Change Your Brain Every Day - The Common Characteristics of Classic ADD

Episode Date: February 12, 2019

Dr. Daniel Amen changed the way he treated his patients when he discovered that there are several different types of ADD, all with distinctive symptoms and in need of their own particular treatment plan. Through his work in SPECT imaging, he went on to categorize 7 different types of Attention Deficit Disorders. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Daniel and Tana discuss the most signifying traits present in the Classic form of ADD.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Welcome back. We're in the middle of ADD brain type week, how ADD can affect you at home, in your relationships, at school, and at work. But before we get to that, I want to read one of the reviews for the podcast from Alicia Garcia. I don't get how she manages, this is Tana, being a nurse, getting a second degree black belt, being a mom and being an inspiration to the world.

Oh, and having ADD according to you. And she's energetic and happy about it instead of breaking down. Like who literally gets home from a demanding job and then decides to be karate kid for a couple of hours? Well, first of all, martial arts is my therapy. There's nothing more therapeutic than going and hitting stuff, just FYI. And you're going to say that's because of my ADD, and I don't care. It just feels amazing.

But I also have a lot of support. But, right, we're a support team. We are a team. So it helps a lot so i think we need therapy because um you have a subtype called anxious add and the anxiety you feel causes you to suppress some of the add symptoms but there's no question in my mind if somebody would have treated it early, you'd be the chairman of the Department of Medicine at Harvard. Because you're so smart that having, and what's even more important for you, I think, is being raised in a broken home by a flaming, and I love your mother, flaming ADD mother.

It's true. And having a dad that was distant and depressed. Oh, and just completely disconnected. He wasn't there. If you would have been raised in our home, Lord only knows what you would have done. And you've done amazing. And I married you, which means I'm not trying to fix you. You're my partner for life, we often say, right?

The only reason you're running is if you're chasing me. Let's be clear. Till death do us part. No, but let's have a candid moment for one second. Cause we're joking around in the last, in the last episode, I've actually often wondered, um, until I really started to understand how this works. Cause I do feel like I actually do pretty well with my life. I'm actually very happy with my life. I'm, I feel like I've accomplished a lot. My favorite thing is being a wife and a mother out of all the, I feel like I've accomplished a lot.

My favorite thing is being a wife and a mother out of all the things I do. That's my favorite thing. Um, but I feel like I've done a lot. I feel very accomplished, but there are times that I wonder, um, wow. Like I, I feel like I did not really start to meet my potential until 38 years old. And when I started to figure that out, right. And part of that was getting your ADD treated. Right. And I really didn't understand. I was paying my bills on time.

I was graduating from college. But I didn't even really know it was a struggle because I was so used to struggle. My entire life was a struggle from the time I was little. So, you know, there's this poster of this lion roaring. And he's like, I've been fighting to survive since I was a child. Like, that's what I always felt like. Right?

And since you have your ADD treated, how many books have you written? Well, if you count the journal, it's 10. But if you don't count the journal, it's 9. All right. So moving on. Actually, this is a very important point. Nobody wants to be labeled. Right.

Nobody wants to be thought of as defective or abnormal. But everybody wants a better brain. Who doesn't want a better brain? Well, here's the deal. We all have something. Okay? How many people you know that don't have anything? None.

Okay? So just embrace it. Like lean into it. Because here's the deal. Here's something that I want have anything? None. Okay. So just embrace it, like lean into it because here's the deal. Here's something that I want to just point out. We just said my mom's got flaming ADD. I mean from hell. She's got ADD from hell. She's also one of the most amazing women I've ever met in my life, right? Okay. So this is a woman who didn't graduate from high school. She was a 16 year old, one away, grew up in a really, really difficult home, really difficult situation. She's also an incredible entrepreneur. Okay. Which tends to go with ADD. So she didn't go to college,

didn't finish high school. And she always said to me, I have no choice, but to start a business. She didn't start one because she wanted to. She started one because no one would hire her. So she started a business because she was very strong-willed, very intense, and no one was going to hire someone who didn't graduate from high school. So she started her own business, and she's worth more than what? She's in the top, what, 1% or 2% in the country? So the woman is a powerhouse, and she's an entrepreneur, and she's creative. So we have to sort of pay some tribute to that. Well, and many people who have ADD are highly successful.

