Understanding ADHD: Challenges, Treatments, and Real-Life Experiences

nine-year-old Samantha is always on the go she acts like she's driven by a motor it's easy to see how her behavior can

get Sam into trouble at school and make life unbearable at home mum michelle has great difficulty controlling Sam she's

had years of parenting courses but none have helped because Sam has a brain disorder that profoundly affects the way

she thinks and behaves Sam was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD last week then

psychiatrist Kevin Appleton is giving her a check-up before prescribing medication ADHD affects the parts of

Sam's brain that manage and organize her thoughts Walter well though she has normal intelligence Sam finds it hard to

concentrate on one idea at a time she's easily distracted and she acts on impulse her brain doesn't seem to tell

her to think about the consequences of her behavior which means she's always in trouble

[Music] oh damn place curiously Sam's hyperactive because parts of her brain

are actually under active she's constantly seeking stimulation trying to kick-start her brain to get it into

focus a bit like riffing up a motor to keep it from stalling the hardest thing with Sam is the energy been on the go

and not doing what she's told she'll see something that she wants to do and she'll get sidetracked in from what

she's supposed to be doing it's sort of very difficult to control that all the time

[Music] about one and 25 children are affected by ADHD that's one in every classroom in

New Zealand they're much more demanding on parents than other children because they don't think before they act and

they require constant supervision she's got no concept of danger and this causes problems when she's out playing

she'll climb trees sort of higher than what she's capable of and she'll run out under the road

she's into running away at the moment it's happening on quite a frequent basis sort of three or four times a week when

she's up to see it or when she's in trouble especially so she'll walk along the tops of fences and stuff like that

yeah I've had problems with his stealing now since she was four I've hit her at the police twice

she's very violent towards her brother she's not so violent towards me most of it as in play which is not still not

acceptable she can't grasp the concept that you just don't play like that with the

social side of things there's a lot that she still needs to learn that she can't grasp the handoff and without learning

these things and without getting you know a reasonable education I really don't know where she's gonna end up in

about a week Sam's going to start taking Ritalin a powerful stimulant similar to cocaine hopefully once we get acid on it

that will see some improvement work here with the concentrating with her energy levels sort of tone it down a bit and

she'll be more compliant with what she does around the home than in school over the last few years that's taken a lot of

energy and my part and getting to the point where I can't cope with it the rezulin is coming at the right time

Kyle now for has been on ritalin since he was two to diagnose someone with ADHD at such a young age as highly

controversial but Kyle's had serious behavioral problems since he could first walk at ten months old

without Ritalin he's almost unmanageable [Music] by the time he turned to Kyle had

started a fire driven mums car in the driveway and had three major head injuries from climbing

dangerously although his medication does make Kyle more controllable he's still on the go all the time and he's very

aggressive he can push you like you could never describe to anyone how far he could push you and I mean he's tried

my parents a few times that I know of I don't know that Michelle's mom and that I've had a taste a small taste of what

nothing quite really we can understand now what you're saying this is Kyle on a good day and on

medication his parents did a lot of soul-searching before medicating him but his behavior was unbearable

it's heartbreaking when you can't take the child you love out anywhere even to playgroup because it causes so much

trouble [Music] biting children or pushing them or he'd

go it doesn't matter whether that bugger than home horse more adults even he'd go up and bite adults behind the knees or

things like that you know in got to the point where I couldn't take him in you I couldn't go anywhere there was just a

select few people who understood what we were going through and we he was coming from and that really chilled enough and

woolly jumpers and things so you could go and play with them so that they wouldn't get but a little bit with you

there would always be tears and I would always be on his back and it would just be a constant thing and it had a big

effect on our family it had a big effect on her daughter who was embarrassed to go anywhere because everybody knew her

brother as travel and he got he got labeled everywhere he went Kyle's due to start school soon and

