Hi, Dr Barkley. According to the CDC data (march 2023), the autism prevalence is now 1 in 36. And not only children are autistic! I'm autistic and ADHD, and a brazilian content creator, and i love your work. You helped me a lot, and I'm writing my next video based on your article about the role of self regulation and executive function in ADHD
I appreciate your content and its usually very well researched and empathetic to people with the conditions, but I think you should look more into the newer information about ABA specifically. The goal of ABA is not to reduce distress for the autistic person, but to make them fit into social conventions to outside observers regardless of negative effects on the actual autistic person. Many of the techniques used are based on behavior conditioning and can be incredibly traumatic. It focuses on using sensory supports as rewards for neurotypical behavior, instead of a tool to cope with the autistic persons sensory needs. The autistic community (actually autistic people) are generally against ABA, as seen in ASAN(Autistic Self Advocacy Network)'s public stance, and many accounts of ptsd resulting from this "therapy". People generally recommended occupational therapy as an alternative that actually addresses the sensory and motor difficulties experienced by autistic people.
Dr. Barkley, These lectures are beneficial. I feel like I am in your class and learning a lot. I hope I will be able to apply this when treating children here in Nepal where we have very limited resources for children with ADHD.
As an adult i often find myself up and pacing at all sorts of odd hours. I’ll be watching music videos or some other youtube videos playing on my phone at the same time. Theres some train of thought i am completely latched onto. Some nights this will go on for well over an hour. Its not that i’m not tired, on the contrary i am so completely mentally tired i cant rip myself away. The later i stay up trying to be productive the more likely i am to find myself taking this detour on my way to bed. I’m not entirely sure how to explain what i’m thinking about other than that i definitely dont feel that its a total waste of time, and it feels relaxing on some level to do this. But i’d usually rather be doing something else especially when its cutting into my sleep so badly
I'm 40, and I've had trouble sleeping my whole life because my mind is so busy. Even as a child. I found my solution by accident a few years back: I need outside stimuli. Not sounds or music, because that' background noise. I need stories or podcasts or something like that. I had kept my phone out of the bedroom for all this time, but it turned out that the phone was actually the right tool to fix me.
Thank you Dr Barkley. Until I see a practitioner in my area your lectures help me a lot. I will try Melatonin together with my general practitioner. And I will keep in mind not to transition too harshly into an environment that's calm. I guess that was really one of the issues. If it's calm all of a sudden, I either feel the need to move or my mind is racing or rather both. Will keep your words in mind
I feel extremely lucky to have come across your channel this early and I'm glad you've decided to dedicate your time to spreading further awareness. I have a few questions if you don't mind. First of, I didn't know LDs are so closely correlated with ADHD. Considering it accounts for essentially 80% of the variance, if a child has difficulty with math or spelling due to a LD then the subsequent course of action would be screening for ADHD, correct? Do you plan to talk about atypical presentations of ADHD? You discuss comorbidity a lot but I don't think I've heard you talk about how it can affect/hinder the diagnostic process too much. I might be wrong though. I'm curious as to how comorbid disorders can influence the presentation, anxiety and stress related disorders in particular. I did see that you posted a video on ADHD and ASD but I'm yet to watch it. And just one more thing, please be careful about recommending "treatments" such as ABA therapy. While research may find it effective, it only really helps mask the symptoms such as stimming which are not even symptoms but coping mechanisms helping alleviate sensory overwhelm (there's obviously more to it but let's not make this comment too long). Suppressing them can be deeply traumatic not to even mention all sorts of other ethically questionable practices. I can't say I'm familiar with research on this issue but here's an article that gives some insight: www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23311908.2019.1641258?needAccess=true&role=button Thanks in advance!
Thanks for your observations, Oscar, in your other comments. As for atypical presentations of ADHD, I will later post a lecture on the other attention disorder often misdiagnosed as ADHD, which was called sluggish cognitive tempo. it was renamed Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome in an article at the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry last October or so. The article is available as Open Access on their website. its a fine review of what is known about this other disorder.
I really appreciate the amount of work you're putting into this - it's great to have all this in one accessable location. Thank you so much!
My pleasure. So glad you like the channel.
Thanks, K. Glad you enjoyed it. That was very kind of you to Reply.
