ADHD as a Gift or a Curse: Hallowell vs. Barkley - Part 2
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ก.ย. 2024
- This four-part video series centers on the widely held view that Dr Edward Hallowell and I have sharp disagreements or contrasting views on the nature of ADHD, with him viewing it as a gift and me seeing it as a curse or pathology. While largely mistaken, this view fails to appreciate the many ideas about ADHD we have in common. Yet there are a few ideas about ADHD on which we disagree. I also believe that there are multiple downsides to viewing ADHD as a gift or super-power.
Part 1 - Here I hope to give some background to this popular view of our opinions as being highly divergent.
Part 2 - In this short lecture I set forth the many areas of agreement between Dr. Hallowell and I on various aspects of ADHD.
Part 3 - Here I wish to concede certain points to critics of my opinions on ADHD, though I disagree with their accusations that I over-pathologize the disorder.
Part 4 - I discuss the several areas where I do disagree with some of the views expressed by Dr. Hallowell and why. I also discuss the several downsides that might potentially arise from viewing ADHD as a gift, super-power, or just awesome.
Gift or Curse - NEITHER, if diagnosed. But so long as undiagnosed, definitely a CURSE. I’m 61, just found out. Gifted child so my symptoms went unnoticed. Impaired adult. Succeeded in many ways despite the impairments via workarounds that I intuitively invented or practiced. But knowledge is power, and I spent 60 years asking myself, WTF is wrong with me? So many times I self sabotaged. Ugh. Now that I know, I know, and I’m already better functioning with meds and talk therapy.
same with me, found out at 50
Totally agree. I think my dad is AuDHD and gifted, but in denial (or with anosognosia, unable to understand it) and it's definetly a curse.
Glad you found out and progressing now.
41, found out AuDHD at 40. The only reasons I am as successful as I am today is due to the structure the military provided my entire adult life. Being Gifted got me through childhood. Getting diagnosed felt like getting the Rosetta Stone for "WTF is wrong with me". I wept, like full on sobbing when the meds started working. Everything was just SO EASY. I loved and hated it.
Hard agree, ADHD is not a Gift or Curse if diagnosed AND treated. Without knowing AND treating it, a fucking CURSE.
I'm really enjoying this. I coach ADHD adults and often introduce clients to both of your work, with a view to seeing different perspectives from people who agree on the science, and to relate and translate what makes sense for them.
Quick question though, did Ed Hallowell have anything to do with "ADHD is awesome"? I've seen, not read, the book but didn't see him listed as authour?
For me, I think that title is out of order and unhelpful. Many with ADHD could simply read that title and start to wonder where their superpowers are, fueling the negative self concept. I have ADHD myself and it took me many years to get control, which I did after a decade post-diagnosis. Both Ed and yourself helped greatly, in particular making is clear you must be a student of your ADHD and all the content you produce along with your research.
Thanks for this, it's a conversation i often have and I'm actively against labelling ADHD as an absolute gift or superpower, likewise it doesn't have to be a curse either.
I think the phenomenon of calling ADHD superpower and such things has to do with a seeking of novelty. We have a term for when good comes out of bad, silver lining. But when we ADHD'ers see the same thing again and again it becomes boring and must be made new and exciting.
I don’t know if he had any involvement with the book but he is quoted several times throughout it. I concur that the title of that book is a real problem.
You guys are a God’s gift to science and ADHD research! ❤
Thank you from Egypt.
A curse, I have missed so many opportunities and sabotaged myself too many timesto count.
As usual, thank you so much Dr Russell. Your talks are fantastic.
Thank you Russ! :)
Everytime this series shows up in my feed while scrolling, I read it as Halloween vs Barkley and I am kind of confused to not see Michael, Jason or Freddy on the thumbnail
Thanks for all your great work, I have an unrelated question (maybe for an upcoming video if you find it interesting): Is there any negative effect of having high vitamin c (supplements/food) alongside ADHD medication? I see it mentioned quite a bit online, from people saying their psychiatrist told them, to educational ADHD sites. I'd love to know if there's any real evidence.
Me too. Since hearing about it, I take my multivitamin a few hours after my ADHD medication. Also, I drink ginger/lemon water once or twice a day. Is that compromising my ADHD meds? Thanks, Dr Russ!
And thanks, @thewanderer37, for raising the issue.
From what I've seen debunking this, the effects of vitamin C on ADHD meds depend hugely on not just the type of medication (methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine etc) but also the brand. In essence, vitamin C has more of an effect on the delivery mechanism (the compounds used for the metabolism of the medication in the body) than the actual medication itself. It also varies from person to person, and if there is an impact on the effects of the medication it's extremely slight - sometimes the length of time the medication is in the blood stream is increased (by an hour at most), sometimes it's reduced, but essentially the impact is barely noticeable if there is one and there are far more significant factors than vitamin C in their effects on these medications.
Yes - Vitamin C increases stomach acidity, reducing the amount of medication that’s absorbed by the body.
It’s best to avoid drinking anything containing Vitamin C right before/after taking medication including, but not limited to, Adderall for this reason.
@@psyken_2321 Great comment. Thank you! 🙏
Hello, Dr. Barkley! I've watched many of the videos on your channel and I enjoy them a lot. In your video on time blindness you mention a time reproduction test that you administered to ADHD children for a study. I wrote a program to simulate such a test for myself and I was shocked at how bad I was at reproducing the time intervals. Forgive me if this is an obvious question, but one is not supposed to count to oneself during the test, correct?
I'd like to hear more about this Dr Barkley. That could be a really cool test to try (and I'm not saying diagnostically, more so that it would be cool for me to test if I'm wildly out of time as I keep burning my pots and pans)
We did not impose any restrictions on what they did while waiting for the interval to elapse. The greatest problem was not in telling us verbally how long the interval was but in reproducing that same interval length by turning on their own light bulb.
Thank you
All I keep hearing is "ADHD is an issue with executive functioning" and I don't understand what the CEO or Managing Director has to do with me losing track of time, or my keys.
To make a simplifying metaphor if the “manager” of your brain is constantly switching directives and losing records of meetings then the company might struggle to reach its goals. When you lose your keys or whatever it’s because the part of your brain taking notes isn’t recording them well and the “manager” makes it worse by having the meeting focused on a lot of disparate topics.
You nailed it. Great reply.@@guacamole6934
@@guacamole6934 I was kidding, but that's not a terrible metaphor.
My therapist friend explains executive functions like the characters from Inside Out but they are in business suits.....except with adhd they are asleep on the job a lot of the time
I'm on the curse side. My disorder is worse with perimenopause- to the extreme. I'd rather not have spent most of my life struggling just to exist.
EDIT: spelling.