[HN Gopher] Inattentive Behavior in Boys with ADHD During Classr...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Inattentive Behavior in Boys with ADHD During Classroom Instruction
       [pdf]
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2024-01-06 10:25 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (psy.fsu.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (psy.fsu.edu)
        
       | austin-cheney wrote:
       | ADHD is a neurological impairment, less developed hardware. Less
       | severe ADHD can be self managed and possibly even become a
       | strength through learned self-discipline.
       | 
       | People tend to think of ADHD as a focus issue. It's more of a
       | memory issue with corresponding compensation behaviors. Extreme
       | ADHD is like watching the movie Memento, except the focal span is
       | condensed from 5 minutes down to about 12-25 seconds and only
       | about a third of the memories are lost. Imagine pouring a glass
       | of milk and half way through you have forgotten you are in the
       | middle of task until there is a mess. The most obvious indicator
       | is misplacing things several times a day. Other indicators
       | include strange repeated behaviors to compensate for memory loss
       | like hiding things in weird locations so you can find them later
       | only to have forgotten that you have hidden things and then run
       | out of those things and not know where they are.
        
         | adynaton wrote:
         | Hello. Do you have any resources about this? I have memory
         | issues similar to the ones you described.
        
           | austin-cheney wrote:
           | I have just learned from observation, speaking with
           | counselors, and watching videos online. I have a family
           | member with severe ADHD.
           | 
           | You might want to visit with a doctor to be evaluated for
           | ADHD. There are medications that help, but they differ by
           | person and medication with side effects.
        
           | cncovyvysi wrote:
           | Read driven to distraction
        
           | ZunarJ5 wrote:
           | An excellent, easy to digest lay writeup:
           | https://mashable.com/article/what-is-adhd-myths-stigma/.
           | 
           | Also, check out this channel, "How to ADHD." Here is her
           | playlist on 'What is ADHD?' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x
           | MWtGozn5jU&list=PLvq9Tp5JZ8...
           | 
           | This is my biggest hindrance, illustrated: https://adhd-
           | alien.tumblr.com/post/186747323969/my-totally-u...
        
         | aatd86 wrote:
         | Can also be malfunctioning hardware. Can even be externally
         | induced. Transient bouts of attention deficit with perfectly
         | normal MRI would indicate that something else is happening.
        
           | hirvi74 wrote:
           | An MRI cannot diagnose ADHD in an individual. MRI's can see
           | trends and variations in brains of large populations. For
           | example, an MRI of 1,000 people with ADHD might show a
           | different sized <insert brain parts> compared to 1,000 people
           | without ADHD.
           | 
           | However, a single person could have the same size <insert
           | brain parts> as the average of 1,000 ADHD people and still
           | not have ADHD, and a person could not have a significantly
           | different sized <insert brain parts> and have ADHD.
           | 
           | To date, there is not a single biological marker nor
           | empirical test that can be used to diagnose ADHD beyond a
           | reasonable doubt.
        
         | lazide wrote:
         | In my experience, it is as often a specific set of genetic
         | traits exposed to a specific set of narcissistic abuse and
         | environmental stressors.
         | 
         | It's why it tends to show up in early childhood, and 'get
         | better' as they get older and learn how to defend themselves
         | and avoid the destructive people and environments that are
         | gaslighting them into doing things that are decompensating for
         | them (actually, for everyone - which is why normal people are
         | often not in those environments). Or not, if they aren't
         | allowed to leave.
         | 
         | It's also why the medication 'stops working' sometimes - the
         | problem folks in the environment ramp up the abuse until the
         | target is back in the confused/can't remember what is going on
         | state where they can be controlled.
         | 
         | When in an actually good environment, and directed in a way
         | that they can/will do the things they need to do to take care
         | of themselves appropriately, all of the memory issues,
         | emotional regulation issues, etc. become quite manageable or
         | even disappear. There is often a lot of PTSD though, which
         | requires special help.
         | 
         | The challenge is that when abuse and destruction is present
         | (but 'not allowed to be seen') from an early age, people
         | develop protective blind spots for it.
         | 
         | It's normal and 'not abuse', near as they can tell. And
         | narcissistic abuse is all about not being seen - at least by
         | anyone who can or will do anything about it.
         | 
         | And if it's a parent doing it, seeing it requires rejecting a
         | caregiver and role model - not an easy or often safe thing to
         | do.
         | 
         | Depending on how long it was ongoing though, it could be years
         | or decades to recover.
        
