Adhd focusing techniques
15 Tips on How to Focus with ADHD I Psych Central
Being easily distracted when you live with ADHD does not mean you’re lazy, have a poor work ethic, or are being rude.
Almost all of us have days when we find it hard to stay focused. Distractions are everywhere. Barking dogs, fighting kids, phone notifications — all of these can pull our attention away from what we should be doing.
When you live with ADHD, staying focused can be even more of a challenge. You may tend to procrastinate often.
The primary symptoms of ADHD are inattention and lack of focus. The reason for this may lie in your brain chemistry.
Research suggests that people with ADHD have lower levels of dopamine and norepinephrine — neurotransmitters in the brain associated with attention and focus. They are that “nudge” in our brain that motivates us to do stuff.
But while focusing might be a challenge, it’s not impossible.
Improving your focus means learning what works best for you. Not every method will be a good fit for your unique situation.
It might take some trial and error to find the right ones for you.
Create a thought dump
Distraction can be one of the greatest hurdles when it comes to focusing on a task.
It can be tempting to want to follow every thought that pops into your head, and you might feel that these new thoughts take priority over what you’re currently doing.
Thinking, “I forgot to put the laundry in the dryer” while you’re putting together a new TV stand could sidetrack you for hours.
To help honor those other tasks you want to get done while still staying on track, consider keeping a notepad or whiteboard where you can “thought dump.”
As a thought enters your mind, write it down to be completed at a more convenient time.
Interrupt yourself
Deliberately interrupting a task might help you focus on completing it.
Experts theorize that pulling yourself away from a task creates a tension and fixation on the task that ultimately enhances your focus.
Your brain was focused, and then the object of that focus was taken away, which can leave you feeling incomplete.
While distractions can be a risk during project interruption, setting an alarm for short breaks may help you want to get back to what you were doing.
Work with someone you trust
Having someone who supports your efforts might help keep you on track during the day.
Whether it’s at work or at home, another person can help you be accountable for what you’re doing. They can gently guide you if you seem distracted, or they can help redirect your energy.
If you can’t have a trusted support partner with you in person, having someone contact you regularly throughout the day might also make a difference.
Work toward clarity
Understanding a task can impact how motivated you feel to complete it.
Projects and jobs that are vague can feel too daunting to start, or you may not know where to begin.
If you feel hesitant or distracted about what you’re doing, asking clarifying questions might help.
The more details you know, the easier it can be to create an outline of what needs to be done.
Give yourself deadlines
A loose deadline — or no deadline at all — can fool you into thinking you have plenty of time to complete what you’re working on.
If you get distracted, you can justify putting off the original task because you “have all the time in the world” to get it done.
Deadlines provide a solid goal and can help you manage your time.
Turn off your smartphone
If your smartphone isn’t critical to the work you’re doing, you may benefit from turning it off.
Smartphones provide easy access to everything from social media to games, and before you know it, you’ve spent hours watching videos and posting memes.
By turning your phone off completely, you can help fight that urge to surf the internet, even if you give in to the impulse to pick up your phone.
Use organization tools
Notepads and whiteboards are fantastic tools when it comes to organization, but why stop there?
Electronic reminders, alarms, and scheduling apps can help you maintain focus during the day.
These programs can be set to notify you of upcoming obligations, or they can repeatedly remind you about time-sensitive tasks.
Write yourself notes (not just reminders!)
Notes can be great when it comes to reminding you about what you need to focus on. They can also be motivational tools.
A note can remind you to pay your water bill by the end of the day. It can also remind you how much you’re looking forward to having a finished deck out back.
Recalling the end-goal for projects can increase your motivation. Yes, building a deck is difficult, but having family and friends over for meals together is priceless.
Break tasks down
Some tasks are more involved than others. When you’re faced with a complicated task, breaking it down into smaller goals may help.
Small goals within a larger goal can prevent a project from feeling as though it’s taking too long.
Smaller goals can also help maintain a sense of accomplishment, which can help you feel motivated.
Keep your workplace clean
Distractions don’t have to take the form of thoughts. Sitting in an untidy space can offer distractions of its own.
You may find yourself wanting to reorganize those files in the middle of the email you’re writing. Maybe you’re fidgeting with a broken stapler.
Keeping your workplace clean and tidy can help keep you from getting sidetracked.
Make use of healthy distractions (stress balls)
Sometimes being able to focus excessive energy mid-task can keep your mind from wandering.