Michelle and Dean are deeply concerned about how he's going to cope they're taking Kyle to be reassessed to see what

else can be done to control his behavior as they're all too aware there's a lot at stake

and what's perceived as normal you know going to school sitting at a table for 2-3 hours is going to be a huge huge

step for him I am I have my reservations because he can't do it he physically cannot sit there as much as he probably

would like to or want to his brain just can't stop for long enough to let him do it he just needs to keep going and

you've got that fear of what other parents and say well you know that Chandler child's leaving my children

down you know he's disrupting the whole class but basically he has a right to an education as well in you know you only

you to our child's only advocate and you need to be there for them but that's a very scary time Kyle's parents know he's

about to face his biggest challenge they've asked for help to get Kyle ready for school and school ready for Kyle I

always wanted to get married have kids have a happy life and I always wanted everything perfect

most people think ADHD is something that only affects children but as it is better understood more and more adults

are being treated at thirty-one Chrissy's seems to lead a normal life she teaches swimming and cares for her

four-year-old daughter as an adult her ADHD is far more subtle than when she was young I mentioned to someone at work

the other day there I had ADHD and they turned around said to me I would never have guessed

yet Chrissy's life is dominated by her struggle to cope with the symptoms of ADHD and still appear normal

Chrissy takes ritalin every day to help a function and still feels a strong sense of being different from other

people I just remembered finally being told that there was something wrong there

that I am I'm not crazy or just really really naughty now that Chrissy's an adult her

experience provides us with insight into why children with ADHD behave the way they do this is part of my life

we're it's totally disorganized and I hate it I just have to put things away in the jaws it's as simple as that but

not for Chrissy two weeks ago she moved into a new flat and she's desperately trying to get organized

now I'm just putting that away but I just remember that I've got washing anything I want to do whereas most

people probably would go and do them because it's got to be done but what's stressing me moment is when dishes I

really I don't know we all say this at times but Chrissy quite literally doesn't know where to start

she's perfectly capable of doing everything that's needed to get the flat tidy but her brain has difficulty

focusing on what's important to space she does several things at once and never finishes anyone tasks

everyone has times when they can't concentrate especially when they're tired but for Chrissy this difficulty in

paying attention is constant intense and interferes with every part of her life if you could see inside Chrissy's brain

it would look a lot like a flat chaotic imagine trying to read a book at a rock concert and you have some idea of what

it's like for Chrissy to try and concentrate on unpacking understanding everything guys and I'm just deciding if

I want that in their corner if I want it in that corner okay

sure got another box on there are those who dispute that ADHD exists I was looking for another bottle I can't find

something and getting frustrated because I am maybe it's in here baby and trying to pin down where Chrissy's personality

leaves off and ADHD begins is a complex puzzle John I'll wear my khakis in the kitchen might be a people can live their

whole lives without realizing they have ADHD because it can easily be confused with a lack of discipline until last

year Jason had always blamed himself for the fact that he could never get his life on

track being diagnosed with ADHD at thirty-one has helped him understand years of underachievement Jason was

often described as hyperactive as a child but no one understood why as an adult

Jason's easily bored can't finish things and has an insatiable appetite for intensity fast you go the faster you

want to go so they just becomes an addictive and more addictive and like the go cattle I'm here the guy kept up

three weeks and after two weeks have got used to the speed and the peer and a warrant to gear it up a bit and make it

grunt here and make it go faster and you know so that's definitely an extreme personality

Jason's full of energy his Restless distractible and all the things that give children with

ADHD into difficulty yeah just always moving I'm always getting up and down all the time coming

to the kitchen getting a drink or getting a bite to eat looking in the fridge or nothing in there close it

again you know watch the videos little thing right now that Jason has a new understanding of his difficulties he's

trying hard to settle down but in his 20s his life was in chaos heavy drinking fast cars sleeping around and trouble

with the law these are all common difficulties faced by teenagers and adults when ADHD goes untreated what

will you get the more you want just like the roller coaster yeah oh my first comment was ours slower than I remember

and it's like - can we just tweak this thing up a bit now I mean okay just say it happened you tweaked it up and I just

want warm and want more and one more so you know like when I used to skid round and fast cars and my younger silly years

it was just new fast enough [Music] a lot of just um always always on the go

go go go always very fast sitting still is very hard and trying it the moment it's it's imperfect always go for it

