People with ADHD chasing a functional life is like an artist constantly chasing his muse. Once in a while we find it and we produce a masterpiece. The rest of the time we are depressed and we might cut our ear off.
The problem I found myself with ADHD is that your emotions can be too strong sometimes. So if something bad happens in your life that shit can overwhelm you.
I have RSD has one of my symptoms and I said no to my mom for keeping her dog during her vacation and she just answered Ok and I feel like the worst daughter EVER!!!
A major misconception of ADHD is that ADHD has attention deficit and hyperactive elements. For the public and doctors this seems to simplify things. But in fact is that ADHD is a dysregulation issue: that's why people call it attention "deficit" and "hyperfocus" - we can't control these though because to a certain degree we lack the capacity to internally "regulate" ourselves. Interestingly, the earliest scientists spotted emotional dysregulation in emotion - that is to so heightened emotional states were common. However, there is no way to accurately measure emotion so it was removed as a criteria to measure ADHD. This is truly unfortunate. As a result of this missing criteria those that are willing to acknowledge emotional fluctuations are only the ones who experience ADHD daily.
"I spent three hours thinking about that math problem, but i figured out approximate path to the solution in my head which i am confident is going to work, so i'm not gonna actually calcualte the numbers because i am not interested anymore"
Personally a lot of how my ADHD affects me is in a negative almost debilitating way. Hyper focus can cause procrastination if you are focused on the random thing. Academic systems are my personal hell. Yes, it does make me more creative, better at problem solving, etc.... But sometimes I would rather just remember to eat, or be able to study. I know the "ADHD superpower" is a optimistic way of looking at this condition, but it also invalidates all the daily hardships it brings in life.
Even when it fucks up your life, it matches up to the superpower analogy. The better-written superpowers always have drawbacks to their superpowers, some moreso than others. Superman has kryptonite, Hulk can lose control of himself, Deadpool can heal but is severely disfigured, etc. Superhero stories OFTEN go into how difficult a life with superpowers might actually be. Sometimes superpowers that are actually quite detrimental, until the hero learns how to use them to their advantage, but even then, there are consequences to having and using them!
When I have those days where I "click" is not so much that I'm in hyperfocus, but is that I'm at the perfect point where I can do stuff well, in the times I think it should be done, without losing myself in it or anything else. That for me is "true potential". If you see it this way (which, considering the post Dr k read, is also the way op and dr k thought about) then I think you can relate too
I really fucking hate the "ADHD superpower" narrative because it feels so fucking patronizing. It is like when they portray people on the spectrum in movies as being super geniuses. It is not cute. It is not "empowering". It's gross and patronizing.
From my experience it’s a combination of things. Society wants us to be “normal” and that gives most of us low self esteem. No matter how hard you try a fish can’t climb as well as a monkey. Another problem is that we aren’t taught how to be us, we’re just shamed for it. For example I think adhd are natural polymaths, yet society tells us to stay in one job, do one thing, be able to sit in a cubicle for hours a day typing on a blank monitor. So boring. I myself am more comfortable jumping from one activity to another, I’ll study html5 for an hour or so, work on 3d software the next hour, draw the next, html5 etc,. Really it’s my self esteem, not adhd that’s kept me down and I’m working through that now. It is a superpower, but more so a double edged sword. You need to learn to work WITH it instead of against it. Build confidence and learn not to use social norms as a comparison. That’s my experience.
its not a superpower - people need to stop pushing this bullshit rhetoric, if it makes you feel better then cool, but that's all it is a feel good comment, other people that are younger may not get that and then get told and dismissed because people perpetuate this nonsense, you've an advantage over us normal folk etc potentially among other nonsense/stigma that encircles people with adhd, you've no obligation to add to it. Society has nothing to do with your self esteem issues - also 'I think adhd are natural polymaths' - you're jaded and narrowminded AF
This is because the average man has become too passive these days. Society's never gonna exactly match up with you, it's up to you to do what you want without becoming depressed.
Totally. Im an engineer and during my career I started dance and theater. I was jumping from one class to another. I had time for everything and i enjoyed. Is so much easier if i do like that. When im trying to do just one thing... no. I can't do it
I feel like when people with adhd come together you'll just be serounded by happy excited people. But when you start talking about adhd everyone becomes excited and happy about sharing how their lives are fucking miserable... Its a very odd expirence
Since getting medication Im always happy and excited to tell people how much its helped. So thats nice. I almost cried when i noticed the difference and found out i had been living most of my young adult and adult life in a fog
I haven’t watched the video yet so not sure if Dr K mentions it or what his take his - but Dr Russell Barkley says that Hyper focus is a myth. It’s not hyper focussing on a particular thing for the sake of that thing, it’s hyper focussing on a thing that you want to do and ignoring the things you have to do. I guess if you have everything else fairly well in control you can hyper focus on something without the negative side effects but there’s not much control over when the hyper focus kicks in
@@TheConvectuoso well hello there other Joel. I think it depends on what you are "hyper focusing" on. Is this level of focus allowing you to spend 8 hours studying for a class you really enjoy, or is it being almost unable to pull yourself away from a video game. The studying would be seen as a super power as the attention is directed at something that betters yourself, where the video game would be seen as wasting time and a problem. They are both the same thing, but viewed differently. Sadly we have little control over what it is we are going to hyper focus on. I believe he refers to it as preservation rather than it being a hyper focus. You are unable to easily redirect that focus back to things that are also important, like getting up to go to the washroom before you have to run there.
I have had my own father and brother admit that they think my ADHD is fake to me. Didn't matter if they had a psychiatrist diagnose me in the first place, on recommendation from my own teachers. They would rather suggest I was lazy. My straight A's did nothing to convince them that something else is going on in my mind. Something even a ton of hard work can't fully compensate for. As horrible as ADHD is, the worst part is the way others treat you. Watching relationships slowly fall apart in passive aggressive disrespect makes you eternally suspicious of your closest friends. People just get annoyed over time, and they forget why you are the way you are. Or maybe they just suspended their disbelief until it "gets too hard" and they start making disrespectful comments. ADHD is so easy for neurotypical folk to mock. Sometimes it's not even the ADHD. Sometimes it's just the label that makes people reinterpret everything you do. They get to lose their keys and still be treated like human beings. When ADHD folk do it, it makes you a target. Or worse, they "worry" about you. Suddenly you're not allowed to drive your own car because it "scares them" even though they're worse drivers than you. I'm reminded of Suicidal Tendencies "Institutionalized" as a critique of how America handles mental issues in general.
As someone whos going thru the same thing where my family doesn't believe me *but then uses my ADHD to belittle me* honestly how they treat u is like salt in the wound
@@beats5701 That's so gross, and so much like how my family treated me. I think they know you have ADHD, but they just don't like "dealing with it" when they aren't even the ones suffering from it. People like that don't give enough of a shit to find videos and comments sections like this. We are talking about our experiences, and thanks the internet, the info is out there and is easy to find. But they won't do the work. They just don't care.
This is beautifully summed up and thank you for sharing your story. I hope your family accept and supports you in the future. But know that I am behind you 100%
00:11 - Reddit post 01:10 - Overview 03:26 - What do you think contributes to successful performance? 09:02 - State vs Trait 10:45 - How do we cultivate states? 24:33 - Recognize that it's about states 29:09 - Slowing your mind down 33:02 - What if your mind is hypo-active? 36:03 - Gut bacteria's impact on mental health 41:13 - Pro biotics and mental health
This is what makes youtube a great platform, this guys time as a doctor is probably worth, hundreds. With an internet connection, and youtube I can listen to him for almost free.
I needed this so much. Twice exceptional ADHD/gifted human here- that's right folks, MENSA level IQ with the executive functioning of a potato. 🥔 These states are the key- I'll get so frustrated with myself because I'm SMART, yet I can't get my crap together. I'm painfully self-aware yet willfully ignorant. "WHY CAN'T I DO THE THINGS?!?", I scream into the void while dusting the Cheeto dust from my fingers while chugging energy drinks running on 3 hours of sleep. 🥴
Vibes. Step 1: Succeeding doing some objectively very hard stuff that I somehow figured out on the fly with my magical smart brain that I barely feel in control of. Step 2: Finally break out of that tunnel vision, remember I'm a body and not just a brain, and then immediately realize this success cost me: failing to eat a real meal, forgetting to pee, missing showering for days at a time, not realizing it's been a month since I missed my mom's text. Step 3: Troubleshoot by intellectualizing it all and fully understand the mechanisms. Still stuck with my turbocharged brain screaming at a body that only seems to hear hear or want to listen ~25% of the time (at best). Step 4: Try to get some sleep, lay in bed processing all the above things because transitioning out of brain-mode is so hard, stay up til the sun comes up, rinse and repeat until massive burnout.
Same but my IQ is 75 because I just skiped the math and flunk the reading/writing but man I murdered the other half of the test like they were worried they run out of puzzles.
Oddly enough, this seems to be a common thing with ADHD, as part of the tests for ADHD are basically IQ tests, and it seems really common to score at what the doctor told me was within applying for mensa levels... but in certain things, visual problem solving and such. Then there's the catch with ADHD, memory, focus, impulse control...suddenly you're scoring below the average in some parts, my doctor found it amusing seeing the huge dip in the graph for the test, she'd never seen one like that, going from above average in one section, then the next section below average, she'd never seen such a big difference in the graph before, like a sudden mountain, with a deep valley on the other side of it, I guess I'm just so Norwegian even my IQ test has mountains and fjords in it :P Edit: What I started out trying to say... is that this seems to be a common problem with people that got ADHD.
Doesn't sugarcoat things but isn't needlessly blunt either. Since I learned about my ADHD, the vids from this channel have helped me to process all the baggage that I've picked up during the years I didn't know why I was the way I am. An absolute beaut and a great person.
I’ve been wondering if I have ADHD for a while. People say I don’t because I was fine in school, but it’s things like this that keep me wondering. I’ve never been able to stick to anything long enough to accomplish anything in life but I feel like I _should_ be motivated. And it’s these moments every few weeks where I feel like…this is how I should be. For how much I care about my success and how many times I’ve tried, I should be like this. Maybe it shouldn’t be impossible to focus on everything I care about. Maybe “the kid next door” just feels like this all the time. Maybe if I were like this for even half of the time, I would actually be able to be proud of myself for once in my life.
i literally had the highest SAT score in my school as well as highest grade one teacher had ever given a student, and the highest grade anyone in any section of the class was given in 5 classes my senior year of high school, and had undiagnosed ADHD the whole time. just happened to also be gifted and good at tests. awful combo, that "twice exceptional" mess: all the expectation with none of the executive function! not boasts, just examples to let literally anyone reading this know that school performance isn't a be all end all re: adhd dx.
@@SieNoel i'm the same, 97 percentile of performance and my ADHD caused me so much trouble. Every struggle is unseen becausd you have good results. When I got tested it was even against what my psychiatrist told me, in the assessment it was clear that I tend to fall asleep when I'm bored and have trouble with some memory aspects. The diagnosis was the best part of my life, my recommendation is to get tested and if it's not ADHD it's fine too.
