The Curse Of ADHD

Summary

The script discusses the challenges of living with ADHD, emphasizing that the disorder's true curse lies not in attention or impulsivity issues, but in the underutilization of brain parts due to coping mechanisms. It explains how fear of failure can lead to self-sabotage and suggests that individuals with ADHD excel in chaotic environments. The key to overcoming ADHD's negative impacts is to delay failure, allowing the brain time to form beneficial habits, and to leverage cognitive reframing to build these habits and change life's trajectory.

Takeaways

• 🧠 ADHD's real challenge isn't the frontal lobe differences but the underutilization of intact brain parts due to adaptation to ADHD.
• 👶 Growing up with ADHD often leads to an early realization of the brain's differences and the struggle with tasks that are easy for others.
• 🤯 The fear of failure can hinder focus, causing more mistakes and reinforcing the belief that failure is inevitable.
• 🛑 Trying not to fail can backfire, similar to the paradox of trying to force sleep, leading to more errors and stress.
• 🔄 People with ADHD may adapt by embracing chaos, as their brains are adept at damage control but poor at damage prevention.
• 🌪️ In chaotic environments, ADHD individuals can excel, showing superior adaptability compared to neurotypical individuals.
• 📚 The ability to study or prepare for long-term tasks is often hindered, but last-minute panic can trigger a rise to the occasion.
• 🧩 The habit circuitry in ADHD individuals is often underdeveloped due to a pattern of creating and thriving in chaos.
• 🌿 The habit system is separate from the frontal lobes and is crucial for forming automatic behaviors that can aid ADHD management.
• 💡 Cognitive reframing can help ADHD individuals by leveraging their intact analytical capabilities to build better habits.
• 🚫 The belief in inevitable failure should be reframed to delay failure, allowing the brain time to form beneficial habits.

Q & A

What is the main challenge faced by individuals with ADHD according to the script?

The main challenge faced by individuals with ADHD is not the inability to focus or impulsivity, but rather the underutilization of intact parts of their brain due to the way they adapt to their ADHD, leading to a life full of chaos.

How does the fear of failure impact focus in individuals with ADHD?

The fear of failure can cause individuals with ADHD to focus more on not screwing up rather than on the task at hand, which can actually increase the likelihood of making mistakes.

What is the competitive advantage of people with ADHD in certain environments?

People with ADHD have a superior ability to adapt to chaotic circumstances compared to neurotypical individuals, which can be a competitive advantage in environments with high external stimuli and pressures.

Why do individuals with ADHD sometimes choose to create chaos?

Individuals with ADHD may choose to create chaos because they believe failure is inevitable, and they perform better in chaotic situations due to their heightened damage control skills.

What part of the brain is primarily responsible for habits, and how is it different from the parts affected by ADHD?

The basal ganglia is primarily responsible for habits, which are automatic and do not require attention or focus. This is different from the frontal lobes, which are impaired in ADHD and govern sustained attention, impulse restriction, and focus.

How does the habit system in the brain differ from the neurotransmitters affected by stimulant medication for ADHD?

The habit system is primarily governed by endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids, while stimulant medication for ADHD affects the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine.

What is the real tragedy of ADHD as described in the script?

The real tragedy of ADHD is that the adaptations created by choosing chaos and focusing on damage control can disable the most functional and helpful parts of the brain, such as the habit circuitry.

How can cognitive reframing help individuals with ADHD?

Cognitive reframing can help individuals with ADHD by allowing them to delay failure, which gives their brain more time to form habits, and by utilizing their intact analytical capabilities to build consistent behaviors.

What is the significance of the example of the professional gaming team in the script?

The example of the professional gaming team illustrates how delaying failure by continuing to try even when losing can lead to unexpected comebacks and the formation of habits that can improve performance over time.

What is the main cognitive reframe suggested for individuals with ADHD to avoid creating chaos?

The main cognitive reframe suggested is to delay failure as much as possible, recognizing that the more time one can buy before failing, the more opportunities there are for the brain to form habits that can be beneficial.

How does the script suggest leveraging the analytical capability of individuals with ADHD?

