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ADHD Diagnosis

You cannot manage what you don’t understand, or don’t even suspect is there. Many people with ADHD fail to appreciate the ways it sabotages their lives.  Dr. Kurtz, Dr. Gray & Dr. Muggli talk about the difference the ADHD diagnosis makes in adults, and in children.

(Patrick McKenna) What difference does it make to get the diagnosis?
Dr. Steven Kurtz – kids before they’re succeeding, whatever that means. They’re not sensing that they’re inattentive because that’s what inattention is. They’re not sensing they’re impulsive because that’s all they know. They’re not sensing that they have issues because that’s sort of requires some level of insight and kids with four or five and six don’t have a lot of insight. They know they were getting in trouble and when they’re getting in trouble less they don’t come in and say to me Oh Dr. Kurtz thank you I’m so glad you helped me get into trouble less. It’s just like they’re getting into trouble less and it’s it’s they don’t make a big deal about it.
Dr. Ainslie Gray – This woman came in and I said well how are things going? and she said Susie had her first birthday party invitation and Susie was 7 and she had never been invited to a birthday party before. So that that may not be so significant to your audience, but if you’re a parent you can’t get your child an invitation to a birthday party for them.
Dr. Kurtz – their parents on the other hand are.. take more note of some of the milestones like getting invited to birthday parties being able to participate in in a gym class and and stay there and go to camp and things like that.
Dr. Jain – the fact is is that these are individuals who do suffer who may not even realize they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder  because they’ve lived a life of what they’ve lived in a way that makes them feel like maybe they’re just bad people. When they realize particularly when they realize their child has it and they’ve come to recognize the same symptoms in themselves, they start they start saying to themselves, you know I think I have something. You mean there’s actually something to explain away why I live my life in misery.
Dr. Laura Muggli – I would go to therapy and people would say oh she just has depression or something like that, but it was never depression. So.. it was ADHD, undiagnosed for all these years.
Dr. Jain – ADHD individuals haven’t got a clue where the end of the cliff is. If they don’t know where the edge of that cliff is they fall off regularly and that’s called impairment.
Dr. Allan Donsky – One of the most exciting things about working in the field is that how eminently treatable ADD is and the benefits that families and children can experience from having the right kinds of treatment. Children go from being Outsiders from being ostracized from being impulsive, distracted not having friends, always disrupting in the class, to being functional and more importantly the kids start to feel competent as individuals and I think as human beings that’s really what people want to understand is that they are feeling heard and they are understood by the world.
Gina Pera – it’s a question of is this person getting the information to to have the best life they can have? You know some people will get the idea that oh you’re just trying to make people with ADD be normal you know whatever that is, or like you, but it’s not it for me that’s not my motivation. I love to have people come to the adult group that I moderate and I love to see them elevate their lives you know they often come in with negative mindsets about what they can and can’t do in life and their limitations a lot of times they’re defining their personality by ADHD symptoms they often don’t know what their personality is because they’re so encumbered by symptoms, and so it’s just great to see people expand and stretch beyond symptoms and you know they still are themselves they still have you know some of the ADHD you know whatever you want to call it. I don’t make blanket characterizations of ADHD because everybody I know with it is different, but you know they don’t lose their personality it become more of themselves and less defined by symptoms and they have all kinds of new opportunities which to me is what what it’s all about for children or adults not to be defined by your limitations.
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