-Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder or ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that
can cause higher than average levels of hyperactive and impulsive
behaviors, and may present itself as extreme difficulty sitting still
for long periods of time, or trouble focusing attention on a single task. The first recorded mention of
ADHD dates back to 1902 when a British pediatrician described
children who couldn't control their behavior like typical children. While ADHD is more commonly seen in
children, the worldwide prevalence of adults with ADHD is estimated to
be 2.5% or 200 million worldwide, with the dominance leaning toward
males who are diagnosed three times as frequently as females. My name is Anthony Padilla and
today I'm going to be sitting down with people who have ADHD
to learn the truth about this heavily misunderstood disorder. Do those with ADHD simply
have an extra step in dealing with and managing their
hyperactive minds in order to achieve a life of contentment? Or do they find themselves
relentlessly overwhelmed by distracting impulsive
thoughts, leaving them unable to function in the way modern
society demands of them? Hello, Jessica.
-Hi. How are you? [music] -Joey.
-How are you doing? -Bex.
-Hey. -Thank you so much for
coming on here and teaching me about the world of ADHD
-More than happy to. I wish somebody had taught
me about the world of ADHD. - [laughs] What do you consider
yourself someone with ADHD? Someone who may be a little
bit more hyperactive or impulsive than you wish? -I would consider myself hyperactive,
compulsive and distracted. -All the things.
I am all the things. -Yes, to both.
[laughter] -Can you describe what
having ADHD entails? -The big thing that I wish I had
known sooner was how much it affects executive functions and not just
the ability to pay attention, but also the ability to hold a lot
of information in your head while you work with it, working memory. It affects self-regulation,
it affects our ability to sleep, it affects our ability
to set and achieve goals. -Can you describe what types of
ADHD symptoms you experience? -Restlessness. As you can see, I'm moving a lot
with my hands shaking back and forth. Lack of impulse
control is another one. Like you go out to a store
and you have to buy something. I know I'm guilty of
that with Pokémon cards. [laughter]
-Yes, I've been there. Okay, I'm not going to lie. Don't get me started on Pogs. -Then another one is just focusing. I'm trying to do animation,
and sitting there trying to draw and focus on that is the
biggest pain in the world. -There are all these TikTok trends
now it's like put a finger down exhibition, every single one
in the ADHD edition, I'm like, "Damn, no, yes, okay, well." About two of them in, I went,
"Oh, hang on, I forgot to listen, what were we doing?" They were like, "You're going to
want to hear what this next one is." Do you ever space out
when you're listening to things and have to go back? I'm like, "I'm just going
to put all my fingers down." -Inattention. Everything distracts me. I can't filter out any information. I keep thinking of everything
that I need to do and bouncing from one thing to the next and
it's just really hard to focus. It's not that I don't want to. I know that something can be really,
really important but I will sit there and try to focus on something
that isn't engaging to my brain to the point where I'm in tears. -When did you first start exhibiting
behaviors that you now know are ADHD? -I believe it was around
kindergarten, I had a fantastic teacher who was super understanding
and she's like, "Hey," talking to my mom and dad, "Your kid
is very distracting in class." -Distracting or distracted? -Distracting and distracted. I [laughs] was a problem for students
around me and for myself and so they would just put me in a corner and
put me by myself, and be like, "Okay, don't talk to anybody, don't interact
with people until it's time." -Always really but nobody was
worried because I was a really gifted student to the point where
when I first saw the diagnosis, I went to our pediatrician, and he was
like, "How does she do in school?" My mom was like, "Well,
she gets straight A's. She's a gifted student." He was like, "She can't have ADHD." That was the thinking at
the time and it's still the thinking, but the truth is,
I always exhibited symptoms. -Can you explain how your
day might differ from someone who doesn't have ADHD? -When I wake up in the morning,
I am trying to think about everything that I need to do for
the next couple of days and then attempt to do it all at once. Generally, what ends up happening is
it gets overwhelming and then I will not really do anything with my day
because I'm trying to do too much. -It's like you can't compartmentalize
like, "This is something that I could do this hour, this is
something I could do this hour." You think of everything you
have to do, and then you can't stop thinking about how you
have to do all of it at once. -Or if there's a specific thing
that's distracting you, and you go down that rabbit hole, because
you can either be focused on many things, or you can be hyper
focused on one thing, which may not be the most productive thing. -Can you recall any big
moments in your life that were clearly shaped by having ADHD? -I went to go get a job once, a
proper office job selling copiers. I was really excited because they
loved me, and they were so cool, and I am such an office supply
nerd, as a lot of people with ADHD are because we're constantly
trying to organize ourselves. They offered me the position. They were clearing out a desk
for me, and they ran a background check, and I was like, "I'm fine." I was never an external troublemaker. All my issues were
internal for the most part. I was like, "That's great." They were like, "Well, no." I was like, "Wait, what?" They were like, "Did you know
your license is suspended, your driver's license?"
