The golden benefits of ADHD | Thomas Idem | TEDxArendal

[Music] ADHD it can be described as having a low functioning filter for incoming information and imagine a bar a popular bar it's Saturday it's summer the band is playing and it's full of happy people there is only one problem the bouncers the bouncers they are not working properly they're just sitting in a corner playing poker or something like that I don't know so there there is no one at the door checking their arrival arriving guests and there is no one to throw out the ones that are not supposed to be there anymore so the bar keeper's they try to maintain a certain level on the service but after a while it gets hard for the waitresses to get all the glasses back into the bar again because of all the people of course so they swap from draft beer to selling bottle beer but after a few hours there they run out of bottles up just in desperation they gives up and started mixing free drinks of course straight into the mouths of the guests and what a night what a party it isn't until the early morning hours that the party gradually terminates itself to run a bar like this it's okay for a short period of time but after a while it will suffer ordering of supplies isn't working properly maintenance is bit wobbly the manager is definitely grumpy and the rest of the stuff well they're not quite happy either to have a small malfunction like in like in the bouncer department that will give a burden to the rest of the system and this goes for people with ADHD too having small malfunction in the brain causes the brain the ability to process signals in some areas to be reduced and this have a huge effect sometimes on the person's behavior ADHD according to the Norway Public Health Institute somewhere between three and five percent of Norwegian kids are diagnosed with ADHD and two-thirds of those are expected to still have the diagnosed when adult that means in this room today we are approximately 500 people I guess in this room today about 16 of you have ADHD ish but that number if we've been to the u.s. that number would be higher it would be maybe 26 maybe 30 it depends on where in the u.s. you would have been like in the in the western part of the United States they have much lower ADHD rates than on the East Coast and if you're a kid living on the East Coast and living close to the poverty line then you definitely you are in definitely in the danger zone of getting an ADHD diagnosed but there is hope move to France yeah we're the amount of kids diagnosed with and treated medically for ADHD is less than 0.5% there are mystical variations here and there are even those who don't believe that ADHD exists me I'm diagnosed with ADHD and I work as a coach amongst other things of course well as a coach my job is not to medicate people or diagnose them my job is simply to help people sort out their lives existence or not ADHD can be characterized by three main features and these are hyperactivity inattention and impulsivity and these are great character traits to have as a pupil as a student employee as a partner president I'm not judging anyone hi I'm hi I'm a struggling with the hyperactivity inattention and a low impulse control will you be my girlfriend will hire me vote for me maybe not well hyperactivity it's a physical thing it's about being restless and a bit fidget also on the inside and in the tension that is the opposite of paying attention like having difficulties paying attention at school getting easily distracted having problems to follow organized tasks and activities like a yo-yo Thomas did you not get the message well sir actually I got the message I just didn't know exactly what to do with it because I didn't pay attention in the first place but and then we have the impulsivity you know a little bit here a little bit there and a little bit of having difficulties waiting in line waiting for my turn on the other hand it's very easy for us to interrupt and this to disturb other people and it's very easy for us to finish other people's sentences ah especially when we know what were they what they are supposed to say anyway ADHD can appear as having low self regulating skills it can appear as a procrastinating postpone mania and generally having problems with prioritizing and organizing we get tired of things and we get easily bored and quite a few of us we we have this eager to more or less constantly try something new something exciting which leads us into things such as high frequency real monogamy and us regularly changing jobs which again leads us to well not keeping up to date with friends or colleagues regarding career advances and increased income and we can take me for a for an example I'm only forty four years also I expect this list to grow in the future I've done a few thing in my life and this is a few of them and there I I was diagnosed as an adult and I'm fine with that I really am because I met people great people that have been trained by parents and other role models they have been trained to use the diagnose as an argument not to try betray trained to user diagnosed as an excuse not to fail resulting in lack of important learning so you shouldn't go there you got ADHD and you with your ADHD oh no one definitely not go and no and no and no I know because you've got ADHD no well I'm glad I didn't know any better and I'm definitely glad that my parents didn't know any better so we're worried yes hyperactivity inattention and impulsivity vote for me and you'll never go hungry again and this is this is the description of a person with ADHD for instance me but it's not it's not me I mean well according to some people it's me actually but those are just psychiatrists and stuff I just well anyway I mean the point is who really wants to be something like this if any one and one one you want it to be okay that's you jiggle-ator hyperactivity if we dive into this well what does it mean hyperactivity at least it entails having energy in some way and if I ask you what sounds better being hyper or having energy I am willing to bet my diagnosis that most of you would choose having energy and energy is a good thing to have in attention I I admit that sometimes it can be a bit hard to pay attention especially if there is something more interesting to do and there is often something more interesting things to do but that kid that 7 year old kid who until one year ago was running freely around in kindergarten thinking about life is great he's now in a totally different situation he's in in a situation where he's supposed to sit down and shut up for 45 minutes a time and when he or she is not paying attention it's not necessarily because they don't have the ability to concentrate it might as well be because they are 100% occupied with something completely different that happens hyper focus the ability to maintain focus on one assignment and that assignment only a lot of people with ADHD have that ability and adults - and that is a unique trait to have impulsivity a little bit here a little bit there can it be positive yes of course it can and I just get straight to the point and say it but it's it can be possible possibly positive because it's not still civilly I choose to call it flexibility because that's what it is and I'm not trying to swipe the dirt under the rug here and pretend that everything is clean because after all dirt is dirt where whatever wherever they it is but I do mean that we will get more of what we choose to give attention to and by focusing on our potentials we will achieve good and lasting life quality when I work with people ADHD or not it's a precondition for me to work with people's views of themselves energy focus and flexibility those are words less limiting more positive and with great tential and these words there are definitely not symptoms these words there are skills important skills of an and being an important part of our identity having the energy to do what we believe in to do more what we enjoy because that will create more of the right kind of energy which again increases our chances of being satisfied so that we one day or maybe everyday can look in the mirror and say I am a human resource a high ability to focus on the key focusing on work on family and to our personal important goals in life having the flexibility to solve problems in the creative way to move gallantly between obstacles that come in our way because they will come for me well for me is pretty simple it boils down to one thing defining oneself defining ourselves and why on earth should we not define ourselves in the best possible way this too is ADHD this is my ADHD and for those of you out there especially those 16 or was it 19 in this room having ADHD please do remember that these are our golden benefits and thank you very much for listening thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 176,069

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Behavior, Benefit

Id: xF9yW2Ht1t0

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 17 2017