Though the symptoms of attention deficit disorder may seem obviously apparent, the disorder often goes undiagnosed in adults. People dealing with it might be constantly fidgeting, easily aggravated, chronically impatient or unable to focus on a task. They may jump from activity to activity or have trouble concentrating.
But are these the symptoms of a youngster suffering from ADHD? No, they're the evidences of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And though Adult ADHD is extremely prevalent amongst adults, particularly those who suffered from the disorder as a child, it's often either difficult to spot or attributed to stress or immaturity. To find out more about this disorder, including how it's treated and it's symptoms, read on.
How Common is Adult ADHD?
About 1 to 2% of adult men and women, or roughly 5 million Americans, have problems maintaining attention or controlling their movements and impulses. ADHD refers to a spectrum of difficulties in restraining motion and paying attention.
Unfortunately, the symptoms they suffer from are often harder to spot and will be missed by doctors and even the patient themselves.
The Symptoms of Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Restlessness, fidgeting and squirming
- An inability to sustain any form of focused activity (like reading) for a long period of time
- An inability to remember small details and constantly being distracted
- Difficulty concentrating on what others are saying
- Impatience - for example, irritable when forced to wait in line or traffic
- Pronounced mood swings that run from depression and unhappiness to high energy excitement and happiness
- Failure to stay on a single task, and instead jumping from task to task
- Time management and punctuality problems
- Aggressive or irritable personality reflected in a hot and easily flared temper
- Impulsive decision making - for example, with relationships or purchasing decisions
- Easily frustrated and unable to handle stress and everyday hurdles
- Poor body image and low self esteem coupled with an inability to maintain a healthy diet and regular exercise
- Lack of Maturity
Instead of running around the room, breaking things and throwing toys on the floor like a child with ADHD may do, an adult with the disorder will simply constantly be in motion. They'll often tap their feet, fidget with their hands or move around in their chair.
Steps to Treating an Adult
There are support groups and medical professionals out there who can help you get treatment for your disorder. You can try contacting physicians in your area that work with children suffering from ADHD or you call the Attention Deficit Disorder Association. They can often refer individuals to qualified and experienced professionals in their area.
And remember, though the symptoms of attention deficit disorder may seem similar to those often associated with stress, adults need to be serious about attending to this often debilitating disorder. It can be treated - and with the right drug treatment program administered by an experienced doctor, having adult ADHD treated is a life-changing experience.
The treatment is certainly preferable to the daily frustrations that accompany the disorder.
Information On Attention Deficit Disorder
Kevin: I believe in modeling successful people so I wanted to talk to you just briefly about some of the things, you know, particularly information that you started so someone can walk away and say hey that's a great resource I might be able to go to so I want to ask you right now what are one or two or three books or resources that you have used to really help you get to the level where you are?
Tellman: As far as resources, let's see, as far as things that are easy to implement, there are a couple that I can recommend. One thing that I have to say honestly is that most of the self improvement stuff that I've run into isn't optimized for the ADD brain, OK?
Kevin: OK.
Tellman: Most of it is optimized for a linear thinking brain, right. Step by step systems.
Kevin: Interesting.
Tellman: OK. People with ADD think they want step by step systems all the time and then get maybe the first step into it and then get distracted, right. So how can we overcome this? Well there are a few ways we'll share that with you in just a moment. But before we do the first concept that I just want to get everybody clear on is just soak up as much information as fast as you can then move in to the next thing because you are going to do that anyway, so make sure you do it on purpose.
Kevin: OK.
Tellman: Alright, I read a book that was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly influential earlier on my NLP career. And I stand by it because of its implement ability. It was written by a guy that we all know and love named Tony Robbins.
Kevin: Sure.
Tellman: And he wrote a book called Unlimited Power, OK? The techniques and tactics in Unlimited Power are extraordinary easy to implement and extraordinarily effective, OK? Very, very, very powerful as far as NLP techniques and tactics are concerned. Number two is where I got lots of my binary bit training original from which is a company called The Manola Institute. The Manola Institute the way I like to look at it ,uh, it's definitely more on the new age side of things but at the end of the day the binary bits and sound-wave technology taught me how to literally shift gears in my brain like you do in standard car.
Kevin: OK.
Tellman: Shifting a little bit more engine ? oomph -- when you need it to climb those hills.
Kevin: And explain just that binary bits very, very briefly.