Go get tested and don't take no for an answer. And I know it's not ready my place, but I highly recommend beginning the process of removing "should" from your life vocabulary. Continue to move forward and try your best. Improvements will come and imposter syndrome will probably be a major issue for you. But as long as you make progress your life will slowly improve. Not that I can really talk as someone with ADHD and I haven't managed to remove the negative tapes from my head
Another twice exceptional checking in. I was always in the very top percentiles when I was in school, and weirdely enough so were my friends, who I now suspect also were twice exceptional, was always in higher level classes, and had one teacher say that in all her years of teaching she had never seen someone score so high on a test. I’ve found that although I may not be a fan of structure, I do my best in a structured environment. Also, any other ADHDers that want to improve executive function, I highly reccomend Focused Attention Meditation, has vastly improved my ability to block out distractions and more importantly to shift my focus from one thing to another.
Me and my friends have accepted that my ADHD have made me the funniest being in this planet, but mean that I can't learn physics if It was life or death. So for me, socially, it is a super power, and sometimes in education as well, but with a boring class and a boring teacher it is a death sentence. Edit: Lotta people are saying that this mentality will be quite bad academically, but it's only really for physics where ADHD does not help, it's quite good in my main focuses of Biology and English. Helps me memories terms in silly ways and also think a few sentences ahead while writing an essay or story.
Honestly I thought this true too, but then I realized it's incorrect. You will never learn physics the standard way they teach it. But you can learn it maybe even better then your friends, but it takes action and extra steps. I am teaching myself calculus now, 1 month in its going well. I am doing the way Newton invented it. I found how Newton was chucking rocks off the tower of piza, and trying to describe and measure the change. I always sucked at math, but then I got drunk one day went on my deck and started throwing junk off my roof. The next day I did the same thing and tried to follow newton's process. Look into the experiments that led to the breakthroughs we are taught in school try to recreate them. And have a note book handy. If nothing else it's fun to throw watermelons off of your roof.
you have to find a learning method that works for you. I have adhd an I just got an engineering degree lol. It's possible but you have to do a lot of research about what works for you bc the school system wasn't designed for adhd people. You have to take what you can from school and use that as a supplement. If watching videos about the topic or getting a personal tutor are more effective then do those things. Maybe start taking notes in class if you don't already. Maybe try reading the textbook. Maybe study with a friend and make it a competition of who can stay on task so then you'll feel guilty for doing other things and have an incentive to study. There are a lot of things to try and you have time to try them :) and they help with other stuff that isn't school too lol
@@awesome7732 Finally someone that gets it, other comments regarding this are plain myopic. Likewise, I got my Bsc, MSc and now slowly chipping away on my PhD while working in engineering with mental illness detection using machine learning. I see comments where people externalize the problem and delegate blame, you can point to things all you want and just like you said some things arent designed with adhd/autistic people in mind but its also disingenuous that so many use that as an excuse.
It's a superpower that gets taken advantage of by mid level managers and executives that need all-star employees that work feverishly without complaining.
I got back into exercising recently and it has made all the difference. Can't recommend it enough to y'all who struggle with ADHD and/or depression. Do something fun like aerobic dancing or shoot some hoops.
Only on good days imo. The rest of the days are just me having absolutely no energy left to do anything. Although honestly the good days are absolutely amazing and dopamine rewarding, like declutter your entire room without anyone's help. The only downsize is that those days are rare in my case.
Yeah but what you do on your good days is what normal people do every day. We aren't trading off a consistent lack of focus for anything extraordinary, it just feels that way because most of the time, we're barely functional.
@@omarcomming722 It's kinda weird though, don't we usually get comments from people about how we do x, y and z cause they could never do it? Like I have no idea about the general neurotypical's success rate compared to neurodivergent people (although we do have evidence like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc) but I know from my experience and other neurodivergents' that people around us seem to be easily impressed by our good days. It could be warped by our perspective since I have absolutely no idea how it is to be an NT and vice versa but it could be interesting to see some science stuff on hyperfocus
It's the diabetes of mental disorders, it never goes away and it's not a tradeoff for some ability in another area, but there is medication for it that is underprescribed.
Tbh I would happily give up everything that makes me unique or different if I could be a normal, neurotypical human. It’s just really tiring and I’m constantly disappointed in myself.
The thing with this glimpse of your potential is that an ADHD brain is just not a brain that has a static level of potential. We vary day to day, hour to hour, and that’s just the natural flow of our brains. The hardest part is figuring out how to lean in and take advantage on those superpower brain days while also not shaming yourself for being less productive on bad brain days. You can only do what you can do *in that moment*. Your best is not your absolute best for all time in a vacuum. Your best is the best you can do today. Just today. It doesn’t matter if your best tomorrow is better than your best today. You can only do today’s best today, and tomorrow’s best tomorrow. It’s taken me 30 years to learn this.
This person described that so well I have always got this feeling and never really knew how to explain it other than feeling like I woke up from a dream and was actually myself for a while.
I've not seen the video yet, but my gut reaction to the title is: Yeah, ADHD gives you superpowers and a kryptonite necklace that can be randomly unlatched but will always be on your neck next morning
Man, literally the intro. It's a bit of a conundrum. You're in a bad place so it's hard to eat healthy and get sleep and not smoke pot, but if you manage to somehow do those things, it's like a whole new world opens up because you actually experience what your life could be.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Once I get into a rhythm and routine doing the things I need to (working out, eating healthy, vitamins, etc) it’s like nothing can stop me. The problem is that it’s easy to get out of the routine and extremely difficult to get back into it.
Wow the first 10 mins of this video made me cry! I’ve been diagnosed and on Adder-all for ADD since I was 8 years old. This phenomenon is so real, I didn’t realize so many people could relate to this. In a way this is so so comforting ❤
I haven’t watched the video yet but the title reminds me of something me and my therapist came up with: autistic people (like myself) are like unicorns living in a world of horses. Yes we are…different…since we have a giant horn growing out of our heads, but we are also able to do amazing and extraordinary things that other horses can’t do. 🐴 🦄 ❤️
"state" it's like when you are always the funny guy in a group till there is another fun person then you just don't feel like making jokes anymore, doesn't mean you can't or you're not fun you're just in a state of No for absolutely no reason
As someone who spent age 18 to 23 being an unaccomplished loser who failed out of college and is now back in college near the top of my science classes, my number one tip is. Engineer your life around your hyperfixations and mentally configure everything you learn in class around your hyperfixations. Example, my main hyperfixations rn is drugs and I wanna go for biochemistry/pharmacology. So in chem and bio, even tho I'm not learning the cool stuff yet, I apply all the basics I'm learning to some of the cool stuff and it motivates me to understand so I can know more about the cool stuff on a more rigorous level. Ex learning about basics like amino acids, redoz rxns, genetics, mitosis meiosis, etc and every time I master a concept I reward myself by doing extra research applying it to my interests and being able to understand on a deeper level then before. Also, learning to enjoy solving problems. I used to want to enjoy it but couldn't make myself (math chemistry etc) but now intead of trying to brute force my way into problems sets because I have to, I tell myself it's because I want to and it's necessary to rpg grind my problem solving stats so I can get thru orgo chem, math, biochem etc and one day be a distinguished drug guy (a pharmacologist) I just re read this and realized I did all of this in high school but it didn't work until I also was able to make myself take notes and write down problems neatly instead of just cramming on yt videos. You do to some extent need to learn proper study habits. Adderall helps too
While I understand where you were going with this all, when I read yours "engineer your life around your hyperfixations... my hyperfixation is drugs", I immediately thought it can be horribly misinterpreted by some dumass.
For me it is. The creativity side, the ability to connect disparate ideas is through the roof. I can’t do what is expected but the thing that keeps me from getting fired is that I can easily get into a flow state into things nobody is thinking about and that allows me to make new discoveries and create value.
If I could choose what I focus on maybe, but since that's the underlying issue no. I'm a jack of all trades and master of none because I can learn something faster and more efficient than anyone I know if it grabs my attention and then boom, I can no longer focus anymore on that thing my brain has found another thing. The all or nothing approach also seems to be the hardest thing for me to fight against.
Totally get what you mean. I went from being a rockstar as an intern because I was a jack of all trades and constantly found different niches/areas to focus on and add value in, and then got hired after graduating to specialize in a very complex subsection of my field and as a result am now unmotivated and far less productive because I can't bounce around between the things that interest me and everything is far more structured and limited in scope. Being a jack of all trades is great for many things in life and is like a superpower when you have the freedom to work on what you want, but ultimately specialization is rewarded more and that is often more difficult with ADHD.
This is a recent realization of mine. I know that I have a condition and I completely acknowledge it now. Sometimes it makes me do amazing things but normally it's difficult. I am trying to be careful about my thinking. I am lowering my expectation of myself but at the same time learn to savor the moment when I did an amazing job. I am trying my best not to get too caught up on it, because I notice that I become arrogant when I get convinced that I have so much potential, and I can do more if I am like this everyday which is impossible. High expectations only frustrate me and destroys my confidence when everything becomes difficult again.
I just got diagnosed at 28 and I’m so overwhelmed. My emotions are all over the place and I’m trying to find my way back to self love so I can take the next steps.
Find one thing, just one tiny little aspect and master it. Perception. Nobody knows what's happening inside your head except you, so how can they judge. You know if you did a good job. The little s*** matters. Your intent matters. I started there. I hope this helps
I have ADHD. Though I don’t subscribe to the disorder model. I see it as a gift. I’ve learned to ride my states and set myself up to enter flow state easier. My tendency is to bounce from one obsession to the next of course, but I make sure to cycle the same 4 or 5 things I’m bouncing. I know I WILL bounce, so I make sure to bounce back to 1 again and repeat. Our attention and obsessive abilities CAN be harnessed. Traditional gatekeeping like notes, alarms, physically linking items, setting out project objects so you can get started the next day can all help manage the day to day life, but flow states are a gift. Appreciate them while they are here, accept this moment, ride the hell out of it and enjoy yourself. You will be back.
If it's a new novelty and it's fun I'll smash it out at 2000% for a few days, maybe even a week, rarely longer I will live and breathe this project for the duration, rarely thinking of anything else But then randomly i lose all interest and it becomes so boring I just can't do it anymore Must have over 1000 unfinished songs on fruity loops 2000 half finished drawings (maybe I could combine them all together to hide the unfinished parts) It sucks, just gotta keep moving on and finding new things that fit around this wonderful brain
I think it’s not only “not clicking” for me, but I was, like, never taught, how to sleep, cook&eat and do sports properly. Parents always said that it’s important but I never taught my organism to kinda live life properly. Pisses me off I need to lose couple of years of my life just to teach myself to live normally
Very very very random thought, but it just struck me that talking about "state" is a very good way of teaching non Spanish speakers about the differences between "ser" and "estar" (translated as just one verb, to English and other languages: "to be"), because then you can use the similarity and common origin of "estar" and "state": they both mean a temporary condition (state translates as the noun "estado", which is the noun directly linked to the verb "estar"). So I am Juan and I am tired, are both instances of "to be", but in Spanish they translate as "Yo soy Juan (verbo ser)" and "Yo estoy cansado (verbo estar)". I may be tired now, but maybe not tomorrow, but I will always be Juan (or is culturally expected anyways...).
