Healing ADD Quotes

“Distractibility. People with ADD tend to notice more in their environment than others, which makes them easily distracted by outside stimuli, such as light, sounds, smells, certain tastes, or even the clothes they wear. Their keen sensitivity causes them to get easily off task.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Rule #2. Drink plenty of water and don’t drink your calories. Your brain is 80 percent water. Anything that dehydrates it, such as too much caffeine or alcohol, decreases your thinking and impairs your judgment. Make sure you get plenty of water every day. To know you are drinking enough water for your brain, a good general rule is to consume half your weight”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“energy and concentration. For most people with ADD, the right diet is a higher-protein, higher-healthy-fat, lower-simple-carbohydrate diet.” I was able”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Like a muscle, the more you use your brain, the stronger it becomes and the more it can do. The opposite is also true: The less you work it, the weaker it becomes. Repeatedly engaging in “no brain” activities, such as TV, decreases a person’s ability to focus. In addition, the pacing of TV has changed over the past thirty years. Thirty years ago a thirty-second commercial had ten three-second scenes. The same commercial in 2000 has thirty one-second scenes. We are being programmed to need more stimulation in order to pay attention.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Whenever you blame someone else for the problems in your own life you become a victim of that other person and you have no power to change anything. Without a sense of personal power people often feel overwhelmed and hopeless.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Education about ADD—its impact on home, school, family, and the self—is the first step in treatment. The more accurate information you have the more likely you are to get the best help. Robert Pasnau, M.D., past president of the American Psychiatric Association, said that coping requires three things: information, self-esteem, and a sense of control. Obtaining accurate information is the critical first step in treating this disorder.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Sensitivity to Noise At the same time the ADD person may also be sensitive to noise. They often need to escape from others to feel calm or peaceful inside.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“There were brain-imaging studies that suggested there was overactivity in the anterior cingulate gyrus in patients who had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). There was a SPECT study in 1991 reporting that Prozac decreased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus in OCD patients. I saw hyperactivity in the anterior cingulate gyrus in many patients who did not have OCD. But I noticed a common thread with OCD. Patients had trouble shifting attention. Researcher Alan Mirsky wrote a book chapter highlighting the anterior cingulate area of the brain as being involved with shifting attention. In Robbin, Kaitlyn, and many of my patients who had too much activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus I saw this problem of shifting attention: there was a certain cognitive inflexibility that was evident in many of their symptoms. Could it be possible that oppositional children had a similar underlying brain mechanism found in OCD? I was intrigued. Over time the finding proved to be true. When there is increased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus a certain cognitive inflexibility is present. This can present as many different symptoms, but the underlying mechanism, trouble shifting attention, remains. The symptom list at the beginning of the chapter is a compilation of what we have seen in these patients. The anterior cingulate area of the brain is heavily innervated with serotonin neurons. We have also found that serotonergic medications seem to be the most helpful in this disorder. The Anterior Cingulate Gyrus”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“etc. In the APA program abstract Dr. Jaeger wrote, “Regardless of the initial diagnosis, patients who underwent brain SPECT prior to, or during, psychiatric hospitalization had markedly shorter stays than controls. As demonstrated by this clinical database (two thousand patients), brain SPECT may lead to more effective, shorter, safer, and less expensive diagnostic and treatment modes in children and adolescents with suspected neuropsychiatric illness.” His experience completely dovetailed with mine. I wondered, “How can we not look at the brain?” Cardiologists look at the heart, orthopedic doctors have X-rays to examine bones, gastroenterologists look at the gut, pulmonologists look at the lungs, every other medical specialist looks at the particular organ they treat. And, we deal with the most complicated organ in the body. How can we treat it without having any information on how it functions? Psychiatrists are the only medical specialists who never look at the organ we treat!”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“etc. In the APA program abstract Dr. Jaeger wrote, “Regardless of the initial diagnosis, patients who underwent brain SPECT prior to, or during, psychiatric hospitalization had markedly shorter stays than controls. As demonstrated by this clinical database (two thousand patients), brain SPECT may lead to more effective, shorter, safer, and less expensive diagnostic and treatment modes in children and adolescents with suspected neuropsychiatric illness.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Chronic insomnia triples your risk of death from all causes and is a common problem with people who have ADD.