An overview of ADHD with treatment strategies.

1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder:
An Overview for People with ADHD
and Parents of People with ADHD
By
Brenda McCreight Ph.D.
http://www.lifespancounselling.com
http://www.theadoptioncounselor.com
http://www.hazardousparenting.com

2. What is a.d.h.d.?
• Adhd is a neurobiological disorder
• Adhd is a developmental disorder – children
develop more slowly in some areas, such as the
capacity to inhibit their own behaviors
• Adhd is an emotional self regulation disorder
• Adhd is a chronic disorder
• Adhd is the most treatable disorder currently
known in the field of psychiatry
• Brenda McCreight PH.D. training series

3. What adhd isn’t…
• Adhd is not an attitude problem
• Adhd isn’t a result of good or bad parenting
• Adhd is not a moral problem
• Adhd is not a choice
• Adhd is not laziness
• Adhd, by itself, does not
lead to criminal or violent behaviors
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

4. The challenges…
• Adhd makes it hard or impossible to move towards a goal
• When it comes to taking action, there is no sense of past or
future, and no ability to plan and implement the plan
• Easily distracted, can’t maintain a thought, a task or a
conversation to completion
• Can process information without a problem, but can’t
respond appropriately to the information
• Can’t stop at the right time, perseverates
• Can’t take action until the need
for action is NOW and is
compelling
Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

5. Let’s talk about the lack of inhibition…
• Chronic and shows up early in life
• There is no pause between thought/impulse
and action
• Presents as intrusive and disruptive behaviors
• Over time, the physical impulsiveness slows or
stops -- adults show less of this part of the
trait, but the thinking part of
impulsiveness/lack of inhibition continues –
often shows up emotionally
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

6. Emotional Impulsiveness means…
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Quick to anger, easily irritated
• Show emotions quickly, react quickly on an
emotional level
• Have normal feelings, but can’t regulate or
modify them to meet social standards
• The emotions, like the behaviours, are
compulsive and disordered
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

7. Inability to self regulate means…
• The person can’t engage in self directed
actions
• Can’t monitor or regulate her own behaviors
• Can’t think about delayed consequences
• Can’t delay gratification
• Can’t learn from experience – understands
how the past impacted him, but can’t prevent
himself from doing it again
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

8. Impairment of working memory
• Working memory can be defined as: a brain system
that provides temporary storage and manipulation of
the information necessary for such complex cognitive
tasks as language comprehension, learning, and
reasoning (U.S. National Library of Medicine
definition).
• This is highly significant – it means that the person who
has adhd has a severe problem understanding
information, learning anything new, and using
reasoning to make decisions.
• This is a big deal – and rarely respected or understand
by others.

9. And a few other challenges…
• Adhd prevents self motivation
• Adhd delays the development of problem solving
skills
• Adhd delays the ability to plan and to implement
a plan
• Adhd prevents the person from remembering the
rules of a social situation or social interaction
• Adhd prevents the ability to self soothe so the
person always needs to seek others to relieve his
boredom or make him feel happy or entertained

10. Impact of adhd on social
relationships…
• Frequent conflict with peers and adults due to
failure to follow through and intrusive behaviors
• Early rejection by peers due
to inability to follow rules and
regulate temper
• When social isolation occurs, the child is then not
able to experience and learn appropriate social
skills which leads to further social rejection
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

11. • As the person reaches adolescence and
adulthood, the a) inability to follow through
and b) the inability to respond to social cues
and c) the inability to engage in reciprocal
conversations leads to:
• problems with dating
• problems with maintaining a
relationship
Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

12. Other ways adhd impacts daily life…
• Poor academic and poor work performance leads
to early school drop-out
• Co-existing symptoms of depression or an anxiety
disorder resulting from social isolation
• Substance abuse from an early age – self
medicating
• Poor social relationships due to lack of social
skills, lack of emotional regulation, lack of
conversational reciprocity etc.
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

13. When all of these issues and challenges
exist, secondary problems may develop
Please note – Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder are
not part of adhd, but may co-exist with it in some individuals.

