>> "as a child in school, i was overall a good student and fast." >> [laughs] no. >> "i get so wrapped up in what i'm doing that i lose track of everything else." >> do you want to circle that one for me? i saw you laughing. i saw that. >> okay. >> it's true. >> "i generally don't like people who have different ideas from me." >> true. no sense lying. you're right here. you'll just--you'll squeal on me. >> "i usually do things my own way rather than giving in to the wishes of other people." >> circle "true." go ahead. are you happy? >> i am. >> it's on tv now. it's fun for you, isn't it? >> i didn't know it would be this much fun. okay. >> attention deficit disorder.

>> it can be devastating. >> adult attention deficit disorder. >> without a proper diagnosis, a.d.d. can ruin your life. >> we know for sure this is a disorder that will hurt you if you don't look after it. >> okay, having said that, the tremendous good news is, if you get the diagnosis and you get proper treatment, not only can you avoid all those disasters, you can achieve spectacular success. >> we also know for sure that this disorder, when looked after, can make someone very functional. >> i mean, you can be at the absolute pinnacle not only in terms of success, but happiness, fulfillment, a rich and wonderful life. >> this is a documentary that dares to suggest that a.d.d. is not necessarily a total disaster. >> many of the children that i see not only grow into successful adults, they grow into people

that i admire tremendously, that are kind, that raise families, and contribute something very significant to society. >> i mean, recognized, acknowledged, and accepted, a.d.d. can become an ally. >> the key to it all is education, what you're doing right now. >> i know, i know. the majority of people who are a.d.d. are not loving it, especially if it's running their life. >> moderate or severe adhd that goes untreated leaves you really at a loss in life. >> this is why as a clinician we think it's really important to detect adhd early and treat adhd early. >> there's millions of parents and children who are suffering. as a former child and current adult and parent of a.d.d., trust me, i know. a lot of it was scolding of "don't do that, don't do that, settle down, stop bouncing, stop banging your head, stop rolling your head," you know, "settle down, sit on your hands, stop talking, behave, don't be a fool," you know, "don't act foolish all the time, why can't you read faster." those are the formative years. what i'm discovering that

everything i thought i knew about a.d.d. is wrong. so whether you've heard that a.d.d. submits you to a life of crime and suffering and possible cannibalism, maybe you've heard the complete opposite, but it's all bullroar made up by the drug companies. whatever you heard, be prepared to be surprised. if you can pay attention long enough. >> there are many myths about a.d.d., and i think maybe that's the scariest is that there are so many. >> the amount of misinformation is incredible. the experts aren't sure of a lot of things, and some widely-accepted theories have been shot down. >> we no longer believe that adhd is an expression of unresolved conflicts, but a frank expression of some hardwiring differences. >> what we no longer believe is that people outgrow it. it continues on into adulthood. >> what i learned to do in graduate school to treat adhd i would now consider malpractice, which i know is a very strong statement, but it's one that i do make and i make confidently.

>> over the next hour, i'm going to shoot holes in what you know about attention deficit disorder, and i'm going to take aim at adult a.d.d.. oh, i'm patrick mckenna, your host. [laughs] and this is a.d.d. and loving it i didn't say the title. >> it's a bullcrap cop out. >> smarten up, pull your boot straps up, and get on with life. >> if only you tried harder, you'd be able to pay attention. >> what makes me really sad is when i read in the newspaper, when i open the tv, and i hear someone saying that adhd is not a real disorder. we have so much data, so much research behind it to know that adhd is a neurological disorder, and furthermore, it is a treatable disorder. >> when patrick agreed to do this, i felt as if we were about to reveal the little man in the wizard of oz and pull the

curtain back. so to come out together and speak about something that is so intimate and something that we've spent all these years trying to hide so nobody knew there was anything wrong. this is a very brave thing to stand up and say, "i have this, and these are the demons that i fight with, and this is sometimes how difficult it is for me to get through a day." >> now, have i had to learn strategies to deal with the downside? sure. but those are learnable, whereas the upside is not buyable or teachable or procurable in any way. >> dr. lynn weiss, groundbreaking pioneer who has worked with a.d.d. patients for over 30 years, has created a list of 29 positive attributes that she's seen again and again. attributes like: sensitive, fun, inventive. you got a problem, we'll tell you about it. we're energetic, and we're down to earth. you're looking for an a.d.d. person, look on earth. we don't harbor resentment. you can offend us, and we'll forget. >> stand-up comic. she actually said "stand-up."