I'm 8 minutes in and this content itself is great but I have *no idea* yet why it has rolled with such a potentially inflammatory title/thumb that so far feels totally unrelated.
It's somewhat of a pattern here. I'm not a fan of some of the titles. Sometimes they feel a little too extreme. I think it's so more people will have a strong reaction and click. Either way, I'm a huge fan of the content so I stick around.
My thoughts, exactly. Unfortunately this is the way Dr. K has potentially reasoned out to help more people by feeding into the *shock* title bandwagon. I’m not sure if that’s right but I know I’m not a fan of it either
Chalk that up to UA-cam rewarding videos with clikbaity titles more. If this video had a to-the-point normal title very few people would bother to check it out.
People with adhd have a rapidly changing mental environment. It can be 11th form total calm or a hurricane. By improving your diet and sleep and other habits you will assist you brain in being in a calmer and more stable mental environment. The. when combined with good habits, the habits point that focus in productive areas, an individual with adhd can weaponize their brains uniqueness to make positive impacts on their work and life. So superpower, well no, you’re still human, but hopefully operating with improved efficiency compared to where you were and thus become a super powered version of the old you. Good diet and sleep and choosing positive methods for digesting our emotions is a buff for all though so the advice is general.
I'm a musician. While ADHD could be a part of why I chose this career path, I still feel like it gives me a creativity advantage over my peers and I like music so much that when doing this one thing I almost always go straight into hyperfocus.
Hell yes. I am also a musician. Guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. Mostly drums, lol. How many different things are you doing at exactly the same time to produce even the simplest chord. Now add the rhythm, tempo, and then if you sing and play at the same time...like oh my God... Music is life, sound waves vibrating...when we're playing music and it's correct, when you got a group of people in perfect synchronicity and all the frequencies harmonize... Yeah, yeah... Flow State, Avatar State, out of body experience, hell I've had a couple of concerts it felt better than sex🎉
It's a min-max class, like being a sorcerer where you can't do anything alone until level 8 where you get stoneskin (an accidental little RPG party analogy about how useful group study and accountability partners are)
I found out that sleeping, eating, and being hydrated enough improves my performance in games (even before finding this video), mainly esport games. I never thought that my moment of brilliance also contributed by this XD
I can focus only when the task becomes an urgency but sadly by that moment, in most cases, there is not enough time left to produce the outcome which reflects the initial aim. Bottom line, I suffer thrice more than normal while trying to figure out how to stay concentrated through all that long period, than I get into another stressful phase where I am really out of time but I can finally do the job. When everything is over, I keep feeling the same energy for one or two days, then the spark is completely gone and I find myself again flying here and there trapped in that silly bubble. I am 48, I am a composer and this is my painful work routine.
I think of this as the "Flowers for Algernon" effect. The successful days are amazing, then boom it's a regular day and I spend an hour trying to decide something or find something etc. and losing my mind with frustration.
traits are inborn and fixed your performance is determined by your state (which is temporary and alterable) if you wanna improve your performance and/pr make it consistent, focus on entering the right state 1. control your thought and self talk (process your past emotions) 2. become aware of how you're feeling in the moment 3. adopt a sattvik diet cause what you feed yourself affects your state of mind 4. sleep well and in the same time. do not consume alcohol, marijuana 5. environment: spend time with people who make you feel productive or a desire to work/study
Parents and people around us also judge us by our good and productive days or moments, signaling back at us "see, if only you kept on doing what you're doing for once, you would be worthy". Often we're told that it's just laziness or selfishness, and others are disappointed. It's been like this so often I've lost track.
about adhd and fish oil, my mum had heard if it and asked my doctor who was like "ah this again" and pulled up a research paper and said that fish oil showed good improvements in those who were lacking in the nutrients that fish oil has. if you are not lacking in those then it does little to nothing. I had salmon often so it saved me fish oil supplements lol
Yeah, generally I think this goes for pretty much all supplements. If you're eating a somewhat healthy diet, you're already getting everything you need. I say "somewhat healthy" because it's not like you have to do anything special other than like not only eating McDonald's burgers and pounding Coca-Cola for every meal. Don't have to be a vegan, don't even have to eat some big nasty salad everyday, just a bit of variety.
Adding onto the conversation, just adding it in to “top off” or optimize your levels can be beneficial as well. It’s recommended for ADHD to have atleast 2-4g of EPA/DHA daily which may be difficult with only eating salmon. Plus, I suspect majority of the world isn’t eating salmon/ fatty fish daily.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu, _The Art of War_ That book is relevant for so much of daily life, its honestly kinda weird.
Suggestion: add a sound or explicit graphic/ into to indicate where the preview ends and the chronological starting point is so it’s clearer, especially for tho who are just listening
I think it would be interesting to hear about the effect music has on your brain. As someone with ADHD, I feel like music gives some distraction from outside stimulus. In a sense, it drowns out all the thoughts and directs my focus on the task I’m trying to complete. It may be similar to neurotypical minds but I have no experience there. This is purely anecdotal but I’m curious.
For me, music is incredible unless I understand the lyrics. And then I’ll be way too distracted by the music to read. Can’t listen to words and read words at the same time!
Have you heard of the white noise theory Brady? For those that have a strong attention deficit component to their ADHD white noise helps concentration immensely and it's actually a noted symptom acknowledged by experts as an identifying factor of ADHD. It can work to any soundtrack, but I personally prefer music myself. A quiet environment is not only unhelpful but actively distracting.
Exactly, ever since I got my first phone and headphones at like 11 (I'm 20 now), I would have them on almost 24/7. And now I understand why. I can't do anything without them, chores, homework, even sometimes I'd watch a movie (with subtitles cuz english is not my native language) with some music playing, that way I actually focus better on the plot. Also I'm only able to fall asleep with white noise. It's all making sense. Whenever I couldn't have them, I'd feel disorganized and don't know where to begin with the task..
try the adhd relief music on youtube it helped me really much. there are many different ones just in case you cant stick the first one. Its truly a gamechanger for me
I've notice that it becomes easier to control as I age. I used to be in the same boat, but now that I've become more emotionally mature and gained enough knowledge and wisdom I've found it incredibly easy to control this power every single day.
Funny thing is, I've been able to harness my hyperfocus fairly successfully. Here's why: I've found what can motivate me to do things and help get me started. For example, writing papers for class is an absolute chore, because it can be difficult to zone in and know how to start. Despite this, I've been able to find a way to successfully help me zone in. The good thing is once i've started and zoned in, I refuse to stop until done with papers. I've learned that turning on some catchy instrumental music and giving myself a reward to look forward to afterwards helps tremendously. Usually my "reward" after completely an extremely difficult task is food/game oriented, lol.
Far too many food studies do not take into account the financial position of the individual studied, however I would hope most are aware of that by now. If I need to I'll look but I could on instinct alone feel that none of the older studies took the child's familial history and financial status into consideration before looking at what was the cause of the ADHD.
When I do manage to finally get there it really feels like I've unlocked Ultra Instinct. I no longer have an internal monolgue. The middle step of converting thought to words and then to action is no longer necessary. I'm not even fully conscious of what I am doing, but a week's worth of chores can happen in a couple of hours. My left arm and right arm can get separate tasks done, such as cooking and loading the dishwasher. This is not the "Part of task A, now part of task B, now back to A" type of multitasking in my normal state. Both are genuinely happening. There's no emotional involvement either. I am neither excited that I am getting dishes done nor frustrated that I have to do them. I am simply an observer than happens to exist within a space that dishes are being done in.
This is so easy to explain but this just doesn't work this way. I eat healthy, I work out, I sleep a lot and I drink A LOT of water. On paper, my state is ALWAYS perfect, but I'm just never at that point of feeling at my "peak". I only feel like that once every blue moon and I always chase that feeling when I'm not there. Nothing helps. it just comes and goes.
Noticed that I work best when backed into a corner. I can hyperfocus and accomplish some amazing things. I just wish it didn’t have to come to that ever time!
I live for the “bottled lightning moments” where everything crystallises in a fraction of a moment - like a bolt of lightning. It’s the most amazing feeling I ever get. And produces some of the most truly amazing outcomes
I feel like once you start embracing and working with neurodivergence and ADHD instead of constantly fighting it, you can be just as if not even more productive than a neurotypical person.
I’m REALLY glad you make the point you do at 41:00. The supplement industry is a dumpster fire of marketing gimmicks trying to get people to believe that this supplement will lead to X result without Y behavior that I find uncomfortable or undesirable.
ADHD is telling you when you’re focusing on your life path and when you are trying to focus on stuff that does not actually matter to your authentic self. It’s such a strong feedback system that it will not allow you to focus on things that do not matter to the ADHD person in question.
ADHD is great for creativity, but we live in a world where creativity isn't vauled as much as a 9/5 job. ADHD is a curse for the current world we live in.
@@denizmessesaround Yeah, I really hope I can do a more creative job such as graphic design, but knowing today's market I kinda doubt I'll be able to get the job I want.
I have a creative 9/5 job and it is draaaaining as hell. It's still not valued so much in my country. I work as graphic designer in a company, so you have to be creative on demand every day.
Emotional regulation is critical to living a productive life while living with ADHD. My positive days i feel like I really could do anything the world needs of me. Then theres some days where someone or something screws over my team and i wind up going full Doom Slayer on the threat. I say that jokingly of course but my inabilities to regulate my emotions properly have cost me opportunities. Its forced me into doing the best i can to rework peoples perception of me and my reputation. All tho honestly, it keeps life interesting that's for sure lol. Ima look into dietary and habitual changes to help ensure my emotional regulation is better than it currently is. Cheers guys stay awesome!
"Ya bro if u just put more effort into using substances less and coping in more healthy ways life will get better" Amazing ill do that right now my high executive function will totally allow it
You can train & improve executive function. It's like weightlifting. If you can't lift the same weight someone else is lifting, you reduce the weight until you find one you can consistently lift. The more you train your executive function through things like meditation the better it gets.
I think it depends on the situation. Let's view it from an evolutionary standpoint and go back a couple of a thousand years. Imagine: We live in dark caves, where light would make you a target for other predators. Here, being blind would not be a disadvantage since the ability to see is not necessarily the trait that will make you survive. I know this is an abstract situation but hear me out. Even now, it depends on the situation whether ADHD is a disadvantage or an advantage. I have ADD and learned to live with and use it. Yes, it sucks sometimes, but I was lucky and found a job where ADD traits, like short attention span, hyper-focusing, and jumping from one topic to the other a hundred times a day, are actually beneficial. I recall Dr. K talking about the following somewhere; we live in a society that selects for traits exactly opposite of ADHD. Sitting in school for 8 hours, learning stuff you don't like for hours on end, being patient, diligent, and focused on one task for an extended period etc. We can now apply my argument to that - Turn society around and select for individuals with ADD and not having it becomes a disadvantage. It depends on the perspective we look at it, what do you think about that?
@@blanktitle198 It depends on what you enjoy, I don't think any suggestion would be a good fit for everyone with ADD. I think jobs with frequent changes of topics, environments and other factors that keep you stimulated could be great for someone with ADD. Such jobs could include: Strategy consulting at the big houses (MBB), an investment role in venture capital, a generalist management role like a chief of staff or founder's associate in startups. Those are definitely not the easiest to get and the list of such jobs goes on, but they are examples. Hope it helps
Working out always helps with the anxiety. Perfect amount of fatigue to slow the mind down. But also provides dopamine from the exercise itself, and from accomplishing something involving discipline. Likely it's a goal you set. And making progress on that goal. Gives us some dopamine. So calm the mind. And raise dopamine. Much more clarity.