Right. So Terry Bradshaw has talked about his ADD. Justin Timberlake has talked about his ADD. But even people in the medical field. He owns JetBlue, talks about his ADD. In the military, it's rampant. It's getting it treated so that you can take the energy that you have. And channel it.

And channel it and do the things you're really good at and farm out the things you're not really good at. Right. And that's the thing I learned. Because that's a sign of intelligent life. That's the thing I learned. Thank you. You just said it. That was the thing I learned was I don't have to be good. That's why I was joking in the first episode when you said, you know, you don't do this, you don't do that. You're not good at this part. I'm like, because I learned I don't really care. I don't have to be good at everything. I'm going to focus on what I'm good at and I'm going to find people to help me with the things I'm not. That's the sign of intelligence. So that's the sign of successful people. All right. So before we get too far, we have to dive into the types,

and then we can talk about each of these things with the types. Okay. So don't forget, I want to come back to, let's talk about when we get to that part, why are certain people who seem incredibly successful like surgeons? Why are so many of them in certain fields, why do they have a higher incidence of ADD? So it tends to be trauma surgeons and emergency room doctors, because they need, they have low dopamine levels. Which I was a trauma nurse. So they, you're so funny. They need excitement in order to be able to focus. So high incidence among firefighters as well. So when I first started doing imaging, I found it wasn't one thing. So there's classic ADD,

that's type one. It's what people think of short attention span, distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, impulse control. Plus they're hyperactive. They're restless. They're impulsive. They have trouble sitting still. While they're in class, they're eating something just to keep- Okay, I did do that. Just to like, I've got to keep busy or I'm going to fall asleep. No, for me it was like I would get bored. Yeah, I'd fall asleep. Yeah. And so falling asleep in class is a very common thing. But it's really, it's the hyperactivity.

I have people say they can't sit through boring movies. If it's not somebody's dying every three seconds. Okay. Really? You just said that just because. A bad guy has to die in a movie for me to be happy. Yes, that's a whole psychological thing by itself. So classic is the hyperactivity plus the attention plus the impulse control issues.

And kids, boys who have this are diagnosed early and they're medicated. Girls who have it are not so much diagnosed. Why are they overlooked? Because we have gender bias in this country. That if a little boy is having problems, the parents get very worried because they believe he's going to have to take care of a family someday. This can't still be going on. It still goes on. This can't still be happening. Absolutely.

This is not acceptable. I didn't say it was not acceptable. Listen to me if you're listening to our podcast. This is not acceptable. But if a little girl is having problems, they think she's not that smart. Not acceptable. And they hope she marries somebody nice. Oh my God.

Don't even say rich. I will seriously knock you off your chair. Don't. Don't say it. I didn't say rich. But it's that mindset. My skin is crawling. And I remember when I was growing up,

I always thought I was going to college, even though my dad, nor my mom went to college. But my dad told all of my sisters they didn't need to go to college. I was told the same thing, by the way. And in a lot of parts of the world, that still goes on, that there's gender bias. And the reason I bring this up is boys are actually diagnosed five times more than girls. But when you actually screen them for all the types of ADD, boys have it more, like twice as much as girls. So girls remain dramatically underdiagnosed because they tend to be more the inattentive type, which we'll talk about in a minute. And they tend not to have as much testosterone.

So they are less of a behavior problem. So they're less likely to bring negative attention to themselves. That would have been horrifying. And because of that, girls also have a higher incidence of both limbic ADD and anxious ADD. And so they don't get diagnosed. So they are condemned to live a life of mediocrity and not get near their potential. And they hate themselves for it because they know they could be better. So self-esteem is actually the difference between where you think you should be with your potential and where you are.

And so if you're close to where you are, you feel pretty good about yourself. But if you believe your potential's here, but you're performing here, you hate yourself. And so girls are dramatically underdiagnosed. And the most common way women are diagnosed is they have a hyperactive son. And they bring their son here. And when, if it's a smart doctor and you really think a child has ADD in one form or another, you begin to look at mom and dad. And you go, so who's got it?