Fidget gadgets, stress balls, and even chewing gum can sometimes give your brain a harmless outlet that doesn’t take you away from your overall goal.
Repeat anchor words
Anchor words are words or phrases that can bring you back to what’s most important during the day.
By repeating certain words or having visual reminders of them, you can help bring your mind back to your primary goal.
Repeating or seeing the word “bills,” for example, can bring you out of a distraction.
Anchor words can also help you refocus during conversations. If you’re sitting through a lecture, training yourself to hone in on certain key words can help bring your mind back to the discussion.
Use images
Like words, images can help reorient your focus.
Hanging a picture of a beautiful bathroom on your refrigerator, for example, can help remind you that you need to finish installing the new water tap.
It’s also a reminder of a larger goal for the space.
Once the water tap is installed, you’ll have completed the task and will be one step closer to that dream renovation.
Make a plan
Planning goes hand-in-hand with breaking down tasks and clarifying them.
You may have small goals, and you may be clear on the details, but if you don’t know where to start, you may never begin at all.
Creating a plan not only keeps you goal-oriented, it helps you create a timeline to stay on track.
Find a relaxation technique
When you live with ADHD, inattention doesn’t always relate to tasks or projects.
You may get lost in conversations, or you may find that you start to skim, rather than read, long documents.
When you need a quick focus technique, adding relaxation training could be the answer.
Relaxation methods used in the moment, such as deep breathing exercises or forms of meditation, can help you focus and reset your train of thought.
If you’re living with ADHD and you’re having trouble focusing and sustaining attention, you’re not alone. Lack of focus and inattention are telltale symptoms of ADHD.
There are resources that can help you retain your focus. Consider trying one of these free tools from ADDitude Magazine:
- 6 Ways to Retain Focus
- Daily Focus List
- Stop Procrastinating! 18 ADHD-Friendly Ways to Get Things Done
Here are some of our other resources to help you learn ways to manage daily life with ADHD:
- 12 Foolproof Tips for Finding Focus
- Tips for Living with ADHD
- How Do You Concentrate?
- 9 Ways for Adults with ADHD to Get Motivated
- 9 Tips for Creating a Routine for Adults with ADHD
If you need extra help, consider using an ADHD Coach.
A coach can teach you strategies to help accomplish your goals and overcome challenges. You can connect with a coach using the ADHD Coaches Organization directory.
If you have ADHD, symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention are common. Lacking focus is not a reflection of you or your work ethic.
Though finding focus — and reining it back in when it strays — might be frustrating, there are ways you can sustain it, even during boring tasks.
Remember that every technique might not work for you. The trick is to try each one until you find the one that does work.
If these tips and focus exercises aren’t working, consider talking with your doctor or a mental health professional. They can work with you to create a treatment and management plan for your needs.
11 Focus Boosts When Your Brain Won’t Cooperate
If you’re going to procrastinate, you might as well read this.
It’s usually during my third cup of coffee, mindlessly sipping while scrolling through Instagram, that I sit back and realize, “This isn’t working.
”
“This” being, well, focusing on the work I’m actually supposed to be doing. Which is a daily struggle when you live with ADHD, sure, but a struggle for anyone trying to work from home during a global freakin’ pandemic.
If you’re wondering what you can do to boost your focus — without having to download a complicated email app or rearrange your furniture — these quick tips might just be the lift you need to get back on track.
And since you’re probably procrastinating already, you may as well learn something while you’re at it.
1. Close the door
This is not a metaphor. I mean this literally.
As much as I love working in my living room — it’s spacious! It’s bright! It’s airy! — part of sharpening your focus means minimizing distractions. A closed door certainly helps with that, and it also signals to our brains that we mean business.
2. Find your frog and take one tiny bite
This one I do not mean literally.
Your “frog” is another name for your most-dreaded task.
Usually that’s the task that’s fueling procrastination, because we’re anxiously avoiding that task — either because we’re overwhelmed, bored of it, or we don’t know what to do next.
Taking a bite means looking for the easiest, smallest next step that you can take. Usually motivation kicks in after we’ve started a task, not before, so this can help get us back on track.
So rather than tacking “finish business presentation” onto our to-do list, which feels enormous and unmanageable, try “finish intro slide” instead. Then throw on some upbeat lo-fi jams, put on some noise-canceling headphones, and get to work!
3. Use a fun pomodoro timer
The Pomodoro method is an important concentration hack that involves small work blocks and breaks in-between.