Tellman: Well, they are actually very, very powerful and I use them a lot in my work and in my programs that I created. At the end of the day, think about binary bits like training wheels for your brain, OK? They teach you how to stay vertical on a bike while you are riding it along and once you are vertical then it's like a sixteen speed, right, verses your BMX one speeder. Right.
Kevin: Got you.
Tellman: Basically again, we take way too long and get into a long conversation about how they actually work, but they literally teach you how to speed up and slow down your brain wave activity at will. Kind of like a neural feedback except a lot cheaper and a lot easier to use.
Kevin: Got you.
Tellman: And I mean those are the two. NLP and hypnotherapy, self hypnosis, very powerful things, I recommend if people are really into this stuff that you go and get certified. That's the way you are going to learn it otherwise you're rely on someone else. I don't like people relying on someone else.
Kevin: Right.
Tellman: The way I really learned this stuff was becoming trained in the field.
Kevin: Right. What's your take on nutrition and exercise in relation to ADD. Is it effective, is it not effective, is there better things to spend your time doing?
Tellman: I don't think ADD people really need to eat. That is a joke.
Kevin: [laugh]
Tellman: Now, seriously. The nutrition and exercise I find to be extraordinary pivotal in my experiences with ADD I try to run everyday if humanly possible. And it makes a huge difference in the way my body functions, in the way my brain functions, and my ability to get way, way, way more of everything I do. Likewise I only eat organic food unless I'm traveling. And I still try as much as possible which means I have to eat a lot less food. Right. I must have much healthier food with much more nutrients which means I don't have to stuff myself with useless calories all the time and essentially, useless simple sugars, I think useless- they are not useless, they are useful in certain quantities, right,
Kevin: Sure.
Tellman: Smaller quantities than most Americans consume. So, yeah, I used to eat all organic food and get some kind of cardio vascular exercises everyday. I find that to be hugely, hugely helpful for me.
Kevin: Yeah. There are a lot of [advertisements] that sugar might be a serious factor in ADD symptoms?
Tellman: I've heard that over and over and over again. I certainly can't dispute it. I know that when I eat a lot of sugar I can get a lot less done. So I don't generally eat my sugar.
Kevin: Yeah. How do generally practice differently now in terms of the information that you give out to educate people with ADD in terms of self improvement now. How do practice differently now then you did when you first started. What may be one or two high moments when you said, ?hey you know this really works effectively this way or extra why it really works more effectively than A or B??
Tellman: Well, when I started I was strictly working with people one on one. And when I made the decision to not work with people one on one anymore and I would only work with people through my programs, my systems. What I found was two things. Number one is that I was forced to come up with techniques, tactics and principles that were applicable to a much higher percentage of people consistently all the time again and again and again. And again when I started out, I had private practices and that was great but I wasn't always giving people the best tactics that would work for the largest percentage of people. It's kind of like hitting this every single time, right. So though everyone is different there are certainly techniques and tactics that can be used. The step by step system is one of the things that I found to be a little over rated. Again people with ADD think they want step by step systems. I totally understand why people would think that. Just ask yourself when was the last time you completed the step by step system? You know, very rare for most folks.
Kevin: Yeah.
Tellman: Right, so I think step by step systems for ADD aren't necessarily an effective solution. Right. What is an effective solution in my experience are quick rapid implement systems that don't take much time to learn and you don't need any kind of reference sheet in order to activate.
Kevin: [laughs]
Tellman: Right, because, you probably forgot and left that reference sheet at home. And that's the reality of it. You know, if you are going to use a technique use something that you can implement in seconds, seconds not minutes not hours. Seconds is absolutely essential when you are picking and choosing different self improvement methods that you may want to apply.
Kevin: If someone was to take one thing away from this call what would it be?
Tellman: I would say ADD will make you unstoppable if you choose to use it. One of the things that I really truly believe and I found to be the case, over and over again is that people with ADD are a lot like superman would be if he was wearing a necklace with encrypt on it. He just doesn't realize he's wearing a necklace with encrypt on it. Once he takes it off, watch out because it's time to rip it up, you know he can fly around the world; he can cheat laser beams and these amazing things. The biggest thing I would say is every single time you complain about having ADD you are just making that necklace encrypt a little bigger. Every time you choose not to, you're taking another piece off. And you can accomplish whatever you want in one, one hundredth of the time of anyone you know if you choose ADD to make that happen.
Kevin: Well, very powerful stuff. Well, let me tell you this, we're running out of time. This is has just been extremely insightful and, you know, I'm learning from this as I'm listening to you.
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