Research Reveals ADHD is a Deficit of Interest
ADHD Education
Interest is defined as that which authentically engages your brain. ADHD is a deficit, or challenge, of interest.
At ADDCA we have been referring to ADHD as a challenge of interest since the school’s beginning in 1998. Research has now emerged to support that idea, including an important eight-year study released in September 2009.
Dr. Nora Volkow, a renowned researcher and director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, led a team that studied 53 adults with ADHD who had never been treated or medicated for the disorder. A control group consisted of 44 healthy people without ADHD.
Over eight years, the team collected detailed brain images that showed: How people with ADHD process the chemical dopamine differently than others How they display lower-than-normal levels of certain proteins essential for experiencing reward and motivation And most significantly, how they cannot generate the same degree of enthusiasm as other people for activities they don’t automatically find appealing or interesting
Dr. Volkow’s research was a bombshell and revolutionized the way many people in the field thought of ADHD. But many of us with ADHD already knew this last claim to be true: ADHD is not only a challenge of attention but also a deficit of interest.
Understanding this connection between interest and attention can help you manage your attention better. You can experience the forward momentum necessary to complete more tasks and assignments and, in the process, boost your self-esteem.
When you know that interesting tasks will turn on your brain’s engine (and that mundane, boring tasks will have the opposite effect), you can proactively shift your priorities, focusing first on those tasks that interest you, to gain the momentum you need to tackle more challenging tasks.
*An excerpt from the book: Permission to Proceed, The Keys to Creating a Life of Passion, Purpose and Possibility for Adults with ADHD, by David Giwerc, Founder/President, ADD Coach Academy, Master Certified ADHD Coach, MCAC, MCC