I was like, "No, I did not." It turned out, the reason why my
driver's license was suspended was because I had a broken
tail light, and I got a fix-it ticket, so I went and fixed it.
I forgot a step. I forget the step of showing
them that I had fixed it. They didn't know I fixed it.
I didn't get that resolved. I wasn't opening my mail
because it was under a pile of a lot of other mail. I explained it to them,
and I was like, "Okay, can we get this sorted out?" They're like, "We wish we could,
but you'd be driving a company car. We have a policy that if your
license was suspended for any reason, you can't drive a company car. I'm so sorry." I was heartbroken, but now it makes
sense, A, why all that happened, and why I got so many parking
tickets, and why I got towed so many times, and why I jumped into
relationships that weren't good for me, and I ended up getting divorced. Why I chased so many careers
that I couldn't actually make progress in any of them. This all makes sense now. I've read enough research,
and I understand enough now that all of it makes sense. Before I could just blame myself,
and feel like I was just a [?] . Yes, I got distracted, and, yes, I took
medication, but everything else was just me failing as a person. Failing to be a proper
human being, I guess. Now it all makes sense. -Before we continue learning
about the world of ADHD-- -It was really for me when I realized
at 31 that I was no longer the person who had so much potential.
I was the person who had ADHD. -I want to reiterate that these
videos aren't intended to diagnose any condition or disorder. I encourage anyone who feels like
they may relate to any diagnosis of the guests in these videos,
to do some additional research, and consider a proper diagnosis
from a licensed professional. I also hope that topics like this
one, can help remind us all that due to personal circumstances,
backgrounds, and experiences, each individual's world can
vastly different from our own. To see other topics I've
covered like this one, including borderline personality disorder,
schizophrenia, and dissociative identity disorder, for example, I'll
include a link-up in this corner. Now, back to world of ADHD. Are there any potentially
dangerous aspects to having ADHD? -Self control is a big part of it. It is easier to enable certain
issues, such as drug use, or addiction, or compulsive shopping. -Is there anything that helps
ease your ADHD when you're experiencing symptoms that
you don't want to experience? -I would get hyperactive,
and I remember just being told to go run outside. Just go take a run
around the cul-de-sac. -Just go outside, move your body. -If my parents could get me
outside doing something focused in my body, I could bring myself
back to the ground, rather than just be stuck up here. -Are there extended periods of
time where you completely forget that you have ADHD, or is it
something that's always there? -I have extended periods of time
where I just forget everything [laughs] . Yes, like I'm a
little alien rat child wandering around a corporeal plane. I don't know if that's ADHD, or what?
-I don't know if you ever forget it. For me, it's always been something
that's been with me, so it's just how I know the world. It's not as much as, do I forget,
as much as it is, can I catch myself doing what I would do with ADHD. -Therefore, it's always there.
You're always- -Always thinking- --trying to filter yourself
a little bit through the lens of, "Oh, I have ADHD. I better real this in."?
-Yes. -Do you know if ADHD is
something that you develop, or something you're born with? -ADHD is highly genetic.
