Change Your Brain Every Day - What Is ADD Costing You and Your Family?

Episode Date: November 20, 2016

Untreated attention deficit disorder (ADD) is a major cause of school failure, job failure, relationship problems and financial ruin. Learn about ADD and what you can do to get help for it.

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.

So today I want to introduce this topic because this one is very personal to me. And as your husband, it's very personal to me as well. We're going to talk about what is ADD costing you and your family. So when I first met you, I just have to tell the story. I thought ADD was a bunch of nonsense. I thought that it didn't exist and it was an excuse for people to fail or not try harder. I thought of myself as fairly successful. Considering my background, my background was insane. I mean, truly insane, totally chaotic.

I always felt like there was a white tiger around some corner ready to jump out. So there was a lot of trauma and drama, the keyword being drama. So that should clue you in right there. But I was fairly successful in spite of all of that, because I worked really, really hard. And as much as I loved my family, I did not want to be like them. So I separated myself in a lot of ways. And so you started asking me a bunch of questions and I was like, this is why I did not want to date a psychiatrist. This was on our first date. Yeah. And I'm like, you know, you think I have ADD and ADD is not real. And now I realize it actually explains my entire life and my family dynamics. So let's talk about it. So, but people have ADD, are very creative. And I always say Tana never met a rapper she ever wanted to throw away or a cabinet door she ever wanted to close. So that when we got Aslan,

our white German shepherd, when he was a puppy, she actually taught him how to close cabinet doors. I did. I taught him how to close the cabinet doors. So when you talk about being creative, one thing that a lot of us who are successful have learned is, okay, we figure out what's important and we focus on those things that are really important. We tend to let the other things go. And so, but not everyone's able to do that. And it ends up creating a lot of havoc in their life and everything ends up being chaotic. So let's just talk about ADD and what it is. And so everybody's on the same page.

So it's a neurological or we call it a neurodevelopmental disorder. It just doesn't show up when you're 40. You can actually see evidence of it in childhood, and it's associated around a group of symptoms. But can it show up as an adult if you have a head injury or something? Well, then you can be ADD-like, but we really don't think you have ADD. You have ADD symptoms secondary to a head injury. So that's the difference. That's the difference.

A lot of women, when they go through menopause, they go, never ADD as a child, and now I can't focus. And that's due to estrogen and progesterone deficiencies. It's not what we really think of ADD. When we think of ADD, we think of the core symptoms starting in childhood, short attention span, distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, poor impulse control, and that they are often the story of someone's life. So if you have three of those five things, let's talk about them

a little bit in more detail. So short attention span, but not for everything. It's short attention span for regular routine, everyday things, homework, schoolwork, paperwork. But not if you love it, right? But if you love something. Because I did great in school. If you love it, then you can do it. But it's often with greater effort than other people. So love is a drug. So ADD people, when they're first in a relationship, they can pay attention for hours and hours. But as the newness wears off, then they're trying to have a conversation while they're on their phone,

their iPad, watching TV, reading a book at the same time. So for an example, like I love school. I could sit in school and focus completely, but put me at where I could never understand why I couldn't focus at a desk job. I would just zone out. So is that sort of classic? That would not be your thing. No. Right. So love is a drug, which more classically you see on a report card for an ADD person that they have two classes where they're getting all A's and the rest of them at C's and D's because if they love the subject or they love the teacher, they tend to do really well. So it's more like erratic attention span that it is totally related to how much they love what they're doing. And then they're easily distracted. They see too much.

They hear too much. They sense too much. So they can't filter it out. They can't filter it out. It's why people with ADD often wear masks at night. She's giving me a dirty look. Why they often have a fan on because they hear every noise. They wear earplugs, not bands. They wear earplugs or they have a fan on. And the other partner is like underneath the covers on, you know, because they're freezing. And as children, they hate things like tags in their shirts or seams in their clothes. Oh, so that's why I need to come home and like take my clothes off and get out of my clothes.