[Music] difficulty concentrating on the task at hand makes school tough for children

with ADHD trying to pay attention for Robert there's a little like trying to focus for someone who's short-sighted

he's intelligent enough to do well at school if only his brain could focus on one thing at a time it's a real effort

to stay still and detailed work makes him irritable his brain craves stimulation to rev it up and this can

make him very disruptive classroom works hard enough for Robert but lunch time is a nightmare

Robert acts before he thinks he's always in serious trouble so much so that his parents have started coming to school

each day to supervise him mainly he's bashing kids he retaliates Robert is very naughty in his own right but the

other kids also have picked up that if they do something to him he will retaliate straightaway and he does it

without fail and no matter how many times we tell him he has to walk away he can do it a couple of times but he can't

do it that third time is just too much for him and then he tends to spark off very quickly and and doesn't think what

he's doing he knows he's going to get into bad trouble for the last time he actually he was good he walked away and

sat down so he'd done all the right things then the kids came up to kick him and that

was it penny found stones and sticks that you know you're not gonna get one over on me time touch

girls with ADHD tend to be less disruptive in class so it's easier for their ADHD to go unnoticed but they have

the same learning difficulties as boys Chrissie hated school because she often failed her parents struggled to

understand why the interesting thing was that although she seemed to have all this difficulty in class they did do

some tests and found their intelligence was actually quite high I think that was when we first began really to wonder or

what is happening is a reasonably intelligent young person who has great difficulty in school doesn't want to go

she just didn't seem to want to sit down and concentrate on things for long when we spoke to her teachers they indicated

that really she was withdrawing so that seemed to be the sign that she was really unhappy space the teacher would

read a story out and then ask us questions she'd like ask me well in a big go tally bling and she think I

wasn't listening and yeah I just got really sick well I was listening I just didn't know how to explain what she just

read out space well I was reading through my reports some of the comments they made there really hurt why I was

she needs to apply yourself more she needs to concentrate more you know I worked as hard as I could in all the DS

and the ifs and then it's good for me like exceed like Who I am I mean really accepting Who I am

yeah in all the jobs I went through you know just really just used to make me feel like I was like you know tried so

hard I couldn't keep my heat around simple things like doing the case you just over the stuff like that

nobody Thomas like we used to go on and on of me about oh this is what you don't why aren't you getting it you think or

something [Applause] Samantha's been on Ritalin now for

several weeks just have a look at your card hands up the people who haven't got one last year her teacher was concerned

about her poor attention span and her hyperactivity that's hard to believe when you see Sam totally focused today

now he hasn't made a mistake he's come to see if he belongs Whittle and activates the part of Sam's

brain that prioritizes her thoughts it helps her concentrate because the Ritalin maintains her brain activity at

a constant level she no longer needs to be hyperactive to keep her stimulated CJ there's been a great deal of controversy

over ritalin and other medications used to treat ADHD no one disputes their effectiveness but many people are

reluctant to give children such powerful drugs ritalin doesn't cure Sam's ADHD the effects last only while the drug is

in her system and she becomes hyperactive again as soon as it wears off but at the moment at school the

improvement in her concentration is clear even when distracting things are happening all around her not all parents

are happy to treat their children with medication and not all children with ADHD need drugs Robert's family and

teachers work hard to keep Robert on track without using Ritalin we have made a decision that we will not put him on

drugs while his academic work is not suffering he could perform a lot better in school if he was on drugs I guess but

he is not he's not performing beneath the average level of the class so and he's performing slightly above the

average range of the New Zealand children living with Robert not medicated places extra demands on the

family but they feel that in the long run this approach is best for Robert he's a very

refreshing child I think that while Robert can cope and while he can put strategies and we can put strategies in

place that work for him then it's not a sensible way to go with him it's a decision that requires an enormous

investment of time and energy homeworks just one example of the extra help Robert needs homework has always been a

bit of a chore with Robert but we are managing to turn that round because now homework has become a time when I sit

down and I spend half an hour or an hour or whatever it takes with Robert by himself basically we move

everything off the table so he has nothing to play with and he sits there with his homework in

front of him a pencil in his hand and we work together right what do you want to do would you rather Robert really needs

that one-on-one attention and you could say a lot of children do but he will underperform if he's not in a one-on-one

situation and that's guaranteed yeah nine-year-old Robert will always need routine and structure to help him

organize his life Jacky hopes she can teach him skills that will help him cope as an adult I think one of the main

things for me was boarding school and the fact that it was structured and disciplined it was like you cannot do it

otherwise be punished I got punished a few times but it was yeah actually I really enjoyed boring Scott was as what