The script suggests using the analytical capability to cognitively reframe situations in a way that avoids chaos and allows for the building of habits, thus leveraging their intelligence to improve their ability to manage ADHD symptoms.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding ADHD's Real Struggles and Adaptations

The first paragraph discusses the challenges faced by individuals with ADHD, emphasizing that the real issue isn't the attention or impulsivity problems typically associated with the condition, but rather the underutilization of brain parts due to coping mechanisms developed in response to ADHD. It explains how children with ADHD learn early on that their brains function differently, leading to a cycle of fear, failure, and a focus on not screwing up, which paradoxically increases the likelihood of failure. The speaker introduces the idea that people with ADHD may actually perform better after accepting the inevitability of mistakes, highlighting their superior adaptability to chaotic situations compared to neurotypical individuals. The paragraph concludes with an anecdote about the speaker's own school experience and the importance of recognizing the habit circuitry in the brain that can be impaired by the chaotic lifestyle often adopted by those with ADHD.

05:01

🔄 The Impact of Chaos on ADHD and the Role of Habits

This paragraph delves into the relationship between chaos and ADHD, illustrating how the consistent engagement in chaotic behavior can impede the formation of habits necessary for daily functioning. It explains the difference between the neurotransmitters involved in ADHD treatment and those governing habit formation, and how the consistent creation of chaos can lead to a neglect of the habit circuitry in the brain. The speaker discusses the importance of habits for individuals with ADHD, as they provide an autopilot mechanism that can help maintain order and prevent the loss of focus. The paragraph also touches on the cognitive reframing capabilities of individuals with ADHD, which, despite being intact, are often underutilized due to the focus on damage control and chaos management.

10:01

🛠 Cognitive Reframing and the Power of Delayed Failure

The final paragraph focuses on the concept of cognitive reframing as a strategy to combat the negative impacts of ADHD. It suggests that instead of trying to avoid failure, individuals with ADHD should aim to delay it, providing the brain with more time to form beneficial habits. The speaker uses the example of a professional gaming team that adopted a strategy of prolonging games, even when on the verge of losing, which led to unexpected comebacks and victories. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of using cognitive reframing to build habits and change the trajectory of life for those with ADHD, ultimately avoiding the self-sabotaging behaviors that can disable the brain's most functional parts.

Keywords

💡ADHD

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulty with sustained attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. In the video, ADHD is the central theme, as it discusses the challenges faced by individuals with this condition, such as struggles with organization and planning, and how they can leverage their unique strengths to overcome these challenges.

💡Chaos

The term 'chaos' in the context of the video refers to the state of disarray and lack of control that individuals with ADHD often feel in their lives. It is used to describe the environment that ADHD individuals may create or find themselves in, which paradoxically they are adept at managing due to their superior adaptability to such circumstances.

💡Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the concept that neurological differences, including those diagnosed as disorders, are natural variations of human cognition and behavior. The video mentions neurodiversity to highlight that individuals with ADHD have different brain functions and should not be seen as inherently flawed, but rather as having unique capabilities.

💡Cognitive Energy

Cognitive energy, as discussed in the video, refers to the mental effort and focus an individual applies to a task. The script explains how individuals with ADHD may expend cognitive energy worrying about potential failure, which detracts from the actual task at hand, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy of mistakes.

💡Habit Circuitry

Habit circuitry in the video pertains to the part of the brain responsible for forming and executing habits, which is different from the frontal lobes affected in ADHD. The script suggests that by creating chaos, individuals with ADHD may fail to engage this part of their brain, preventing the formation of helpful habits.

💡Damage Control

Damage control is a concept used in the video to describe the ability of individuals with ADHD to manage and adapt to chaotic situations effectively. It is suggested that this skill is a competitive advantage for them, but it can also lead to a reliance on chaos, which hinders the development of preventive habits.

💡Cognitive Reframing

Cognitive reframing is a therapeutic technique mentioned in the video where individuals change their perception of a situation to alter their emotional response. The script suggests using cognitive reframing to change the belief of inevitable failure into a strategy of delaying failure, which can help in forming habits.

💡Frontal Lobes

The frontal lobes are a part of the brain involved in executive functions such as attention, planning, and impulse control. The video explains that in ADHD, these areas are impaired, leading to the characteristic symptoms of the disorder. However, it also points out that other parts of the brain, like those governing habits, are intact and can be utilized.