Can people stop talking about hyperfocus as some kind of superpower of ADHD? It's a myth. Anyone can hyperfocus on anything that is interesting to them, nobody needs ADHD for that. The difference between ADHD hyperforcus and non-ADHD hyperfocus is the ability to NOT do it. A person without ADHD has much easier time stopping and deciding they shouldn't hyperfocus on *PH something*, while a person with ADHD has much harder time with it. A person without ADHD (and other problems) has easier time saying "no" to for example playing games for a whole day. People with ADHD have much harder time closing a game and when stars align and they decide they should work on something, they cannot stop thinking about the game, their brains are blasting their minds with thoughts about the game and hence cannot work as efficiently. A concept of "lemme get done with this, so I can later focus on fun" is too hard for them, because their brains will just not stop generating thoughts about their fun. Finding for example school fun is just being lucky. If you find yourself getting dopamine from learning new things, that's a pure luck. Not everyone is gonna have school and work labeled as fun in their personality. Everyone please, stop this hyperfocus misinformation BS and remember that people with ADHD don't have some magical ability to wire their brains to brute-force liking something convenient. Most of the time what they hyperfocus on will be super inconvenient, hence why ADHD is classified as a disorder.
ADHD medication helped with the state change thing immensely, infact it worked too well. I had problems with skipping sleep, missusing my medications and getting into pleasure traps that the combination of all these and other externalities made it not worth continuing to use. Managing my ADHD without has proven to be extremely difficult and I feel like ive lost the ability to force that state change. I now have learned to live with the fact that this component of my life will be fleeting and beyond any control. I will say that all other metrics of a successful and healthy life have increased markedly since elliminating the substance addiction and the behavior surrounding it.
Nice to see him mentioning the difference of macronutrients. I asked myself the same 17 years ago when i started to learn about nutrition and saw something called bioavailability. For example an egg and a potato can be broken down and used more easily and than both of them alone. Or plant based protein has a lower bioavailability than animal based ones
Currently experiencing this EXACT high that has been described, and dreading the falloff that will happen soon afterwards. The timing on this video is uncanny
The part about fatigue possibly being helpful makes so much sense to me! Within a limited scope, I have noticed I can focus and function better with a certain level of fatigue and I had suspected that it had to do with calming my mind down just enough to function a bit more optimally. So cool to hear my suspicions vocalized by someone else
As someone with ADAH if you understand how to trigger your ability to hyper focus on command which I can do by putting my hand and restarting it on the back of my head it very much is a super power along with all the manic energy you get so long as you can control it
I stopped thinking what if, I just focus on now and formulating without stress how to get it done. I noticed working from home I am 10x more efficient.
I feel like the title on this could be more broadly focused. Don't get me wrong I'm ADHD and I appreciate it, but I think this information would have an appeal to many others as well and I'm not sure how keen they would be to watch this content when I send it to them if they don't have adhd
I find thinking about hey I have ADHD makes it worse for me. It makes you feel at a disadvantage and like your not whole. So I don’t think about ADHD till some one mentions it or I hear the word. I’ve just accepted that everyone is different. I’m better at some things and others are better at some other things. You just have to identify things in your life that you want to work on like every one else. Pick one and go! I was terrible with memory or what I found out it was more the fear of forgetting lol so I wouldn’t stop thinking about a plan I had till the time came. So now I use alarms and my calendar on my phone. If some one is like hey can you have this done for later I’m ok no problem. I just think what the best time for me to do it would be then set an alarm or two in my phone. That way I can let go of the commitment and if I forget then oh well lol my phone will remind me. It’s made a huge difference with obsessing over daily tasks or plans I don’t want to forget and I feel more at peace. If you have ADHD your not a freak lol your just one variation of however many people and you will be ok as long as you don’t get paralyzed by the overwhelming feeling that your not able to be helped. Find things you want to improve and just pick one and experiment. When trying to alter or beak habits don’t be discouraged by the discomfort or pain. Those feelings build your character and will move into other challenges you face. Discipline is your friend :)
I get this were it doesnt feel as random it feels completely tied to my happiness and enjoyment when im doing something that I enjoy and or when I do well at something I can just keep going forever but as soon I screw up or get stuck for to long or I feel like im doing poorly like during a race my motivation drops to nothing and I cant focas on anything because of everything going on in my head or other things going on and my brain want to move to something that id find more fun witch is generally watching a a video or stream or playing a game witch is something I need to fix because my second semester of collage was a complete failer because for the first time things were hard and didnt click so I stressed and struggled and I cant keep going like that
This isn't a bad start of a guide to assist with ADHD, but I think there are some things missing here Dr. K. While this is all great advice from a neurotypical point of view, I have yet to see you address how to manage the brain's dysregulation of emotional states and motivation. And, let's acknowledge that those with ADHD will never 100% be able to control "hyperactive" states. Furthermore I look forward to your future environmental video focusing on the three different types of of ADHD. As someone who was diagnosed only with an attention deficit component (ADD), I can say from experience that the environmental factors for me do differ somewhat from those that have a pure hyperactive component or a blend. Some are the same but some are not. Finally, I think we need to acknowledge that those with ADHD will never be able to fully control our minds. We can do many things to help manage our minds and improved. But this will never 100% be the case. I could be wrong as science develops but by using your strategies alone it is currently not achievable. But it's a good start and these strategies will definitely be helpful for improving
It feels like every upside you gain from having adhd comes with the upside being also a downside. Such as beim empathetic. It's good to feel with others, but that shit destroys you.
I've always viewed my ADHD as being in a long corridor of windows/doors (a la Scooby Doo). Some doors are closed to me, compared to a normal person, but other doors which aren't available to normies are.
My adhd is basically if I don't wanna do something there's no way to physically force me to do it so self discipline is non existent. When I wanna do something I can focus on it for hours on end and be super productive, its not the state of mind or productivity that's the issue its the focus that is nearly impossible for me to control cause my brain will just do what it wants to do and nothing else, and it doesn't help that what I want to do is constantly changing
My heads hurts by the way if I think too much, sometimes coffee makes it worst. My capacity to focus is stretched so much that you get tired. I made habits to deal with it, apparently found out that i'm basically holding a super power.
Going vegan and taking algae gummy omega 3 supplements and another gummy for vitamin D and b12 has helped my motivation so much!! I was gonna be very surprised if he didn't say nutrition amongst the things that change your state. Also not being part of the horrors of animal agriculture after searching why vegans don't eat this or that with a genuinely open mind, it helps me feel like I'm part of making a stand for a better world every day and that's good for the psyche
@@fireblaze6837 Aah thank you friend! Not being deficient in omega 3s helps so much, and pretty much everyone is deficient in it to some extent, well done for sorting that yourself too!
@@FurryTailor Thanks. And yeah, unless someone already eats a high amount of seafood (and then they'd have to worry about mercury), chances are they can benefit from a good dha-epa supplement.
An article from the NIH actually revised the numbers you provided on bacterial units significantly, it’s closer to a 1:1 ratio, being slightly more bacteria. The study is titled “Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body” if you want to check it out. Also bacterial mass is only 0.3% of our makeup by weight due to the small size of the cells
Guys as a member of the adhd community I have figured this out. It takes a lot of hard work but it starts with a book. And then another. Eventually you’ll wanna know more.
I relate to this so badly but one thing to keep in mind if those moments of potential bring you down is that if you were at your best constantly, it would no longer be your best. No engine can run at 100% capacity at all times
I love having adhd. Hardest part was finding where I fit in. Once you know what you're good at, it's like a party trick. I'm probably more high-functioning now that I'm older.
So I'm ADHD and was an adrenaline junkie long before gaming heavily, it makes a lot more sense why my motivation for games fell off if my adrenaline receptors were already more messed up than the average gamer.
People with ADHD chasing a functional life is like an artist constantly chasing his muse.
Once in a while we find it and we produce a masterpiece. The rest of the time we are depressed and we might cut our ear off.
kek, too true. Not bodily harm, at least for me.
Bruh. lol
Inside you are two wolves. One wants to prosper, the other wants to expire.
Facts! Well stated. I love this analogy. :)
or nose, i hate being congested. i unwillingly hyperfocus on it and want to sever my nose from my body
The problem I found myself with ADHD is that your emotions can be too strong sometimes. So if something bad happens in your life that shit can overwhelm you.
when I have a feeling I saw someone kick my dog, I imagine about 7 different ways of punishing that person physically to the point of ER.
I have RSD has one of my symptoms and I said no to my mom for keeping her dog during her vacation and she just answered Ok and I feel like the worst daughter EVER!!!
A major misconception of ADHD is that ADHD has attention deficit and hyperactive elements. For the public and doctors this seems to simplify things. But in fact is that ADHD is a dysregulation issue: that's why people call it attention "deficit" and "hyperfocus" - we can't control these though because to a certain degree we lack the capacity to internally "regulate" ourselves.
Interestingly, the earliest scientists spotted emotional dysregulation in emotion - that is to so heightened emotional states were common. However, there is no way to accurately measure emotion so it was removed as a criteria to measure ADHD. This is truly unfortunate.
As a result of this missing criteria those that are willing to acknowledge emotional fluctuations are only the ones who experience ADHD daily.
@@victoriaveitch6650 Hence I feel drawn to music since it invokes such strong feelings in me.
Or even when sometimes small goes wrong, for the gazillienth time….
hyperfocus is cool until you never touch the thing you are working on ever again
you could've just punched me in the face but you chose violence
hahahahaha like my Bachelor thesis
"I spent three hours thinking about that math problem, but i figured out approximate path to the solution in my head which i am confident is going to work, so i'm not gonna actually calcualte the numbers because i am not interested anymore"
It's cool, but my problem is I always hyperfocus on the wrong things
So many of those projects and hobbies lying around…I’m very talented, I just don’t do any of my talents anymore.
Personally a lot of how my ADHD affects me is in a negative almost debilitating way. Hyper focus can cause procrastination if you are focused on the random thing. Academic systems are my personal hell. Yes, it does make me more creative, better at problem solving, etc....
But sometimes I would rather just remember to eat, or be able to study. I know the "ADHD superpower" is a optimistic way of looking at this condition, but it also invalidates all the daily hardships it brings in life.
"It invalidates me😢" oh please you're pulling that out of yours ass
Even when it fucks up your life, it matches up to the superpower analogy. The better-written superpowers always have drawbacks to their superpowers, some moreso than others. Superman has kryptonite, Hulk can lose control of himself, Deadpool can heal but is severely disfigured, etc. Superhero stories OFTEN go into how difficult a life with superpowers might actually be. Sometimes superpowers that are actually quite detrimental, until the hero learns how to use them to their advantage, but even then, there are consequences to having and using them!
When I have those days where I "click" is not so much that I'm in hyperfocus, but is that I'm at the perfect point where I can do stuff well, in the times I think it should be done, without losing myself in it or anything else. That for me is "true potential".
