Therapist Reacts to ADHD TikToks

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▼ Timestamps ▼
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00:00 - Preview
00:12 - Introduction
01:31 - White noise
05:35 - ADHD simulator
12:16 - ADHD paralysis
23:16 - 3 ADHD looks
31:23 - Hyperfocus
38:07 - Questions

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[HealthyGamerGG]

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[nc]

To the paralysis - I’m not sure if this is a common thing - for me, say it’s 10 o’clock and I have an appointment at noon, I get stuck in this frustrated head space where I don’t know what to do with the time because it feels like not enough time to start a task but too much time to not do anything.

[evanshearin]

The best analogy I ever heard about ADHD was, "Imagine that you're trying to count money, but several people are standing behind you saying numbers."

[KillerCat]

I teared up when he talked about ADHD kids with high intelligence brute forcing their way through life until it doesn't work anymore. I didn't know other people struggled with this. He KNOWS what he's talking about, thank you Dr. K

[jennabell]

What he said about ADHD people only feeling relief when they accomplish something really struck a chord with me. I'm honestly shook, that resonated so much to me. Like I don't feel good after I accomplish something, I just don't feel AS shitty as I did.

[JohnGeorge-pwxo]

I was severely traumatized years ago as a teenage, got diagnosed with ADHD. Spent my whole life fighting ADHD. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my mom recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Much respect to mother nature the great magic shrooms.

[bababooi-ee]

When I first got diagnosed at 17, that was the first thing my parents said to the pediatric psychologist was "she can sit in her room playing video games for hours on end, I dont get it" And then she had to explain to them. It was so powerful for me because I grew up thinking I was this horrible person who lacked direction and motivation.

[xXFlameFoxXx]

My procrastination and ADHD task paralysis love to join hands. I'm unable to do anything until I do the thing I am avoiding, so a lot of time passes and nothing else gets done either. The fixation on the thing I am afraid of doing makes it more terrifying in my mind, becomes more delayed, and thus it becomes even more important and paralyzing.

[Andrea-ujeu]

Hyper focus is when I spent eight hours sewing a beautiful top the same day we’re going to leave for vacation because I waited till the last minute to do it. only thing left was the straps which is the easiest part, took the sewing machine with me on vacation didn’t finish it there brought it home and never finished it since. A project that became an obsession is now unfinished and abandoned sitting in my little shelf just waiting to be completed. Maybe one day I will finish it.

[bagel_]

The worst thing about ADHD is how boring special events can feel. I feel happier and more alert in my space, than anything else.

[tookitogo]

Your description of what it’s like to be a gifted ADHD child brute-forcing their way through, then growing up and hitting the wall is scary accurate for me.

[moriahkillgo]

The "brute forcing things with extra IQ" really resonated with me. I always wondered how I got through school with A's and B's when I could never focus in class. The huge downside to this is that I ended up not actually learning much of anything.

[VenoMooseBear]

The worst part about being an intelligent female with ADHD is getting misdiagnosed as not having it during childhood because I don’t display the correct systems. People get frustrated with you. They wonder why you are the way you are. “You’re so smart. What’s the excuse.” “You’re just being lazy.” “You don’t strike me as having ADHD. You’re too smart for that.”Or if I was overstimulated and asked to change my environment in school in order to focus better, I was just being too sensitive. This video has been so affirming for me. I was also definitely the kid that didn’t pay attention, got called upon, gave the correct answer, and the teacher was like “oh, I guess you were paying attention.”

[bloodbuffy]

A big thing I don't see talked about enough in ADHD discussions is the insane amount of emotional dysregulation and rejection sensitivity dysphoria that comes with it. Would you be able to chat a bit about that in the future?

[Alexis-lggl]

His statements on high IQ ADHD kids brute forcing their way through school hits me like a truck because thats exactly what I did. I also mastered zoning out while looking like I was paying attention. Now I'm 24, burnt out, unable to brute force my way through stuff anymore.

Dr K's statements on under/over diagnosing should also really include gender as a factor. ADHD women have been so underdiagnosed due to gender biases ("Women can't have ADHD") and different symptom presentation (ADHD women are exceptionally good at masking because of expectations put on women growing up + their symptoms tend to be way more internalized). I had a female friend who CLEARLY had ADHD, she couldn't hold a conversation no matter how hard she tried because she always got so distracted but her psychiatrist, therapist, and doctors refused to even TEST her because "ADHD is overdiagnosed" even though women are proven to be severely underdiagnosed. Meanwhile I have a male friend walked into his general practitioners office, said he thinks he may have ADHD, and the GP prescribed him adderall without ever seeing a psychiatrist/therapist or any other kind of mental health physician nor was required to see one to continue getting refills. Personally, I had to take a multi hour test from the DSM and it took 2 different sessions meanwhile I still got treated with suspicion from my GP.

[austinwhitehead]

My girlfriend and her family don't have ADHD and honestly, I've been asked all the questions "how did you get through school without studying" "why can't you do anything if you have an appt. at 5 oclock" "What do you mean you always have a concert and thought processes going on in your head" etc. etc. I will simply show them this video, because I am honestly finding safety in the fact that for once, someone is understanding what I am going through in words better than I can describe. Thank you for this :)

[kylecarter]

Thank you. Your comments about ADHD and gifted children hit really hard. I've felt like a failure my whole life because I never "lived up to my potential", and having someone explain why with a really accessible analogy is really validating.

[devtekve]

The ADHD simulator is so accurate… tho to be clear, you do not usually hear voices, those are just thoughts. Hard to explain, but it’s accurate.

[almasakic]

Dude 21:11 hit me so hard. I think this is why I've spent my 34 years getting two Masters, in library science and crime scene investigation (two VERY different fields), volunteering at botanical gardens, opening an Etsy shop, working at 4 different libraries, and now, interning at a coroner's office. I have this very deep-seated feeling of inadequacy mentally because I can't remember anything or learn anything sufficiently so I feel this need to 'prove' myself constantly that I am mentally adequate. Now my head is just full of information that is mostly useless, and to make it worse, your earlier point of feeling 'relieved' and not 'proud' is still the case; I feel no true sense of accomplishment at having done these things, just a sense of relief whenever they were over.

[paulfernandes]

What I found really difficult about the ADHD diagnosis process, was a lot of the questions are purely (as Dr K says), about whether you fail to function or not. I function to a mediocre level, but through great effort, and I know ADHD symptoms make things harder than they need to be, but the process doesn't care and so I was told I don't have ADHD. I was honest about my level of functioning, but couldn't then go on to explain that there's more to it than that. Something being unreasonably difficult is invisible, you either do it or you don't as far as others can see.