14. Why some of this happens…
• Not all of the parts of the brain that manage attention are affected
• The frontal lobes lack the ability to
kick start the motivation needed to do anything
• The person can’t think in a way that helps
him to move forward with a task
• The person can’t resist distractions because
she is compelled to respond, even for a
moment, to each distraction
• Once the person responds to the distraction, he can’t go back to
what he was doing before – his brain has forgotten and moved on
from that interaction or task
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

15. Long term impact of adhd…
• Problems with attaining and maintaining employment
• Problems with attaining and maintaining personal
relationships
• Substance abuse for self medication – more adult use
of marijuana than any other group
• High accident rate, in cars and on the job
• High risk behaviors lead to early or unplanned
pregnancies and STDs
• Financial problems
• 3 times more likely to be dead by age 40 due to
accidents and life style risks

16. Treatment
ADHD RESPONDS WELL TO TREATMENT!
Some treatments are controversial – not all
experts agree on what is best – please use this
as a review of treatments, not as a
recommendation

17. Medication
• Medication is the most common treatment for
adhd
• Many experts feel that denying a person with
adhd the proper meds is the same as denying
insulin to a diabetic
• There are many medications in use and more
are being developed
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

18. Nutrition
• Leading expert on adhd, Russell Barkley, does not believe that diet will help people
with adhd
• Some experts believe that any diet that promotes overall brain health will benefit
people with adhd
• Daniel Amen, MD, also an expert on adhd, recommends the following nutrition:
• A high protein diet, including beans, cheese, eggs, meat, and nuts. Add protein
foods in the morning and for after-school snacks, to improve concentration and
possibly increase the time that the meds work
• Reduce carbohydrate intake, such as candy, corn syrup, honey, sugar, products
made from white flour, white rice, and potatoes without the skins
• Increase complex carbohydrates intake, such as vegetables and some fruits
(including oranges, tangerines, pears, grapefruit, apples, and kiwi
• Add Omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in tuna, salmon, other cold-water
white fish, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and olive and canola oil and in supplements
• Brenda McCreight Ph.D. training series

19. Neurofeedback
• Neurofeedback – also known as EEG
Biofeed-back — is a computer based program
in which indi-vid-u-als are pro-vided real-time
feed-back on their brain-wave pat-terns and
are taught to alter their typ-i-cal EEG pat-tern
to one that is con-sis-tent with a
focused, atten-tive state.

20. Another form of neurofeedback…
• Entrainment glasses are another form of
neurofeedback

21. Heartmath Biofeedback
• This can be used to help the child with adhd
learn to relax and improve her focus, as well
as helping with sleep induction

22. Cogmed
• Cogmed Working Memory Training is an
evidence-based, computerized training
program designed to improve attention by
effectively increasing working memory and
attention
• Cogmed uses a combination of software and
personal coaching

23. Coaching
• An adhd coach is an ‘active guide’ who uses
inquiry, structure, strategic planning,
encouragement and constructive feedback to
help the client learn how to successfully
respond more appropriately
• Adhd coaches are trained and licensed

24. Education and advocacy…
• Adhd is not understood by the general population
• Teachers and classroom support workers, as well as others
in the professional support network need to be updated on
their training and understanding of adhd so that they can
construct an effective learning environment for the child
with adhd
• Adoption and foster care professionals require solid
training in adhd so that they can properly prepare and
support adoptive parents whose children have adhd
• Frontline mental health professionals require updated
training in adhd so that they can recognize the disorder in
patients and can effectively support the child and family

25. • Please check out Brenda McCreight’s courses
at Udemy.com and her other power points at
Slideshare
• More powerpoints and more courses are in
development

26. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Studies have shown that this does not work well
with children who have adhd but can be
successful with adults who have adhd
• Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a
psychotherapeutic treatment that helps a person
understand the thoughts and feelings that
influence his behaviors
• CBT is commonly used to treat many disorders,
such as phobias, addiction, depression and
anxiety

27. Change the way the environment
responds…
• Russell Barkley asserts that the best point of
intervention is at the point of performance – that
is, when the person is in action of some
kind, intervene at that moment – if you wait till
later, it’s too late!
• Intervene with kindness and redirection
• If a consequence is in order, make it short and
immediate
• Be sure the consequence isn’t about punishing
the person for having adhd