Adult ADD Myths: Fact or Fiction

MYTH: ADD is just a lack of willpower. Persons with ADD focus well on things that interest them; they could focus on any other tasks if they really wanted to.

FACT: ADD 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: Everybody has the symptoms of ADD, and anyone with adequate intelligence can overcome these difficulties.

FACT: ADD affects persons of all levels of intelligence. And although everyone sometimes has symptoms of ADD, only those with chronic impairments from these symptoms warrant an ADD diagnosis.

MYTH: Someone can’t have ADD and also have depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric problems.

FACT: A person with ADD is six times more likely to have another psychiatric or learning disorder than most other people. ADD usually overlaps with other disorders.

MYTH: ADD doesn’t really cause much damage to a person’s life.

FACT: Untreated or inadequately treated ADD syndrome often severely impairs learning, family life, education, work life, social interactions, and driving safely.

MYTH: Unless you have been diagnosed with ADD as a child, you can’t have it as an adult.

FACT: Many adults have struggled all their lives with unrecognized ADD impairments. They haven’t received help because they assumed that their chronic difficulties, like depression or anxiety, were caused by other impairments that did not respond to the usual treatments.

(Source: Dr. Thomas E. Brown, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults)

ADD/ADHD in Adults

Many people have a stereotypical picture in their head of what someone with attention deficit disorder looks like: hyperactive, loud, a whirlwind of energy and unchecked impulses. And let’s face it: it’s probably a kid they’re picturing in their mind’s eye. However, ADD / ADHD is not just a childhood disorder. Kids don’t simply grow out of ADHD, as if it’s a phase. In fact, the symptoms of ADD / ADHD typically get worse as children grow into adulthood and face life’s increasing pressures and demands.

Adults with ADD / ADHD struggle daily with self-regulation: regulating their attention, regulating their impulses in talking and action, and regulating their emotions. If you have trouble staying focused, getting organized, starting and completing your work, managing your time and money, and remembering all the little things in your daily life, you may very well be one of these people.

The chaos of living with unrecognized and untreated ADD / ADHD can take its toll: never-ending to-do lists, the stress of missed deadlines and forgotten appointments, aggravated friends and family members who just don’t understand why you can’t pull it together and self-recrimination over your lack of accomplishments.

The good news: life doesn’t have to be this way. Treatment can go a long way toward getting ADD / ADHD in check. But before you can manage the problem, you have to be able to identify it, starting with a thorough understanding of what ADD / ADHD looks like in adults.

(source: http://mitalk.umich.edu/adhd.php)

Questions for my patients

Are you exercising? (Please say yes, please say yes!). You should be exercising a minimum of 30 minutes five days a week. Remember, walking and swimming count.

Are you eating healthfully? Ask me for a heart healthy handout.

Have you had your yearly physical? Women, if you have had a hysterectomy, you still need a yearly physical with a bimanual exam.

Have you had your mammogram? Should be done yearly. Baseline mammogram at age 35 then yearly starting at age 40.

Have you had your prostate checked? Should be done yearly with a blood test and digital rectal exam.

Have you had your colonoscopy? Recommended at age 50 for colon cancer screening. Should get it done earlier if a family history of colon cancer or if any changes in bowel movements.

Have you had your pneumovax (pneumonia shot)? Should get it at age 65. Need to get it earlier if you have heart disease, diabetes, or any other major medical problem. It protexts you against the most serious type of pneumonia.

Have you had a tetanus shot within the past ten years? Ask me for one if you haven't.

There may be other things you need done if you have a family history of certain cancers or other medical problems. Ask me.