What is it like to have ADHD?

Kicking off the programme, I spoke with Terry Laverty who was recently been diagnosed with ADHD...
19 April 2013

Interview with 

Terry Laverty

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Kicking off the programme, I spoke with Terry Laverty who was recently been diagnosed with ADHD and as a result, has co-founded an ADHD support group called ADDapt Ability at Cambridge.  I asked him what people with adult ADHD might experience.

Terry -   People with ADHD tend to process their emotions more quickly Eyesthan people without, so you might find yourself apologising for temper tantrums quite a lot or perhaps not planning ahead and considering the consequences of your actions.  You might be addicted to extreme sports or even conversely maybe having more serious addictions and self-medicate with coffee, alcohol, or even hard drugs.  Some of the flags to look out for could be if you've been through the mental health services for example with diagnosis of depression, anxiety, even bipolar.  Maybe the medication of the treatment isn't working or isn't as effective as you think it should be.

Hannah -   That was Terry Laverty who's diagnosed with adult ADHD at the age of 33.  I wanted to find out more about the clinical symptoms and diagnoses of both child and adult ADHD and so, I met Dr. Sam Chamberlain, Clinical Lecturer and Psychiatrist at Cambridge University....

Comments

The term ADD/ADHD was made up by psychiatrists to drum up business.
It only means that the child didn't understand the material he was learning.

I tutored such students. The first thing I did with each was to ask them to show me at what point in his/her schoolwork did they get in trouble. I then went back a little before that point and asked the student to read the material out loud.
Whenever the student stumbled over a word or paused to figure out how to read it, we looked up the meaning of that word in the good dictionary. I then asked the student to demo the meaning of the word out with objects on the table,
After I was satisfied that he got the meaning of that word I asked him to use it in a couple of sentences.
After the student did it correctly he re-read the material out loud. If he read it without pause or hesitation I knew he really got it, and we moved on.
And miracle of miracles: no more ADD-ADHD! :-)

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