Manage the Unmanaged

A few years ago, one of my university students seemed never to stop talking. You might say she never shut up. She talked during my lectures. She begged for food. She blurted out obscenities when she got upset over an assignment.

“I can’t help it, Dr. McNay. I have ADHD.”

Boy, did she say that to the wrong person. ADHD is never an excuse for such behavior.

“They make medicines for things like that,” I said with a tinge of sarcasm in my voice.

The first time I met her, she came running into my classroom with a dollar bill in her hand.

“I smell the chili you brought for your class. I’m starving. Here, let my buy some,” she demanded as she thrust the money toward me.

I told her to come back in about 30 minutes after I served my own students. She huffed from the room, but she did come back and get a free bowl of chili.

The next time I met her she actually was my student. The first class meeting is etched in my mind. Every few seconds as I lectured I would sign the word no and say hush. She kept on talking to her classmate until I leaned over her desk and asked her to stop interrupting my “golden nuggets of information.” This time she got it.

Her mind and mouth often went where they wanted to go and stayed there.

I describe it as going 150 miles per hour in a 30 mile speed zone.  She was riding an uncontrolled motor bike as it sped toward the precipice of a cliff. Her ADHD brain took her on a true mental chase where she didn’t wish to go.

I won’t share the vulgarities she said when she got frustrated about writing a course paper for me. Instead, I will tell you that she and I had a long personal conversation about qualified mental health professionals in our community. I knew she needed help from someone who understood her free-spirited brain. After all, the ADHD brain is physically different from the more typical brain, which can often lead to impulsive comments and inappropriate behaviors. It’s a matter of lower levels of neurotransmitters that drive the electrical impulses in the brain. She sought professional help and began taking medication. It certainly made a world of difference for those of us who had to deal with her.

A large majority of persons with ADHD can improve the neurotransmitter imbalance with properly supervised medications. However, many people do not want to take medications, and for them I recommend four basics that pertain to all of us:

1. Sleep – develop and maintain health sleep hygiene

2. Eat – choose wisely from the recommended food groups and take in healthy snacks

3. Exercise -  or move through air consistently every day for about 30 minutes.

4. Sunlight – get into the light every day to help build serotonin levels

Many persons with ADHD find proper sleep, eating, exercise, and light mandatory for the energy, clarity, strength, and brain management they need throughout each day.  It’s a matter of letting their brains know who is truly in charge.

For more information on Controlling the ADHD Brain, check out this link.

Dr. Atha