           | NoZebra120vClip wrote:
           | I concur completely with all lazide has written, and they'd
           | get two upvotes if I had them.
           | 
           | Abuse and neglect in the home is often the genesis of
           | childhood "mental illness" but the industry can do jack-all
           | about the home life of children.
           | 
           | ADHD, bipolar, and PTSD are clusters of disparate symptoms,
           | different with every child. They are chiefly the symptoms
           | which annoy and inconvenience parents, caregivers, school
           | teachers and administrators. Therefore, the drugging of
           | children is oriented toward suppressing and/or eliminating
           | these annoyances so that the people in authority can go about
           | their business without having said authority challenged by
           | uppity children who act out.
           | 
           | My niece was not yet in 8th grade before the Catholic school
           | proposed to drug her as well, and I know full well what sorts
           | of domestic troubles she had undergone throughout her short
           | life. I pity the children who endure such things but can't
           | escape them. What are we going to do, break up 60% of
           | families because their parents suck and they are permanently
           | damaging all their offspring?
           | 
           | It's tragic, and it's left me with the prospect of lifelong
           | therapy to become normal, but there is healing and hope, and
           | people do get better, despite the setbacks and damage caused
           | by drugs, clinics, and hospitalization.
        
             | lazide wrote:
             | Thank you for adding your experience. I'd also give it two
             | upvotes if I could.
             | 
             | One thing I would like to add - the medication can be the
             | least bad option, _if_ or _when_ the situation is not
             | actually addressable in a useful way otherwise.
             | 
             | When someone has bad pain, unless it meaningfully is
             | helping them to have it, it's cruel to not give them pain
             | medication. It just makes everything else harder.
             | 
             | Same for ADHD meds.
             | 
             | Untreated ADHD _is_ worse than treated ADHD in every
             | significant metric, at least for any given moment, as
             | fighting an already lost battle against circumstances
             | outside of your control isn't going to be better than
             | finding a way to somehow tolerate or cope with them.
             | 
             | The challenge comes when the circumstances _can_ actually
             | be addressed in some other way that can actually make
             | things better - leaving, fighting back (successfully!),
             | having an authority figure with the actual strength and
             | resources to actually help instead of making it worse,
             | counter manipulating /lying, finding a way to take
             | ownership of the shit and somehow make it work, etc.
             | 
             | Which, knowing the actual right course of action is nearly
             | impossible for the person being victimized, and is rarely
             | in the list of options being considered by said authority
             | figure when it's a kid involved.
             | 
             | Without that, the medication just leaves someone stuck in a
             | broken situation, albeit better functioning. Which is
             | better than being stuck and not! But less than ideal.
             | 
             | ADHD treatment has so much better long term outcomes when
             | it's medication + therapy, rather than either just on its
             | own, and I think that is why.
             | 
             | The medication can give someone the strength (chemical or
             | not, it still helps) to actually do the other work and see
             | it through. Even when it's really hard and scary.
        
         | graemep wrote:
         | > ADHD is a neurological impairment, less developed hardware.
         | 
         | Has that been established? This says causes are uncertain:
         | https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivit...
        
           | austin-cheney wrote:
           | The causes are multiple and not clearly established, but it
           | is clearly neurological (hardware) and not a personality
           | defect. This is established through research into the brain
           | and interactions with certain medications. Some examples of
           | hardware disruption include extremely low production of
           | neurotransmitters and extremely few neurotransmitter
           | receivers.
        
         | acchow wrote:
         | ADHD is not a memory issue. The memory issues are secondary.
         | 
         | Ever seen someone with ADHD fixated on something? Memory is not
         | a problem within that topic.
        
           | gtvwill wrote:
           | ^^^ mate I can tell you a million facts about a million
           | things as I've probably hyperfixated on something related to
           | whatever your interested in at some point over the last 20
           | years.
           | 
           | But I still can't remember where I put my wallet, phone and
           | keys.
        
             | k8svet wrote:
             | I say this with love, not condemnation. You have to start
             | caring. Like actually caring. Or develop habits and
             | discipline.
             | 
             | I was this person. I watched my dad be the person all his
             | life, watching my mom both enable and resent him for it.
             | Then I realize what a nuisance he was to those around him,
             | and how embarrassing it was that he seemingly can't take
             | care of himself.
             | 
             | Now I have a cross body "man-purse", I've traveled half a
             | dozen countries in a year and haven't lost a single thing.
             | My wallet, my keys, my yubikey, my sunglasses, my backup
             | meds, they have exactly one place they're allowed to be,
             | and they're always there when I go to grab them.
        