💡Stress

Stress in the video is depicted as a common experience for individuals with ADHD due to their struggles with organization and the fear of failure. The script discusses how embracing the idea of inevitable failure and focusing on damage control can paradoxically reduce stress by removing the pressure to avoid mistakes.

💡Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain that facilitate communication between nerve cells. The video mentions that ADHD is associated with imbalances in neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine, which are targeted by stimulant medications. It also contrasts these with endocannabinoids, which are involved in habit formation.

💡Habit Formation

Habit formation is the process of developing automatic behaviors that require little or no conscious thought to execute. The video emphasizes the importance of habit formation for individuals with ADHD, as it can help compensate for their difficulties with attention and impulse control by creating reliable, automatic behaviors.

Highlights

ADHD can lead to a life of chaos due to the struggle with attention, impulsivity, and focus.

The real curse of ADHD is the underutilization of intact brain parts due to adaptations made to cope with the disorder.

Children with ADHD learn early on that their brains are different and struggle with tasks that are easy for others.

Fear of failure can prevent focus on the task at hand, leading to increased likelihood of failure.

ADHD individuals may perform better after initially failing due to superior adaptability to chaotic circumstances.

People with ADHD often adopt a mentality of embracing chaos and stress-free failure as inevitable.

The ability to adapt to chaos is a competitive advantage for individuals with ADHD in certain environments.

ADHD individuals are good at damage control but struggle with damage prevention and habit formation.

Habit formation is crucial for managing ADHD as it engages a different part of the brain responsible for automatic behaviors.

Habit circuitry in the brain, specifically the basal ganglia, is underutilized in ADHD due to chaotic behavior patterns.

Cognitive reframing and analytical capabilities are intact in ADHD and can be leveraged for building habits.

Depression in ADHD can stem from the awareness of intelligence not being leveraged due to the disorder's impact.

Cognitive reframing can help delay failure, allowing the brain more time to form habits.

The strategy of delaying failure can lead to unexpected comebacks and improved performance in various scenarios.

Building habits can activate other parts of the brain, changing the destiny of individuals with ADHD.

The curse of ADHD lies in the disabling of functional and helpful brain parts due to adaptations made for chaos and damage control.

