I have ADHD, What is Your Superpower? | Negar (Nikki) Amini | TEDxWPI

[Music] whoo I almost forgot I haven't talked hi everyone in the next 18 minutes I'm gonna change your life may who am I kidding I cannot change anybody's life in 18 minutes I just said that to grab your attention but what if it's not easy for you to pay attention at any time in any situation my name is Meg R and today I'm here to talk about ADHD growing up I was that kid that I could not sit still that was always at principal office although I was known for being overly polite and docile but somehow all the trouble at school was linked to me I used to hear it from all my teachers that we do not understand how smart you are and how stupid you are at the same time people wish they had your brain they work as twice as hard as you and the result they get it's just half the results you get and you waste all that potential hearing dad made me feel guilty about myself all the time I was so mad what was wrong with me I was so read that I could not focus on something and get a work done back then neither I nor anyone around me knew about ADHD but what is ADHD ADHD stains for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder so there are three different characteristic effete its hyperactivity inattention and impulsivity and there are three different kind of people with ADHD those who are predominantly inattentive those who are predominantly hyperactive thank God I'm not that and those who are lucky to have both of them at the same time and those are the most common one there are theories that say that that part of your brain that is responsible for paying attention and is higher level of Avernus and conscious it's less developed and it's smaller in people with ADHD compared to normal brains I mean let me correct myself in common kind of brain that's why all the stimuli make their way to our higher and upper level of Avernus that's why people with ADHD turn with slightest noise so let me tell you what I mean when I'm talking about difficulty to pay attention I do understand that all of you have those days that you cannot focus on the task you have to get it done but people with ADHD we have 365 days in a year of those days like let's say you have a important thing in your life let's say giving a TED talk everybody won't think to remember those words that they chose carefully they try to remember the lines and they think about their body language but people with ADHD oh my god you have such a nice day I like it I'm sorry people with ADHD get distracted even in most important time of their lives if I want to talk statistically 3% of the population have ADHD by the time I was writing this script there were supposed to be a hundred people here so my statistic might be a little bit off but beside me in this room there are two other people with ADHD who are probably not listening to me anymore because they're distracted and if I want to tell you how that could impact our lives I need to share some of my personal experiences with you in the second semester of my undergrad I started skipping a hundred percent of my classes by because I forget that I have a class I almost forget everything and even if I do remember that I have a class I'm always late you saw it and even if I do survive dad as well when I go to the class I get extremely bored and I cannot sit still and listen to the teacher or the instructor and I will probably end up distracting other people because of that distraction and forgetfulness we tend to lose our stuff more often than other people look at this picture I lost everything in this picture the only thing I didn't lose it's my head because it's attached to my body and now I'm not one of those people with a hundred kind of visa cards and credit cards I only have one but I keep losing it and I have to replace it every time I get a new one on my uber account so we have some sort of information like I know that in our school the library door opens seven times per hour and average how do I know I can't every time that door opens and close I turn and I have this impulse after that to see who comes in and who leaves and now I'm not nosy it's just my brain that's how it works edie she's correlated to dopamine if you don't know dopamine that's reward hormone our brain wants more dopamine than other brains to just feel alive we crave to stimulate those dopamine receptors that's why although if there is absolutely no external distractibility our brain can have that state of internal distractibility like when we are alone we never get bored we always have a party in our brain and we get to choose all the songs but when we are around other people if you're not really interested in what you're saying even though if you're looking us into eyes and talking to us directly we can not listen to you but if we are getting that dopamine more and simulating those dopamine receptor more what could the result be when it comes to creativity when it comes to problem-solving our brain works amazingly us I'm sorry we are willing to take risk three times more than other people that's why it's more possible for someone with ADHD to start their own companies and business and be successful in it we love experience new things and sick trails and we have sense of humor you're fun to be around and we probably are the one with charisma in the room so it is likely for us to get into relationships or get married as much as other people but because of that forgetfulness impulsivity and sometimes aggressiveness it's more possible for people with ADHD to get divorce or and any relationship they can actually end the relationship impulsively and regretted and out in an hour the speaking of impulsivity we act an emotion it's like we want something and we wanted now you have this excessive urgency of one thing something and we want it immediately we cannot wait for it by showing of hands tell me how many of you had those moments that you were so upset you want it to cry you were so mad that you wanted to flip the table and slap the person in front of you we were so excited you want it to hug everyone right you all feel it well we actually do it you know that thing in your brain that stops you from not saying stuff or not doing stuff yeah we don't have that that go ahead do it but it in our brain works very faster that the break button that's why you're emotional and we act on our emotion we cry if we feel like it and if you're excited everybody would know and if you're mad it's more likely for us to get into fights another characteristic is aggressiveness today's aggressiveness I meant hyperactivity that was a real ADHD here when you're hyperactive it's like throughout the day you're driven by an engine and you probably talk excessively having energy throughout the day that's good but that can lead to restlessness and insomnia I read this joke online and I really relate to it it was like if someone with ADHD wants to do those method of sleeping because they have insomnia they would probably be like one sheep two sheep cow dog old Mac Donald had it and we probably forget that we wanted to sleep and we get distracted and we start doing something else but why am I telling you all of this I'm 27 and I just got diagnosed recently when I was 7 I was diagnosed by asthma I'm quite a package thing my parents recognize those sign in symptoms very soon they took me to those best doctors and specialists and they took care of that and I was that good patient at the doctor office because my asthma was under control and I took all my medications so what was the reason that my ADHD was not diagnosed until 20 years later it was not miss parenting it was because my parents were educated that if the child's vising if there is a shortness of breath that means that your kid has asthma but they didn't know anything about ADHD best case scenario let's say that they knew about ADHD signing symptoms how would you feel if I come to you and be like hey your kid has mental disorder they wouldn't accept that but did not yet who once they get to have mental disorder it's not a disorder it's different only because your brain works differently that doesn't mean that it's anything less than other people's brain so don't label it don't scare people with those label those kids with ADHD they can benefit from ADHD their ADHD is not a disorder it's an opportunity so if you have ADHD that means that you're genetically designed to be successful it's like you're tall and you have more genes of being a successful basketball s or it's like you have a ticket to Elvis's concert do you actually need to show up to the concert or like you want to cook you like everybody else have those ingredients but you and only you are the one who has saffron a spice I know that when I started I said 3% of the population has ADHD I think about it only 3% of the population has ADHD so diagnose it manage it and by managing it I don't mean that they got at all keep God do not keep calm take advantage of that ADHD and those differences embrace it own it do not be embarrassed of it would you be embarrassed if you have kidney stone now why would you be embarrassed if your brain works differently so if you find it almost impossible to focus if you're always luck out and you cannot ask for help because you also lost your credit card and if you talk excessively that sometimes you bore other people and other people always bore you or if you talk sometimes so fast that other people have difficulty to follow what you're saying congratulations it's ADHD I'm gonna introduce myself one more time my name is Megan I'm 27 I was diagnosed with ADHD so was all good Einstein thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 149,556

Rating: 4.8336978 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Social Science, Culture, Happiness, Health, Mental health, Personal growth, Psychology

Id: mEI_39C5E2o

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 02 2018