It’s a great tool to have in your toolbox, but you know what makes it even better? Apps. More specifically, apps that give you a reward whenever you successfully focus for a period of time.
Search “focus timer” or “pomodoro” in any app store and see what’s out there! I’m currently using an app that allows me to be a ramen chef, with every completed focus block resulting in a bowl of ramen.
It’s weirdly motivating to be pursuing a digital ramen chef career just to do my real-life job, but whatever works… right?
4. Mix up your tasks
I’ve heard this strategy described as having “two pots on the stove.” When you get bored of one task, “productively procrastinate” by switching to another.
You may find that a ping-pong game between two or three tasks works better than trying to force yourself through one.
5. Anticipate future obstacles
If you’re already procrastinating, you might as well do something helpful for Future You.
Try writing down every possible obstacle you’ll encounter when trying to get a task done, and then brainstorm what you’ll do to avoid falling into that trap.
For example, if a social media notification is sure to derail me, I might put my phone in airplane mode. If I’m going to need a snack in a little while, I might go grab it and keep it on the desk before I get started.
6. Schedule some 10-minute movement sessions
Breaking up tasks with dancing, jumping, or just walking from one end of your apartment to the other can all be helpful aids for boosting focus and energy.
Not that you were wondering, but “I Love Me” by Demi Lovato has been my midday mood lift this week — I’d highly recommend it, especially if you’re beating yourself up for reading this article instead of working.
7. Give belly breathing a shot
Anxiety and stress can really build up when we’re trying to concentrate, to the point where it becomes a seemingly impenetrable wall of awful. There are all sorts of breathing exercises worth trying to help chip away at that wall, though.
8. Look for the jet stream
Sometimes what we need most is momentum, which lets us build up our confidence and assures us that we’re capable of getting sh!t done.
So look for the flow: Is there a task that you already know how to start, are excited to tackle, or utilizes a skill that’s in your wheelhouse?
It doesn’t have to be the most urgent or important task, either. Just getting something off the back burner and getting into the flow of things can help when it’s time to shift your attention to the more pressing stuff.
9. Write down why this task is meaningful to you
We’re not going to list out why a task is important, since uh, that’s potentially upsetting. It’s obviously important if it’s stressing you out.
I’m talking about examining why a task is meaningful to you.
Some questions worth asking:
- What does the completion of this task give to me? This could be as simple as a sense of relief or accomplishment, or as significant as advancing you in your career or developing a new skill.
- What does the completion of this task give to others? Maybe it’s a project that makes the world a better place. Maybe it just makes things a little easier on your teammates. Or maybe it’s a reason for your boss to give you praise at the next meeting.
It’s true that sometimes a task is just lousy and we can’t find much of a reason for it. That’s okay! But if we can, it’s always good to keep our “why” at the front of our minds.
10. Try to beat the clock
“How fast can I complete this task” is way more fun to me than the usual “get this done you incompetent knucklehead” strong arming I try to do with myself.
Bonus points if I have a countdown timer and I’m playing “Eye of the Tiger” to amuse myself. It’s okay if it’s silly — the point is to complete the task by any means necessary.
11. Be kind to yourself
People tend to hate this advice when I give it. And that’s fine, I get it. It’s annoying to be told that being nice to yourself is magically going to fix a problem.
But you know what’s definitely not going to help you? Being a jerk to yourself.
You’re probably familiar with the whole “what’s wrong with me!?” inner monologue, followed by variations on “why can’t I just start” and “why do I keep doing this to myself,” all of which put the blame squarely on you.
Here’s the truth, though: Focusing on a task is hard. Working until completion is hard.
If you have ADHD, you definitely already know this.
But even if you don’t, it’s still true. Our brains are funny little meat machines that don’t always work optimally.
Self-blame is not going to help, I promise. Concentration is like the weather — sometimes things line up and it’s clear blue skies. Other times? Not so much.
Instead of yelling at the sky, try radically accepting where you are. In this case, a little kindness can go a long way in making sure you don’t give up too soon.
Remember: If you’re struggling to concentrate, it’s not because you’re lazy or incompetent or hopeless.
More than likely, you’re stressed out, overwhelmed, or frustrated (or all of the above!). All very human experiences that can interfere with our ability to finish what needs to get done.
So give yourself a break, okay?
Maybe even literally. Go lay down for a little bit. Have a snack. (Being hungry or tired doesn’t help in the concentration department, either!)
Most of all, be patient with yourself. You’re doing the best you can! Which isn’t always going to look like your personal best from last month, last week, or even yesterday.
