Dr. Thomas Brown, renowned psychiatrist and ADHD expert extraordinaire has published a wonderful list of FACTS and MYTHS about ADHD that I think are very relevant to dispelling the stigma. I feel it is so important for us to be educated vs just making assumptions that so often are just plain false. I hope that this helps one reader to better understand what ADHD is all about. Then I will have been successful in writing this blog. MYTH: ADHD is just a lack of willpower. People with ADHD focus well on things that interest them; they could focus on other tasks if they really wanted to.
FACT: ADHD looks very much like a willpower problem but it isn't. It's essentially a chemical problem in the management systems of the brain.
MYTH:ADHD is a simple problem of being hyperactive or not listening when someone is talking to you.
FACT: ADHD is a complex disorder that involves impairments in focus, organization, motivation, emotional modulation, memory and other functions of the brain's management system.
MYTH:ADDers have overactive brains that need medication to calm down.
FACT: Under activity of the brain's management networks is typical of persons with ADHD. Effective medications increase alertness and improve communication in the brain's management system.
MYTH: Those who have ADHD as children usually outgrow it as they enter their teens.
FACT: Often ADHD impairments are not noticeable until the teen years when more self management is required in school and elsewhere.
MYTH: Unless you have been diagnosed with ADHD as a child you can't have it as an adult.
FACT: Many adults have struggled all of their lives with unrecognized ADHD impairments. They never received help because they assumed that their chronic difficulties, like maybe depression or anxiety, were caused by other impairments.
Very interesting...eh? It is really all about brain wiring and body chemistry. Definitely NOT a moral issue!
Feel free to spread the word!
.....And don't forget to have a productive day!
Coach Nancy