If you see it this way (which, considering the post Dr k read, is also the way op and dr k thought about) then I think you can relate too
I really fucking hate the "ADHD superpower" narrative because it feels so fucking patronizing. It is like when they portray people on the spectrum in movies as being super geniuses. It is not cute. It is not "empowering". It's gross and patronizing.
ADHD is soo debilitating I rather died
From my experience it’s a combination of things. Society wants us to be “normal” and that gives most of us low self esteem. No matter how hard you try a fish can’t climb as well as a monkey. Another problem is that we aren’t taught how to be us, we’re just shamed for it. For example I think adhd are natural polymaths, yet society tells us to stay in one job, do one thing, be able to sit in a cubicle for hours a day typing on a blank monitor. So boring. I myself am more comfortable jumping from one activity to another, I’ll study html5 for an hour or so, work on 3d software the next hour, draw the next, html5 etc,. Really it’s my self esteem, not adhd that’s kept me down and I’m working through that now. It is a superpower, but more so a double edged sword. You need to learn to work WITH it instead of against it. Build confidence and learn not to use social norms as a comparison. That’s my experience.
its not a superpower - people need to stop pushing this bullshit rhetoric, if it makes you feel better then cool, but that's all it is a feel good comment, other people that are younger may not get that and then get told and dismissed because people perpetuate this nonsense, you've an advantage over us normal folk etc potentially among other nonsense/stigma that encircles people with adhd, you've no obligation to add to it.
Society has nothing to do with your self esteem issues - also 'I think adhd are natural polymaths' - you're jaded and narrowminded AF
Learn not to use social norms as a comparison... huh. Never thought of that
This is because the average man has become too passive these days. Society's never gonna exactly match up with you, it's up to you to do what you want without becoming depressed.
Totally. Im an engineer and during my career I started dance and theater. I was jumping from one class to another. I had time for everything and i enjoyed. Is so much easier if i do like that. When im trying to do just one thing... no. I can't do it
100% bro. Suffering comes from trying to be normal.
I feel like when people with adhd come together you'll just be serounded by happy excited people. But when you start talking about adhd everyone becomes excited and happy about sharing how their lives are fucking miserable... Its a very odd expirence
Actually yes
I feel called out.
Since getting medication Im always happy and excited to tell people how much its helped. So thats nice. I almost cried when i noticed the difference and found out i had been living most of my young adult and adult life in a fog
True, I've seen this experience a few times
Yeah this is my experience. Shit.
the hyper focus does feel like a gift sometimes. may not be able to control quite where it’s aimed but it follows the muse.
I haven’t watched the video yet so not sure if Dr K mentions it or what his take his - but Dr Russell Barkley says that Hyper focus is a myth. It’s not hyper focussing on a particular thing for the sake of that thing, it’s hyper focussing on a thing that you want to do and ignoring the things you have to do.
I guess if you have everything else fairly well in control you can hyper focus on something without the negative side effects but there’s not much control over when the hyper focus kicks in
well said
@@TheConvectuoso well hello there other Joel.
I think it depends on what you are "hyper focusing" on. Is this level of focus allowing you to spend 8 hours studying for a class you really enjoy, or is it being almost unable to pull yourself away from a video game. The studying would be seen as a super power as the attention is directed at something that betters yourself, where the video game would be seen as wasting time and a problem. They are both the same thing, but viewed differently. Sadly we have little control over what it is we are going to hyper focus on. I believe he refers to it as preservation rather than it being a hyper focus. You are unable to easily redirect that focus back to things that are also important, like getting up to go to the washroom before you have to run there.
I was only ever hyper focused on useless shit and detested everything that was remotely productive
@@omarcomming722 same, Only time I clean is usually an avoidant behavior
I have had my own father and brother admit that they think my ADHD is fake to me. Didn't matter if they had a psychiatrist diagnose me in the first place, on recommendation from my own teachers. They would rather suggest I was lazy. My straight A's did nothing to convince them that something else is going on in my mind. Something even a ton of hard work can't fully compensate for.
As horrible as ADHD is, the worst part is the way others treat you. Watching relationships slowly fall apart in passive aggressive disrespect makes you eternally suspicious of your closest friends.
People just get annoyed over time, and they forget why you are the way you are. Or maybe they just suspended their disbelief until it "gets too hard" and they start making disrespectful comments. ADHD is so easy for neurotypical folk to mock.
Sometimes it's not even the ADHD. Sometimes it's just the label that makes people reinterpret everything you do. They get to lose their keys and still be treated like human beings. When ADHD folk do it, it makes you a target. Or worse, they "worry" about you. Suddenly you're not allowed to drive your own car because it "scares them" even though they're worse drivers than you.
I'm reminded of Suicidal Tendencies "Institutionalized" as a critique of how America handles mental issues in general.
As someone whos going thru the same thing where my family doesn't believe me *but then uses my ADHD to belittle me* honestly how they treat u is like salt in the wound
@@beats5701 That's so gross, and so much like how my family treated me. I think they know you have ADHD, but they just don't like "dealing with it" when they aren't even the ones suffering from it.
People like that don't give enough of a shit to find videos and comments sections like this. We are talking about our experiences, and thanks the internet, the info is out there and is easy to find.
But they won't do the work. They just don't care.
Damn. This post just made me realize that I still have some emotional processing I need to do to minimize my ADHD Sx
This is beautifully summed up and thank you for sharing your story. I hope your family accept and supports you in the future. But know that I am behind you 100%
There’s no accounting for the willful ignorance of others. I’m so sorry that you experienced such cruel treatment.
00:11 - Reddit post
01:10 - Overview
03:26 - What do you think contributes to successful performance?
09:02 - State vs Trait
10:45 - How do we cultivate states?
24:33 - Recognize that it's about states
29:09 - Slowing your mind down
33:02 - What if your mind is hypo-active?
36:03 - Gut bacteria's impact on mental health
41:13 - Pro biotics and mental health
Thank you for this
Bump fr
This is what makes youtube a great platform, this guys time as a doctor is probably worth, hundreds. With an internet connection, and youtube I can listen to him for almost free.
I needed this so much.
Twice exceptional ADHD/gifted human here- that's right folks, MENSA level IQ with the executive functioning of a potato. 🥔
These states are the key- I'll get so frustrated with myself because I'm SMART, yet I can't get my crap together. I'm painfully self-aware yet willfully ignorant. "WHY CAN'T I DO THE THINGS?!?", I scream into the void while dusting the Cheeto dust from my fingers while chugging energy drinks running on 3 hours of sleep. 🥴
Vibes.
Step 1: Succeeding doing some objectively very hard stuff that I somehow figured out on the fly with my magical smart brain that I barely feel in control of.
Step 2: Finally break out of that tunnel vision, remember I'm a body and not just a brain, and then immediately realize this success cost me: failing to eat a real meal, forgetting to pee, missing showering for days at a time, not realizing it's been a month since I missed my mom's text.
Step 3: Troubleshoot by intellectualizing it all and fully understand the mechanisms. Still stuck with my turbocharged brain screaming at a body that only seems to hear hear or want to listen ~25% of the time (at best).
Step 4: Try to get some sleep, lay in bed processing all the above things because transitioning out of brain-mode is so hard, stay up til the sun comes up, rinse and repeat until massive burnout.
Sup, same here :) been looking into taking shrooms as aid/medication for adhd as nothing else seems to stick long term.
Same but my IQ is 75 because I just skiped the math and flunk the reading/writing but man I murdered the other half of the test like they were worried they run out of puzzles.
Oddly enough, this seems to be a common thing with ADHD, as part of the tests for ADHD are basically IQ tests, and it seems really common to score at what the doctor told me was within applying for mensa levels... but in certain things, visual problem solving and such.
Then there's the catch with ADHD, memory, focus, impulse control...suddenly you're scoring below the average in some parts, my doctor found it amusing seeing the huge dip in the graph for the test, she'd never seen one like that, going from above average in one section, then the next section below average, she'd never seen such a big difference in the graph before, like a sudden mountain, with a deep valley on the other side of it, I guess I'm just so Norwegian even my IQ test has mountains and fjords in it :P
Edit:
What I started out trying to say... is that this seems to be a common problem with people that got ADHD.
Story of my life 😮
Doesn't sugarcoat things but isn't needlessly blunt either. Since I learned about my ADHD, the vids from this channel have helped me to process all the baggage that I've picked up during the years I didn't know why I was the way I am. An absolute beaut and a great person.
I’ve been wondering if I have ADHD for a while. People say I don’t because I was fine in school, but it’s things like this that keep me wondering. I’ve never been able to stick to anything long enough to accomplish anything in life but I feel like I _should_ be motivated. And it’s these moments every few weeks where I feel like…this is how I should be. For how much I care about my success and how many times I’ve tried, I should be like this. Maybe it shouldn’t be impossible to focus on everything I care about. Maybe “the kid next door” just feels like this all the time.
Maybe if I were like this for even half of the time, I would actually be able to be proud of myself for once in my life.
i literally had the highest SAT score in my school as well as highest grade one teacher had ever given a student, and the highest grade anyone in any section of the class was given in 5 classes my senior year of high school, and had undiagnosed ADHD the whole time. just happened to also be gifted and good at tests. awful combo, that "twice exceptional" mess: all the expectation with none of the executive function! not boasts, just examples to let literally anyone reading this know that school performance isn't a be all end all re: adhd dx.
@@SieNoel i'm the same, 97 percentile of performance and my ADHD caused me so much trouble. Every struggle is unseen becausd you have good results.
When I got tested it was even against what my psychiatrist told me, in the assessment it was clear that I tend to fall asleep when I'm bored and have trouble with some memory aspects.
The diagnosis was the best part of my life, my recommendation is to get tested and if it's not ADHD it's fine too.
Go get an evaluation. At the very least it's worth the peace of mind knowing whether or not you have a disorder instead of wondering if you do.
Go get tested and don't take no for an answer. And I know it's not ready my place, but I highly recommend beginning the process of removing "should" from your life vocabulary. Continue to move forward and try your best.
Improvements will come and imposter syndrome will probably be a major issue for you. But as long as you make progress your life will slowly improve.
Not that I can really talk as someone with ADHD and I haven't managed to remove the negative tapes from my head
Another twice exceptional checking in. I was always in the very top percentiles when I was in school, and weirdely enough so were my friends, who I now suspect also were twice exceptional, was always in higher level classes, and had one teacher say that in all her years of teaching she had never seen someone score so high on a test. I’ve found that although I may not be a fan of structure, I do my best in a structured environment. Also, any other ADHDers that want to improve executive function, I highly reccomend Focused Attention Meditation, has vastly improved my ability to block out distractions and more importantly to shift my focus from one thing to another.
Me and my friends have accepted that my ADHD have made me the funniest being in this planet, but mean that I can't learn physics if It was life or death.
So for me, socially, it is a super power, and sometimes in education as well, but with a boring class and a boring teacher it is a death sentence.
Edit: Lotta people are saying that this mentality will be quite bad academically, but it's only really for physics where ADHD does not help, it's quite good in my main focuses of Biology and English. Helps me memories terms in silly ways and also think a few sentences ahead while writing an essay or story.
