ADHD Brains vs Typical Ones | by Dr. Claire Neuropsychologist

Dr. Claire Sira, a neuropsychologist, does a lot of work with adults with ADHD. There are differences with ADHD that are often misunderstood and worse, mis-explained as truth. We already receive much criticism and judgement. It will help to know more and not misunderstand yourself. This video shares her thoughts and education on the topic of physical brain differences.

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#adhdbrain #adhdstruggles #adhdawareness

[ameleh]

My father, who died 20 years before I was diagnosed at 60, taught me to drive. He told me that the important thing to think about was to keep on looking far ahead, left, right, back, and everywhere. And just keep doing that. Just never stop looking for unexpected things when driving. And keep as far away from cars as possible, so I always drive in the gaps on highways, and have never been in an accident. He also told me that my task in life was to figure out which of my ideas were good ones. And that my problem was that I cared too much. He really saw me, in spite of the fact that we were all clueless about ADHD.

[jenniferhizzy]

I hear smell and feel everything all the time.

[tempestive]

If rewinding videos was rewarded with monetization, I imagine ADHD videos would be quite profitable.

Now to rewind again cause I missed the last 40 seconds typing this.

[ahthyagaraj]

One of the far more scientifically explained ADHD video on youtube.

[Desertphile]

Thank you. I am weary of burning food because I forget I am cooking. Ugh.

[bsckzyv]

I think I have ADHD I payed attention for 1 minute then got bored the only thing that kept me watching was this woman’s beauty. 🥰

[trancemuter]

I have adhd but I have actually good unconscious reflexes for example while driving, except when I am immersed in hyper focus.

[erstwhile]

The things described in this video as things a person using a hypo-active ventral system, would fail to notice, are precisely the things that I DO notice, because they sufficiently stimulate my survival alert system to grab my attention. What I fail to notice are the repetitive, background things that I NEED to notice but which are just not novel or scary or interesting enough to stand out for me. My gas gauge, for example. Or the chart next to the punch clock at work, that tells me when I’ll be taking my breaks that day. A date on the large calendar in front of me at my breakfast table, with my next oil change appointment, or PT appointment. A notification on my phone that an important call has come in and been sent to voicemail. Anything that is able to become background noise due to its constancy and repetitiveness. A child crossing the road is a thing I would notice before the child got anywhere near the road, even though the child’s house, which I have driven past a thousand times, is invisible to me and I couldn’t tell you what it looks like.

I was diagnosed with ADD at a center that specializes in diagnosing, treating, and studying people with this disorder. I was deep into my 40s when I learned what ADD is, and got a diagnosis. The medical treatments have not worked for me, although they did briefly. I’ve learned more and more to understand how ADD operates for me, and some ways to manage and workaround it. The brief spell where the meds were helping, was amazing. I remember looking around as I drove somewhere one day soon after starting meds, and thinking, “Oh, wow! This is how other people feel and epwerince the world?? No wonder they can do what they do!” I also started thinking of all the things I could now do; go to college, have a career, use my creative abilities in more focused, goal-oriented ways, …etc. But, unfortunately, within a month or two, the effects of the meds diminished and I wasn’t feeling that amazing clarity and awareness any more.

Fatigue makes ADD worse, I’ve found. Even more than that, stress makes it worse. If life is feeling out of control in some way, even if I think I’m managing that stress pretty well, it will hit me in the ADD with a vengeance, nonetheless. Especially if I’m suppressing feelings in order to function. Ironically, I’ll have some real lapses that can make life even more uncomfortable and out of control, because of the effort (I surmise) I’m putting into “holding it all together”, which just intensifies the ADD. I wonder if anyone else can relate to this?

[anacristinaribeiro]

I was diagnosed with inattentive and impulsive adhd at the age of 58. I am still learning...
Thank you so much for these informations! 💝

[nura]

This is the explanation I have been yearning for.
Bringing myriad abstractions together to form a more concrete description of the mechanisms involved.

Pairing biological structures with their physiological processes, then adding common variations seen in adhd brains, and finally synthesizing it all into examples of how these differences may manifest.

This makes so much sense of so many disparate manifestations, challenges and experiences.

Thank you for the most satisfying answer I've received to the questions I've asked for many years, trying to understand how it works and why.

