The Importance of Emotion in ADHD - Dr Russell Barkley

It's crazy to hear this if you have ADHD cause you have always thought there was something wrong with your discipline or attitude but to know the science behind it is a game changer.

i have adhd and DEFINITELY have the emotional dysregulation component, always have, but it has rarely presented itself as externalized anger. instead i've always been really quick to tears. kids didn't reject me because i was a hothead, but because i was crying all the time. i also was like.... a super well behaved kid most of the time, and was ridiculously hard on myself if i did anything even slightly "wrong". i was hypervigilant about what other people thought of me and felt about me. so it would be good to talk about emotional dysregulation in adhd beyond just typical (and often more masculine) presentation of anger.

I can't believe that in a presentation with audio and visual components on !ADHD! the camera man is recording the only part that doesn't require seeing

This man gives the most accurate descriptions of ADHD ever

I’m in a relationship with an ADHD person and he found out this year, it’s been a tough journey but I’m here to educate myself. Finding out however, I realized a lot of the reactions I’ve experienced makes sense now. The one thing that matters to us is we love each other a lot, thanks for this session and for this channel!

I have adult ADHD and have had it my whole life. I'm 42yrs old and this man is a genius and gifted in the way he explains the scientific facts.

I am a psychiatrist. Recently diagnosed with combined type and it is obvious that DSM-IV and DSM-V are not covering it correctly. The emotional aspects of ADHD are very much present in many patients - in me too and it's astounding that that part is not in it. Very interesting talk.

It's driving me insane that the cameraman isn't letting us see the visuals in the presentation as Russel talks the audience through them, I'm a visual learner and I need that shit

I've just learned about my ADHD at 34. I agree with everything except driving. Never had an accident. The hyperactivity when driving really lets me see the road from such a wide perspective. I see the faintest details in traffic. Especially at high speeds. Usually when I'm driving I might get someone say "hey watch it there coming over" I say I saw them before they even moved. And it's true. I see things before they happen.

It's kind of ironic that the reason i was denied a diagnose it was because "I was too emotional". The neuro psicologist completely dismised how bad my emotional regulation was.

I learned to mask my emotions outwardly with a calm and collected demeanor eventhough I may really be upset, it's my coping mechanism. There are times I get really upset, I let it out in private.

Before I was diagnosed (and even now, I’m still working on it) I would always be so frustrated with myself because everybody else could hold back tears and rage and I just can’t and I’m so glad I saw this

Forgot to mention I grew up ADHD and surrounded by people who had no idea of what was going on with me, ENTIRE LIFE. Today i find myself deeply trying to understand this disorder and this is the only man able to take me to the next level of the answers I'm seeking. It would be of extreme significance to translate it and spread it around the city. Thanks again!

In my case, I remember having trouble making friends, but NOT because of anger. I can't put my finger on it, but I remember being a kind child and maybe too eager to be friends. I was very lofty and creative and probably seemed really weird to a lot of people. I was in clouds and bubbles with references to TV shows and other things that only I watched or that weren't popular etc... I'm still like that, but I have had to fight bitterness, cynicism, and self-esteem issues. I am in a good place now because God has helped me figure myself out and heal and change (something I couldn't do alone). Dr Barkley should be the absolute clinical authority on ADHD, he has helped me a lot as well. Love his simplistic breakdown and clarity on the emotional component... I have used his tips to educate family friends and strangers as well.

ADHD? Struggling to stay focused? Everything too SLOW??? SPEED UP the video! Click on 'Settings' in lower Right corner of video, then click 'Speed.; Higher the number, faster it runs. Get in , get out + on to the next. You're welcome.

This might explain why I gets so red hot when I am emotional. Even if I could suppress my emotion, it would be written all over my body.

Where was this in my suggestions five years ago?!!! I am a Romanian adoptee with diagnosed adhd. I didn’t believe I have adhd, I bought into the negative stigma of over diagnosed and misdiagnosed. This is everything I needed. I will get re screened, and likely find a new treatment. This has been the best video for understanding adhd I’ve ever seen period.

I shared this with my friends with ADHD and we all agree, the good Doctor must have stolen our medical charts.