Transcripts

chances are if you've got ADHD you're

overwhelmed and despite your best

efforts at organizing things planning

things trying to keep things under

control you always find yourself in a

life full of chaos and today we're going

to learn how to break free of

that the real curse of ADHD isn't the

fact that your frontal loes are a little

bit different that you struggle with

attention or impulsivity or you can't

focus the real curse of ADHD is that you

have intact parts of your brain that

you're actually not using because of the

way that you adapt to your ADHD so this

all starts with you being a kid and when

you're growing up as a kid with ADHD you

quickly learn that your brain is

different so you quickly learn that

while things are easy for other people

you struggle with them and that despite

your best efforts everything that you

try ends up falling apart in some way

and then something really interesting

happens when you start to fear that

things are going to fall apart then you

actually can't focus on the task at hand

so if I'm trying to let's say paint a

picture but I know that I'm going to get

distracted and then I'll screw up the

picture then a lot of my cognitive

energy is thinking about don't screw up

don't screw up don't screw up and the

more that you start thinking about not

screwing up the more likely you are to

screw up because you're not focused on

the task at hand it's a little bit like

trying to force yourself to fall asleep

oh my God I need to sleep I need to

sleep I need to sleep oh my God it's

getting so late I'm going to be so tired

tomorrow and what ends up happening the

fact that you're trying so hard to fall

asleep actually keeps you awake and so

this is exactly what happens to you if

you've got ADHD as you start to realize

I'm going to screw up and then you start

to focus on not screwing up but despite

your best efforts you will end up

screwing up because that's what happens

if you're a neurode Divergent kid in a

neurotypical world and then as this

happens over and over and over again you

start to recognize that screwing up is

inevitable you've got two options either

you can try really hard to do it right

and end up screwing up anyway or you can

just kind of screw up right now and

mentally Free Yourself of the stress

because if you're going to screw up

eventually why bother stressing out

about it and this is what's really

interesting about ADHD is that once you

screw up you actually perform better so

if we look at the brains of people with

ADHD their ability to adapt to chaotic

circumstances is actually Superior to

neurotypical people this is a

competitive advantage that if you're

placed in sort of a chaotic environment

where there's a lot of external stimuli

that are pressuring you to do things

that's when you actually do your best

you can't study for a test that's a

month away but when you forget that oh

my god I've got a test tomorrow in its

last minute Panic that's when ADHD kids

actually rise to the challenge and so

this is where most of y'all learn a

really interesting adaptation which is

that okay so if I'm going to screw up

anyway I might as well screw up now I

might as well create an environment of

chaos because as someone with ADHD

you're really good at damage control but

you're really bad at damage prevention

you're really bad at preventing problems

and making sure everything goes okay but

you're actually pretty good at piecing

things together hey all' if you're

interested in applying some of the

principles that we share to actually

create change in your life check out Dr

K's guide to mental health it combines

over two decades of my experience of

both being a monk and a psychiatrist and

distills all of the most important

things I've learned into a Choose Your

Own Adventure format so check out the

link in the bio and start your journey

today I know this certainly happened

with me like I remember when I was in

like the third or fourth grade I walked

into school one day and I noticed that

everyone was bringing in school projects

and I was like oh crap I completely

forgot to do this project that was

assigned a month ago and so I spent the

whole hour of lunch in the bathroom with

like glue and tape and toilet paper and

cardboard cobbling together something of

a school project and when class time

rolled around even though I hadn't

walked in with a school project I had

something kind of pathetic that saved me

from failing the class the real tragedy

is that as you discover that you thrive

in chaos and that you may actually do a

better job when you're surrounded by

external pressures you actually disable

the one part of your brain that protects

you against ADHD which is your habit

circuitry so let's remember that in

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

our frontal lobes are the primary thing

that that's impaired so our frontal

lobes govern things like sustained

attention restricting our impulses and

giving us the ability to focus but if we

look at habits they're actually a

completely different part of the brain

they're a part of our brain called our

basil ganglia and if you sort of think

about a habit a habit is automatic it

doesn't require attention it doesn't

require Focus you don't actually have to

restrain any impulses when you're

engaging in something that's a habit

because a habit is automatic it is done

without attention and even the

neurotransmitters involved are

completely different if we look at

things like stimulant medication which

is what we use to treat ADHD that

affects the neurotransmitters of

norepinephrine in dopamine whereas our

habit system is primarily governed by

endoc canabo which are cannabinoids so

that's the same stuff as in marijuana

which is also why marijuana messes with

habits but that's neither here or there

when we start to engage in chaotic

Behavior consistently because remember

that you're so afraid that you're going

to screw things up that you kind of

screw things up now and you find

yourself in a chaotic situation it's

something that once you believe that the

screw up is inevitable you might as well

do it now and Free Yourself of the

stress of it but as you start to do that

it becomes impossible to engage in

consistent behavior and if you can't

engage in consistent Behavior your basil

ganglia won't help you form habits and

this is the real tragedy because if you

don't have habits and your attention

starts to wander the automatic part of

your brain doesn't know what what to do

and I've worked with a ton of people who

have ADHD and when we focus on habit

building what tends to happen is when

they lose their attention The Habit sort

of starts to kick in and if it's the

right habit then they end up being okay

but the real curse of ADHD is that since

we start creating chaos we don't really

engage in that habit circuitry and the