         | bsdz wrote:
         | I think research shows the most important genes are involved in
         | producing dopamine. Two of the genes that have been found to be
         | implicated most commonly are DAT1 and DRD4, although others are
         | being discovered all the time.
         | 
         | This means that brain signals are not carried correctly, and
         | the signals may be carried to the wrong part of the brain.
         | This, in part, leads to the well known symptoms of ADHD afaik.
         | 
         | So memory definitely a secondary issue.
        
           | austin-cheney wrote:
           | Dopamine is certainly a factor, but low serotonin is at
           | greater distinction. The dopamine cycle exists to regulate
           | task completion and is associated with reward stimulus.
           | Serotonin is associated with mood regulation. In manically
           | depressed persons and persons with advanced ADHD serotonin
           | production is extremely low compared to normal. The primary
           | compensating behavior then is seeking external mood
           | stimulators. For the person in my family with ADHD their drug
           | of choice is anything with large amounts of red dye 40.
           | 
           | Although persons with ADHD have lesser DRD2 and possibly
           | lesser DRD4 receptors using prescribed medication to raise
           | serotonin production reduces the urge to hyper stimulate and
           | thus drives behavior towards a more normal homeostasis, which
           | then also solves for the forgetfulness.
        
         | nickfromseattle wrote:
         | This sounds like me. Poor working / short term memory made
         | school (memorizing facts) a nightmare.
         | 
         | Do you have more resources that educate about ADHD from this
         | perspective?
        
           | austin-cheney wrote:
           | There is a world of difference between slow study and a
           | severe brain impairment that blocks the ability to function
           | normally in the world. For example perhaps there is a minor
           | focus or motivation issue where you would rather be doing
           | something else and so find the studying less of a priority. A
           | person with severe ADHD may forget what they were doing while
           | they are actively engaged doing it. Imagine driving a car and
           | your mind drifts and you begin to focus on something at the
           | side of the road now completely unaware of what is in front
           | of you as you continue driving forward without reservation. A
           | person who struggles to study, on the otherwise, does not
           | suddenly become unaware they are holding an open book in
           | front of their face.
           | 
           | If you are concerned that you might have ADHD I recommend an
           | evaluation by general physician.
        
       | aimonster2 wrote:
       | FSIQ was a bad way of identifying the cohort. They should break
       | it up into GAI, WMI, and PSI instead since the key indications of
       | cognitive capacity are in GAI and the WMI and PSI just show the
       | area of deficit. I.E. a 104 FSIQ may be the same as a 110 FSIQ
       | for neurotypical since the WMI and PSI are probably 1/2 to 1
       | standard deviation below the mean for the ADHD cohort. I know
       | several gifted students with an FSIQ of around 110, so that also
       | introduces the issue of gifted behaviors which can also present
       | as inattentiveness. FSIQ 110, GAI >> 130, WMI and PSI below 85.
       | This assumes they used something like WISC IV. Also, ignoring PSI
       | and focussing on WMI kind of misses half the issue. It all comes
       | down to executive function loading.
        
         | hirvi74 wrote:
         | What you are describing is similar to how I was diagnosed.
         | 
         | I took the WAIS-IV and was told that I do not "technically"
         | have an IQ since I have ADHD and the tests are not designed nor
         | calibrated to measure intelligence in populations other than
         | neurotypicals. Doesn't mean I cannot be given a score, just
         | that it's not technically "accurate."
         | 
         | I am quite dubious of IQ testing to begin with. But for the
         | sake of adding to your comment, I had 2.5 standard deviations
         | between some of my scores. I was significantly stronger in my
         | VCI and PRI than my WMI and PSI.
        
       | LargeTomato wrote:
       | I have ADHD but growing up we didn't know that. I threw a lot of
       | tantrums and was yelled at until I cried almost every day. I was
       | grounded for months on end, which is now considered child abuse.
       | In my house yelling was the norm.
       | 
       | My mom decided I must have bipolar disorder just like my
       | grandmother. At age 10 I was put on psychiatric drugs and that
       | persisted for over 20 years. Any time I exhibited any intense
       | emotion I would get yelled at and then it would probably trigger
       | a fight.
       | 
       | As an adult I began to describe my experiences in my own words
       | and doctors quickly undiagnosed me. 2 decades of doctors
       | appointments, drugs, emotional abuse, dismissal, confusion.
       | 
       | There is no moral to this story.
        
         | k8svet wrote:
         | I'm sorry. I'd have a hard time not being angry if I were you.
         | Similar thing happened with my ex. Years of anti-psychotics for
         | absolutely no fking reason. His new doc quickly took him off,
         | and he simply got healthier, never an issue. Such a shame.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-01-06 23:01 UTC)