>> you do stand-up? >> guys. >> oh, right. we'll cut this part out. you know what we should do? we've got so many questions, why don't we put it in post-its and then we can be organized? >> i love post-its. >> post-its. >> i got post-its everywhere. do you ever put a post-it on your forehead when you're driving? people are trying to read it when you're driving. >> here you go. >> i'm sorry. can we get bigger post-its, because this is sort of a post, but i need a post-it. >> yeah, i can get one letter here. we need bigger. >> big heartedness, generosity, all of those kind of qualities, the charisma, that are so commonly associated with children and adults with a.d.d., those can't be bought or taught. >> last question. >> okay. all right, huh? now we're organized. all right. let's get to the questions starting with, um... we could start with, um... this one. exactly what is a.d.d.? >> attention deficit disorder.

>> what's the difference between a.d.d. and adhd? um... "h?" >> adhd stands for "attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder." >> three core symptoms: attention, impulse control, and motor hyperactivity. >> what is the ratio of boys to girls with a.d.d.? >> if you look at the hyperactive, then it's mostly boys versus girls. but if you look at the inattentive symptoms, then it's almost the same ratio of boys to girls. >> what other names did it go by? >> early on it was called minimal brain dysfunction. >> there was a category of flk. are you familiar with that? funny looking kids. >> who discovered it and when? >> symptoms of adhd have been around for over a century. >> fidgety phil was first described back in the 1800s. >> don't kids grow out of a.d.d.? >> the adult will be able to better control it, so when you look at it as an outsider, you say, "it's not there anymore," but it is still there, but the

way it is presenting itself is different. >> why did it take so long to recognize it? >> when you get to be about 13 or 14 years old, you get self-conscious. you start looking at yourself, and you do something to try to cover up or hide the fact that you're different. why is there so much confusion? >> this is a disorder that's been going around for hundreds of years. we've just not be able to peg it easily because the names keep changing, or we don't describe it very well. >> and we're probably in our toddlerhood with our understanding of this. i think we're maybe past our infancy, but we're not mature with our understanding of this. >> is there any resistance to the idea of adult a.d.d.? >> the people closest to you have watched this behavior over many years, and they have made up stories about what it is. they've made up stories about, you know, "you're ornery," you know, "or you're just not trying hard enough." >> does it run in families? >> yes. >> myself, i think i grew up with it, and i know that one of my sons was diagnosed with attention deficit. >> is it genetic?

>> yes. >> how much of it is genetic? >> a greater percentage than even diabetes. >> do we know what gene or genes are involved? >> the first gene that was described was called drd4.7. well, since that time, back in the late 1990s, lots of genes have been described, typically of the dopamine-type. >> what do you think are the percentage of people that might have a.d.d.? >> seven out of ten? >> are you serious? >> i would guess maybe 35% >> what percentage of the population is a.d.d.? >> if you look at a whole bunch of studies, we're somewhere in the 5% to 10% range. 10% is probably an overestimate. >> one in 25 adults have adhd. >> how prevalent is it? >> it's everywhere. this is a worldwide phenomenon. >> do a.d.d.ers have a lot of learning disorders? >> yes. >> "problems with spelling?" >> oh, yes, very much. >> do they suffer more from diarrhea? >> "i was or had trouble

reversing letters." >> yes. >> okay. >> yes. that's very much. >> is it real? >> it's take it to the bank real. >> does it affect self-esteem? >> yes. >> does my aunt marjorie have it? >> no. >> can you get it from toilet seats? is it caused by food additives? >> nope. >> no. >> are a.d.d. people crazy, lazy, doomed? >> no. >> people with a.d.d. are working their hearts out just to get through the day. >> it's not a virus, and it's not contagious. >> is it caused by allergies? >> no. >> is it a sign of weak morals? >> it's not a sign of weak morals. >> is a.d.d. a sign of bad parenting? >> no. >> we've got to stop telling parents they've done something bad. >> is it recognized by the canadian medical association? >> yes. >> what about the american medical association? >> oh, yes, and the american psychological association and the national association of school psychologists and the american academy of pediatrics. >> is there one clear definitive symptom? >> no. >> one of the problems we have in child psychology and

psychiatry is that no one symptom is the sole purview of adhd. >> if there was only one gene, all these kids would be the same. it's not. >> but there are things that they have in common. >> one of the greatest things i ever heard was, "you've seen one kid with adhd, you've seen one kid with adhd," as opposed to, "you've seen them all." >> can it be cured? >> your built this way. >> your genes drive this. >> why the explosion in number of cases? >> it overlaps a lot of different disorders in different ways. >> so where we all these a.d.d.ers before? >> we probably are misdiagnosing it as things like anxiety disorders, depression, personality disorders, people who have difficulties with bipolar or even high functioning asperger's syndrome, for example. >> why is the diagnosis so important? so you know you have it. >> and also to make sure you can eliminate what you don't have, right? >> right. sorry, what?