Honestly I thought this true too, but then I realized it's incorrect. You will never learn physics the standard way they teach it.
But you can learn it maybe even better then your friends, but it takes action and extra steps.
I am teaching myself calculus now, 1 month in its going well. I am doing the way Newton invented it.
I found how Newton was chucking rocks off the tower of piza, and trying to describe and measure the change. I always sucked at math, but then I got drunk one day went on my deck and started throwing junk off my roof. The next day I did the same thing and tried to follow newton's process.
Look into the experiments that led to the breakthroughs we are taught in school try to recreate them. And have a note book handy. If nothing else it's fun to throw watermelons off of your roof.
you have to find a learning method that works for you. I have adhd an I just got an engineering degree lol. It's possible but you have to do a lot of research about what works for you bc the school system wasn't designed for adhd people. You have to take what you can from school and use that as a supplement. If watching videos about the topic or getting a personal tutor are more effective then do those things. Maybe start taking notes in class if you don't already. Maybe try reading the textbook. Maybe study with a friend and make it a competition of who can stay on task so then you'll feel guilty for doing other things and have an incentive to study. There are a lot of things to try and you have time to try them :) and they help with other stuff that isn't school too lol
@@awesome7732 Finally someone that gets it, other comments regarding this are plain myopic. Likewise, I got my Bsc, MSc and now slowly chipping away on my PhD while working in engineering with mental illness detection using machine learning. I see comments where people externalize the problem and delegate blame, you can point to things all you want and just like you said some things arent designed with adhd/autistic people in mind but its also disingenuous that so many use that as an excuse.
My humour may actually be getting me promoted at work. It's definitely not my productivity...
Me my entire life fucking hell
It's a superpower that gets taken advantage of by mid level managers and executives that need all-star employees that work feverishly without complaining.
Sometimes, but the flakiness of ADHD doesn't fit well in my definition of all-star employee.
ouch... sounds like me at 22 with grey eye bags hahaha i feel like i can never say no
I got back into exercising recently and it has made all the difference. Can't recommend it enough to y'all who struggle with ADHD and/or depression. Do something fun like aerobic dancing or shoot some hoops.
I agree. I started Skateboarding again at age 30 and it's helped my mental health so much
Or get a punching bag! Oh man I love it. If anything just to reduce the overstimming amd "zoomies"
YES!
Only on good days imo. The rest of the days are just me having absolutely no energy left to do anything.
Although honestly the good days are absolutely amazing and dopamine rewarding, like declutter your entire room without anyone's help. The only downsize is that those days are rare in my case.
Yeah but what you do on your good days is what normal people do every day. We aren't trading off a consistent lack of focus for anything extraordinary, it just feels that way because most of the time, we're barely functional.
@@omarcomming722 It's kinda weird though, don't we usually get comments from people about how we do x, y and z cause they could never do it? Like I have no idea about the general neurotypical's success rate compared to neurodivergent people (although we do have evidence like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc) but I know from my experience and other neurodivergents' that people around us seem to be easily impressed by our good days. It could be warped by our perspective since I have absolutely no idea how it is to be an NT and vice versa but it could be interesting to see some science stuff on hyperfocus
Short answer. No.
Yeah I was about to say. Its a curse lmao
Long answer NOOOOOOOOOOOO
@@AaronGLP clever but have you heard of the no answer ?
Its …
I love this comment chain
It's the diabetes of mental disorders, it never goes away and it's not a tradeoff for some ability in another area, but there is medication for it that is underprescribed.
Tbh I would happily give up everything that makes me unique or different if I could be a normal, neurotypical human. It’s just really tiring and I’m constantly disappointed in myself.
The thing with this glimpse of your potential is that an ADHD brain is just not a brain that has a static level of potential. We vary day to day, hour to hour, and that’s just the natural flow of our brains. The hardest part is figuring out how to lean in and take advantage on those superpower brain days while also not shaming yourself for being less productive on bad brain days. You can only do what you can do *in that moment*. Your best is not your absolute best for all time in a vacuum. Your best is the best you can do today. Just today. It doesn’t matter if your best tomorrow is better than your best today. You can only do today’s best today, and tomorrow’s best tomorrow.
It’s taken me 30 years to learn this.
This person described that so well I have always got this feeling and never really knew how to explain it other than feeling like I woke up from a dream and was actually myself for a while.
I've not seen the video yet, but my gut reaction to the title is: Yeah, ADHD gives you superpowers and a kryptonite necklace that can be randomly unlatched but will always be on your neck next morning
Man, literally the intro. It's a bit of a conundrum. You're in a bad place so it's hard to eat healthy and get sleep and not smoke pot, but if you manage to somehow do those things, it's like a whole new world opens up because you actually experience what your life could be.
This
the other issue there is seeing that sober state positively - its hard to imagine sobriety *could* be desirable when you arent sober
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Once I get into a rhythm and routine doing the things I need to (working out, eating healthy, vitamins, etc) it’s like nothing can stop me. The problem is that it’s easy to get out of the routine and extremely difficult to get back into it.
Wow the first 10 mins of this video made me cry! I’ve been diagnosed and on Adder-all for ADD since I was 8 years old. This phenomenon is so real, I didn’t realize so many people could relate to this. In a way this is so so comforting ❤
You’re too pretty to have adhd.
No. Definitely not. I feel cracked out of my mind from time to time. But 99% of the time I feel like I'm a smoothebrain.
If its a dissorder its a dissorder basically
Maybe like a silver lining?
I haven’t watched the video yet but the title reminds me of something me and my therapist came up with: autistic people (like myself) are like unicorns living in a world of horses. Yes we are…different…since we have a giant horn growing out of our heads, but we are also able to do amazing and extraordinary things that other horses can’t do. 🐴 🦄 ❤️
Like killing the other horses with the horn?
"state" it's like when you are always the funny guy in a group till there is another fun person then you just don't feel like making jokes anymore, doesn't mean you can't or you're not fun you're just in a state of No for absolutely no reason
As someone who spent age 18 to 23 being an unaccomplished loser who failed out of college and is now back in college near the top of my science classes, my number one tip is. Engineer your life around your hyperfixations and mentally configure everything you learn in class around your hyperfixations. Example, my main hyperfixations rn is drugs and I wanna go for biochemistry/pharmacology. So in chem and bio, even tho I'm not learning the cool stuff yet, I apply all the basics I'm learning to some of the cool stuff and it motivates me to understand so I can know more about the cool stuff on a more rigorous level. Ex learning about basics like amino acids, redoz rxns, genetics, mitosis meiosis, etc and every time I master a concept I reward myself by doing extra research applying it to my interests and being able to understand on a deeper level then before.
Also, learning to enjoy solving problems. I used to want to enjoy it but couldn't make myself (math chemistry etc) but now intead of trying to brute force my way into problems sets because I have to, I tell myself it's because I want to and it's necessary to rpg grind my problem solving stats so I can get thru orgo chem, math, biochem etc and one day be a distinguished drug guy (a pharmacologist)
I just re read this and realized I did all of this in high school but it didn't work until I also was able to make myself take notes and write down problems neatly instead of just cramming on yt videos. You do to some extent need to learn proper study habits. Adderall helps too
Nicely done. Never stop putting the puzzle pieces together as life gives them to you. And yeah Adderall helps a lot lmao,
While I understand where you were going with this all, when I read yours "engineer your life around your hyperfixations... my hyperfixation is drugs", I immediately thought it can be horribly misinterpreted by some dumass.
For me it is. The creativity side, the ability to connect disparate ideas is through the roof. I can’t do what is expected but the thing that keeps me from getting fired is that I can easily get into a flow state into things nobody is thinking about and that allows me to make new discoveries and create value.
If I could choose what I focus on maybe, but since that's the underlying issue no. I'm a jack of all trades and master of none because I can learn something faster and more efficient than anyone I know if it grabs my attention and then boom, I can no longer focus anymore on that thing my brain has found another thing. The all or nothing approach also seems to be the hardest thing for me to fight against.
yeah, which makes it a pain in the ass in university, once I’m not interested anymore is like I forget how to even do it
Totally get what you mean. I went from being a rockstar as an intern because I was a jack of all trades and constantly found different niches/areas to focus on and add value in, and then got hired after graduating to specialize in a very complex subsection of my field and as a result am now unmotivated and far less productive because I can't bounce around between the things that interest me and everything is far more structured and limited in scope. Being a jack of all trades is great for many things in life and is like a superpower when you have the freedom to work on what you want, but ultimately specialization is rewarded more and that is often more difficult with ADHD.
Yes this statement exactly, driven by the joy of discovery, not monotony.
This is a recent realization of mine. I know that I have a condition and I completely acknowledge it now. Sometimes it makes me do amazing things but normally it's difficult. I am trying to be careful about my thinking. I am lowering my expectation of myself but at the same time learn to savor the moment when I did an amazing job. I am trying my best not to get too caught up on it, because I notice that I become arrogant when I get convinced that I have so much potential, and I can do more if I am like this everyday which is impossible. High expectations only frustrate me and destroys my confidence when everything becomes difficult again.
🔝 ADHD counteragent specialized on meds made from plants🍄. Check-in.
I just got diagnosed at 28 and I’m so overwhelmed. My emotions are all over the place and I’m trying to find my way back to self love so I can take the next steps.
Find one thing, just one tiny little aspect and master it. Perception. Nobody knows what's happening inside your head except you, so how can they judge. You know if you did a good job. The little s*** matters. Your intent matters. I started there. I hope this helps
Been there done that. Getting diagnosed at 45. 😢
Very confusing time wrapping my head around what that means going forward.
❤
I have ADHD. Though I don’t subscribe to the disorder model. I see it as a gift. I’ve learned to ride my states and set myself up to enter flow state easier.
My tendency is to bounce from one obsession to the next of course, but I make sure to cycle the same 4 or 5 things I’m bouncing. I know I WILL bounce, so I make sure to bounce back to 1 again and repeat.
Our attention and obsessive abilities CAN be harnessed. Traditional gatekeeping like notes, alarms, physically linking items, setting out project objects so you can get started the next day can all help manage the day to day life, but flow states are a gift. Appreciate them while they are here, accept this moment, ride the hell out of it and enjoy yourself. You will be back.
If it's a new novelty and it's fun I'll smash it out at 2000% for a few days, maybe even a week, rarely longer
I will live and breathe this project for the duration, rarely thinking of anything else
But then randomly i lose all interest and it becomes so boring I just can't do it anymore
Must have over 1000 unfinished songs on fruity loops
2000 half finished drawings (maybe I could combine them all together to hide the unfinished parts)
It sucks, just gotta keep moving on and finding new things that fit around this wonderful brain
This is such an amazing synopsis of EXACTLY the experience of having ADHD or being close to someone who does. Thank you for sharing. Sending big Love.
I think it’s not only “not clicking” for me, but I was, like, never taught, how to sleep, cook&eat and do sports properly. Parents always said that it’s important but I never taught my organism to kinda live life properly. Pisses me off I need to lose couple of years of my life just to teach myself to live normally
Very very very random thought, but it just struck me that talking about "state" is a very good way of teaching non Spanish speakers about the differences between "ser" and "estar" (translated as just one verb, to English and other languages: "to be"), because then you can use the similarity and common origin of "estar" and "state": they both mean a temporary condition (state translates as the noun "estado", which is the noun directly linked to the verb "estar").
