Recently I discovered a doctor who offers a way of explaining ADHD that has helped me tremendously in my understanding of how the disorder effects the brain and giving me insights to help guide my practice in helping individuals who have ADHD. I summarized some of the key Ideas I gathered from him. His name is Dr. Russell Barkley and he has many videos on Youtube that provide helpful information for understanding ADHD and strategies to use to successfully manage challenges associated with having ADHD.
ADHD Explained: ADHD is really a disorder of executive functioning. It is a neurogenetic disorder that causes significant delay in acquisition of 5 key executive functions.
1. Waiting- Individuals with ADHD lack the ability to use their frontal lobe processing to “stop and think” before responding. They instead experience a stimulus and then have a response.
2. Visual Imagery (The mind’s eye)- In a neurotypical brain individuals first when responding to a stimulus use hindsight (imagery of the relevant past) and then foresight (imagery of potential future scenarios) to inform decision making. Individuals with ADHD lack this ability
3. Talk to Self (The mind’s voice)- Neurotypical individuals also use self-talk to work out situations and make a conscious choice to use self-control)
4. Motivate Self from within (The mind’s heart)- The individual with ADHD must have immediate consequences. This is why they can play video games for hours but not complete a worksheet. Video games provide constant consequences both positive and negative in real time. A worksheet does absolutely nothing when it is completed. Individuals with ADHD as part of the neurogenetic deficit lack a sense of time and only function in the here and now. This is not a choice or willful misbehavior, it is an internal neurogenetic executive failure that causes them to not self-motivate. This presents as an individual who is quick to anger, easily frustrated, or has elevated emotional response. It is a lack of ability to regulate emotions.
5. Problem Solving (The mind’s playground)- Individuals with ADHD lack effective problem solving ability. This also relates the fact they have no subjective sense of time. They cannot plan ahead effectively and lack the ability to see multiple future options. This presents when we see lack of emotional regulation or self-soothing ability as well as obvious lack in general to solve problems.
Additionally mixed in with all of this the brain of an individual with ADHD has little to no working memory. This is the memory that allows us to remember what we are doing at any given time. Once a child with ADHD gets distracted they are not able to remember what they were doing as a result of this deficit in executive function.
Please copy and paste the following link to learn more from Dr. Barkley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tpB-B8BXk0&list=PLO83EDv1M-xzW8gQd7QFw0z6Mi_ybyDeS&index=7