This post originally contained a link to my 2010 interview at the Healthy Place website. I emphasized the routinely poor medical treatment many adults with ADHD receive—and how everyone deserves better. Unfortunately, many of the interviews I did in the early days are no longer online. Companies change. Content is lost. Formats change (e.g. there was no YouTube then!)
Even with that early Healthy Place interview lost in the ether, I’d just like to go on record: I was educating about the poor state of medical treatment then and I continue to now.
New: Direct-to-Consumer Training
In fact, I recently expanded my online training to include Course 2: Physical Strategies.
The primary focus is sleep and medication—in-depth. This is the information your care providers and prescribers should know—and share with you. Unfortunately, too many remain in the dark. That means you don’t get the treatment you deserve.
In some cases, it can mean that poorly addressed ADHD issues increase your odds of chronic health conditions.
Culminating 22 Years Educating the Public
When I started this advocacy, 22 years ago, my overriding goal was creating awareness that Adult ADHD exists, that it’s a legitimate diagnosis. I figured that the next step for many of those newly diagnosed—that is, exploring medication strategies with an informed physician—would be relatively easy. Ha!
The reality was sobering—and shocking. In learning thousands of first-person stories, I so rarely encountered evidence that most physicians treating ADHD followed even basic guidelines. Sio many were winging it.
Seeing the “facts on the ground” motivated me to include three chapters on medication in my first book, Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?. It includes entire chapter on the medication protocol I produced in collaboration with a top ADHD medical expert, Margaret Weiss, MD, PhD.
That’s why a chief goal in writing my book was creating a grass-roots movement to improve treatment standards. The same for the details on evidence-based therapy strategies for ADHD. My book explained the details about the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy models for ADHD long before you read all the headlines.
The first version of this post appeared in 2010. Updated September 2022
4 thoughts on “The Side Effects of Poor ADHD Medical Treatment”
Great video. You come across very well indeed. Your passion and your unique perspective, being an expert and yet not a clinician, really helps the message get through, I think.
I loaned your book last Monday to a woman who had approached me about her possible ADD after I mentioned it in a group we are attending. Before this week’s meeting she told me that some things in the book were so pertinent to a friend’s troubled relationship that she bought the book on Amazon for her. She was going to call the friend (in Scotland BTW!!) to warn her that the book was coming when she found a voicemail message expressing deep gratitude for helping save her marriage!!
Pretty quick turnaround wouldn’t you say – for the ripple to travel across the Atlantic and back in less than a week!! Made my day!!
Thanks so much, David. What I lack in polish I hope I make up in sincerity — and facts. 🙂
Wonderful to hear about your friend. I wonder how that happened, given that it is such a “negative” book. lol!
Great video!! It would be great if this could be sliced up (or maybe create videos of your own) where you talk about what made you examine ADHD, the aspects of life that ADHD can have an impact on (driving, etc.).
One thing. I found your husband’s point that it takes about 20 years for knowledge to trickle down from known discovery to clinical practice…as…well…a depressingly long number of years. It explains why I was undiagnosed for the majority of my entire adult life despite years of therapy with numerous therapists.
Glad you liked it, Jeff! Coming from you and your viral-video fame, I am flattered. 🙂
I have planned for a long time to make some videos, but have just been too busy. Plus, I’ve never been one to put myself front and center. As a newsroom editor, I am accustomed to being behind a desk. Not to mention as the youngest of seven Italian kids, I could never get a word in edgewise!
But it’s on my list now. These issues are important and need to be in as many media types as possible. tx!