And so Caitlin, my third child, who I adore, who we just had dinner with, who's a great mom. Great mom. And she had classic ADD from the time, from before birth. She was so active inside her mother's womb. We thought she was going to be a boy, but she wasn't. And trying to hold her when she was a year old was like trying to hold a live salmon. She was so active. And she kept climbing out of her crib, climbing out of her crib, climbing.

I'm like, what are you doing? I actually went and found a net that I put on top of the crib. And every night I would zip her in as she would grab the sides of the rail and shake it to go to bed at night. And so hyperactive. You know, I had a spiritual crisis because of this child. You know, Catholics, why they do this, God only knows. God probably don't even know. Is, you know, they bring children into church with them.

And when I was little, I'd go to church. There'd be seven of us sitting in a row with my brother bothering me. And she was so bad in church. She was so active and blurred out in the middle of the mass. And I'd take her out and threaten her life. And then I realized, well, that's a bad thing because she's not going to go to church when she's older because you go to church to get your life threatened. And it was bad for her business because, you know, I'm like the only child psychiatrist in the county. And if your child's the worst one, it's bad for her business.

But you're bringing up a very good point. So think about it because we said we're going to do this through the lens of home, you know, you're bringing up a very good point because so, so think about that because we said, we're going to do this through the lens of home, you know, work, whatever. So, um, so I have two, two half sisters and one of them behaved really well when she was young. The other one was kind of a nightmare. And so the one that was a nightmare basically got beaten. I didn't grow up with her. She's my half sister, but I, but they, I remember my step-mom breaking spoons over her. My, my dad, I mean, beating this child with a belt. I mean, she just would not listen. I don't care what you did. This kid was not going to listen, climbing out of her crib. She was one of the worst kids I've ever seen. Um, the other one stayed out of trouble when she was little.

Um, no, that changed when she was older, but when she was little, she was good. So the parents not only felt a tremendous amount of guilt for losing their tempers with her, which those kids can cause parents to lose their tempers. And everyone thinks, well, you should never lose your temper. I've seen some of these kids cause parents to lose their tempers. Well, they do that purposefully. Right. Now, it's not conscious. Right. It's Pavlovian, which means they're getting benefit from it and they don't know why they react. So the classic ADD person, child, they're excitement-seeking or conflict-driven. Well, there's another-

So they play this game called let's have a problem. Right. They don't know they do it, but if they have a bad morning at home- Right. Like mom screams and cries- Right. And threatens their life- Which happens every day.

Then they have a good day at school. Right. But if they have a good morning at home, they often have a bad day at school. So I want to give you an example. So the other thing is it caused guilt with the other sister. A lot of guilt growing up because she didn't get beaten. Okay. So that ended up causing problems for her.

But here's a really interesting thing that happened. When she was 12, I remember my dad was divorcing my step-mom and my step-mom called me and she's like, I cannot handle these kids. Can you please come take the younger one for the weekend? And I'm like, I'm her sister. I was like 10 years older than her, but I'm like, what? I was, you know, it sounded weird to me, but I'm like, okay, she needs a break. So I remember I drove up there and I picked her up and she was pretty hard to deal with. And she gets in my car. I literally got three or four miles from the house where I picked her up. And she started in with me the way she does with her mom. I didn't say one word because I'm like 21, 22. So I'm not very

patient. Didn't say one word. And I scared the heck out of her because I guess I spun a U-turn and which in a very aggressive way, drove back to the house, slammed on my brakes, got out of the car, threw her bag out of the car, and I went, get out. She goes, what? I go, get out of my car. I'm not your mom. Get out. I'm done.

And she literally was the best kid for the rest of the weekend. Zero trouble with her. So you have to kind of wonder why. Did it stimulate her? Did it? Because she's scared of you. She's not scared of me. I didn't do anything to her.

Are you kidding? I did nothing to her. Half the world is scared of you. No, they're not. I didn't do anything. My question is seriously from a biological and psychological standpoint. Why does she listen when that happens? When we come back, we didn't answer my question.

We're going to talk about the conflict-seeking, scary nature of somebody who has ADD. Stay with us. Use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.