It's just it's very common for their skin to be hypersensitive and they're often hypersensitive to taste as well. So they can be really picky when it comes. So short attention span, easily distracted, and organization just doesn't follow them, especially for time and for space. So if you look at their rooms, their closets, their book bags, their cars, they can be disorganized and they struggle to be on time. But that's not my issue. Well, it's because you have one of the subtypes of ADD, anxious ADD, where you're really anxious. So not everyone listening, you don't want them to get confused and go, oh, but that's not me. So you can have subtypes is what I'm trying to get to. Right. But if we go with organization, it's just not natural to you. But I'm smart enough to get to surround myself with people who are organized.

Well, and many CEOs have ADD. We'll talk about that in a minute. Many CEOs have ADD and the ones that are really successful surround themselves with people who organize them. So procrastination or poor follow-through is very common because they often won't do things until someone is mad at them or there's a deadline. So they tend to cram for tests, do papers at the last minute. It's almost like they need someone to be mad at them in order to get things done. So some pressure. And then the last hallmark symptom is they can have impulse control problems where the moment is what matters to them. Not five moments from now, 10 moments from now, 20 moments from now, but it's now. Right this second, yeah. Right, right this second. And that can get them into a... So again, you can have subtypes, not all of those things will apply to you, but you can have subtypes.

That's why we say three out of these five hallmark symptoms get you the diagnosis of ADD, and they interfere with your life, that they are negatively affecting you at work, in relationships, with your money, with the law, or with your health. And having untreated ADD can devastate you. But people have ADD often have great strengths. They're often highly intelligent, creative, spontaneous, successful. They think out of the box, so they don't play in the box. They tend to play outside the box. We see it very commonly in many of the CEOs and many

people who are entrepreneurial or start their own business. Now, they may do it in part because they can't work for other people. And your mom, I think, is a great example. She used to tell me I can't work for someone because I'll never make enough money. I can't keep that kind of a job, but she's extremely successful on her own. Right. And when I first told you about ADD, you're like, no, no, no, it's an excuse. And then I explained it. You said, it's totally my mom. Right. Less so for me, I was, I was much less, but, but it explained my family and what I didn't realize in relationship. And of course I'm using me as an example for those of you listening, going, wait a second, that doesn't totally fit me. What I didn't realize was that when I think

of myself, I think of myself as having some of, some of these symptoms in a very mild form. But what I didn't realize was that when I did realize this, when I did see it and I was able to treat it, you know, with some supplements and some other way, like our program was that even though I felt successful, I didn't realize that I wasn't living up to my potential. So even if you feel successful, it might not be your potential. And I didn't realize that it had to be as hard as it was. Like, you know what I mean? It just didn't have to be that hard. So that was the really exciting part. Do you have examples of how your mom fits these hallmark symptoms? Oh my God. I think she has all of them. So my home growing up was very, very chaotic. I used to say Jerry Springer had nothing on us. So I think he got

his material by watching our family. So lots of, she was a 16 year old runaway. So my mom was a 16 year old runaway because her family was so chaotic, but she used to, she used to not be able to pay attention at all in school, but she was really smart. So very strange, very street smart, like entrepreneurial, but could not pay attention in school. So if you make her sit still, she can't, she'll fall asleep. She can't pay attention. So 16 year old runaway, lots of chaos and drama in our home. Relationships were a problem. She never't pay attention. So 16 year old went away. Lots of chaos and drama in our home. Relationships were a problem. She never did things like drugs or anything like that. Definitely shortest attention span, easily distracted. She used to take me to see horror movies when I was a child. Which is another hallmark for many people have ADD,

their excitement seeking, conflict driven. It it's like why does saw right well i'm still traumatized so i still hate horror movies so um yeah very disorganized i don't know about the poor follow-through because at work she's got good follow-through but not for a lot of other things um but she's very successful and definite impulse control like she can't control when she wants to say something at the wrong time. So now on treatment. Very successful. Very successful. Owns her own business and is an amazing partner if she's in the right relationship.

