Activating the ADHD Brain
ADHD Education
Living with an ADHD brain, and coaching thousands of people with ADHD, has taught me so much and has led to my own, comprehensive definition — one that has been subsequently supported by scientific research.
What I learned in more than 15 years of exploration since my diagnosis was that the challenges of my ADHD — especially in the realms of attention and impulsivity — consistently showed up in those areas of tasks, activities, projects and even conversations that did not stimulate my interest.
Even when I tried to pay attention to something that lacked interest for me, the harder I tried the more my brain would struggle to sustain any kind of focus.
Over time, I became increasingly able to identify those situations that were not attracting my interest or naturally engaging me.
And I discovered repeatedly that those situations were going to consistently challenge my ability to pay attention and sustain my focus long enough to participate in a conversation or complete a project, for example.
I saw this pattern not only in my own life but also in the lives of my clients and students with ADHD. This disorder is inextricably tied to interest, and the connection made more sense to me than anything I had heard yet from doctors or therapists.
That intuition — eventually backed up by independent scientific research — brought me to the definition I rely on today, a definition in regular language that we can all understand.
This deficit occurs when the subject of focus simply isn’t stimulating enough to activate the brain’s attention center. When a person with ADHD is not automatically engaged with the topic or task at hand, it is going to be very difficult, maybe impossible, for the person to access their ability to pay attention or sustain their focus long enough to understand what has to be done.
How does interest work chemically in the brain?
ADHD is scientifically defined as a chemical imbalance of the neurotransmitter dopamine in certain parts of the brain. Interest is what stimulates the release of dopamine, the essential chemical messenger that helps get your pre-frontal cortex (PFC) going.
This is the part of the brain that has been extensively studied and where the challenges of ADHD are consistently identified.
It is the part of your brain that is responsible for your ability to pay attention, manage your resistance to acting on impulses (impulsivity) and control excess energy and activity (hyperactivity) both physically and cognitively.
The PFC also is the part of your brain that is responsible for managing your executive functions which include critical thinking, prioritizing, organizing, accessing and retrieving memory, communicating and more. An absence of stimulation in this part of the brain — again, stimulation created by interest — can impair the PFC’s ability to properly function.
These impairments can manifest as challenges of inattention, impulsivity and physical and cognitive hyperactivity. 479 words pages 15-16 Permission to Proceed
*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; [url=http://addca.com/adhd-coach-training/Permission-To-Proceed/ ]http://addca.com/adhd-coach-training/Permission-To-Proceed/ [/url];
