Overview of ADHD

Goal

To understandwhat ADHD is and how it is caused.

What is ADHD & How is it Caused? (Hinshaw & Scheffler, pp. 26-29)

ADHD is a medical condition that affects one’s ability to pay attention, control impulses, and refrain from hyperactive behavior. It is quite heritable, at a rate of around 75%. What this means is that most of the reason for the high levels of focus and self-regulation of some people (and the lack of such abilities in others) is found in genes rather than parenting or environmental influences. However, how these genes unfold and become activated over time-in combination with environments that either encourage or discourage self-regulation-plays a crucial part in how ADHD develops.

Self-regulation is simply maintaining well-being by living in line with your values and being able to calm yourself down when feeling upset or cheer yourself up when feeling down. Biological causes of ADHD can include being born at a low birthweight (under 5 � pounds), maternal alcohol use, and binge drinking or smoking during pregnancy. Like most physical and mental disorders, ADHD does not have a single cause.

Executive functioning-the skills we rely on to keep ourselves focused, organized, and motivated to perform complex tasks-is weakened in individuals with ADHD. Executive functions are important brain processes that involve holding new information in one’s mind until it consolidates (i.e., working memory), planning an approach to a task, monitoring performance, maintaining focus, and correcting errors when required. In other words, it’s not what one knows-most people with ADHD have at least normal intelligence-but whether one can use such knowledge via self-regulation. Things like pressure to achieve, media, sitting still for extended periods of time, and the push toward multi-tasking can affect one’s ability to focus, set limits, and manage behaviors. Learn more about how ADHD affects the brain by watching the following video: