30 Essential Ideas you should know about ADHD, 7B The 30% Rule, 4 Components for Effective Treatment

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The 30% Rule, the real executive age (the emotional age) of the child. They may know and have skills of their true age, but they can only use those skills like a person who is 30% younger, unless the environment is arranged in a way where they do not have a performance disorder.
ADHD kids and driving

4 Necessary Components for Effective Treatment
Get a Good Evaluation to make sure you are ADHD and to figure out all the other comorbidities you may have.
Families need to educate themselves.
Medication is the most effective treatment, Medication + Behavior/Environment changes are better. Only 20% of ADHD people can prosper as kids without medication due to changes in the environment/behavior changes, and even those 20% do better with medication plus everything else.
Make accommodations. Create prosthetics, artificial advices to help the person show what they know.

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[hkwak]

Before I found out I have ADHD, I told my friend 'I think I'm always behind 3 years than my age groups..'. I can't believe it was actually true.

[eggsontoast]

I'm 18. Bit rough being told I'm 12. I agree that I'd probably be doing a bit better at university if I had the level of accountability he's proposing. But I'm in my second year and got commended for my marks last year so I must be doing something right, even if it feels like everything is going wrong. The current online schooling with the pandemic has been terrible for my motivation and accountability but finally realising I have ADHD means that I can start putting into place strategies that actually work to get myself back on track. I'm planning on using the 5 strategies he mentioned earlier, so I guess since this is a talk delivered to parents about their children then I am treating myself like I'm 12, in a way

[mightymoshie]

This explains a lot about why I felt like I was so behind in high school. I never felt 'on par' with my age group, their interests or mind sets. Once I graduated and went in the military, the accountability was endless. And even though I didn't like a majority of my leadership, I was a lot more successful overall.

[J_BiggityBar]

I can't help but believe him. I'm currently 26, and if what he says is true my executive age would be 18-19. And that makes a lot of sense to me know what I know about my habits and life. Also, I've always sort of felt more mature for my age growing up but unable to function at the same as my age group. I would feel more mature but more stupid.

[KevinBeee]

I've generally enjoyed this lecture and can identify with a lot of what he has to say, but this section is the one I've found most objectionable so far. He made an awful lot of generalizations without qualifying them. I don't doubt that there are people who suffer cognitive developmental delays as severely as he described, but he makes it sound like people with ADHD are incapable of functioning in the modern world in almost every aspect.
For one thing, college students who have ADHD ARE NOT mental 12 year olds in every regard, and it's demeaning and damaging to treat them like they are. Yes, incoming college students with ADHD need and will benefit from additional help and accountability, but they do not need to be placed in substance free dorms and monitored four times a day like they're on probation. Yes, ADHD impairs driving ability, but allowing an 18 year old ADHD sufferer to drive is NOT the same thing as allowing a literal 12 year old to drive.


Your 30% rule isn't universal. Stop infantilizing us.

[truthseeker]

I have no diagnosis. But it runs in my family, and I score above the benchmark on the tests. At school I was bright and intelligent, academically clever with no common sense. I was easily distracted, easily led and disorganised. But I could walk through exams with no revision or extra study. I started knocking around with people older than me.

I’m now 42. I can’t seem to focus on shit. The memories I have of all the times I display symptoms of adhd and not known it.

So many times I’ve said to people that in some ways I’m much older but it’s things in the mind, and in others I feel something like a decade and a half behind people my age. In lifestyle etc, and there are ways that really I’m like a college student without the college

[Beauweir]

When I was 17 I was a lifeguard at a swimming pool looking after kids!
No one drowned but in hindsight I agree that I wasn't the right guy fior the job :-/

[Plasmafox]

When I walked onto my college campus, I had lost 10 of the 12 years of academic preparation my peers got to special ed. I got a 30 on my ACT just from book smarts and luck with what it covered... but I had never studied for a test, never been made to do homework, and never written a paper longer than a book report. I had no major or goal in mind whatsoever, but I was NAGGED until I agreed to enroll immediately out of high school. I knew damn well I lacked the executive skills to succeed and loudly told every teacher or parent figure in my life and was dismissed. I did not receive any accommodations- nobody even told me that was a possibility. I had nobody to even talk to, let alone hold me accountable. I had nobody to study with let alone a group of more competent students, and no social skills to form or find one. I lasted less than two semesters and that was the only possible outcome.

[GurniHallek]

This is mind-blowing. When contemplating my situation, i would often think "why the hell do i - a 30 y.o man - have competencies and life achievements of, at best, a 20 y.o?". Well, 30% of 30 is 9. I lag behind by 9 years. Quite a precise estimate it was, for a person ignorant of ADHD back then, eh?

[carolinefiorentini]

I was always very lucid that i was not ready for a lot of things, not independant or mature enough but the comparison to others had lasting consequences on my self-esteem...

[robertsnorrason]

Hmmm, I've only recently been diagnosed (I'm 52), and just about everything fits the glove, so to speak. Except the driving.... I got my licence on my 17th birthday. And here's the thing, I've never had an accident! I'm a very conscientious driver. I do have Avoidant Personality Disorder, which means I have an overdeveloped "radar" for reading/predicting situations and also, I love driving. The combination of the two have probably saved me from many a wreck. I am, however, very easily triggered in traffic, so that part of the ADHD fits perfectly.

[SlyNine]

I drove fine at (remembers popping wheelies in low 4 and ruining the transmission) never mind..

[anzaia]

I've been watching this playlist and I'm uncertain if he mentioned driving in this or the last segment.

I have a license for a motorised bike, it can go up to 35 km/h.
I'd say that I'm not a bad driver, just an... inattentive one. I've caught myself spacing out while driving to school more than I'd like to admit, and it honestly scares me. I mostly snap out of it quickly, but I am very much afraid of not being quick enough.
Glad that I can't drive a car yet

[b-Maker-Street]

2:22 I wish there was a version of this guidance for adults who were never Dx as children, as many of us need all of the above so much more than adults of the same age.

I'd also like to make a slight tweak, please. *_Support_* that 18yo as if they're 12, but don't treat them like they're a child. I know this a fine tightrope to navigate, but it's quite tough being _treated/patronised_ like a child because you struggle with key EF tasks, but are otherwise quite mature. Lack of understanding is one of the most dispiriting aspects of having ADHD. 😔

[bananian]

i regret going to university. it took me 6 years to finish a shitty copout degree in geography because i didn't know how to write a paper or catch up on any reading to save my life and of course university offers no help and it's sink or swim.

if i had gone to a vocational college, things would have been very different.

[VirtualVictory]

I'm 22, so with a 30% lag my executive age is 15; that's, interesting. So at age 30 I'll have mental acuity/mindset of the _average_ 20/yr old.

[Dwonis]

The captions on this video are very bad and change the meaning of what he's saying. When he said "using" the captions said "abusing". When he said "rational" the captions said "irrational".

[ashankar]

I like Russell Barkley a lot, except for his emphasis on medication.

In terms of describing the problem, he is the best.

[CatherineBenskin]

My kids did so well going to community college before transferring to 4 year. Everyone doesn’t need to “go away” at 18!
My son can not be on medication due to a comorbid psych Dx. 😭

[aestaetic]

Though I have difficulties in doing my work and being productive as any proper functioning adult.. But I'm told that I'm more mature than people of my age and sometimes I've been told I'm more mature than people older than me.. So that's something that didn't sit right to me..