What’s important is that regardless of how productive you are or aren’t, you don’t allow that to become a measure of your worth. You have inherent value whether you get 15 things done today or nothing at all.
And if focus continues to be a challenge, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional for support, okay?
You’ve got this.
Cards: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Starting with this issue we are launching the "cards" format. This is a quick and convenient educational program that will allow you to get acquainted with the topic and learn everything you need about it - and not have time to get bored. The comments of our experts and teachers are still with you: we cover every topic with their professional help.
Our topic today is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This is one of the most common diagnoses, which means that there are a lot of myths and prejudices around it. We deal with them point by point with the help of a psychologist Anastasia Mikhailovna.
What is it?
ADHD (abbreviated name of the syndrome) is a disorder in the emotional-volitional sphere, in which the child has difficulty concentrating, controlling emotions, and also poorly manages his impulsivity.
“Children with ADHD are usually overly fussy and talkative children, they are not good at following the rules and waiting for their turn,” explains Anastasia Mikhailovna, a gestalt therapist. “Often they have emotional outbursts, and in addition, there may be difficulty in self-organization and forgetfulness. There may be all of the above symptoms, or just one.
(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152866348@N08/41569856952/sizes/l)
What is the reason?
The number of children with attention deficit disorder is growing, and it is growing everywhere (in the US, for example, 11% of schoolchildren suffer from the syndrome). Researchers believe that there are several main causes of ADHD - genetic (it has not been conclusively proven, but it is believed that ADHD in parents increases the child's chances of inheriting the disease), congenital brain damage, and socio-psychological factors.
“It is difficult to say for sure what causes it, but pregnancy is largely responsible for the occurrence of ADHD,” says Anastasia Mikhailovna. “All possible complications - hypoxia, breech presentation, a long anhydrous period and asphyxia, rapid labor - can increase the likelihood of the syndrome. In addition, these children often have birth injuries of the cervical spine and head. Complications during pregnancy were noted in 84% of cases of children with ADHD.”
Among the socio-psychological factors are conflicts in the family, unpreparedness for the birth of children, low material security, uncomfortable living conditions, parental alcoholism and physical methods of punishment.
What is the risk?
The main problem of children with attention deficit disorder is learning problems: as a rule, the progress of such children is significantly lower than that of their peers.
“Very often in children with this syndrome, a delay in psychoverbal development or mental development is detected,” notes Anastasia Mikhailovna.
- “The child may deliberately “disobey”, behave violently or hostilely. In addition, emotional disorders are observed - frequent loss of strength, tearfulness. Children with ADHD are often dependent, periodically they lose all desire to play with other children. The syndrome is often accompanied by tics (facial twitching, prolonged sniffling, head twitching), and sometimes by shouting - this, in turn, disrupts the socialization of children with ADHD.
(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/64723635@N05/15379248850/sizes/l)
How can I tell if my child has ADHD? And why not do it?
“Diagnosis of ADHD is associated with a lot of misconceptions. This is a common practice - parents, after reading the Internet, “discover” the syndrome in an absolutely normal child who a) tries to attract the attention of parents busy with gadgets, b) is brought up without any framework and throws tantrums for any reason, and c) protests with his behavior against parental oversight.
In order to diagnose a child with ADHD, there must be good reasons - for example, he must show significant differences in development with peers. As a rule, this can be fixed by the age of 6-7, when the child is preparing to go to school. The syndrome usually manifests itself in complete disadaptation, both at home and at school,” Anastasia Mikhailovna comments.
A psychiatrist should make a diagnosis, he will also tell you which disorders are most typical for each particular case - hyperactivity, inattention, impulsivity, or a combination of all three.
Will it pass?
“As a rule, in adulthood, the symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity go away - not completely, but in any case fade into the background. What we know about ADHD in adults is that it manifests itself as distraction, increased self-criticism, lack of motivation, forgetfulness, and so on. Most often, these people adapt, adapt to their syndrome. However, and this is bad news, statistically there are a lot of those who develop addictions among such people.
They are often prone to an antisocial lifestyle - this is due to the fact that most likely they were not directed in a suitable direction in childhood, and their interest did not find a suitable application; hence the failure and lack of interest in "normal" human pursuits."
(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinday/2477156170/sizes/l)
Is it curable? And does it need to be treated?
ADHD cannot be cured, but it can be corrected. Usually, a combination of drug therapy and psychological correction is used for this. Children 6 years of age and older are usually given atomoxetine (Straterra) to help adjust to school requirements. In middle school, the drug is canceled, since by this time the child can usually cope on his own.
