I'm Dr. Tracey Marks a psychiatrist and in this video I'm going to talk to you
about symptoms of ADD that you might not otherwise associate with ADD. These
symptoms would apply to young adults and beyond. Now I think we can all relate to
ADD being about trouble focusing and concentrating, you don't necessarily
think about the person who fails to launch or flounders in and out of jobs
and can't quite get on their feet. That person can just look like someone who
can't get their act together and if that's you, you may even be convinced
that you don't have a disorder. You just have bad luck or something and things
just don't seem to work out for some reason. We tend to categorize ADD as two
types: there's the hyperactive-impulsive type and the inattentive-disorganized
type and there's also a combined type which combines symptoms from both. In an
adult with ADD here's what you can see with the hyperactive type. You could have
restlessness and impulsiveness or compulsive behavior like shopping,
gambling, drinking. You can also have impatience or trouble regulating your
emotions and also act without thinking. This is where the impulsivity would come
in. With the inattentive disorganized type you can see things like
procrastination, being late all the time, losing things
poor follow-through and not finishing projects, wandering thoughts, clutter,
forgetfulness, anxiety. Anxiety is an interesting symptom that can go along
with ADD because anxiety is its own disorder. Sometimes people's anxiety can
be based on having a disorganized mind. I mentioned in a previous video that I'll
reference at the top corner of this video that sometimes poor focus can be
the result of anxiety. And if you treat the anxious person with stimulants you
can worsen their anxiety. Well it's not it's a little more complicated than that
because sometimes the anxiety stems from the ADD and if you treat the ADD the
anxiety resolves. So this is really where you need a clinician to help determine
what your main problem is and which came first. One common misconception though with
ADD is that people with ADD can't focus at all but actually people with
ADD can hyperfocus on the things that they're really interested to the
exclusion of other things around them. This can cause problems because if you're
close to someone who does that, it can just seem like they have selective
attention. In other words, if you forget the things that I've told you, you don't
really care about my thing. But what they find interesting is not a conscious
decision. it's not as though the person makes a judgment that I like this so
I'm gonna pay attention to this and just block out all the boring stuff. Their
mind just naturally zones in on the things that keep their attention in
their head. The ability to hyperfocus can work out well for you if you settle
into the kind of job that maximizes your strengths and doesn't tax your
weaknesses too much. For example, if you're one who has a problem of paying
attention for long meetings and talks you probably won't do well in a job
that's project-based with lots of meetings and collaboration efforts.
You'll likely do better working independently without of life a lot of
micromanagement. For the person who has hyperactivity or impulsivity, that person
may do well in a long meeting as long as they can play with their fidget spinner
or shake their legs under the table. This person may thrive in intense, short-term
projects that require a lot of mental stimulation but only in short bursts. So
using your strengths and weaknesses to choose your career path can help you
manage your symptoms perhaps without needing medication. ADD can have a huge
impact on relationships and I'm going to talk about this in another video stay
tuned thanks for watching