Comments on: Understanding Adult ADHD

By: Dr Charles Parker

Dr Charles Parker — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 22:36:45 +0000

Thanks for this excellent article.

Many have concerns about the diagnosis and treatment for ADHD. The problems with ADHD treatments and meds circle around three essential themes.

The three main problems:
1. ADHD Diagnosis is superficial at best, based often on appearances, and not related to the many excellent peer reviewed findings in brain scans and brain research for more than 20 years. The DSM-4 is outdated in that it isn’t connected with brain science, and DSM 5 looks like it will provide no significant improvement with the perpetuation of these oversights: http://www.corepsych.com/2010/02/psychiatric-diagnosis/
2. Medication treatment strategies remain capricious, often whimsical, not based upon clear expectations or scientific data: http://www.corepsych.com/2011/05/adhd-medication-dosage/
3. Far too often drug interactions and comorbid conditions remain misunderstood, not identified and ineffectively treated: http://www.corepsych.com/2012/10/adhd-insights-lets-change-the-rules/

Many fresh answers arise with available, relatively inexpensive, data-driven tests that measure a multitude of comorbid biomedical conditions that interfere with medication treatment responses. Dopamine can’t treat serotonin problems, and serotonin can’t treat dopamine [ADHD] problems – in fact each one used incorrectly will make the other comorbid condition regularly worse – and even dangerous.

All these matters are explained in my new book “New ADHD Medication Rules – Brain Science & Common Sense.” In “New Rules” I agree: thousands are treated without considering either brain science or common sense.

cp
Dr Charles Parker
http://www.corepsych.com
“New Rules” here: http://www.bit.ly/rulesbooks

By: Grymma

Grymma — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:43:14 +0000

My husband is ADHD, and has a job where he can flit around the office from one task to the next as he has several ‘hats’ to wear, but it took him well into adulthood before he found that job and has been able to stick with it. For my daughter, now 18, the problem with her ADHD is that, to stay interested, work needs to be stimulating, with enough variety to keep her focussed. Unfortunately she also has Autistic Spectrum Disorder, which requires routine, routine, no surprises and routine! I can see that her finding a job after college is going to be quite difficult indeed.

By: Cameron Gott

Cameron Gott — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:51:18 +0000

Thank you for putting a human face on this condition. A reason only 1 in 4 adults with ADHD get support is because of the misconceptions and lack of understanding. ADHD knows no socio-economic or intellectual barriers. Smart, creative people can hide the overwhelm and “brain swirl” through shear effort. Unfortunately this effort comes at a great cost of added stress and the additional health challenges related to increased stress.

By: Noni Mausa

Noni Mausa — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:32:43 +0000

To my mind, it is the sneering of the dedicated disbelievers who constitute the nastiest part of being adult ADHD. Would they dare to tell the person with a club foot or a cleft palate that they could dance or sing if they just tried a bit harder? Or tell an Alzheimer’s patient that he is just faking his memory loss?

In my 60s I am in the unenviable position of having had “lots of potential” since grade school, never grasping why the projects I could see so clearly never came to fruition. Diagnosed at 58, I understand the problem now, but it’s way too late for me. But we can at least help the younger people who have their lives ahead of them.

By: Brenda Nicholson

Brenda Nicholson — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 01:39:09 +0000

Thank you for a well written article that vividly describes what having ADHD can be like for adults. And it’s true – many adults are not diagnosed until later in life. I found out myself at age 42 while I was having my daughter evaluated.

While I wince at the term “mental illness”, I suppose that it is technically correct since ADHD is considered a disability under Federal Law.

I do challenge the notion that children outgrow ADHD and that adults tend not to have hyperactivity. I believe that children, as they mature, learn to manage their symptoms more effectively and may appear to have outgrown their ADHD. Also, adults tend to be better at hiding their symptoms than children.

As far as the hyperactivity is concerned, again I believe that it is merely channeled differently, showing up as perhaps excessive talking or juggling too many projects at once.

Thank you again for an excellent article.