This is more real than a lot of talks and stuff out there that is messaging "adhd is a superpower!" And then in the comments you get people saying things like... "yes I'm so gifted!" "I don't even study I'm a genius because I have adhd!" Well I have it and I definitely don't feel like that. I'm not trying to be negative - I'm very grateful for my life and abilities... I am just hoping I can learn to manage this adhd journey I'm on in a fast past life so I can provide for my family. This video is nice that it's a real breakdown of details we're not used to hearing is a problem, such as emotion, so we can try to learn to deal with the problem head on. Thank you doc

So from the perspective of a 50+-year-old who always knew he "would" be diagnosed with ADHD but would never check because he disagreed with the last letter (D for Disability) vehemently (all bias declared)... When Doctor Barkley discusses the ability to recall an event from memory to cause an emotional shift, I am fascinated by the inefficiency of such an action. I learned I could directly call on a different emotion. Now that I'm actually looking at the research and conclusions of scientists, I'm able to see what "normal" people do and experience. I do not view ADHD as a "disorder". I view it as a different way of being. "Normal" people learn to stop themselves and remind themselves of what they want to achieve. "Normal" people stop themselves and identify that emotion will have negative outcomes, then recall a memory that will evoke emotions they wish to attain. I don't do things for the future. I edit my responses, my habits, my perceptions, the meaning I attach to things, and my expectations to refine my day-to-day, moment-to-moment experience of life. In short, I change who I am so that who I am is more effective, more hopeful, more open to possibility. That's how I cope with the situations "normal" people stop and adjust to. This might seem like splitting hairs. Maybe it is, but it's also EVERYTHING. I view stopping and changing, or faking-till-you-make it as false, as a pretense. I don't judge others for it, but it feels like a lie to me. I'm not going to pretend I like someone so I can get an advantage. I look for ways to appreciate people for who they are. Not just a specific person, all people. I look for ways to interpret things that annoy me. I seek to understand the benefit of things that I would otherwise avoid. This one is significant for me: Everything is potential. I crafted that perspective. If something looks really bad, I look for the good in it. I seek the whole picture. The worst times of my life have prepared me to realize the best. Nothing is inherently negative, it's only how you look at it. I've never succeeded at dieting and exercise based on a future goal of what I want to achieve. I have succeeded by changing who I am. I became fascinated (our superpower) with how the body burned fat and with that ketosis. I made myself an experiment and started new habits. Not to achieve something 6 months down the road, but to see what would happen tomorrow. My wife would tell me "Stop getting on the scales every day You don't lose weight daily. It takes weeks." But for me, it was daily. And daily WAS required, because why would I wait a week to satisfy my curiosity. Living in the NOW is a staple of numerous philosophies. So is "follow your passion". I just have to learn to do this while living in harmony with my environment. I do that by changing how I am, not how I get what I want. When I started exercising, I chased the "burn". I reveled in it the same way people love spicy food. When I work on endurance I'm chasing the runners high, and experimenting with balancing breath control and form to watch the outcomes. I'm in the moment, not the future. When I commit, it's for the experiment, experience, moral imperative. Not for the reward. Every time I've tried to chase the reward, I didn't like the person I became. We're not disabled. We're different from the majority. What's critical about that fact is this: Common wisdom for others doesn't always work for us. We need to share with each other (of the ADHD tribe) what does work. But NOT because we're "compromised". Thinking that way is to abandon all our strengths in favor of conforming to a norm we don't fit. Conforming is a disability. "Normal" people don't revel in losing themselves to weeks' worth of laser focus on some interest or question. Normal people don't automatically notice the parallel patterns at play in agile methodologies and evolution. ...or maybe they do? What do I really know about what normal people think and feel? Only by hearing them tell me what I don't. Please don't interpret these comments as disrespect for Dr. Barkley. I am grateful for his research. I'm fascinated by his observations. The knowledge he offers is of immense value to me. My only disagreement with him is in approaching this as a disability when it clearly has advantages and it clearly survived natural selection for some reason. The words we use to encapsulate a concept of are immense significance because people use words to think. The nature of a word modifies the options available to our mental processes. The way we measure and the context. Words are an unconscious abstraction of our perception of reality. They literally create the paths of perception available to us. Disorder implies and contextualizes only one outcome: overcome your debilitating nature. Strive to become as good as normal. Nowhere in the word disorder is implied curiosity, the joy of discovery, the celebration of self, and difference, exploration of strength. All things that are prime movers for ADHD.