[Transcript]
A few weeks ago I got a chance to have lunch with the valedictorian of my high school graduating class. He got the very best grades of every graduating student that year, went to college on scholarship, and has since gone on to work as a software engineer at two successful tech startups. He is a smart guy and I have known him a long time.
Well it turns out that he is one of the many people in my life these days who have ADD also known as Attention Deficit Disorder or ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. I work at a private school these days, and a lot of the students I work with have ADHD, Autism, or various different neurological disorders. I also found out that both my supervisor and her supervisor have ADHD. Well, I didn’t know anything about ADD or ADHD so I decided to read a book about it and here is what I learned.
My name is Shaun McMillan and this is the Best Class Ever.
Is ADHD America’s Most Over-medicataed and/or Over-diagnosed Catch-all Disorder?
My first impression of Attention Deficit Disorder was formed when I heard one of the most popular TedTalks on education bring it up as an overly misdiagnosis of students in America. The speaker was saying that some students are creative, some like to dance, and some learn in different ways. But schools only want us to learn in one specific way, the way the Prussians designed education 200 years ago. Khan from Khan academy also spoke about this. So as an innovative educator who likes to focus on creativity in my classrooms, I figured if I ever have any trouble getting my students to focus in my class, I’ll just try to use various different creative ways to reach them. Because whatever I can find to work for them will likely also make my teaching more engaging for others as well.
How Could Someone with ADD Become Valedictorian?
To be honest, I was shocked when I read my friend and former classmate’s twitter feed and I saw him make a joke about getting his Adderall prescription fulfilled each month. He’s one of the most successful guys I know, and I have known him a long time. I would never have imagined that even he had any inability to focus.
The Symptoms
So when I asked him about it, and also by discussing with some of the students at the school I work at, I found out that there are various different ways in which this affects people’s ability to focus. It’s not so much that these students can’t focus. It’s that they tend to focus really intensely on one thing. In a lot of girls, and some boys they might tend to daydream in class or look out the window to see what’s going on outside instead of focusing on the teacher. Some are overactive and fidgety, needing to spend their excess energy which makes it hard to sit still for a long time. Some just love to engage in any kind of risky or stimulating behavior. So when you give them boring work to do they refuse to do it and start causing trouble in the classroom. Not because they’re bad kids, but because starting a fight is just a lot more fun than doing a boring worksheet. Especially if it’s a fight with the teacher in front of a large audience of peers. We all remember those energetic kids that loved to draw attention to themselves in class.
But not all are moody or overactive. Some just get caught up in their own world, or constantly look for something new to try. They tend to score poorly on short term memory tests.
Sound Familiar?
As my friend explained all of this to me I was suddenly reminded of the problems I had when I was in school and problems that I have had ever since. I distinctly remember being in 4th or 5th grade and being utterly confused to find all of my classmates working quietly with their heads down. I would often be surprised because I didn’t remember the teacher giving any instructions and I had to ask the student sitting next to me what on earth were we supposed to be working on right now?
I have always had a hard time remembering things that other people seem to have no problem with. For example I often got in trouble as a teenager once I began cooking, because even though I pulled my food out of the oven I often forgot to turn it off afterwards.
Even as an adult I got in trouble for leaving the church unlocked when I was the last one to leave. I found it really embarrassing when someone pointed this out to me, but even afterwards I made the mistake not once, not twice, but three times I made this mistake yet again even after giving myself such a hard time about it.
I’m so forgetful that I have to count how many items I bring anywhere I go, and then count the items on me before I leave. I never just set something down, because if I don’t keep all of my stuff together I know I’ll leave it behind. The best hoodie I ever had, I left at an olympic stadium in South Korea.
I was a waiter at 3 different restaurants but was a terrible waiter. I liked the work, I loved interacting with people, but I found it impossible to do so much multitasking. I like doing art because art allows me to focus intensely on one task and zone out. But even when I walk around I tend to think really intensely. So much so that my friends laughed at me in college. They said Shaun, Shaun, Shaun, and told me that once I turned to walk away, I often wouldn’t hear them calling my name. I was the only guy they knew who didn’t answer to my own name unless I saw them or they were shouting it. I am also extremely fidgety. I constantly need to twirl a pen in my hands or I will slowly but surely destroy my fingernails.