So I am Juan and I am tired, are both instances of "to be", but in Spanish they translate as "Yo soy Juan (verbo ser)" and "Yo estoy cansado (verbo estar)". I may be tired now, but maybe not tomorrow, but I will always be Juan (or is culturally expected anyways...).
I'm 8 minutes in and this content itself is great but I have *no idea* yet why it has rolled with such a potentially inflammatory title/thumb that so far feels totally unrelated.
I finished the video and still have no idea. Good video otherwise though!
It's somewhat of a pattern here. I'm not a fan of some of the titles. Sometimes they feel a little too extreme. I think it's so more people will have a strong reaction and click. Either way, I'm a huge fan of the content so I stick around.
My thoughts, exactly. Unfortunately this is the way Dr. K has potentially reasoned out to help more people by feeding into the *shock* title bandwagon. I’m not sure if that’s right but I know I’m not a fan of it either
Chalk that up to UA-cam rewarding videos with clikbaity titles more. If this video had a to-the-point normal title very few people would bother to check it out.
People with adhd have a rapidly changing mental environment. It can be 11th form total calm or a hurricane. By improving your diet and sleep and other habits you will assist you brain in being in a calmer and more stable mental environment. The. when combined with good habits, the habits point that focus in productive areas, an individual with adhd can weaponize their brains uniqueness to make positive impacts on their work and life. So superpower, well no, you’re still human, but hopefully operating with improved efficiency compared to where you were and thus become a super powered version of the old you. Good diet and sleep and choosing positive methods for digesting our emotions is a buff for all though so the advice is general.
I'm a musician. While ADHD could be a part of why I chose this career path, I still feel like it gives me a creativity advantage over my peers and I like music so much that when doing this one thing I almost always go straight into hyperfocus.
Hell yes. I am also a musician. Guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. Mostly drums, lol.
How many different things are you doing at exactly the same time to produce even the simplest chord.
Now add the rhythm, tempo, and then if you sing and play at the same time...like oh my God...
Music is life, sound waves vibrating...when we're playing music and it's correct, when you got a group of people in perfect synchronicity and all the frequencies harmonize...
Yeah, yeah... Flow State, Avatar State, out of body experience, hell I've had a couple of concerts it felt better than sex🎉
It's a min-max class, like being a sorcerer where you can't do anything alone until level 8 where you get stoneskin (an accidental little RPG party analogy about how useful group study and accountability partners are)
Adhd is the main class, you have to determine what your subclass is and how to rely on others for your drawbacks. Kinda like Megumin from konosuba 😅.
Stoneskin in ad&d rocks
@@johnchao2422 lol attentional dungeons and dragons?
@@denizmessesaround advanced dungeons and dragons lol. baldur's gate 2?
@@johnchao2422 yeah thats the stoneskin i was referring to haha
I found out that sleeping, eating, and being hydrated enough improves my performance in games (even before finding this video), mainly esport games. I never thought that my moment of brilliance also contributed by this XD
I can focus only when the task becomes an urgency but sadly by that moment, in most cases, there is not enough time left to produce the outcome which reflects the initial aim. Bottom line, I suffer thrice more than normal while trying to figure out how to stay concentrated through all that long period, than I get into another stressful phase where I am really out of time but I can finally do the job. When everything is over, I keep feeling the same energy for one or two days, then the spark is completely gone and I find myself again flying here and there trapped in that silly bubble. I am 48, I am a composer and this is my painful work routine.
I think of this as the "Flowers for Algernon" effect. The successful days are amazing, then boom it's a regular day and I spend an hour trying to decide something or find something etc. and losing my mind with frustration.
I cleaned my whole house in a day two years ago. It's been a mess ever since, but I always think back to that day....
traits are inborn and fixed
your performance is determined by your state (which is temporary and alterable)
if you wanna improve your performance and/pr make it consistent, focus on entering the right state
1. control your thought and self talk (process your past emotions)
2. become aware of how you're feeling in the moment
3. adopt a sattvik diet cause what you feed yourself affects your state of mind
4. sleep well and in the same time. do not consume alcohol, marijuana
5. environment: spend time with people who make you feel productive or a desire to work/study
Parents and people around us also judge us by our good and productive days or moments, signaling back at us "see, if only you kept on doing what you're doing for once, you would be worthy". Often we're told that it's just laziness or selfishness, and others are disappointed. It's been like this so often I've lost track.
Nothing like some good ol fashioned fight or flight mixed with a heavy dash of crippling anxiety every morning🥰 ❤️ *chefs kiss*
about adhd and fish oil, my mum had heard if it and asked my doctor who was like "ah this again" and pulled up a research paper and said that fish oil showed good improvements in those who were lacking in the nutrients that fish oil has. if you are not lacking in those then it does little to nothing. I had salmon often so it saved me fish oil supplements lol
Yeah, generally I think this goes for pretty much all supplements. If you're eating a somewhat healthy diet, you're already getting everything you need. I say "somewhat healthy" because it's not like you have to do anything special other than like not only eating McDonald's burgers and pounding Coca-Cola for every meal. Don't have to be a vegan, don't even have to eat some big nasty salad everyday, just a bit of variety.
Adding onto the conversation, just adding it in to “top off” or optimize your levels can be beneficial as well. It’s recommended for ADHD to have atleast 2-4g of EPA/DHA daily which may be difficult with only eating salmon. Plus, I suspect majority of the world isn’t eating salmon/ fatty fish daily.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu, _The Art of War_
That book is relevant for so much of daily life, its honestly kinda weird.
Suggestion: add a sound or explicit graphic/ into to indicate where the preview ends and the chronological starting point is so it’s clearer, especially for tho who are just listening
I think it would be interesting to hear about the effect music has on your brain. As someone with ADHD, I feel like music gives some distraction from outside stimulus. In a sense, it drowns out all the thoughts and directs my focus on the task I’m trying to complete. It may be similar to neurotypical minds but I have no experience there. This is purely anecdotal but I’m curious.
For me, music is incredible unless I understand the lyrics. And then I’ll be way too distracted by the music to read. Can’t listen to words and read words at the same time!
Have you heard of the white noise theory Brady? For those that have a strong attention deficit component to their ADHD white noise helps concentration immensely and it's actually a noted symptom acknowledged by experts as an identifying factor of ADHD. It can work to any soundtrack, but I personally prefer music myself.
A quiet environment is not only unhelpful but actively distracting.
Exactly, ever since I got my first phone and headphones at like 11 (I'm 20 now), I would have them on almost 24/7. And now I understand why. I can't do anything without them, chores, homework, even sometimes I'd watch a movie (with subtitles cuz english is not my native language) with some music playing, that way I actually focus better on the plot. Also I'm only able to fall asleep with white noise. It's all making sense. Whenever I couldn't have them, I'd feel disorganized and don't know where to begin with the task..
try the adhd relief music on youtube it helped me really much. there are many different ones just in case you cant stick the first one. Its truly a gamechanger for me
White noise, drones, frequencies etc and etc works wonders for me.
I've notice that it becomes easier to control as I age. I used to be in the same boat, but now that I've become more emotionally mature and gained enough knowledge and wisdom I've found it incredibly easy to control this power every single day.
Funny thing is, I've been able to harness my hyperfocus fairly successfully. Here's why: I've found what can motivate me to do things and help get me started. For example, writing papers for class is an absolute chore, because it can be difficult to zone in and know how to start. Despite this, I've been able to find a way to successfully help me zone in. The good thing is once i've started and zoned in, I refuse to stop until done with papers. I've learned that turning on some catchy instrumental music and giving myself a reward to look forward to afterwards helps tremendously. Usually my "reward" after completely an extremely difficult task is food/game oriented, lol.
this the most helpful thing ive seen in the comment section. ty
🎉
Far too many food studies do not take into account the financial position of the individual studied, however I would hope most are aware of that by now. If I need to I'll look but I could on instinct alone feel that none of the older studies took the child's familial history and financial status into consideration before looking at what was the cause of the ADHD.
When I do manage to finally get there it really feels like I've unlocked Ultra Instinct. I no longer have an internal monolgue. The middle step of converting thought to words and then to action is no longer necessary. I'm not even fully conscious of what I am doing, but a week's worth of chores can happen in a couple of hours. My left arm and right arm can get separate tasks done, such as cooking and loading the dishwasher. This is not the "Part of task A, now part of task B, now back to A" type of multitasking in my normal state. Both are genuinely happening. There's no emotional involvement either. I am neither excited that I am getting dishes done nor frustrated that I have to do them. I am simply an observer than happens to exist within a space that dishes are being done in.
What gets you there? Are you aware of that? How long does the state last? What makes it depart?
This is so easy to explain but this just doesn't work this way.
I eat healthy, I work out, I sleep a lot and I drink A LOT of water.
On paper, my state is ALWAYS perfect, but I'm just never at that point of feeling at my "peak". I only feel like that once every blue moon and I always chase that feeling when I'm not there. Nothing helps. it just comes and goes.
Another thing Dr. K has mentioned is 'environment'.
Noticed that I work best when backed into a corner. I can hyperfocus and accomplish some amazing things. I just wish it didn’t have to come to that ever time!
I live for the “bottled lightning moments” where everything crystallises in a fraction of a moment - like a bolt of lightning. It’s the most amazing feeling I ever get. And produces some of the most truly amazing outcomes
I feel like once you start embracing and working with neurodivergence and ADHD instead of constantly fighting it, you can be just as if not even more productive than a neurotypical person.
I’m REALLY glad you make the point you do at 41:00. The supplement industry is a dumpster fire of marketing gimmicks trying to get people to believe that this supplement will lead to X result without Y behavior that I find uncomfortable or undesirable.
ADHD is telling you when you’re focusing on your life path and when you are trying to focus on stuff that does not actually matter to your authentic self. It’s such a strong feedback system that it will not allow you to focus on things that do not matter to the ADHD person in question.
ADHD is great for creativity, but we live in a world where creativity isn't vauled as much as a 9/5 job. ADHD is a curse for the current world we live in.
oh come on, 9-5 is the real hell. making the creativity work is like the main quest of one's ADHD youth
@@denizmessesaround Yeah, I really hope I can do a more creative job such as graphic design, but knowing today's market I kinda doubt I'll be able to get the job I want.
@@floppavevo5920 you seem very pessimistic about life
@@Badrep420 Tbh I'm less pessimistic than most people online
I have a creative 9/5 job and it is draaaaining as hell. It's still not valued so much in my country. I work as graphic designer in a company, so you have to be creative on demand every day.
Emotional regulation is critical to living a productive life while living with ADHD.
My positive days i feel like I really could do anything the world needs of me. Then theres some days where someone or something screws over my team and i wind up going full Doom Slayer on the threat.
I say that jokingly of course but my inabilities to regulate my emotions properly have cost me opportunities. Its forced me into doing the best i can to rework peoples perception of me and my reputation.
All tho honestly, it keeps life interesting that's for sure lol. Ima look into dietary and habitual changes to help ensure my emotional regulation is better than it currently is.
Cheers guys stay awesome!