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“In general, poor PFC function leads people to make repetitive mistakes. Their actions are not based on experience, or forethought, but rather on the moment. The moment is what matters. This phrase comes up over and over with my ADD patients. For many people with ADD, forethought is a struggle. It is natural for them to act out what is important to them at the immediate moment, not two moments from now or five moments from now, but now! A person with ADD may be ready for work a few minutes early, but rather than leave the house and be on time or a few minutes early, she may do another couple of things that make her late. Likewise, a person with ADD may be sexually attracted to someone he just met, and even though he is married and his personal goal is to stay married, he may have a sexual encounter that puts his marriage at risk. The moment was what mattered. In the same vein, many people with ADD take what I call a crisis management approach to their lives. Rather than having clearly defined goals and acting in a manner consistent to reach them, they ricochet from crisis to crisis. In school, people with ADD have difficulty with long-term planning. Instead of keeping up as the semester goes along, they focus on the crisis in front of them at the moment—the next test or term paper. At work they are under continual stress. Deadlines loom and tasks go uncompleted. It seems as though there is a need for constant stress in order to get consistent work done. The constant stress, however, takes a physical toll on everyone involved (the person, his or her family, coworkers, employers, friends, etc.).”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“People with Type 3 Overfocused ADD often appear very organized on the outside. They are often perfectly dressed, and parts of their living spaces may be very neat. For example, they may insist on perfect living rooms, but if you go into their drawers or their closets, you’ll find a disaster.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Sensitivity to taste is another common problem. Many people with ADD will eat only foods with a certain taste or texture. Parents frequently complain that they have trouble finding foods their children will eat. One of my patients went through a two-year period where he would only eat burritos with peanut butter and bananas.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Well God knew I was like that, so God gave me Kaitlyn. Hyperactive from before birth, we thought Kaitlyn was going to be a boy, because the lore is that the more active babies are inside their mother’s womb the more likely they are to be boys. Well she wasn’t. Trying to hold Kaitlyn when she was a year old was like trying to hold a live salmon. I had a spiritual crisis because of this child. Many Catholic churches have the tradition of young children sitting with their parents at mass. It was no fun with Kaitlyn, because she was the worst-behaved child at church, which was not only embarrassing, it was bad for business. I treated half the children in the congregation and if my child was the worst one, people would lose confidence in me. So after a while I stopped going to church. Have you ever seen children on little yellow leashes in the mall? After having Kaitlyn I believed in little yellow leashes because she was always trying to get away. But my problem was that I wrote a column in the Daily Republic, a local newspaper where I lived, and whenever I went to the mall people recognized me and said things like, “Hey, you’re Dr. Amen! I loved your column.” I just could not deal with, “Hey, you’re Dr. Amen! Why is your child on a leash?” So what I used to do with Kaitlyn was put her in her stroller and tie her shoelaces together so she couldn’t get out. Now, I am not proud of that but when you have a hyperactive child you do things just to survive.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Ioften tell people I know more about ADD than I want to. I have not only studied ADD from the perspective of a clinician and researcher, I have lived with it at home. My first wife, Robbin, and my current wife, Tana, both have ADD. What can I say, I love exciting women.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Before you can set goals and work towards them, it helps to have a mental picture of what you want to create. The most commonly asked question in coaching is, “What do you want?” Lots of time is spent developing the skill of “metaview,” meaning seeing things in The Big Picture. This is an area that tends to be weak for people with ADD, especially the Overfocused subtype. We use metaphors like gardening to help clients get an image of what they want the “landscape” to look like, what type of flowers they want to plant, and what sort of care the garden is going to require. Clients often find that they are spending too much time nurturing a flower they don’t even like or studying one part of the garden while not seeing that another section is dying.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“It was time to go “gremlin hunting”! The “gremlin” is a concept used in coaching to identify the voice within us that holds us back from being who we want to be. It sabotages our growth and keeps us from taking action. Richard Carson, in his book, Taming Your Gremlin, provides a format to help become aware of the gremlin and how to control it. The concept of the gremlin is one of the most powerful tools someone takes away from coaching.