Self-Medicating ADHD

The other day on Twitter, someone asked me a very interesting question: is there a relationship between Attention Deficit Disorder and overeating?

Actually, yes there is. In fact, almost any behavior that is taken to an extreme can be a form of what is called self-medicating. It’s an attempt to soothe anxiety, fight off boredom, or burn off excess energy, and it can take many forms.

Overeating or emotional eating is one way a person with ADHD might soothe themselves. This is especially true for children, who have fewer outlets than adults, but lots of women can relate, too.

Drinking too much - whether it’s alcohol, coffee, or Diet Coke - is another way to self-medicate. Others include using drugs (legal, illegal, over the counter - even cough drops all count), gambling, shopping (to extreme) - even sexual behavior.

The fact that it is happening is a sign that action needs to be taken. Clearly the person is uncomfortable on some level, whether it’s anxiety, boredom, or too much energy.

The first step is to figure out what’s triggering the behavior, and then you can start to address it. Just because it’s called self-medicating doesn’t mean that a prescription is needed, although there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s warranted. If it’s a case of too much energy or just a low boredom threshold, you can probably come up with some healthy and easy to do solutions.

Whatever you do, don’t ignore such behavior. And once again, we’re talking about extreme behavior. Everybody gets bored or hyper once in a while, but if you’re noticing new behaviors in an attempt to deal with it, there’s a problem. Take care of it while it’s still small, before it escalates into something worse.

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Look for Strengths

Yesterday my daughter had to take a sort of aptitude test. She scored high on English class kinds of skills and low on math related skills. No big surprise. Both of my girls have always been amazing writers but not so great at math.

And yet, all my daughter could focus on yesterday was her low score in math. It’s been a while since she’s been in school, and since math isn’t a strength anyway, the score was almost a given. It isn’t as though she’s trying to get a job as an engineer or rocket scientist.

I think like most people with Attention Deficit Disorder, my daughter tends to focus her attention on her weaknesses rather than her strengths.

After all, isn’t that what we as parents of ADD kids do? Spend our time fretting over and trying to overcome their weaknesses? Isn’t that how ADHD is perceived? As a deficit, a disorder, a weakness?

Is it any wonder when our ADD kids talk in terms of what they can’t do, rather than what they can?

That’s a real shame.

You know, everybody who ever got anywhere in life did so because they focused on what they were good at doing.

Michael Phelps (who has ADHD) focused on swimming. Tom Arnold (who has ADHD) focused on comedy and acting. Winston Churchill (ADHD) was a great statesman. Agatha Christie (ADHD) wrote great mysteries, and Anne Bancroft (ADHD) chose acting to capitalize on her strengths.

We can learn a lesson from these people and pass it on to our kids, ADHD or not. Look for your strengths and learn to make the most of them.

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It’s Not About ADHD

Today’s post is a little off topic in that it isn’t really related to Attention Deficit Disorder.

My good friend Carole is selling her book, High Energy Eating and I’m helping her promote it.

You might wonder why I would do such a thing when I have a book called The Natural ADHD Diet that is, obviously, more specific to Attention Deficit Disorder.

Carole actually lost a really good friend recently due to health complications. She is trying to sell copies of her book in order to donate the profits to the family.

I’ve purchased Carole’s products before and they are all first rate. I wouldn’t be telling you about her book if I wasn’t sure that it was good.

If you’re interested, stop by her site and have a look. And thanks.

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