Highly. If you have ADHD, it's very
likely that one of your parents had undiagnosed ADHD. That's a lot of how people find out. There are a lot of adults
with ADHD that don't realize that's what they have. -Then their kids get diagnosed,
and then they start thinking. -I also have theory that a
lot of the people who are like, "ADHD doesn't exist.
That's not a thing. Everybody has ADHD.
That's just being normal." I'm like, "Have you
gotten checked out?" A lot of people with ADHD
don't know they have ADHD. They just think they're lazy,
or dumb, or don't care, or aren't kind heartened enough,
or any number of other things. When they find out, there's
often that, "Oh, yes, okay that makes sense." -How do you feel about the idea
that many traits associated with ADHD are advantages in some way. Even now it could be like,
"Oh, you're more creative." Or back throughout history our
ancestors, those with ADHD were much more likely to notice dangerous
things in the distance, to see the shiny ripe fruit behind the tree, and
there's actually some studies that were done and they tested different
people who were part of this nomadic tribe, and they were able to see
that those with ADHD symptoms were actually better hunter-gatherers. -Oh, 100%. For me, in my job, it pays off
handsomely because our job is forgetting the cameras in front
of us, and focusing on the acting, focusing on the scene, focusing on
the world, putting ourselves in a different place than our physical
body is, and because of my ADHD, I can tune that out, no problem. -You thrive on it in fact. -I play characters
that don't have ADHD. I play characters that can stand
still for hours all the time. It's a fun challenge to slow down
and sit still and speak methodically and purposefully because it's a game. It's a game to mirror what
I've grown up watching, but not have to be that always like I
thought I did when I was a kid. -Do you remember when
you were diagnosed? -Timelines are really hard for me. Timelines, so maybe ADHD
was when I was six, but that might have been depression at
five-- Oh, God, I don't know. -I like how you were just the
poster child of ADHD trying to answer that question right now. -I [?] my self like,
wait a minute, hold on. -I was diagnosed I
think in kindergarten. I had to grow up a bit faster
than a lot of the kids my age because dealing with the
addiction counseling and learning about chemical neuroscience. All that it was very eye-opening,
and it put a lot of things in perspective like how all the drama
during high school and all that stuff is not really that important. -As a kid, you started having to
think about the way your brain works. You got to start thinking about
what it could mean for your future, instead of just all the video
games and relationship stuff that most kids are worrying about? -As much as I wish I could have been. -I was diagnosed when I was 12. I ended up getting diagnosed
because my cousin was diagnosed with ADHD and then they looked at
my cousin's mom and was like you have a lot of these symptoms too. Then my parents looked at me like
hey you're a lot like your aunt, let's take you to get checked out. -Do you take any medications
or anything like that to help? -The one that worked for a long time
was actually a narcolepsy medication. -How did that help? -Brain chemistry is weird. The were using it for narcolepsy
and then some ADHD people tried and they were like, "Hey, this works for
me," and they were like, "Oh, okay fine let's try it for ADHD people." -I took my first dose of Concerta
in first grade and then up until seventh grade, I was on that. Then I did the neurotherapy and
they're like this is kind of messing with your head a little
bit, and I personally enjoy not being on drugs like that. Made a huge difference for me. I like who I am without that, but
I'm starting to realize that it's not such a bad thing because especially
trying to focus nowadays, I'm trying Adderall again, and took the first
pill and immediately felt reminiscent of that time and I'm like, "Hmm, I
don't know if I want to do this." -It must be hard though for you
because you have to constantly have that internal battle of, "Do I just
want to feel like myself despite myself being easily distracted
and what not or do I want to be able to focus and not like who
I am when I'm on this drug." -That's also a question of,
"Should I have the willpower to be able to focus myself? Is that just me being lazy or
is that actually because there's something chemically different
about my brain than yours?" Which the answer is, yes, there
is something chemically different. -I was given a
prescription for Ritalin. She was like, "Okay she has
ADHD, give her Ritalin." The first time I took this pill
I remember thinking it was like putting on glasses for the first
time and realizing I could see. -How did that feel seeing
the world in a different way? -It was amazing.
