Change Your Brain Every Day - ADD & The Powerful Female Brain

Episode Date: December 27, 2016

Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD is a highly genetic issue. While some of the symptoms may go unnoticed it's always a good thing to pay close attention if you suspect them to have it, especially if your child has short attention span and has difficulty getting organized or focused.  Listen to this episode and get to know some tips and insights based on a first hand experience. 

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amen. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amen.

Hi, I'm Tana Amen, and I'm here with my amazing, wonderful husband, Dr. Daniel Amen. Greetings again. We're so excited that you're with us. Today, we're going to talk about ADD in girls and in women. It's something very near and dear to my heart because my wife has ADD. Which I did not believe for the record. I thought it was nonsense when I met him. She believes it now because it's true. And several of my daughters have it. And ADD in girls and in women is often not diagnosed because they're usually, usually not a big pain in the neck like boys are. So boys tend to be diagnosed because they can be more hyperactive, more impulsive. They bring a lot of negative attention to themselves. But girls and women often are not diagnosed because they tend not to be hyperactive or maybe not even terribly impulsive. But they have trouble with focus. They can have trouble

with organization and distractibility. And so they underachieve for their potential and it can be chronically frustrated. Well, let's talk about why they might not have some of those classic symptoms that boys have of being impulsive and some of the other things. And what I learned was that it's because, and not that I suffer from this, but they have a lot more anxiety. And so the anxiety, that high level of anxiety keeps them from acting out. So I wrote a book once called Unleash the Power of the Female Brain. And in it, I talk about the female brain actually has some very specific strengths. That it's wired more for connection, for empathy, for impulse control. The female brain is significantly stronger in the front part of the brain, forethought, judgment, impulse control, planning, empathy.

And think about it. If you're raising a baby and that baby needs to survive and you're raising the next generation of people and you're trying to train generation of people and you're trying to train them, that's required. I mean, that's a necessary thing. But because of the increased activity, there are also vulnerabilities like to anxiety and depression, too much empathy so they can't go forward and make decisions unless everybody agrees. And one of the things we learned was that 90% of the IQ for women is in

their frontal lobe. So any sort of frontal lobe injury, which is why I'm completely opposed with girls hitting soccer balls with their head, can impact their life dramatically more than a frontal lobe injury will impact a male's life because in males, their IQ is more widely distributed in their brain. But girls and women can have ADD too. And how I actually figured it out, besides I had it in my own family, was that the little boys I would see who are hyperactive and impulsive causing trouble at school, I would always look and go, well, where did they get it from? Because ADD is highly genetic. So you totally got it from your mother. And so when I would start looking and I didn't see it on dad's side, and then I would totally see it on mom's side. And now she's 40 years old and she's like,

oh my God, that's me. And when I would treat her, she would often get dramatically better, but then some of them would actually get depressed. And the reason they would get depressed because they would think, if only I knew that when I was seven or eight and I got treated, then where would I be now that they knew they were underachieving

for their potential and it would just devastate them. But I mean, it doesn't mean you give them an antidepressant. It means you just work through it. Well, you didn't know and nobody knew at that time, but now you do. Let's see what your life can be like going forward. So if you're noticing some of these symptoms that may not be classic for ADD in your daughter, your granddaughter, your nieces, whoever it is, someone special and close to you, you might want to pay attention because sometimes telling someone to just try harder not only doesn't work, but it's very frustrating to that person.

Well, it's counterproductive. It is. Because what we've seen on the imaging work we do, the harder they try, the worse it gets. It literally turns that part of their brain off when they try harder. And one of the symptoms I really want you to pay attention to is if your daughter has a half an hour of homework and it takes her an hour, two or three to do it with you having to actually walk her through every part of it. I want you to be thinking about ADD or if you have a teenage daughter that always seems to be in conflict. And what I often see is they get excitement from falling in love. And then after a while, they get bored with that. And then so they're in a relationship and they start fighting. They get excitement with fighting. And then they

get stimulation from breaking up. So they get into this pattern of falling in love, fighting, breaking up, falling in love, fighting, breaking up, somebody needs to be thinking about ADD because, you know, they may just think, oh, well, this person's just cursed by not doing relationships well. And if that's true, as you as an adult woman, where your relationships tend to be intense and then chaotic and then, you know, break apart, somebody should be thinking about ADD and the hallmark symptoms, short attention span, but not for everything, for regular routine, everyday things, easily distracted,

often disorganized, sometimes late, often late. I mean, that's not you, but for a lot of people, they actually don't start getting ready to go until they're late. But pay attention, because that's not always true. You're anxious. Not always true, but very often. And impulse control, where you say things where you go, I shouldn't have said that, where you do things where you go, I shouldn't have done that. And that's not, you know,

every once in a while, everybody does that. But if it's a pattern in your life, then think about getting help for yourself. Right. So I'm trying not to interrupt you, but I definitely want to leave them with a few practical tips before we go, because this is just for yourself. So I'm trying not to interrupt you, but I definitely want to leave them with a few practical tips before we go, because this is just very simple. So when you talked about the drama-seeking behavior and trying to pick on people, I don't have that because I don't like drama. But one thing that helps with that,

I figured out that I really need, not like, need exercise. When I don't exercise, I get irritable and I find myself feeling foggy and irritable and that it's much easier for me to be reactive. So go for a walk, do some exercise. Now I like really intense exercise and I like being pushed to my limit. Here's the other thing though. This is pretty simple. So for many types of ADD, the classic types of ADD, small amounts of protein, do not start your morning with carbohydrate-based breakfast,

like muffins and bagels and oatmeal. So not with the leprechaun or the tiger. No. So you want to start your morning with protein. Think eggs with turkey, some steamed spinach, something like that. Because when you eat protein, it increases focus. It increases dopamine, which stimulates your frontal lobes. Small amounts of protein throughout the day. Not massive amounts of protein, which is not great for you, but think of it like

medicine for your brain, small amounts of protein throughout the day. And some supplements can help like omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA. So, you know, when you look on the bottle, it'll say EPA and DHA. Those are two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids. EPA tends to be much more helpful for people who have ADD than DHA. And just as a person who now knows that I have it, you know, it's interesting because I always thought, well, I've done pretty well in life. So it's not, you know, it's not a big deal, obviously. But what I didn't realize because I didn't know any different was how hard I was working. So, you know, I graduated, you know, top of my class. I was a trauma nurse.

I was doing pretty well in life. What I didn't know was that wasn't even close to my potential. That was the interesting part. And I didn't realize that it didn't need to be that hard. Right. And since you've been treated, you've written six books. One of them was a New York Times bestseller. You're making a massive difference in the lives of thousands of people. Well, now I feel like I'm actually living my mission. And that's what's so much fun. Now I feel like I've got this incredible amount of passion for what I'm doing. That's the difference.

And that's our goal for you and for those you love, to optimize your brains. And when you do, you clearly can change your life. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.