30 Essential Ideas you should know about ADHD, 1A Intro, Chronic Developmental Disability

I too highly recommend Russel Barkley's videos about ADHD. They taught me so much. The most striking thing was learning how it's a primarily emotional disorder, and how this has harmed my relationships. Here's a fantastic lecture (split into ~5 minute segments -- this guy gets it :) by Dr. Barkley: ADHD - The 30 Essential Ideas Everyone Needs to Know [VIDEO]

Yeah, I think there's a large subset of people with ADHD who have some kind of alternate circadian rhythm. Mine seems to be 36 hours; for almost 35 years my peak working hours have been 4pm to 5am, with the ability to hyperfocus until I collapsed if I'm really into what I'm doing. Not for lack of trying to have a "normal" schedule...oh god I try really hard multiple times a year. It's just not natural. You should know that stimulants are only one type of approach for treating ADHD. Your best resource, you may have discovered, is Russell Barkley; I cannot recommend him enough. Also check out the YouTube channel How to ADHD. Some relevant Barkley videos: [LINK] [VIDEO] Fair warning: You may discover some of the things you've done for your whole life without second guessing are actually typical ADHD symptoms. And if you're like me, this might thoroughly shake your snowglobe.

I got diagnosed with ADHD 3 months ago after discovering a) my daughter had it and b) that it's highly hereditary. Probably the best introduction to ADHD is a 1.5 lecture by Dr. Russell Barkley, a top researcher in this area. It's technical, empowering and fun: [VIDEO] Looking back in my life, I've built sophisticated TODO list and second brain systems to help me manage. Now it's obvious that it's because my working memory is poor because of my neurodivergency. Omnifocus (for GTD) and Obsidian (to be an extension of my brain) are my goto for leveraging my ADHD superpower. If you're looking for a community to learn more for yourself or for someone else: reddit.com/r/adhd is a great place to start.

[VIDEO] I highly recommend the first 4 parts of this playlist (at least) and other videos and writings by Dr Barkley.

There is absolutely no benefit to having a LD. Seriously, there is NONE - people with LDs who attain success do so in spite of their LD, not because of it. This notion that LDs make you more "creative" or whatever is backed by absolutely no research and is mostly a bunch of feel-good nonsense. A great reference for this is Dr. Russell Barkley: [LINK] His Youtube videos/lectures are extremely insightful as well: [VIDEO]

As someone who has recently started figuring out this whole ADHD thing, definitely seek out help for it. There are a ton of really powerful tools and support systems that make a tremendous difference. Especially organizational systems designed for people with executive function deficits (whether that's ADHD or not, doesn't really matter!) Caddra has an interesting chart here for suggestions: [LINK] I also like Russell Barkley's lectures and books: [VIDEO] and [LINK] (especially Taking Charge of Adult ADHD) And additionally, if you find that these things speak to you, medication makes a tremendous difference. I really can't overstate the degree to which it can change your life.

This is an invaluable resource, but is available directly on YouTube at [VIDEO] (Playlist breaks it up into stomachable chunks.)

>long term effects of putting people on a close chemical cousin of methamphetamine indefinitely What is your basis for this "concern"? Sure it sounds bad, but there are plenty of chemical compounds with "off by one" differences that have completely different effects.... that's just... chemistry. Just so you know, (depending on who you read) those with untreated ADHD may live, on average, 10 fewer years than the rest of the population. So if I had to chose between your concerns and 10 better quality years, I know what I'm picking. > Medical professionals are just speculating at this point when they say it's some kind of neurological disorder rather than just part of the range of physiologically normal brain function. Where are you getting this from? Any papers? If this is the consensus then I really must not have been paying attention (pun intended) You seem to have a lot of "observational" experience in a specific setting, but little more knowledge or understanding than the tip of the iceberg "top-5 symptoms". ADHD is an incredibly complex developmental issue. Look at the issues with ADHD and gauging signals from the body, how those affect eating. Look at various issues with sensitivities sensory stimulation. Issues with inhibition and how they permeate behaviours. Reducing ADHD to "focus" is like reducing baseball to throwing a ball around. Maybe look into some of Dr Russel Barkley's lectures. Some of them are a little dated but mostly accurate. [VIDEO]