“The psychological help of a specialist is usually play therapy,” says Anastasia Mikhailovna. “With the help of play, we not only learn to communicate with other people, but, importantly, to express emotions and feelings in a way that is socially acceptable.
If the child's boundaries are violated outside the psychologist's office, the psychologist sets them. However, it is important that parents help him in this - do not think that children with ADHD can do everything, because "they are special." Quite the contrary: they, more than anyone, need clear boundaries, but it is absolutely useless to establish them with the help of repressive methods and in a raised voice.
What should parents do?
For a child with Attention Deficit Disorder, parents are his main guides, helping him to control himself. Parents should establish a daily routine, follow the rhythm of the child's life, not burden him with additional activities and set limits on behavior that is acceptable in the family. If the child behaves inappropriately (and he will certainly do this), it is important that the parents know how at this moment not to turn to shouting, but to continue to treat him in a calm manner: the child needs to be explained what exactly in his behavior causes dissatisfaction of the parent, explain consequences (the punishment should be comparable), do not resort to threats and do not enter into disputes with the child.
(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/barretthall/2944856840/sizes/l)
Why is the syndrome called that?
“Actually, the name is inaccurate. Edward Hallowell, in his book Answers to Distraction, says this very precisely: it would be more correct to call attention deficit disorder “attention instability” or “attention variability”, because children and adults with this syndrome are sometimes VERY focused (including on their thoughts, including in the middle of a conversation). And this usually happens at the moment when they are very motivated or they are carried away by a situation that is new to them.
What else is important to know about this syndrome?
Usually in popular literature (including this article) a child with attention deficit disorder is portrayed as a kind of restless bully who rushes back and forth and destroys everything in his path. But few people mention another manifestation of ADHD - its mirror image, when the child is in a state of increased focus, hyperfocus.
Elizabeth Leimkuler, author of numerous studies of attention deficit disorder in adults, notes that this "hyperactivity-hyperfocus" link develops over time into paradoxical manifestations in already grown children. This is expressed in conflicting tendencies of behavior that can succeed each other quickly enough to stupefy the casual observer. So, for example, the same person can be extremely optimistic at one moment - and become a complete pessimist in the next conversation.
Such manifestations are rarely easy for their relatives, because, firstly, they are confusing, and secondly, they provoke them to look for reasons in themselves (“I did something wrong, so he (a) such / such a gloomy / th”). And since such paradoxes bear little resemblance to ordinary mood swings (the amplitude is too large), it is much more difficult to put up with them.
(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/57500213@N02/6668043691/sizes/l)
take care of yourself.
It is in many ways similar to how parents of such children learn to help and support him - the same things come to the fore: patience and care. And the difficulties are the same - feelings of guilt, shame and a sense of one's own "defect". I would recommend both to those and others - both parents and adult partners - to remember that a syndrome is just a syndrome, a disease, that a child / adult is not trying to terrorize you in this way. And that with effective work with a psychologist (and properly built relationships at home), you can help a person reveal himself and minimize the negative manifestations of the syndrome.
Header image from here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129863000@N05/15648468144/sizes/o/
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Wise Owl 09October 2019
Attention deficit disorder in children: symptoms of ADHD in a child 1994.
Until that moment, the violations of the child's behavior, which constitute the essence of the disorder - inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity - were designated by various and successive terms, the specificity of which was largely due to the prevailing ideas at that time about the nature, features and causes of this disorders. Background to the term ADHD. Literary descriptions.
Despite the apparent novelty of this "disease" today, the first descriptions of clinical ADHD cases have a long history. Thus, one of the most authoritative experts in this field, the American psychiatrist RusselBarkley, believes that the first description of the clinical picture of ADHD in general belongs to W. Shakespeare, given by him in the description of the character of King Henry YIII. The first medical and documented study, written by the German physician Adam Weikard, dates back to 1775 and describes an inattentive, easily distracted, restless, overly mobile and ill-mannered child.
It was in poor parenting that Waikard saw the main cause of the problem behavior of the child.
Background to the term ADHD. Scientific classifications.