Hi, Dr Barkley. According to the CDC data (march 2023), the autism prevalence is now 1 in 36. And not only children are autistic!
I'm autistic and ADHD, and a brazilian content creator, and i love your work. You helped me a lot, and I'm writing my next video based on your article about the role of self regulation and executive function in ADHD
I appreciate your content and its usually very well researched and empathetic to people with the conditions, but I think you should look more into the newer information about ABA specifically. The goal of ABA is not to reduce distress for the autistic person, but to make them fit into social conventions to outside observers regardless of negative effects on the actual autistic person. Many of the techniques used are based on behavior conditioning and can be incredibly traumatic. It focuses on using sensory supports as rewards for neurotypical behavior, instead of a tool to cope with the autistic persons sensory needs. The autistic community (actually autistic people) are generally against ABA, as seen in ASAN(Autistic Self Advocacy Network)'s public stance, and many accounts of ptsd resulting from this "therapy". People generally recommended occupational therapy as an alternative that actually addresses the sensory and motor difficulties experienced by autistic people.
Dr. Barkley, These lectures are beneficial. I feel like I am in your class and learning a lot. I hope I will be able to apply this when treating children here in Nepal where we have very limited resources for children with ADHD.
As an adult i often find myself up and pacing at all sorts of odd hours. I’ll be watching music videos or some other youtube videos playing on my phone at the same time. Theres some train of thought i am completely latched onto. Some nights this will go on for well over an hour. Its not that i’m not tired, on the contrary i am so completely mentally tired i cant rip myself away. The later i stay up trying to be productive the more likely i am to find myself taking this detour on my way to bed. I’m not entirely sure how to explain what i’m thinking about other than that i definitely dont feel that its a total waste of time, and it feels relaxing on some level to do this. But i’d usually rather be doing something else especially when its cutting into my sleep so badly
Amazing work - thank you! Neuropsychologist from Australia here! 🎉
I'm 40, and I've had trouble sleeping my whole life because my mind is so busy. Even as a child. I found my solution by accident a few years back: I need outside stimuli. Not sounds or music, because that' background noise. I need stories or podcasts or something like that. I had kept my phone out of the bedroom for all this time, but it turned out that the phone was actually the right tool to fix me.
Thank you Dr Barkley. Until I see a practitioner in my area your lectures help me a lot. I will try Melatonin together with my general practitioner. And I will keep in mind not to transition too harshly into an environment that's calm. I guess that was really one of the issues. If it's calm all of a sudden, I either feel the need to move or my mind is racing or rather both. Will keep your words in mind
Excellent video
I feel extremely lucky to have come across your channel this early and I'm glad you've decided to dedicate your time to spreading further awareness.
I have a few questions if you don't mind. First of, I didn't know LDs are so closely correlated with ADHD. Considering it accounts for essentially 80% of the variance, if a child has difficulty with math or spelling due to a LD then the subsequent course of action would be screening for ADHD, correct?
Do you plan to talk about atypical presentations of ADHD? You discuss comorbidity a lot but I don't think I've heard you talk about how it can affect/hinder the diagnostic process too much. I might be wrong though. I'm curious as to how comorbid disorders can influence the presentation, anxiety and stress related disorders in particular. I did see that you posted a video on ADHD and ASD but I'm yet to watch it.
And just one more thing, please be careful about recommending "treatments" such as ABA therapy. While research may find it effective, it only really helps mask the symptoms such as stimming which are not even symptoms but coping mechanisms helping alleviate sensory overwhelm (there's obviously more to it but let's not make this comment too long). Suppressing them can be deeply traumatic not to even mention all sorts of other ethically questionable practices. I can't say I'm familiar with research on this issue but here's an article that gives some insight: www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23311908.2019.1641258?needAccess=true&role=button
Thanks in advance!
Thank you. I hope we can achieve that goal
Thanks for your observations, Oscar, in your other comments. As for atypical presentations of ADHD, I will later post a lecture on the other attention disorder often misdiagnosed as ADHD, which was called sluggish cognitive tempo. it was renamed Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome in an article at the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry last October or so. The article is available as Open Access on their website. its a fine review of what is known about this other disorder.
We all need a dopamine detox