The ADHD Brain

Today, I want to talk to you about ADHD, your child, your teen (or pre-teen).

I'm Ivan. I'm a parent coach. I'm an occupational therapist.

I want to talk to you about their brain, how it works, how it functions, so that you understand and you can help your child thrive. Imagine a simple side view of a brain. You have the squishy part in the back and you have the spinal cord going down. You have all these little nerves going out all over the place- all the way through your body. Deep inside there's a box. Now to understand the brain, really what you're looking at, imagine holding up a fist. The arm is the spinal cord.  Now put the other hand on top. This is the outside of the brain. Pull that hand back off, and we're actually looking deep deep inside the brain. Our arm (spinal cord) is where all this information from our world comes up.

When talking about ADHD, we're talking about everything that they can see, the way that they move, the sounds, taste, all of that. Everything comes up and it needs to go into a deep box right in the middle of the brain. Now, this is called the limbic system. Inside here, there is a spot that if you want to get fancy, it's called the thalamus. It's like the bus terminal. All the information goes in there and it needs to be sorted out so that it can go out to the other areas of the brain to make sense and be able to function.

You will see your teens with ADHD growing and they will struggle with this process and sometimes they may get overwhelmed.  Sometimes they may seem really wound up and you need to understand that this part of the brain (that box in your imagined fist) is processing information or trying to process information but in the ADHD brain that information can be a lot to deal with.

Now, here is one way to think about it and many times this is what is going on. (I am very sorry for this. I apologize in advance: This is going to be a little bit of math graph work). Imagine a simple 'L' shaped graph. On the bottom is time (which is just the time of day). I wake up in the morning and I go through my day (moving from left to right, on the 'x' axis, if you want specifics). That's time.

The vertical level (up and down 'y' axis) is the level of arousal: meaning how alert/ how well am I processing, how well am I understanding the world, and how well am I able to stay engaged and focus and do the things that I mean to do.

If we are above the middle of the graph (high above the time line), this is going to be a high arousal, like a high alert state, and "I'm out of control". If we are down below, towards the time line, that means that I am not getting enough information. This is where I'm not able to process. If it's up high, it's like, oh my goodness, I've got too much information.

Now, to one of the challenges with your teen with ADHD: you might be thinking as a parent that, "oh, good heavens, they're bouncing off the walls, they're saying stuff 100 miles an hour, they're doing this or that..." and you think that they are up high on the chart (over aroused), and that isn't necessarily the case. T

They're actually down low (under-aroused) which doesn't make a lot of sense until you think about well how does the brain work? If I have information that's coming in here (to that box/ bus station deep in the middle of the brain, remember?) and it's not enough information, they need more information into their brain so that they can function. We want them to be toward the middle.

So, what do they do to get that that information?

They start doing more things. They're trying to multitask. They're trying to listen to music while they're doing things. And they're trying to move more. They're trying to bounce off the walls. They get excited more. They do all this stuff. And they ping pong around in their brains just to try to get up to that middle range so that they can focus.

This may look like they are having trouble starting an activity because there's just not enough information to get the ball rolling. This may look like they are not paying attention because they're ping ponging around. This might look like they can't sit still. This might look like their emotions are just overwhelmed. For teens with ADHD, because of the way that their brains are set up, it can be a difficult thing.

Now, I want you to now think about the stomach.

Imagine your stomach inside of your body. When we get hungry, oftentimes if you're really paying attention to your body, sometimes you'll think: "Oh man, I am hungry for a sandwich.", "I want meat.", "I want vegetables.", "I want chips." Or you will seek after something that your body needs."

Now, sometimes you eat just because you're bored. That's a different issue. I'm talking when you are hungry and you can be just like, "Oh, man. I really feel like _____"

That sort of craving in your stomach that drives you to get a specific food is the same sort of craving that our brain will do to get a certain type of sensation which is going to help us get into an optimal way of learning and processing.

And when your child with ADHD is bouncing off the walls, if they are having some sort of a meltdown, an explosion, it is because they have something in there that perhaps they do not recognize the need, but they are trying to get.

This can look like behavioral challenges.

This can look like emotional challenges.

This can look like they are not able to listen in class or like they're causing trouble or that they are struggling with whatever it is. It all comes back down to how they are learning and getting the right food into their brain. So you give them the right "food", you get the right output

I'm Ivan Hardcastle. I'm an occupational therapist. I am a parent coach for families, parents who have children who have ADHD in their teen years.