ADHD 2.0 : New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction—From Childhood Through Adulthood

by Edward M. Hallowell

Having a metaphorical lightning rod and weather vane. For whatever reason, people with ADHD often are lightning rods for whatever can go wrong: being the one kid caught with weed when twenty others had it; the adult or kid who gets scapegoated, blamed, and disciplined more than anyone else; the one who disrupts the family event, or business meeting, or class discussion without meaning to.

the internal, inborn weather vane leads the person with ADHD to be the first to sense a shift in mood or energy in the group, the class, the family, the organization, the town, the country. Before others catch on, the person with ADHD is telling others to watch out, there’s an ill wind brewing; or to get ready,

you truly do not see the role you play in the problem.

people with ADHD usually have a self-image that is far more negative than is warranted.

this “distorter” can create one of the most painful aspects of ADHD, which is very low self-regard.

We suffer shame as we misread ourselves and misread others’ responses to us. We hold back on opportunities and relationships out of that shame, as well as fear and misunderstanding.

Scientific estimates suggest that between 5 and 10 percent of people are born with some combination of the characteristics we have just listed. This number represents those of us born with ADHD. As such, it is actually recognized as one of the most heritable conditions in the behavioral sciences.

If one parent has ADHD, the risk is one in three that a given child will have ADHD. If both parents have ADHD, the risk is two in three for a given child.

In addition to genetics, we’ve also known for a long time that certain environmental stressors can cause ADHD, most notably head injuries or lack of oxygen at birth, early infections, or any other brain insult. (A “brain insult,” by the way, is not someone telling you that you have an ugly brain, but your brain’s function being in some way interfered with such as by fever, toxins like lead or mercury, or trauma.) We’ve also known that a mother’s being obese or drinking alcohol, using drugs, or smoking cigarettes during pregnancy can raise the risk of the baby’s developing ADHD.

another risk factor we might add to the list: magnetic field non-ionizing radiation (MFR), which comes in two forms, low frequency and high frequency. Low frequency MFR comes from, among other sources, power lines and kitchen appliances. High frequency MFR, the newer one, comes from wireless networks and cellphones. Stay tuned…

Beyond the sources of biologically based ADHD, there are a lot of people who act as if they have ADHD but on close inspection turn out not to have the diagnosable condition. These are the people who have ADHD-like symptoms caused by the conditions of modern life. Their “ADHD” is a response to the massive increase in stimuli that now bombard our brains and our world.

The massive behavioral conditioning we’ve all been undergoing since the advent of ubiquitous electronic communications technology has changed us radically.

Modern life has trained our brains to go faster and faster, to do more and more, to receive and transmit 24/7, and to require constant stimulation—be it from movies, TV, conversation, even news, as well as the minute-to-minute living of our lives. Most of us can go no more than a few seconds without looking for a screen. Modern life compels these changes by forcing our brains to process exponentially more data points than ever before in human history, dramatically more than we did prior to the era of the Internet, smartphones, and social media. The hardwiring of our brains has not changed—as far as we know, although some experts do suspect that our hardwiring is changing—but in our efforts to adapt to the speeding up of life and the projectile spewing of data splattering onto our brains all the time, we’ve had to develop new, often rather antisocial habits in order to cope. These habits have come together to create something we now call VAST: the variable attention stimulus trait.*2

Technically, there is no longer any such thing as ADD. You can only have ADHD.

If you have at least six out of nine symptoms on the axis of inattention, but not on the axis of hyperactivity and impulsivity, then you have ADHD, predominantly inattentive. This is what used to be called ADD. If you have six out of nine symptoms on both axes, then you have ADHD, combined type. And if you are one of the extremely rare people who has symptoms only on the axis of hyperactivity and impulsivity, then you have ADHD, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive.

Passionate; zealous; idealistic; will sacrifice everything for a cause or a friend

Meticulous at times, especially on projects that matter a great deal

Can get a lot done in a short amount of time

An appreciation of the offbeat, unusual, unconventional

Dreamer par excellence; visionary; lives on wings of imagination, flights of fancy

Honest to a fault; will say what others don’t dare to say; outspoken; blunt

Intense desire to be free and independent, own boss; master of own fate

Naturally creative; ideas pop all the time like in a popcorn machine

Naturally curious; always wanting to know who, what, where, why, and how; never satisfied until he or she gets the answer

Easily distracted by novelty or any puzzle, conundrum, unsolved problem, or beguiling opportunity, however irrelevant it may be

Full of ideas

So many ideas they choke the growth of any single one

Decisive; can make an important, complex decision ...

Initial surge of excitement over new plan, deal, idea, project, relationship

Excitement peters out in the middle phase; trouble sustaining interest

Takes responsibility; gets done what nee...

Tenacious; never gives up; will literally collapse before quitting

Original; sees solutions others do not; comes up with novel ideas

Can seem whacky, eccentric, even crazy; can put people off by being too offbeat and arrogant

Extremely hardworking

Lightning-quick mind

Risk taker; focuses and performs best in situations of crisis and danger

Sees the big picture before anyone else

Trouble with implementation and sweating the details

Generous; bighearted; willing to give with no expe...

Secretly lonely; feels no one really knows him

Innovator

Can’t/won’t follow in...

Supremely talented in several domains

Seriously limited in several domains

Hates the position of leader; worries he or she will let everyone down; unaware of his or her own charisma

Loves debate, conflict, sparring Intimacy can be difficult unless partner likes these as well

He spends chunks of time—fifteen minutes here, an hour there, sometimes an entire Saturday morning and even longer—brooding. Troubling, jagged thoughts, images, ideas, and feelings pop up unimpeded in his mind like rocks in a river’s current as he desperately tries to steady his mental raft. They keep on coming, smashing against his mind over and over while he bravely tries to survive another trip down the relentlessly moving rapids within.

This horrible ruminative process is as much a routine part of Hank’s life as brushing his teeth or commuting to work. Only it lasts longer and it produces only pain, no gain.

Now forty years old, Hank is underachieving at work, not because he lacks talent—he has talent coming out his ears, as his boss said—but because he “just can’t get his act together,” to quote his exasperated wife.