problem there is that the habits are

actually what's going to save you

because if you think about going through

life with ADHD you're not paying

attention but if your autopilot

mechanism is actually intact and does

the right things like if you have wired

a habit of putting your keys in the same

place or putting your cell phone in the

same place every time you come in the

door you will always know where it is

the problem with ADHD is that you

haven't built a habit and so you end up

leaving your keys in the toilet and your

cell phone in your bed right so we don't

use this habit circuitry because we end

up creating chaos and so if we want to

stop creating chaos we've got to tackle

that that and this is where there's

another part of the brain with ADHD that

is completely intact that y'all are

usually not very good at using which is

our capacity to cognitively reframe and

this is literally what therapists do

with you in your office so your

analytical capability or your IQ with

ADHD is completely intact your ability

to analyze situations and come up with

intellectually the right conclusion is

actually completely intact the problem

is that if you come up with the right

conclusion you can restrain your

attention long enough to actually follow

through with it but the analytical

capability is completely intact and

bizar this is one of the reason that

kids with ADHD grow up with depression

because they recognize that I'm just as

smart as everyone around me and yet I'm

getting crappy grades there's something

fundamentally wrong with me although I

sort of get deep down that my IQ I'm not

stupid I know I'm not stupid I just

can't leverage my intelligence and so

what we want to do is cognitive ly

reframe in one particular way that sort

of avoids this chaotic environment and

allows us to build habits now why do we

seek chaos in the first place if we go

back to our earlier example remember

it's like a sequence of a couple things

number one I try and I fail number two I

try to avoid failure and that stresses

me out and doesn't work anyway which

means that number three what I'm going

to do is create chaos because I can

thrive in chaos because my frontal loes

are externally motivated in stimulus

bound if everything is falling apart

around me I'm going to get all these

impulses and I will rise and I will

level up my sort of chaos management

damage control skills and so what we

want to do is utilize our cognitive

reframing or analytical circuitry in a

very particular way we want to use that

to allow ourselves to start building

habits now why don't we do this normally

it's because we've learned a couple of

unfortunate lessons with ADHD I'm going

to screw up even if I try I'm still

going to screw up I do better in chaos

and I've leveled up my damage control

skills so in order for me to succeed in

life I must make things as chaotic as

possible because once they're chaotic at

least I don't have to worry about not

screwing up and then I will rise to the

occasion this needs to stop and the main

cognitive reframe that we're going to

use is sort of reframing this idea that

failure is inevitable so what we

actually have to do is take the belief

that you have and sort of re frame it a

little bit and create a different

situation and what I want youall to do

is don't try to stop failing which is

what people usually try to do just

recognize that the more you can delay

failing the better off you will be and

there's a really great example of how

effective the strategy is and it comes

from actually the realm of orts so I was

working with a particular team that was

very very talented but would tend to

choke so on some matches or games they

would do really really well and they

like dominate their opponents and we're

like yeah like these guys are awesome

and then in other games they would sort

of start to crumble they'd start to fall

apart and at 15 20 minutes into the game

they'd start to realize oh man we're

going to lose and once they started to

believe that they were going to lose

they stopped trying because these are

pro Gamers and they know how to predict

what's going to happen in the game they

know that their chances of winning are

close to zero so you might as well throw

in the towel so these this group of of

pro Gamers actually learned a slightly

different strategy which was okay even

if you're going to lose we want you to

lose less and even win more and what

does that mean lose less that means that

if you've lost the game at 20 minutes

don't actually GG out at 25 see how long

you can hold on we're not saying that

we're even trying for victory we're just

saying we're going to make the enemy

team bleed for every inch of ground they

may have won but we're not going to make

it easy on them and so 20-minute games

became 30 minute games become became

40-minute games and the other really

shocking thing that started to happen is

they started to win games that they

should not be winning they started to

make comebacks more consistently 10% 15

20 or even 25% of games that people

thought were over this particular Squad

was able to like make a comeback now

that may not be possible for you who

knows that's not actually what we're

shooting for but it may work the reason

that we want to delay the inevitable

failure is because the more that you

delay things the more time your brain

has to form habits so if you're trying

to do something with ADHD you may start

to get really stressed out you're like

oh man I'm going to screw up I'm going

to screw up I'm going to screw up and so

just take a step back and tell yourself

yeah there's a decent chance that I'm

going to screw up but what I'm going to

do is try to do as good of a job as I

can for as long as possible and if you

can frame that way which is not quite

trying to counter what you already

believe it's just not giving up right

away and not invoking the chaos then

what you'll do is buy yourself some time

and as you buy yourself some time you

will start to form habits and as you

start to cognitively reframe and start

using your basil ganglia then you will

start to activate other parts in your

brain that will start to change the

destiny of your life so instead of

constantly being behind and constantly

being stressed you will start to form

habits that if you lose track of things

you're still kind of like doing things

that are kind of productive or useful

you'll start to view failure in a

slightly different way and so the real

tragedy of the curse of ADHD isn't that

you've got some part of your brain that

is neurod Divergent and can't focus or

has difficulty focusing it's that the

adaptations that you create when you

choose chaos and damage control because

that's what you're the best at you

actually disable the most functional and

helpful parts of your brain and that's

the real curse of

ADHD