I needed and I did very well at school just because I was put in that environment

then coming out of school was a whole different kettle of fish you know you were sort of on your own and it was up

to you to be disciplined and structured and then while Tracy made us far always rebellious and and doing things I

shouldn't know in trouble for more and just I mean just total wild craziness and then burnout really actually sort of

bought into a lot of it jason has tried stimulant medication but found it made him very anxious these

days he's trying to use yoga and meditation to come his hyperactivity yoga definitely does seem to me it does

slow me down just sort of it just makes me more calm basically instead of being so hypo and sort of bouncing around

stress ends up making me a lot more full on whereas yoga just makes my mind think a

lot more logically but Jason still has difficulty concentrating and has to work hard to stay in control and organize his

life Kyle's been taking medication since he was two and for a while it did seem to calm his behavior but he's still

aggressive and hyperactive he's not under control at home and his parents know he's not ready for school they know

they need more help Kyle's going to be reassessed the first step is a medical check because many other things like

hearing problems or lack of sleep can make children behave as if they have ADHD

Kyle's cleared on all these things searching for clues which might help explain Kyle's behavior psychologist

Francis Steinberg listens carefully to Dean and Michelle's concerns 18 months old so you mean he reached his

milestones incredibly early forty thirteen weeks sitting at 12 weeks calling at 14 weeks he reached a stage

of getting up at hoppers 3:00 in the morning and or he'd get up and turn the TV on really loud or wondering

constantly what types of behaviors were mostly of concern to you back then he was like but like his mania and evil he

just Russian and causes big ruckus and you know bite people Russia people people knock people over didn't meet it

whether they were younger older very non-compliant nothing you know how to control there was no you couldn't stop

them from doing anything you know because of just you stop him continue baking it's gone again he's hit a fire

where he put a toy in front of the heater and you know and then came running down the hallway to show me with

it and beard and it was like you know no he's done some feely yeah locked himself in public toilets and you know you

couldn't get underneath her over the top and it said get someone to get a man I mean people find this woman incredibly

funny but when you're living with them day in and day out it's yeah doctor Steinberg's heard a lot about Kyle that

is typical of children with ADHD to confirm his diagnosis she needs to give him a range of psychological tests so

Kyle has not taken ritalin today how would you like to start but the results are not as she expects looks look at

these pictures can you show me the Apple and where's the tree the first one is a puzzle of a cat what does a cat say yeah

Kyle's being assist for ADHD but dr. Steinberg is not seeing the behavior she expects Kyle focuses quite well and he's

not distracted at any stage yeah and most importantly he seems to like one of the three key traits of ADHD impulsivity

I saw that didn't do that in this situation most ADHD children will grab it things

without hesitating blurt out answers before a questions finished and run around the room playing with everything

in sight but during this test Kyle does not display these problems now Francis needs to decide whether ADHD is the root

of Kyle's behavior or whether he's been wrongly diagnosed in the past life would be a lot better for Kyle's

family if there was a simple explanation for his behavior and an easy way to manage it but in reality it's never this

simple well it's pretty complex actually he'd come in with fairly strong diagnosis of having ADHD but during that

assessment he just was not showing a lot of features of ADHD certainly attentional problems but very little

impulsive 'ti fairly good attention no fidgeting no lack of inhibition it just wasn't there a key factor is whether