>> well, you know, it could be your thyroid. could be any number of things. >> yeah, mm. >> okay, say--say you have a sore toe. >> i don't, though. >> no, but say you did have a sore toe. >> i don't have one. that's one. that's one. >> so now you could have a sore toe because someone stomped on your foot or your shoes are too tight, you stepped on a nail, you got an ingrown toenail. heck, you could have toe cancer. >> i got toe cancer? >> maybe there's something wrong with your vision. maybe your hearing is problematic. >> it could be a mood disorder. >> maybe it's an anxiety disorder. >> it could be a thyroid issue. >> because mom changed the fabric softener and all of a sudden, the kid was squirming in his seat and somebody said, "that kid must have adhd." my gosh, you know? not everything walking in the door with motor restlessness is adhd. maybe the kid's underwear is too tight. how do you know? >> have i got "toelio?" >> so it's really important when you get assessed for adhd that you see a clinician that knows what is adhd and what it is not. >> see, you can't even manage or play to the strengths of your a.d.d. if you don't know

that you are a.d.d.. >> all of a sudden a bunch of stuff fell into place for me. the main one was, why i had not been able to do everything on the one hand and could do other things that other people couldn't do on the other. >> it's like they tailored this whole entire survey and this whole entire questions and all the tests that they made me do to--to me. >> what tests do doctors use? >> we don't have a blood test. we don't have a brain test. >> what tests do doctors use? >> there's the caars self-report long version, the cadra assessment form, the brown a.d.d scales. this is the wender-utah rating scale. 'cause in utah, they do things differently. >> what do doctors look for? >> a pattern of difficulties and the three difficulties that are of concern are hyperactivity, impulsivity, and problems with attention. >> "cannot complete tasks in an allotted time. needs extra time to finish satisfactorily." this is as an adult.

>> as an adult. like home projects or... >> oh, i see, okay, you're gonna to go there are you? okay, then we say "almost daily." >> okay. >> okay. >> "doesn't seem to be listening and gets complaints from others about it." i would say "almost daily." you think? you think that'd be fair to say? >> i think that'd be fair. >> that be fair, at least. >> "i have too little time to look for long-term solutions to my problems." >> true. >> in conversation, i'm a much better listener than i am a talker. >> you're an excellent talker, my darling. you're really, really good at it. she believes in me. "frustrated and excessively impatient." yeah, i'd say "almost daily." >> almost daily, i think so. >> "i lose my temper more quickly than most people." >> true. >> let me finish! "as a child, acting without thinking and impulsive." >> they mean like riding a trike up to woolco and stealing a gun? >> maybe like--yeah. >> i'd say that's "very much." that's another duh. >> i like to think about things for a long time before i make

a decision." >> you know, there's impulsivity that says that's false, but then the big purchases... no, it's still false. >> i was gonna say, you want an example? >> i looked you in the eye. i couldn't even get through it. >> all righty. >> the way medicine understands problems is that we look for patterns. >> it has two components. one with the inattention cluster of symptoms and one with the hyperactivity impulsivity cluster of symptoms. >> if you have both, you're called the combined subtype of adhd, but you only need to have six out of nine here and six out of nine here. you have to have it for at least six months. you have to have it in more than one setting, and the symptoms have to be impairing. we know that once you get over-- six over nine, it's quite likely that you're going to have a hard time. >> once you get a handle on it,

all the negatives can be turned around, and you can become phenomenally successful. so don't be afraid of getting the diagnosis. the only time to be afraid is when you don't know what's going on. >> what are some common traits of adults with a.d.d.? >> the most common reason an adult comes to see me is that they're underachieving. flashes of brilliance, but then periods of completely blowing it, and they don't understand it. for the life of them, they keep trying and trying and trying, but they get these inconsistent results. so unexplained underachievement not only in work but in relationships. >> i'll say, "remember the time we were with steve and jenny and we met their puppy?" and, "no, i wasn't there. i just wasn't there." and then you pull out a photograph of patrick, steve, and jenny and the puppy on the night of, and it's like-- it's almost like magic to him. >> "organizational skill problems, time-management difficulties, missed appointments," less and less. "frequently late, unfinished projects." ooh, basements full. >> yes, take a look at your desk, take a look at your basement. >> if i had a garage, i could fill that with more too. >> when you deal with adults,