My brain was calmer. I didn't have absolute chaos
swirling around my brain. I could focus on what I wanted
to focus on instead of what my brain wanted me to focus on. I even could make friends.
I started doing better socially too. I started feeling more
confident and it helped a lot. -What about some of the
lesser-known symptoms of ADHD like rejection sensitive dysphoria? -Rejection sensitive dysphoria
is a term that was coined by Dr. William Dodson, based on the
fact that we tend to be very sensitive to rejection which is
thought to be part of emotional dysregulation in general. It's not just that we're really
sensitive to rejection, it's also that we are really quick
to frustration and anger. We're really quick to
excitement as well. We feel emotions really strongly
because our brains don't really regulate them well. -Do you think that that's inherently
part of ADHD, or do you think that any part of that is growing up and
being rejected by so many people because of your traits associated
with ADHD can amplify that? -The actual rejection sensitivity
is heightened, I think, because of the experiences with rejection
that we have, but this is new. We need to do more research on
this to really fully understand it. -How do you wish our society would
perceive and treat those with ADHD? -I wish that society understood
that having ADHD means we really are working off of a
different operating system. Our brains work differently. You can't expect somebody with
ADHD to behave the way that somebody without ADHD would behave. I wish people would let go of
the idea that you should be able to, because we don't know enough
about the brain and we don't know what someone should be able
to do because they're not us. -Bees Inc. wants to know how you deal with
the internal fatigue of masking and that fear of unmasking. -Masking is when you try and suppress
your natural state of being and your symptoms so that you can fit in. I'm really lucky that since I
have this YouTube channel called How to ADHD, I don't have to mask
in my daily life, hardly at all. I've done that in
social situations too. If I feel like my excitement
and exuberance gets shut down, I check out.
I can't do it. Some people are better
at it than others. Some people are really good
at masking, but it's to me, so draining that I'd rather not
be there than have to pretend that I'm something I'm not. -Ezra wants to know how
discouraging it is to hear adults say things like, "Oh, they have
so much potential, but they're just not applying themselves." -It hurts so bad to hear that,
because it feels-- When someone tells you you're wasting your
potential or you have so much potential, even though you're not
living up to their standards, it makes you feel like you're wrong
for that, which is inaccurate. You are the only one who can
judge your own potential. You are the only one who can
live up to your own expectations. You have to accept yourself for
where you are and where you get to. If that's not all the way to
the top of your expectation list and it's only here, that's fine. Maybe you'll get here one day. If you don't, that's okay. -It can be really hurtful, because
then you go your whole life trying to be the person you're supposed to be. You go your full life trying to
be the person you think you're supposed to be, because that's
what everybody told you you are. It was really hard for me when I
realized at 31 that I was no longer the person who had so much potential. I was the person who
hadn't reached it. That was hard. -Were you able to take a moment
and realize that all that potential still was there? -I knew all the potential was still
there, but I hadn't reached it. I didn't know how to reach
it and I was out of time, or I was running out of time.
I was so behind in life. I think a lot of people with ADHD
do, they feel the weight of, "I'm behind, so I haven't done the things
that I was supposed to do by now. Now I have to do the things that
I'm supposed to do now and all the things I should've already done." We take on more and more in an
effort to catch up, I think. It doesn't go well, because the
same things that got in our way then are getting in our way now
and we're trying to do more. It's really hard. -Green Thing wants to know why
you think so many women slipped through the cracks as children
in terms of getting a diagnosis. -Young AFAB people, Assigned Female
at Birth people, they may manifest in spacing out and just shyness,
and so they go completely under the radar because it just shows
up as you’re a shy little girl, when really it's a kid struggling. -It's all internalized. -Young AMAB people end up
being over-diagnosed, because young boys are like, "It's
expected to be hyperactive." Of course, this little boy has ADHD. He's jumping off the walls. -Interesting because society does
encourage those young boys to be loud and rowdy and roughhouse and whatnot. Then those girls they're encouraging
to be more timid, to keep more of those feelings internalized. That probably explains
why it's diagnosed differently between the two. -Because hyperactive AMAB people were
the template for the longest time of what ADHD is, that made it extra
easy to overlook anyone who didn't have the same symptoms, including
AMAB people with different symptoms. The shy or the lonelier, the more
reserved AMAB people would be written off as young boys with
personality disorders, not ADHD. -Are there any aspects to having
ADHD that you are thankful for? -The creativity, for sure. That and being able to strike
up a conversation with people. Learning the art of small
talk alongside ADHD makes a huge difference because- -I am not a fan of small talk. -It's such a pain.