Kyle plans his naughtiness or whether he simply blunders into trouble by doing whatever comes into his mind at the time

when Kyle runs across the road he's disobeying his mother but he thinks to stop and look for cars ADHD children

usually just run onto the road without thinking on the other hand it may be simply that Kyle's parents have

successfully taught him we'd like to have a an exact accurate diagnosis for them I'm not sure what that is at this

point I'd like to give them a definitive answer as to what's driving Kyle's behavior but I don't think it's that

simple and answer when children do have ADHD they just don't think before they act

robert's supposed to be getting his bike ready to take on a family picnic but he sees a can of spray paint and

immediately starts spraying his friend reminds him he needs to put newspaper underneath but he still goes

at it aggressively and haphazardly these things happen many times each day and mum jackie has learned tremendous

patience not on the train please because that'll seize it up okay okay then I was going to do this and I was going to take

the wheel off to take the tire off [Music] Jackie has to choose which battles to

fight with Robert otherwise she'd be nagging him all day every day and often telling him off makes no difference

anyway because he is simply incapable of thinking about consequences he'll be walking through the playground he'll

decide it's appropriate to do something and he'll do it and then the moment he's done it he's forgotten that he's done it

he's forgotten why he wanted to do it he knows that he shouldn't have done it if you go back and you talk to him and he

knows what he should have done in the situation but at the time he has no idea he has no consequences ideas we've tried

to teach him them but they they don't come automatically to him you have to take him back and discuss things with

him over and over again and so you'll think you've sorted a problem out and then the next day he'll go back and

he'll do the same thing again but impulsive behavior is more than just annoying it's often dangerous

we've been aware right the way through his childhood that we're lucky he's still with us because he's he's a

walking disaster area with no checks in place the human being can very be a very dangerous person Chrissy's life has been

in danger in a different way at 18 she stopped taking ritalin because it was assumed she'd outgrown her ADHD but a

lifetime of underachievement and low self-esteem took their toll she used to get depressed and talk about suicide and

things like that you really start asking yourself what have I done wrong here where could we have done something

better what do we do now to change this and a little bit with things like that you're saying what's the signal does she

really mean this or does she need help in some form of so what kind of help how do you how do you provide it many

teenagers with ADHD suffer from anxiety and depression because they're always in trouble and had problems fitting in with

their friends at 20 Krissy developed an eating disorder I wanted to be popular and I wanted to look good and then

weight I lost everyone said God you look so good oh you look so good and I just thrived on it and this went on for years

after recovering from anorexia Chrissy's still couldn't settle she lost job after job and her life went haywire until her

parents realized that ADHD was still the problem and she began to take ritalin again we began to think look she's

displaying the same symptoms that she used to have in her teenage years so maybe she hasn't moved on from this ADHD

and I was really sad about that because I knew how difficult it was for Chris to you know really operate as her friends

operated sometimes young people with ADHD suffer so much failure and criticism that it ends in tragedy Robin

Williams sees the story of her son Samuel as a warning to others family video of Samuel as a 10 year old reveals

a clever outgoing child a child who had seemed to have a bright future but throughout Sam's schooling his reports

were frightening ly repetitive Sam could do better Sam doesn't concentrate Sam talks too

much he seemed to do stupid disruptive impulsive things he very often got him into

yeah difficulties really and he got became very misunderstood because he did a lot of things impulsively like it's

like they he didn't weigh up the consequences of what would happen with what he said or what he did until it was

too late and then of course he would be quite remorseful because he was a very

sensitive person Samuel was expelled from school at 16 and became severely depressed Robin tried everything to help

Sam had counseling and psychiatric treatment after reading about ADHD Robin took Sam to a doctor who confirmed that

this was probably the underlying problem it was just such a relief to come out of that appointment knowing that we had

finally found Samuels problem and Samuel was also relieved and at that point I think he really started to work on his

identity that even helped him with her self-image that helped him to understand himself I mean he got a lot of freedom

from understanding why all those things had happened in his schooling and adolescence

Samuel began to take medication for ADHD and it immediately helped him feel more focused but it was too little too late

the first pill he talked I'll never forget it because he came rushing up to me and said on mum he said imagine if