[chrisslate]

Ok, you had me from "We might recognize patterns more easily" 😅

[chriscohlmeyer]

Wow! That makes sense of how my brain works and the challenges of adapting over the years, also why I so loved the job I ended up in. The ten versions of a report in my head that kept evolving as I managed to select a sentence to write. The impact of a serious concussion on my brain function and why after ten years of recovery I managed to do well in university (a prof in my first try at college identified that I had about a week between reading information and being able to answer questions on that information - so for me reading comics instead of cramming for an exam was my better option). Eventually ended up doing interpretation of aerial photography - hyper focus on the "job" while default mode gathers memories and prior experience from field work and other data to make a differentiation on grouping "calls" for forestry or other purposes. Then there was the shift to digital imagery interpretation and my ability to "see" the occasional geometry errors and how to correct them from the six parameters (X, Y, Z, omega, phi, kappa) of the planes position and orientation. Also why with time and brain healing those ten versions returned for report writing.

[DejaVu]

Great video illustrating whats happening in our brains. I finally got 'diagnosed' at age 39. I have it in quotations because I didn't get the absolute full diagnoses illustrating exactly what type of adhd I have. But at age 39 a conversation with some sort of health care professional (psychiatric nurse in my case) was enough to determine what I had a hunch about all my life was true. Inattentive seems to line up with me now a days where as a child it was more so hyperactive.

I hate that I've have had this my whole entire life. Its great to finally know what it is now as it explains quite a bit about my past. The thought of what if I didn't have this and how different my life could've been is a question I ask myself a lot.

[mdebarshi]

Yes. All brains must be exactly same and perfect. 👍

[sarahmanzo]

I'm 51, and been on Adderall for over 20 years. It helps alot with my fatigue, and accomplishing major tasks, but I still feel like I have overall issues accomplishing things. Thanks to videos on YouTube, I'm learning more than ever before, which has been extremely helpful, yet so many videos talk about inattentive adhd, which is what i thought I had, but my issues aren't that I am inattentive, but the contrary. I'm literally aware of everything going on around me, to a point of being hyper-focused, all the time. Unfortunately I can't direct my focus to the immediate task at hand, and it's exhausting. I'm starting to wonder if I have less adhd, and more OCD. Sometimes I find it difficult to separate them.

[lauraschleifer]

this is fascinating!! I've been trying to figure out for a while whether or not I might have inattentive type ADHD, but this information makes me really think I do have it. (Both the negative and the positive aspects described in this video.) Of all the descriptions of the condition I've ever heard, this might be the one that resonates most deeply for me. One question I have though is that usually ADHD is characterized as having a fleeting attention span because the individual is too aware of the sensory world, and therefore struggles to concentrate because they are constantly being interrupted by their sensitivity to the surrounding sounds, sights, scents, etc. in their environment. (Aka "squirrel!") On the other hand, the way ADHD is described here it sounds like the individual is LESS conscious of external stimuli than a person without ADHD, so that they can get lost in their inner world and lose touch with the sensory world altogether. I know that ADHDers do experience hyperfocus, but it seems like for some people with ADHD that is only a sporadic occurrence, whereas for others it seems like they are almost always existing in a chronic state of hyperfocus and it's the rare awareness of the sensory world that's the aberration from their norm. So now I am wondering if these are two different types of ADHD, and if so, what are the characteristics of each? Or could it be that they are two separate conditions being erroneously lumped under the same umbrella? Would love to know more about that!

[gypsypath]

I’ve also heard the default mode network called the “demon” (DeMoN).

[sarahyip]

In any case whether ADHD or neurotypical, going solo without timely input from others (teachers, parents, friends, spouses etc) is the issue. No one has all the answers and a mixed pool of neuros goes a long way in life (learning, strategic defence, health and staying connected). Going solo is beneficial at first for a period of healing and grounding; going too long alone can be "damaging" for lack of input and connections. What's not highlighted is the ADHD may be the perfect aunt or uncle agony in an extended family or an informal consultant dispensing insights in a hobby or work group. That's what groups are for however imperfect.

[jochildress]

Luckily, the drivers on my bus route start blaring their horns a few feet before they stop for me when they see I’m not looking in their direction.

[TheJali]

1:47 happens to me a lot. this results in me trying to stay conscious so that I don't miss those salient cues around me and as a consequence I am constantly anxious and tired. This sucks