usually they don't lose things any more. they lose time looking for their things. >> "money management problems." if i had money-- well, i did at some point, i'm sure. >> well, 50% of it is gone, anyway. >> yeah, exactly. >> i think there's people that we hire that take better care of our money. >> i think a bank robber would take better care of my money than i have. >> "frustrated and excessively impatient." yeah, i'd say "almost daily." >> almost daily, i think so. >> i have the idea, i do it. i don't have the time to reflect on it. >> when i'm driving, for instance, if there's a-- i'll go 25 minutes out of my way just to keep moving. i'm not getting in a lineup for anything. >> or if he's stuck in traffic-- and this is no word of a lie-- he gets so impatient and so distracted, he was stuck in traffic coming home from toronto one time. the only place he could get off was this cutoff where there was a car dealership, and he bought a car. >> yeah. >> inability to linger over things. >> "the adult who's expending more energy than others to do the same amount of work."

jeez, in some areas, that's true, but in other things i'm faster than a lot of people. >> but it certainly would be a flag, though, if somebody says, "i'm gonna go out and mow the lawn, but first i just have to go to canadian tire and pick up some gas, and then i got to stop here and do that." it's like leonardo da vinci, what five years to paint the sistine chapel? it could have been done in a weekend. >> sure, with a roller. they must have had rollers. they had wheels. >> he's always fidgeting. he's always squirming. >> we've moved 15 times in our marriage. >> they tend to be overactive, even in their sleep, by the way. >> we moved three apartments in the same building. >> just got tired of the apartment. "there's one up on the eighth floor; let's grab that." >> hyperactive talking. >> "being over-talkative. interrupt frequently "or inappropriately-- >> well, one second. what do you mean by interrupt? >> well-- >> like, just when you interrupt? when people interject or interrupt? >> if i'm talking, you'll talk over. >> that's a flag. okay, that's a flag. >> you kind of have pressure to talk. >> "a lifelong history of difficulty with attention." >> sorry? >> when you grow up with adhd,

you kind of find ways to look like your attentive, but you may not. >> "inattentive and daydreamy." >> "anger control problems"? >> hmm. i had an appointment at 9:00 in the morning, because i had to be somewhere at 9:30, and i was going to buy a car in half an hour. i get there at 9:00, and the salesman wasn't there because he was at a meeting, and i was waiting in the office, and at about 9:10, i was losing patience, and i started freaking out, and suddenly this guy comes in, and i just tore a strip off him about being late and this, that, and the other thing to the point where they had to call the police, 'cause i was just an irate customer. and, you know, it just-- it built, built, built, built, built where i just couldn't contain--because of the anxiety that i was going to be late for work, i added all this onto that moment, and i blamed this guy for it who was 15 minutes late, and i knew he was gonna be late because they told me he was in a meeting. >> it's hard to remember what you're like at 12 or 15, but

my brothers--you know, i was saying to my brother, you know, i was pretty calm in childhood. he said, "are you kidding me? all you ever talked about was there was going to be a nuclear war." and i was like, "oh, yeah, well, but i thought there was." it was like there was anxiety there i wasn't even aware of. >> "usually i'm more worried than most people that something might go wrong in the future." >> true. don't circle it before i finish. >> "sexual avoidance or addiction"? boy, there's choices. >> i think i'm avoiding the addiction or i'm addicted to avoiding. >> no, i stopped avoiding that addiction. >> addictions to video games, computer addictions, spending hours on attention-relieving tasks like chat groups. it also includes overwork. being so busy that you never have to stop and do a task that is quieting or soothing. >> all those who are workaholics raise their hands. yeah. >> rates of pathological gambling in untreated adults

with adhd are higher. >> "overeating"? god no, we're skinny as-- >> yeah, the camera adds 40 pounds. >> and this is like a five-camera shoot, so there's 200 pounds. >> right there. >> everything is sort of chaotic and, you know, possibly, you know, they've been married more than once. >> "marital problems." well, i'm on my second marriage, so that counts. >> i'm on my first. it's 25 years. so i give grace to her, not me. >> and you had a couple of good years in there, didn't you? >> oh, boy. the third one was a smoker. >> when i was in my teens and early 20s, i built two very successful businesses and then managed to kill them. >> "problems with driving." okay, i've had five car accidents in my life, and none of them have been going faster than five miles an hour. >> it's sort of like having a ferrari engine for a brain, but there is one problem. you have model-t brakes. >> i forgot to mention that time i took off to the mall by myself when i was three. >> yes. over a mile. >> oh, easily over a mile. >> on your tricycle. crossed a four-lane street. went into...