I'd have had this at age 14 when things started happening to me just imagine mum what it would have been like Robin will

never know whether earlier treatment for Samuels ADHD would have improved his ability to cope with problems that at 21

he found overwhelming he took me by surprise really he really let me down he broke my heart when he took his life

because he promised me that he wasn't going to do that we had an area in his life that we were close to resolving but

we hadn't and there was a huge thing in his mind I think you have in front of you and Edith Sam was writing to Sally

and James which gives some indication of the struggles that he was going through in the part that attention deficit

disorder played in his life however even though we know something of Sam's struggles we will never fully

understand why he took his own life [Music] many parents of teenagers with ADHD say

we've failed to recognize the serious risk at poses not just to their schooling but also to their lives that's

a huge time for anyone it's particularly a mother because we're not conditioned to losing our children we're conditioned

to losing a lot of things but not our children and it's just an unbelievable experience I wouldn't either wish upon

anyone [Music] he doesn't fit the exact criteria of

ADHD he's got a lot of the characteristics he's obviously very active he does show some inhibition

problems and while he can act impulsively in the sense of doing things that he shouldn't kyle usually knows

what he's doing when he acts dangerously we're very much concerned that that his level of aggression and his activity

level doesn't seem to be disappearing with the high doses of ritalin he's on and that's part of the puzzle I also

think he's very socially aware you know he I think he knows how to push people's buttons if it were just the ADHD you'd

expect to see the child just jumping in and doing something and going oh was I not supposed to do that and he can

figure out oh I know if I do this then this person's gonna react that way that's a huge level of planning to be

able to have so it's our feeling that something else must be going on that's contributing to this and until we can

sort out what the something else is we can't really make a definitive statement in terms of him having ADHD or not there

is no one on the whole team who doesn't think what's going on is extremely serious this is not a figment of your

imagination and this is not something that should be trivialized and I think the important thing at this point is not

even the diagnosis as much as what are we going to do to resolve Kyle even if he's doing fine on certain days in

kindergarten going into regular school is a completely different issue in terms of expectations and behavior and what

we'd like is to have a plan in place before Kyle ever steps foot in the door it's like that's the big objective

pressors I've got a terrible fear of the school like I mean he can we can make or break him in this first couple years you

know and I mean once the schools seem to get an idea the kids bad well it's up through sophistical life we've got a few

months that's fantastic and the idea that we can get things in place before he hits

school so that he's not going to get off on the wrong foot he's gonna make all the difference in the world

two weeks later Kyle's stopped taking ritalin school draws closer Michelle and Dean tried to cope with his behavior

they still don't have an answer although Robert may get better at coping he will always have ADHD parenting a child like

this is an ongoing challenge Jackie finds school holidays particularly trying I shall be very glad

when Robert goes back to school again um I'm not sure the house can cope much more with the constant damage that's

been inflicted on it well last night he managed to completely reprogram all the television which luckily is not

irretrievable he's broken the front of the television panels he's just broken it off and snapped it in half he's he's

broken Gemma's gameboy he smashed up the screen I think that provided he doesn't lose his self-esteem and that he knows

that he's clever and that people love him I think that there is a chance for Robert to form as a normal human being

I'm not he's intellectually bright he should be able to fit in and and work with other

people provided he has guidelines in place and he can learn these strategies to behave

[Music] Sam's behavior is noticeably bitter since she began treatment before sitting

still like this to play a game would have been too hard I've noticed a big change she's not

bouncing around all the time which was really really good even just a loan debt alone is sort of taking the stress

levels down quite a bit there's things that need to still be worked on that the ritalin and helping with but these sort

of more behavior modifications that with the use of the Ritalin and his system it'll help her to learn those new things

that she needs to learn that she just wouldn't be able to learn otherwise you've got to do them from this morning

okay remember it's time to pick punishment okay yeah and I don't know it was part

of it was to dry them as well and you didn't tell me I did you know he didn't he so dude by the time she's coming home

from school it's either starting to wear off or in some cases if just hit it you know sort of a little bit too early that

here's one off but it's do harness it around eight five six o'clock Matt it's gone but medication does not cure ADHD

zero and it does not assure Sam a safe future siedel Sam and her family still have difficult times ahead

Sejal don't kick [Music] calm down okay enough

[Music]