An Unofficial Diagnosis
Thinking about all of this I told my friend, “Oh my God. Maybe I have ADD?!?” He rolled his eyes and smiled, “Shaun, I’ve known you a long time. You almost certainly have ADD.” This was a revelation to me. It’s not every day you learn something about yourself so suddenly in your late thirties.
You know me, I had to read the book
Now to make it clear, I have not officially been diagnosed with ADD. But I did read an entire book about ADD titled, “Driven to Distraction,” by Edward Hallowell, a book recommended by my friend. I clearly have some of the symptoms, for instance I did perform really poorly on a short term memory assessment recently, I can be very forgetful which I mentioned before, I tend to focus intensely on my projects, and I always seem to be seeking novelty. And though I am extremely fidgety, I think maybe I am not so hyperactive, and I’m no longer quite so daydreamy. I do find it hard to focus if I have to sit still for long periods of time especially if I am not actively engaged, but hey, everyone is that way to some degree. But I am not moody or anxious.
Is ADD even real?
But the question is, does ADD really exist, or are we all ADD to some degree, just some of us much more so than others? It’s not yet a technical diagnosis like cancer or diabetes where we can clearly point out where in the body our biological systems are failing. We think ADD has to do with neurochemistry, which is still too complicated for us to sort out. The current theory is that people with ADD have lower levels of dopamine in their brain, which is a neurotransmitter that rewards behaviors. Dopamine is the required ingredient for epinephrine which is released when you get excited. Participating in dangerous activities releases epinephrine which helps your body gear for an extremely demanding challenge, so perhaps this is why overactive kids with ADD seek out dangerous activities. At least for myself, I know that I often seek out stimulation from learning something new. A lack of dopamine would explain this constant search for novelty.
Prescriptions
Adderall and Ritalin, the two most commonly prescribed drugs for ADHD, safely flood the brain with dopamine for a few hours. This stimulant makes most people feel really happy like a narcotic. But a lot of people with ADHD, it seems to have a leveling out effect. Instead of being extremely focused on the wrong thing and going down unnecessary rabbit holes, it allows the typical ADD kid to be a little more relaxed and maintain longer periods of focus like the other neuro-typical children around them.
I asked my friend about his prescription and he said that he doesn’t take it all of the time, only when he needs to direct his focus in a lot of areas when he is working on a large production at work. He said basically it is a performance enhancer. But it does have some side effects that he doesn’t like. It’s not addictive, but there is a short period of time for instance when your brain will produce even less dopamine after you stop taking it.
A Feature, Not a Bug
In fact my friend doesn’t even see having ADD as a bug, but as a feature in many cases. Bugs refer to errors in programming or broken aspects of games that were not intended by the programmer. But occasionally, programmers discover new features by what I like to call happy accidents. While people with less attention may not be so good at doing math in math class, and daydreaming a little more than we should, we are more creative and curious, constantly looking for new and more exciting ways of doing things. Perhaps having part of the population with a little more curiosity and tolerance for risk than the rest of the herd is part of humanity’s evolution, a way to constantly adapt to an ever changing world.
Make Awesome Daily Routines Your Superpower
While stimulants can help a hyperactive easily distracted student to act more normal, the other way one can deal with these issues is through regular exercise and daily life habits. Setting a lot of alarms, using timers, reminders, and tricks like counting how many items you bring into a house and counting them once again before you leave can help to circumvent the problems with short term memory. Exercise helps to regulate your neurochemistry, and simple life habits like keeping a daily schedule, structuring your day, and setting up automated reminders can more than make up for any shortcomings. In fact, my short term memory has become a super power, because I have learned to no longer rely on my memory, and instead I rely on to do lists, google calendar, timers, alarms, and extremely regimented routines. I am on time, all the time. This also saves me a lot of anxiety freeing up my mind to work on deeper more creative problems. I am not hyperactive in any harmful way, and I am certainly not moody so I do not think I will be taking any prescriptions any time soon. But at least now I know one more reason why I love exercise and strict scheduling so much.
It’s so funny to me looking back now, because the day I had this conversation with my friend was the same weekend that I published the lesson titled, “Beware the Evils of a To-do List,” in which I explain how scheduling can help to alleviate anxiety. It’s exactly the kind of solution that would appeal to someone with ADD.
To hear that lesson, learn more, or find any other previous lessons, visit me at www.BestClassEver.org