And when she's treated for ADD, like once she understood this and she got treatment, completely different person, completely different person. When ADD is left untreated, and you certainly saw this in your own family, 33% of kids never finish high school. So that one measure of whether or not you're going to be successful in the world, a third never finish high school. According to one study from Harvard, 52% have trouble with drugs or alcohol. So now not everyone will choose drugs or alcohol. Like I was one of those few that was lucky enough to sort of figure out that exercise, maybe I was a little extreme with it, but that became my medicine. And we see that as very common that many attorneys, for example, I treated one that how he got through law school was four hours of exercise a day. He said,

I can't imagine this little pill is going to save my knees. Right, right. Because for me, it was two and a half. I had to do two and a half. I got up every single morning at four o'clock, two and a half hours a day. When we first got together, if I didn't give you that time, you're like, okay, I'm out of here. I can't stay. My first conversation with you on the phone, I was on a treadmill and you're like, I can't hear anything you're saying.

Because that was just my life. Right. But you were really cute. So I was really patient. There's a higher incidence of physical health problems with ADD because of the impulse control problems. There's a higher incidence of obesity. There's also a higher incidence of depression and depression is often the result of losses. And people who have ADD have more losses in their life. They lose their self-esteem because they're not doing well in school. They lose their jobs. They lose their relationships. They lose their money. There's a higher incidence of job failure, divorce. They lose their freedom, incarceration. And new studies show there's a higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease. It almost triples the risk. Because they're making bad decisions with food?

Because it goes with all the other risk factors. Stay with us. We're going to talk about memory rescue in another podcast. But the short course is the best way to prevent Alzheimer's disease is to prevent all the risk factors. And unfortunately, ADD increases those risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, like head injuries, like addictions, like depression, like school failure, and so on. So there is a serious cost when it is not properly treated. Now, it's genetic. You see it rampantly in your family. I certainly saw it in my older children's families on their mom's side. But early brain trauma will give you the symptoms like you have ADD. Certain food allergies, especially gluten and dairy allergies, will make you look like you have it and getting people on the right diet will make a huge difference.

Lead exposure, oxygen deprivation, certain infections can also. So it's not as simple as, oh, I have it in my family. That's why I have it. And when you don't see it in the family history, that's when you have to start to look for other causes. And the steps to healing ADD, and you and I together did a course called Healing ADD at Home in 30 Days. Yeah, people really, really liked it because it was so small. It was like bite-sized chunks. Right, because that's the attention span. So the steps to healing it is one, know if you or a loved one has it. So know those hallmark symptoms, short attention span, distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, impulse control issues.

Know your type. So in the book I wrote. We have a brain type test. Healing ADD. I talk about seven different types and you and I did a public television special around it. Targeted supplements or medication targeted to your type for everybody, multiple vitamin, fish oil, optimize your vitamin D level. And then it really depends on your type, optimize your diet, which is the brain warrior's way, diet, the right behavioral strategy.

So exercise and sleep. Exercise, sleep, two absolutely critical things. Meditation can really help too, correct? Absolutely. Right. And then getting your family involved because as you see in your own family, it is a family disorder. And when one person gets better, it begins to affect everybody. And then another person gets better.

And I mean, believe me, I've seen this. I've experienced it. So, I mean, ADD is one of our specialties here. And it's it just it radically starts to transform everything when one person gets well and then someone else wants to get well. And then pretty soon, you know, it just you begin to see this ripple effect. So if you want to learn more about it, you can pick up my book, Healing ADD. You can also will provide links for Healing ADD at home in 30 days. And obviously you can come to one of our clinics. We have clinics around the country. You can go to amenclinics.com to learn more about it.

And to get your gift, don't forget to go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Thank you.