integration, teen brain
To watch a short interview on NBC’s The Today Show with preeminent ADHD research scientist Dr. Russell Barkley, click on the link above. He introduces the studies examining long-term outcomes of children diagnosed with ADHD. For details on this groundbreaking research by Dr. Barkley and colleague Dr. Mariellen Fischer, read ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says
TO LEAVE A COMMENT, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED!
Tags: ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says, Adult ADHD, Children with ADHD, Dr. Mariellen Fischer, Dr. Russell Barkley, Milwaukee Study, The Today Show, video
A physician with the World Anti-Doping Agency contends that ADD (as he calls it) is being overdiagnosed in major-league baseball. More importantly, it is over treated with medication. On what does he base this? The fact that he has rarely diagnosed the condition throughout his career.
Fail to see the logic? Me, too.
Just when I think this blog can move on to topics other than ADHD medical treatment, another flagrant show of ADHD ignorance makes the headlines. Being a big believer in speaking truth to misperception, I just can’t let it pass.
Besides, it’s pretty good timing. You know those physicians-in-denial-about-ADHD that Dr. Charles Parker wrote about last time? This physician serves as a good example. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ADHD and professional athletics, anti-doping, baseball, Scott Eyre
Recent Comments