"Ya bro if u just put more effort into using substances less and coping in more healthy ways life will get better"
Amazing ill do that right now my high executive function will totally allow it
You can train & improve executive function. It's like weightlifting. If you can't lift the same weight someone else is lifting, you reduce the weight until you find one you can consistently lift. The more you train your executive function through things like meditation the better it gets.
Victim mentality
Saying ADHD is a superpower is like saying being blind is a superpower because your hearing might be better.
I think it depends on the situation. Let's view it from an evolutionary standpoint and go back a couple of a thousand years. Imagine: We live in dark caves, where light would make you a target for other predators. Here, being blind would not be a disadvantage since the ability to see is not necessarily the trait that will make you survive.
I know this is an abstract situation but hear me out. Even now, it depends on the situation whether ADHD is a disadvantage or an advantage. I have ADD and learned to live with and use it. Yes, it sucks sometimes, but I was lucky and found a job where ADD traits, like short attention span, hyper-focusing, and jumping from one topic to the other a hundred times a day, are actually beneficial. I recall Dr. K talking about the following somewhere; we live in a society that selects for traits exactly opposite of ADHD. Sitting in school for 8 hours, learning stuff you don't like for hours on end, being patient, diligent, and focused on one task for an extended period etc. We can now apply my argument to that - Turn society around and select for individuals with ADD and not having it becomes a disadvantage. It depends on the perspective we look at it, what do you think about that?
DUDE! I could not have put it better. It's nice to see that someone else gets it.
@@illusive7376 What job would you say is great for ADD? Thanks
@@blanktitle198 It depends on what you enjoy, I don't think any suggestion would be a good fit for everyone with ADD. I think jobs with frequent changes of topics, environments and other factors that keep you stimulated could be great for someone with ADD. Such jobs could include: Strategy consulting at the big houses (MBB), an investment role in venture capital, a generalist management role like a chief of staff or founder's associate in startups. Those are definitely not the easiest to get and the list of such jobs goes on, but they are examples. Hope it helps
That's actually spot on, haha
I never know how long I’m going in my full potential so I always try to make the most of it, because I know that it could be gone The next day
37:57
Dr. K Out of context
1. take the poop from a healthy rat
2. stick it into a depressed rat
3. the depressed rat gets better
Working out always helps with the anxiety. Perfect amount of fatigue to slow the mind down. But also provides dopamine from the exercise itself, and from accomplishing something involving discipline. Likely it's a goal you set. And making progress on that goal. Gives us some dopamine. So calm the mind. And raise dopamine. Much more clarity.
Can people stop talking about hyperfocus as some kind of superpower of ADHD? It's a myth. Anyone can hyperfocus on anything that is interesting to them, nobody needs ADHD for that. The difference between ADHD hyperforcus and non-ADHD hyperfocus is the ability to NOT do it.
A person without ADHD has much easier time stopping and deciding they shouldn't hyperfocus on *PH something*, while a person with ADHD has much harder time with it. A person without ADHD (and other problems) has easier time saying "no" to for example playing games for a whole day. People with ADHD have much harder time closing a game and when stars align and they decide they should work on something, they cannot stop thinking about the game, their brains are blasting their minds with thoughts about the game and hence cannot work as efficiently. A concept of "lemme get done with this, so I can later focus on fun" is too hard for them, because their brains will just not stop generating thoughts about their fun.
Finding for example school fun is just being lucky. If you find yourself getting dopamine from learning new things, that's a pure luck. Not everyone is gonna have school and work labeled as fun in their personality.
Everyone please, stop this hyperfocus misinformation BS and remember that people with ADHD don't have some magical ability to wire their brains to brute-force liking something convenient. Most of the time what they hyperfocus on will be super inconvenient, hence why ADHD is classified as a disorder.
ADHD medication helped with the state change thing immensely, infact it worked too well. I had problems with skipping sleep, missusing my medications and getting into pleasure traps that the combination of all these and other externalities made it not worth continuing to use. Managing my ADHD without has proven to be extremely difficult and I feel like ive lost the ability to force that state change. I now have learned to live with the fact that this component of my life will be fleeting and beyond any control. I will say that all other metrics of a successful and healthy life have increased markedly since elliminating the substance addiction and the behavior surrounding it.
Nice to see him mentioning the difference of macronutrients. I asked myself the same 17 years ago when i started to learn about nutrition and saw something called bioavailability. For example an egg and a potato can be broken down and used more easily and than both of them alone.
Or plant based protein has a lower bioavailability than animal based ones
Nope. I can’t get anything done, yet have huge ambitions. But maybe I just need to stop going after easy dopamine
Currently experiencing this EXACT high that has been described, and dreading the falloff that will happen soon afterwards. The timing on this video is uncanny
The part about fatigue possibly being helpful makes so much sense to me!
Within a limited scope, I have noticed I can focus and function better with a certain level of fatigue and I had suspected that it had to do with calming my mind down just enough to function a bit more optimally.
So cool to hear my suspicions vocalized by someone else
As someone with ADAH if you understand how to trigger your ability to hyper focus on command which I can do by putting my hand and restarting it on the back of my head it very much is a super power along with all the manic energy you get so long as you can control it
Ur becoming my favorite channel, this is information I’ve been looking for
I stopped thinking what if, I just focus on now and formulating without stress how to get it done. I noticed working from home I am 10x more efficient.
I feel like the title on this could be more broadly focused. Don't get me wrong I'm ADHD and I appreciate it, but I think this information would have an appeal to many others as well and I'm not sure how keen they would be to watch this content when I send it to them if they don't have adhd
Dr. K, I absolutely love your content and it would be amazing to see you talk about giftedness too!
I find thinking about hey I have ADHD makes it worse for me. It makes you feel at a disadvantage and like your not whole. So I don’t think about ADHD till some one mentions it or I hear the word. I’ve just accepted that everyone is different. I’m better at some things and others are better at some other things. You just have to identify things in your life that you want to work on like every one else. Pick one and go!
I was terrible with memory or what I found out it was more the fear of forgetting lol so I wouldn’t stop thinking about a plan I had till the time came. So now I use alarms and my calendar on my phone. If some one is like hey can you have this done for later I’m ok no problem. I just think what the best time for me to do it would be then set an alarm or two in my phone. That way I can let go of the commitment and if I forget then oh well lol my phone will remind me. It’s made a huge difference with obsessing over daily tasks or plans I don’t want to forget and I feel more at peace.
If you have ADHD your not a freak lol your just one variation of however many people and you will be ok as long as you don’t get paralyzed by the overwhelming feeling that your not able to be helped.
Find things you want to improve and just pick one and experiment. When trying to alter or beak habits don’t be discouraged by the discomfort or pain. Those feelings build your character and will move into other challenges you face. Discipline is your friend :)
dr k is the only person keeping me sane atm 🤣
🎉
Keep doing the good work bro!
You are beacon of light in the gaming community!
I get this were it doesnt feel as random it feels completely tied to my happiness and enjoyment when im doing something that I enjoy and or when I do well at something I can just keep going forever but as soon I screw up or get stuck for to long or I feel like im doing poorly like during a race my motivation drops to nothing and I cant focas on anything because of everything going on in my head or other things going on and my brain want to move to something that id find more fun witch is generally watching a a video or stream or playing a game witch is something I need to fix because my second semester of collage was a complete failer because for the first time things were hard and didnt click so I stressed and struggled and I cant keep going like that
This isn't a bad start of a guide to assist with ADHD, but I think there are some things missing here Dr. K. While this is all great advice from a neurotypical point of view, I have yet to see you address how to manage the brain's dysregulation of emotional states and motivation. And, let's acknowledge that those with ADHD will never 100% be able to control "hyperactive" states.
Furthermore I look forward to your future environmental video focusing on the three different types of of ADHD. As someone who was diagnosed only with an attention deficit component (ADD), I can say from experience that the environmental factors for me do differ somewhat from those that have a pure hyperactive component or a blend. Some are the same but some are not.
Finally, I think we need to acknowledge that those with ADHD will never be able to fully control our minds. We can do many things to help manage our minds and improved. But this will never 100% be the case. I could be wrong as science develops but by using your strategies alone it is currently not achievable.
But it's a good start and these strategies will definitely be helpful for improving
It feels like every upside you gain from having adhd comes with the upside being also a downside. Such as beim empathetic. It's good to feel with others, but that shit destroys you.
I've always viewed my ADHD as being in a long corridor of windows/doors (a la Scooby Doo). Some doors are closed to me, compared to a normal person, but other doors which aren't available to normies are.
🔝 ADHD counteragent specialized on meds made from plants🍄. Check-in.
Dr K talking about Microbiomes. A whisper inside my head "The Spice, he knows about the spice, the Spice Melange ...."
DAMMIT CARTMAN
My adhd is basically if I don't wanna do something there's no way to physically force me to do it so self discipline is non existent. When I wanna do something I can focus on it for hours on end and be super productive, its not the state of mind or productivity that's the issue its the focus that is nearly impossible for me to control cause my brain will just do what it wants to do and nothing else, and it doesn't help that what I want to do is constantly changing
Hyperfocus is great, I just wish I could direct it to things that actually need to get done >.
My heads hurts by the way if I think too much, sometimes coffee makes it worst. My capacity to focus is stretched so much that you get tired. I made habits to deal with it, apparently found out that i'm basically holding a super power.
Going vegan and taking algae gummy omega 3 supplements and another gummy for vitamin D and b12 has helped my motivation so much!! I was gonna be very surprised if he didn't say nutrition amongst the things that change your state. Also not being part of the horrors of animal agriculture after searching why vegans don't eat this or that with a genuinely open mind, it helps me feel like I'm part of making a stand for a better world every day and that's good for the psyche
Based vegan ADHDer. Good that you’re taking omega 3’s too! I was deficient for a long time and didn’t realize.
@@fireblaze6837 Aah thank you friend! Not being deficient in omega 3s helps so much, and pretty much everyone is deficient in it to some extent, well done for sorting that yourself too!
@@FurryTailor Thanks. And yeah, unless someone already eats a high amount of seafood (and then they'd have to worry about mercury), chances are they can benefit from a good dha-epa supplement.
An article from the NIH actually revised the numbers you provided on bacterial units significantly, it’s closer to a 1:1 ratio, being slightly more bacteria. The study is titled “Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body” if you want to check it out. Also bacterial mass is only 0.3% of our makeup by weight due to the small size of the cells
That's what I used to feel like on a medium sized dose of magic mushrooms, that fascinated me for years
Guys as a member of the adhd community I have figured this out. It takes a lot of hard work but it starts with a book. And then another. Eventually you’ll wanna know more.
the superpower that makes u want to end this game
I relate to this so badly but one thing to keep in mind if those moments of potential bring you down is that if you were at your best constantly, it would no longer be your best. No engine can run at 100% capacity at all times
I love having adhd. Hardest part was finding where I fit in. Once you know what you're good at, it's like a party trick. I'm probably more high-functioning now that I'm older.
So I'm ADHD and was an adrenaline junkie long before gaming heavily, it makes a lot more sense why my motivation for games fell off if my adrenaline receptors were already more messed up than the average gamer.
No, ADHD is hell and a curse, I'm bad at math because of it.
holy crap that initial post is so relatable. It felt like i was reading my brain in a reddit post.