>> woolco. >> stole a gun. >> stole a gun. >> and got back on your tricycle and rode home. >> rode home. >> and who was waiting for you? >> the police. >> yes, that's right. >> but i finished the task. >> you did. >> how can adults find out if they are a.d.d.? >> i think when somebody walks into the office, they don't know what to expect. and the single biggest complaint for many of the patients that i see is that someone has had them fill out a checklist. the checklist showed that they had these symptoms or those symptoms, and therefore they received a diagnosis of adhd. a good assessment for adhd includes finding out why the patient is there, the history of how they came to be there, the family psychiatric history, the medical history. most important, the developmental history, because adhd, when it's present, puts a stamp on each stage of development.

so you may see colic in infancy. you may see a pre-schooler who was expelled from pre-school. or you may see a child who couldn't do homework in grade three or was kicked off the football team for misbehavior. >> you must include a sense of a narrative over time that makes sense to you. >> the bottom line really is, the person that goes through this process with you is your doctor. your doctor needs to be able to understand those clinical symptoms, find the settings where it's impairing, get information that tells this individual--tells the physician that there's something wrong. i might be looking at your parents to get information from. i may be looking at the school. i may be looking at circumstances in your life, so you tell me what's going on with you. but the most important thing really is that it takes time to gather all this information. and it's not easy. people have to be trained, and it's better if, in fact,

the families are part of the partnership. did anybody ever make a comment about how you handled the birth of your siblings? >> the questions they asked were ao pointed that it brought out specifics in my past. so it was enlightening to me to see the patterns being presented to me. >> so the process of assessment pulls all that information together. >> and typically, i need to talk to somebody from your past. now, the ideal person is your mom. now, all moms by now whitewash everything from childhood. it's kind of like, you know, "he was a good boy. what's the problem? everything was fine." but just like i went through with you, part of the intent really is to get those stories from childhood. if those stories match your stories, well, that's significant. there may be other stories back there that might be even more relevant. if i didn't have your mom or was not accessible, then i'd be asking your spouse, who usually talks to moms or anyone

else that i necessarily could get a story of your childhood. your elder brother, for example. there might be a story. so getting information from somebody else, learning more about you. and those questionnaires become the three parts to this diagnosis. >> i view people who are non-a.d.d. as--i envy them to a degree. i envy the fact that there's a calm in their life that i don't know. >> hello and thanks for watching. my name is joe krushinsky, and we invite you to stay tuned for more of a.d.d. and loving it. we hope that this new program will help liberate people from the fear, shame, and stigma that can accompany this often misunderstood and misdiagnosed disorder. through education and humor, host patrick mckenna and director rick green provide the information and insight that people need to create a life that is happy and fulfilling.

this special is an inventive and often hilarious look at adult adhd, not a surprising approach considering rick and patrick worked together on one of public television's longest-running and most popular comedy tv series, the red green show. both rick and patrick have been diagnosed with adhd, and they hope that their story will be an inspiration to others. rhea feikin will be talking to both patrick and rick in just a moment, but first i'd like to ask you to call in now and help financially support this and all the other informative educational and entertaining programs that public television brings you throughout the year. with your help, we can raise the funds needed to bring you more outstanding programming in the months ahead. when you call your number on the screen and support at certain membership levels, we have some great ways of saying thanks. at the $80 contribution level, we can thank you with a.d.d. and loving it on dvd.

this is the program that you're watching now, but it contains bonus material that is not in the broadcast edition. or consider making a contribution at the $150 level, and we'll reward your generosity with a.d.d. and loving it on dvd, plus you mean i'm not not lazy, stupid, or crazy? this is a softcover book, and it's an indispensable book written by kate kelly, who's featured in the program, and peggy ramundo. it's the first book of its kind written for adults with a.d.d. by adults with a.d.d. it includes the latest information on topics like new medications and their effectiveness and achieving balance by analyzing one's strengths and weaknesses. this is considered by experts to be one of the best books on attention deficit disorder ever written. and now let's go over to rhea feikin, who is with patrick mckenna and rick green. >> thank you both so much for being here, and congratulations on a just terrific program. >> well, thank you very much, and thanks for having us. we appreciate this. >> it's so much fun.