-Let's do an example right now. You just met me off the
street, you've never seen me. Hi, how are you?
-Dude, I'm doing great. How are you doing?
-I'm doing good. -How's your day been so far?
-It's been pretty good. -Unbelievable.
-You know just-- -Just pretty good?
No, come on, give me some details. You got to have a little bit more. -Damn, and then you hooked me because
then you made me want to talk about myself and there's nothing I like
doing more than talking about myself. -That's it. If you get someone to
talk about themselves and their interests, you got them. - [laughs] What do you think
is the biggest misconception about those who have ADHD?
-It's not that big a deal. It is.
It affects every aspect of our lives. It affects our ability to
regulate our attention, our emotions, our sleep. It affects way more than people
realize and a lot of the things that we blame ourselves for or
blame our friends or family for, our partners, they're not their fault.
It's because of the ADHD. -All right, you got five seconds
to shout out or promote anything you want directly in the camera.
Go. -Impact Parents, check it
out and Trevor Project. -My Twitch channel, JBAverage,
or my YouTube channel JBAverage. Hopefully, there'll be some
cool stuff coming up then. -We have a brand new
website, HowToADHD.com. Check it out. Also, our YouTube channel,
youtube.com/howtoadhd, or support us on Patreon, patreon.com/howtoadhd. -Do not forget to like and
subscribe to Anthony Padilla, this glorious human creature
in some vicinity nearby. -Me?
-Yes. Yes, you. Look at that gorgeous face. Subscribe.
-Thank you so much, Jessica. I feel like I understand the world
of ADHD just a little bit more. -You are an incredible interviewer.
Thank you. You had the best questions.
-Thank you. After spending the day with these
people with ADHD, I've come to understand just how heavily this
disorder can affect every facet of one's daily life and how
important it is to be accepting and supportive of those around you
because you never truly know what may be occurring behind the scenes. See you later. Bye, guys.
-Press a like. [music] -My wife was just talking with my
family, my mom was on the phone. At some point, my mother just
goes, "Oh, honey, it's cute you don't think you have ADHD,"
and my wife just goes, "What?" -She's just diagnosing
her on the spot. -My poor wife's just sitting
there going, "What?" and- -Going to give her an
existential crisis. -Exactly, this existential
crisis awakening in this poor woman and my mom's just there
going, "And then this, this, this," and I'm like, "No, no.
No, mom, stop. Do you know what you just did?" - [laughs] That's more than
just a discussion that ends here, that's a bigger thing. -Sending me home with this poor
woman with an existential crisis. - [laughs] Thanks, mom.
-I will pick up the pieces. It's fine.
-Appreciate that, mom. Thank you, mom. You did your
job, mom. Thank you, mom.
Dude I'm so happy that someone with as big of a platform as Anthony is using it to spread awareness about misunderstood mental disorders, he's such a good and sweet guy :') when I saw this notification I was so hyped lmao
Omg YES! I was thinking of posting this on r/ADHD but they have a 300 word min for each post. I watched the video with my mum (who also has adhd) and the whole time we were just nodding and saying things like “uh huh, yep, definitely, all the time, yes.”
Have been watching him since the early Smosh days and so glad he did this video now :)
I’m so excited he did one of these! I actually was just wondering if he had done one the other day and was bummed that he hadn’t yet. Can’t wait to watch!
Thanks for posting this with a libk, it was a couple posts down from another post about it and I’d almost forgotten to watch it