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Whenever you notice these automatic negative thoughts (ANTs), you need to crush them or they’ll begin to ruin your whole day. One way to crush these ANTs is to write down the negative thought and talk back to it. For example, if you think, Other kids will laugh at me when I give my speech, write it down and then write down a positive response—something like The other kids will like my speech and find it interesting. When you write down negative thoughts and talk back to them, you take away their power and help yourself feel better.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“ADD tend to ruminate on the bad things that happened that day in their own world and the world at large.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Doctors aren’t sure why people with ADD have more sleep problems. Some doctors think it has to do with serotonin, the neurotransmitter most closely tied to types 3 and 6 ADD. However, we all depend on serotonin to fall asleep, and when there is not enough of it, getting to sleep can be an awful chore.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

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― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“There Are Five Hallmark Symptoms of ADD Short attention span, for regular, routine, everyday tasks. People with ADD have a difficult time with boring tasks and need stimulation or excitement in order to stay engaged. Many people with ADD can pay attention just fine for things that are new, novel, interesting, highly stimulating, or frightening. Distractibility. People with ADD tend to notice more in their environment than others, which makes them easily distracted by outside stimuli, such as light, sounds, smells, certain tastes, or even the clothes they wear. Their keen sensitivity causes them to get easily off task. Disorganization. Most people with ADD tend to struggle with organization of time and space. They tend to be late and have trouble completing tasks on time. Many things get done at the last moment or even later. They also tend to struggle keeping their spaces tidy, especially their rooms, book bags, filing cabinets, drawers, closets, and paperwork. Procrastination. Tasks and duties get put off until the last moment. Things tend not to get done until there are deadlines or someone else is mad at them for not doing it. Poor internal supervision. Many people with ADD have issues with judgment and impulse control, and struggle not to say or do things without fully thinking them through. They also have a harder time learning from their mistakes.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“In dealing with kids, employees, and spouses with ADD—NO YELLING! Many people with ADD have low activity in the front part of their brains, due to lower levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. As a way to feel more alert they often find themselves seeking conflict or excitement. They can be masterful at making other people mad or angry at them. Do not lose your temper with them, because it often makes things worse. If they get you to explode, their unconscious, low- energy frontal cortex turns on and unconsciously they come to crave it. Never let your anger be their medication. They can get addicted to it.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Gene-Jack Wang and colleagues at the Brookhaven National Laboratory found that treatment with Ritalin over a year increased the dopamine transporters (proteins that help clear dopamine, the neurotransmitter that helps us focus) out of the brain’s synapses, meaning that there is less dopamine to do its work. Taking the stimulant seems to increase the need for it.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“In the largest effectiveness study to date, with more than four thousand patients with major depressive disorder in primary care and community settings, only 31 percent were in remission after 14 weeks of optimal treatment. In most double-blind trials of antidepressants, the placebo response rate hovers around 30 percent . . . The unfortunate reality is that current medications help too few people to get better and very few people to get well.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“Untreated ADD increases the risk of depression, drug abuse, obesity, smoking, Type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“She was so scared that she actually went out and bought a siren to get her up in the morning. Even though that helped her, she had made all of her neighbors mad at her, and now she was threatened with eviction from her condominium.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“diet high in simple carbohydrates makes attentional problems worse, especially for people vulnerable to ADD. Most ADD children and adults simply do better on a high-protein, low–simple-carbohydrate diet (much more on this later). A lack of protein causes a tremendous problem with focus throughout the day. If a person is vulnerable to ADD, a high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet typically makes their symptoms worse.”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD

“In the last thirty years our diet has changed dramatically. These days, children eat a diet high in simple carbohydrates (sugar, white bread, white-flour food products), poor in protein and healthy fat, and positively deficient in vegetables. Think about the great American breakfast. Morning time is often rushed especially when both parents work outside the home, and there is less time to fix a nutritious breakfast. Kids eat Pop-Tarts, sugar cereals, donuts, frozen waffles, pancakes, or muffins. Gone are the days of sausage and eggs (protein), and sugar is in. Try to find bread in the store without sugar or forms of sugar (corn syrup, high-fructose syrup, etc.). In my local supermarket, only one out of about thirty brands of bread available—a dark Russian rye bread—is made without any sugar. Your diet provides the fuel”
― Daniel G. Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD