Well hello! Hello! I'm Kenna. I'm Koelle. Fuck, I messed it up again!
Welcome back to diagnosing a killer!
Q. Kenna bumping the fricking computers that makes noise.
Ah, um yeah, we're doing another mental breakdown today. I am really excited. I feel like I haven't done one of these in a long time, even though we switch off every week.
Yeah, but I-
Does it have anything to do with Andrei?
No! Okay, I think this is the first time, like, ever, in the last like four months that we've ever had this podcast,
that we don't have like a correlation between my mental breakdown and your case or vice versa.
Interesting.
So, we are going to be doing one that I think that- I don't want to say we've overlooked, but I feel like we haven't talked about.
And I feel like it's one of those things that's so common, and a lot of people have it, but we haven't broken it down.
At least I don't think, and if we have, then I need to do more research.
So we're going to be talking today about ADHD versus ADD.
How do I think that? We haven't talked about that, right?
I have ADD.
She actually does. I do.
Because I figured out while researching that I totally have ADD.
Anyways, actually I think I have ADHD if you can't tell by the fucking how fast I talk.
So, we are going to start by characterizing what ADHD is, and then we'll go into what ADD is, and we will diagnose them to do it.
So, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, of course, commonly referred to as ADHD, is a condition that is characterized by an attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
The condition is one of the most common mental disorders in children, but it also affects many adults.
It's actually estimated that 8.4% of children and 2.5% of adults have ADHD.
With first symptoms usually being identified in school-aged children when it presents itself as being disruptive in the classroom or problems with school work, things like that, and focusing on things like that.
The disorder is actually more common in males than in females, which I did not know. I thought that was interesting.
ADHD is actually diagnosed as one of three types. So there's three different types of ADHD.
There is the inattentive type, there's the hyperactive slash impulsive type, and then there's the combined type.
So the inattentive type criterion, so six of the following symptoms or five for people over 17 occur frequently.
These include not paying close attention to details or making careless mistakes in school or jobs, has problems staying focused on tasks such as during lectures, conversations, or long reading, which I have social problems with paying attention during conversations.
I feel like I always zone out.
I was just zoning out on your tattoo, and I was thinking, wow, I wonder why Tony did this shadowing just like that right there, but then didn't do it here so much?
I don't know. I have a half-sleeve of tattoos and she was staring at them while I was doing my podcast.
Love it.
Okay, so continuing on with that list, does not follow instructions and does not complete job or school duties or housework, or they may start a task but quickly lose focus.
They don't seem to listen when spoken to. That's literally me, in case you get so mad at me for that. He's like, are you even paying attention? I'm like, yeah, totally.
Still on that list avoids or dislikes tasks that require sustained mental effort such as preparing reports or even completing forms, often loses things needed for tasks or daily life such as school papers like your books, keys, and your wallet is easily distracted and forgets daily tasks,
like forgets to schedule an appointment or forgets to do the dishes or whatever it was that you'd appointed.
I forgot to take out the trash before we started doing this. I promised John I would.
So that is the inattentive type to be diagnosed with ADHD. You have to have six of the following symptoms occurring frequently or five if you're over 17 years of age.
This is for the hyperactivity?
That was for the inattentive type.
Right, that was for the inattentive. The next one is hyperactive.
Yeah, we're going to go hyperactive, impulsive type, fidgets with or taps hands or feet or squirms in their seat, not able to stay seated, runs or climbs where it's inappropriate, unable to play or do leisure activities quietly, which I thought was interesting.
Always like on the go and it says as if driven by a motor, talks too much. Me.
Blurred said an answer before a question has been finished.
It was me.
Or many actually may finish people's sentences or they can't wait to speak in their conversation. They can't wait until it's their turn to talk.
So they're listening to respond, not listening to understand.
Yeah, has difficulty waiting his or her turn, including waiting in line and interrupts or intrudes on others. This includes cutting into conversations, maybe cutting into games or activities or starts using other people's things without permission.
Older teens and adults actually may even just take over what others are doing instead of letting them do it.
I do that all the time, but I just feel like that's my like control issue.
Well, it might be ADHD.
And then three, the combined type. So again, five or six or more of the previous symptoms combined and either children or adults.
What I just went through.
So it's got so many things that I feel like it's pretty easy to have.
It seems really general.
Yeah, it does. But some of them seem really specific. You know what I was reading? I was like, Oh my gosh, to me, you know.
But I feel like everyone can kind of relate to that.
Yeah, I guess that's why it's such a common disorder.
We say that all the time. If you have a brain, you're capable of it, right?
Exactly.
Now, as far as diagnosing ADHD, there's actually currently no lab tests to see if somebody has ADHD.
And a diagnosis involves gathering information from parents, teachers, any others that come in contact frequently with the patient is helpful.
They also fill out checklists, having a medical evaluation, including vision and hearing.
And then of course, ruling out other medical problems is also part of diagnosing ADHD.
Now, scientists actually haven't yet determined a specific cause of ADHD,
but there is evidence that suggests genetics may contribute to the development of ADHD.
For example, to back up that statistic, three out of four children with ADHD have a relative that also has a disorder.
Ma had ADD.
Really? I don't know that.
Other factors are suspected to contribute to the development of ADHD, including being born prematurely, brain injury,
and or the mother smoking, using alcohol, or even being under extreme stress while pregnant.
Even, I mean, I feel like everyone that's pregnant is under extreme stress.
I would be under extreme stress about a child growing in me.
As far as treatment goes, behavioral therapy and medication can help improve the symptoms,
and studies have found that a combination of both actually works best for most people,
especially those with moderate to severe ADHD.
Behavioral therapy for a patient with ADHD includes helping the patient learn how to control their behavior,
and also guiding parents and teachers on how to provide positive feedback for desired behaviors and consequences for negative ones.
So it kind of structures the child, or adults with ADHD also may benefit from psychotherapy rather than behavioral,
and gain help that improves structure and organization for their daily lives.
So the biggest thing that they're kind of drilling in is routine, routine, routine.
That's really helpful for ADHD.
The types of medication that can be used, there's actually two main types to treat ADHD.
There's stimulants and non-stimulants.
Stimulant medications include, I'm going to butcher these names,
meselfenidate and amphetamines,
but as with all medications, of course, children taking these must be carefully monitored by their parents and their PCP.
There's also two non-stimulant medications that have been shown to be effective in treating ADHD symptoms,
and those are Adam Moxatine and Guan-Fasin.
I think it's called Guan-Fasin,
and those are either for patients that are not seeming to be helped by the stimulants or if it's a non-stimulant and simply preferred by the patient.
As far as parenting goes, I just wanted to pepper this in there.
If you're a parent of a child that has been diagnosed with ADHD,
it's helpful to know that your child would likely benefit with structure, routines, and clear expectations, like I said earlier.
So this just includes making sure that instructions are understood after you give them,
focusing on your child when talking to them rather than multitasking and talking to them, kind of like modeling good behavior,
supervising the child more often than their peers.
They do need more supervision most of the time in most cases,
maintaining good communication with their teachers and any other adult that they frequently come in contact with,
and then, of course, modeling calm behavior and focusing on effort and rewarding good behavior.
So that's ADHD.
Here's the kicker.
Yeah.
ADD is not accurate anymore.
Wow.
It falls under the umbrella of ADHD.
So they're not separate things anymore.
See, I always wondered about that too because I was like, okay, what's the difference?
Because I had a friend in elementary school who was diagnosed with ADHD,
and they just seemed like off the wall, crazy all the time, could not sit still,
and I was like, I have the same thing because it didn't ever really register to me because they just seemed so nuts all the time.
Yeah, came to the right place.
But I feel like in my adult years, I feel like I do have more manic episodes
or more like extra energy and things like that, sans coffee.
I will explain.
Yay.
Here's the difference and that's why that happens.
I'm so excited.
So attention deficit disorder, commonly referred to as ADD,
is used to describe a neurological condition with symptoms of inattention, distractibility, and poor working memory.
ADD symptoms in adults include trouble focusing on schoolwork or job work, obviously,
habitually forgetting appointments, easily losing track of time, and struggling with executive functions.
Patient with these symptoms may have what clinicians now call predominantly an attentive type, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
So they've created a subtype of ADHD.
So I told you there was three types.
It's the subtype.
So the main difference, ADD is actually an outdated term and no longer a medical diagnosis,
though it's often still used to refer to a certain subset of symptoms that fall under the umbrella term of ADHD.
The symptom differences, people with ADD often lack the hyperactivity component of the disorder
and are usually considered a daydreamer or appear to be uninterested and disorganized.
That's me.
So, yes, me as well.
I think I have ADHD though I really do.
Yeah.
I'm just based on, and I talked to Casey about that honestly recently.
I was like, I need to get hyperactivity.
Yeah.
But I know I kind of like went through that really quickly, but yeah.
So I was always under the impression that ADHD and ADD were two completely different things and they sounded similar.
Maybe they had similar symptoms, but now ADD is no longer a term.
It's an outdated term and it's just falls under the category of the umbrella category of ADHD.
So what do you think I did next?
Did you look up celebrities?
I did.
Yay!
We're back to the celebrities.
So I went ahead and I looked up celebrities that have been diagnosed with ADHD or ADD.
And the first on our list is Simone Biles, the famous gymnast, if you don't know.
She won an outstanding 19 world champion in Olympic gold medals and she actually, I didn't know this.
She was actually part of the Larry Nassar case and she came forward with allegations.
I didn't know that.
Wow, good.
So apparently hackers had leaked confidential information.
They had gotten into medical records of hers and they leaked information about her use of prescription drugs.
Well, of course, when that came out, she was like, well, I have to make a statement about this, you know.
So according to ESPN, she said, quote, I have ADHD and have taken medication for it since I was a child.
Having ADHD and taking medication for it is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing that I'm afraid to let people know.
Good for her.
I know, right?
She seems like such a strong person.
And she got she got applause for normalizing the condition.
Number two on my list is Dave Grohl.
Oh, my son loves Dave Grohl.
If you don't know who that is, he was the food fighters frontman and he was a former drummer for Nirvana.
Yes.
He actually released a YouTube video in 2020 of July of 2020 called In Defense of Our Teachers.
And he actually revealed his childhood diagnosis of ADHD as a way of explaining his poor academic performance and actually dropping out of high school early.
Wow.
He is quoted as saying, I hate to break it to you, but I was a terrible student.
It was no fault of the Fairfax public school system, mind you, I did the best it could.
I was just stubbornly disengaged, impeded by a raging case of ADD and an insatiable desire to play music.
Far from being a model student, I did my best to maintain focus, but eventually left school halfway through 11th grade to become a professional touring musician, not advised.
I left behind countless missed opportunities.
So I did say he is earlier, I said attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and then in the quote it says ADD, but we just talked about the fact that they are subsets of each other.
ADD is a subset.
I'm trying to be clear because it sounded like I was wrong.
Three on the list is Justin Timberlake.
He actually is diagnosed with OCD and ADHD and he was noted as not publicly speaking about his condition, but he did once have an interview with Collider.com saying quote, I have OCD mixed with ADD.
You try living with that.
It's like Justin.
Justin.
Adam Levine is on here as well.
I freaking love him.
I don't care for Adam Levine.
You don't like him.
Although every single time I hear whatever that maroon 5 the stand standing in the right.
What is it?
Oh, it reminds me of Kelly.
She will be loved.
Yeah.
It's me with Kelly.
So if you don't know Adam Levine is he's the lead singer Maroon 5.
He was diagnosed early and was able to manage his ADHD as a child.
However, in adulthood, his symptoms became incapacitating at some times.
He said that when recording music became difficult, he knew it was time to get help.
And now he's very vocal about having ADHD and keeps constantly reminding fans that they're
not alone in the struggle.
Yeah, which is really cool.
What works for me is like when I'm studying and stuff, I literally try to do 15 minute
increments.
And I'll remind myself of what time is it.
Oh, okay, it's been 15, 20 minutes.
And even if I don't feel like I need to take a break, I take a break.
Yeah.
And I watch a YouTube video or I listen to some music or something in between or I read
an article or something, something that doesn't pertain to what I'm thinking about or having
to think about.
Uh huh.
And when I go back, then I still, like, it's like I'm refreshed again.
Yeah.
So I think I'm the same way, but I find myself doing, like when I was in college doing like,
you know, study sessions or when I researched the cases and stuff, I find myself doing like
an hour and then I'll stop for like a couple hours and then I'll come back.
The good thing about my job is that it's constantly changing.
Like I get phone calls and every time I get a phone call, something new is happening,
you know, so it's really engaging.
Channing Tatum is on here as well.
He's spoken openly before about his difficult past and now he confides in his learning challenges,
including ADHD, dyslexia, and he's taking medication currently.
In an interview with New York Times, he told the magazine, quote, you get lumped in a class
with kids with autism and Down syndrome and you look around and say, okay, so this is
where I'm at.
Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, all right, I'm obviously not like
these kids either.
So you're kind of nowhere.
You're just different.
And that's a direct quote from Channing Tatum.
You know, what's really interesting about the school system now is that they try to do
it on a kid-to-kid basis now.
So like say you have, you know, your child has advanced autism or is high functioning,
I guess what they would consider high functioning.
They don't use terms like that either anymore, which I didn't know, but a kid that's able
to participate in regular courses, but they just keep an extra eye out.
And so that's something that was like totally different than when I was in elementary school
because it was like your special needs or you weren't.
It's like you're secluded, honestly, from like the general public or you're not, you
know, like-
Yeah, and I would see kids that didn't have like an obvious physical disability and it
would be like, I wonder what they're in there for, you know?
But it's things like autism or severe ADHD and things like that that, you know, but it's
just interesting.
So I do want to say that I appreciate what he said.
However, yeah, school systems now at least were privileged enough to live in a school
system area that they do that.
Yeah, absolutely.
So it's more inclusive, definitely.
Yeah.
Emma Watson is also on here.
Emma Watson, like I immediately got Emma Watson.
Well, that's how you say her name.
That was so involuntary.
That just happened.
Oh, it's amazing.
Emma Watson.
So although she's never had a, you know, face-to-face interview about her condition,
sources do say that she's been medicated for ADHD since she was a child.
Michael Phelps is on here as well.
Oh, Michael Phelps.
Yeah.
Didn't he just start doing a depression campaign too?
Yeah, he's a really big mental health advocate.
He's super is, and I love it.
He was actually diagnosed with ADHD at age nine.
And according to his mother, swimming helped him manage his symptoms from a young age by
keeping him focused and disciplined.
Will I Am is on here as well.
Yeah, he stated that his music serves as his ADHD therapy and helps bring him control
to his thoughts when keeping his mind focused.
Anyway, so that was just a couple of celebrities.
I always like to do that because we always like to sing.
It's not far-fetched to think that everyone can, you know, if you have a brain, yeah,
you're susceptible.
We always say that.
Not to say that everyone will get a mental disorder or diagnosis.
But again, that's what we say is like, it's easy to be able to like see yourself in that
position.
Like you said, because we all have brains, our brains are all capable of doing this.
And that's how it manifests.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's really common to be empathetic to a lot of mental disorders, but it's very
easy to be sympathetic as well.
Even if you don't have those struggles yourself or you're not diagnosed with those things,
everyone can kind of relate.
So I think that's, that's, and again, I feel like we keep getting new listeners every day.
And I know that maybe you didn't start from the beginning, but yeah, that's one of the
biggest reasons why we're doing this is mental health advocacy, mental illness advocacy.
Like we really want to normalize conversations like these and, you know, don't be afraid
to, you know, talk about it and talk with your friends.
And I know some people don't have the means to go get an evaluation or, you know, the
waitlist is so long or whatever it is, but, you know, sometimes just talking to somebody
about it can really just be therapeutic in and itself.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Anyways, thanks for joining us.
Thanks guys.
We'll be back with part two of Andre.
Yes.
Pretty soon.
Andre Cicatillo.
Love y'all.
Love you.
Bye.