This was followed by such labels as "perversion of moral principles", "mental instability", "violation of ethical norms of behavior", "deficiency in moral control of behavior", "postencephalitic behavioral disorder", "microorganic syndrome", "minimal brain dysfunction", “hyperkinetic impulsive syndrome”, “physiological hyperactivity”, etc. Back in 1968, the second edition of the American Classification of Psychiatric Diseases (DSM-2) mentioned “hyperkinetic disorder of childhood” in only one short sentence. A feature of this early stage in the formation of ideas about ADHD was the empirical nature of observations and the almost complete absence of any objective scientific data on possible brain mechanisms. In addition, initially the object of clinical descriptions was the "wrong" behavior mainly of children and adolescents, and the lack of objective evidence did not prevent the appearance of numerous speculations about damage or pathology of the brain as a possible cause of the behavior characteristic of ADHD.
Among the possible variants of such a brain injury, birth or intrauterine trauma, damage due to mechanical trauma, damage due to an infectious brain disease, and a number of others were considered. However, over time, it became clear that not every brain injury, regardless of etiology, is accompanied by a behavioral disorder characteristic of ADHD in children and adolescents, and therefore the concept of brain damage was gradually replaced by a “softer” idea of brain dysfunction, arising from more a general idea of the principles of brain organization and functioning in normal and pathological conditions.
Modern vision of ADHD.
More than 2000 studies were published in 1970-1980 on various aspects of the behavior of children with signs of ADHD, and the main focus of most of these studies was on those deviations in behavior that were associated with excessive hyperactivity and excessive impulsivity in ADHD behavior. child. Attention deficit symptoms - focus instability and reduction in the duration of its retention, increased distractibility - were on the periphery of the attention of specialists at this stage.
We can say that radical changes in approaches to identifying the main components of the ADHD syndrome occurred in the late 70s, when the DSM-3, published in 1980, instead of the concept of hyperkinetic syndrome, the concept of "attention deficit disorder" appeared - ADD, until still without hyperactivity. This evolution of the formal diagnostic criteria for a child's impaired behavior towards the recognition of a greater severity and greater diagnostic significance of the symptoms of a violation of the basic function of attention, on the one hand, was due to the growing amount of data on the almost mandatory presence of symptoms associated with a violation of the attention function in the structure of ADHD. On the other hand, neurophysiological and computed tomography methods for studying the brain substrate of various basic functions have evolved significantly, one of which is the function of attention. As a result, new fruitful neurobiological concepts have emerged that have opened up new perspectives for understanding the causes and mechanisms, including the ADHD syndrome.
Such a key concept was the idea of executive functions and executive brain systems that provide, among other things, the function of attention.
Causes and diagnosis of ADHD.
The causes of ADHD are not known for certain, and scientific data on the brain mechanisms of the syndrome are far from conclusive. Historically, the cause of ADHD behavior was seen in a certain lesion of the child's brain, which was reflected in the concept of minimal brain dysfunction, since the syndrome was first described in children who actually had an infectious brain disease - meningitis or encephalitis. However, numerous recent scientific studies suggest that the term "defeat" is not entirely accurate and not entirely correct, and therefore it should be avoided. In the most general terms, according to modern concepts, the basis of behavioral disorders in ADHD is not brain damage or trauma, but the malfunctioning of certain of its systems, which occurs due to failures or errors in the process of formation or laying of these systems, possibly even during the prenatal period.
development.
Modern scientific study of the causes of ADHD proceeds mainly in three directions:
- neurocognitive, which aims to elucidate the neurobiological basis and mechanisms of its violation of the basic personality traits - impulsivity and the role of the frontal sections of the cerebral cortex in these mechanisms;
- neurobiological, aimed at studying, using the latest neuroimaging techniques (MEEG, MRI, PET), dysfunctions of certain systems or structures of the brain;
- genetic study of the prevalence of ADHD in families.
So, based on the study of the brain of children and adults with ADHD by positron emission tomography (PET), the famous American specialist G.Amen identified several subtypes of ADHD: . Usually manifests itself at a very early age. In childhood they are restless, active and difficult to calm down. This type of behavior, according to the author, is associated with a deficiency of one of the main brain neurotransmitters - dopamine.
Neuroimaging shows low activity in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia.
Possible life problems as consequences of ADHD.
Today's knowledge is enough to understand that ADHD can destroy the life of the "owner" of this syndrome. The long list of possible problems in ADHD includes: emotional instability, low self-esteem, pathological forgetfulness, addictions, interpersonal communication problems, aggressiveness, antisocial behavior, thrill seeking, chronic anxiety, procrastination, self-destructive behavior, planning problems, and the inability to complete what has been started, unsatisfactory employment and low income, problems at work and during study with dismissals and expulsions from the university, problems with the law.
