ADHD As A Difference In Cognition, Not A Disorder: Stephen Tonti at TEDxCMU

Reviewer: Queenie Lee Great! Hello, my name is Stephen Tonti and I am a director, writer, actor, drummer, diver, soccer player, camera operator, airbrusher, physicist, stargazer, climber, snowboarder, model maker, stage director, monitor camper, personal assistant, DJ, club president, magician, and for a brief period in May 2012, I was asked to repair two stopwatches that had stopped working. (Laughs) Who am I? you ask. My name is Stephen Tonti and I have ADHD. (Laughter) ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder

, and the first time I was diagnosed with ADHD was not a diagnostician, not a private practice, not a pediatrician, but a second grade teacher who was interviewing me for a place in the school where she was. she was working on.

My family had just moved from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Dallas, Texas, and I was looking for a new academic home. During this particular interview, this particular teacher received a message ahead of time from my first grade teacher in New Orleans to check me for signs of ADHD. Just as she got to the series of questions designed to assess whether a child between the ages of five and 17 has ADHD: Wham! I fell out of my chair. (Laughs) No, I didn't slip. And no, the chair didn't fall apart beneath me. Behind the teacher's desk was a giant window, and through that window was a giant field, and in that field were what seemed to me at the time to be hundreds of thousands of kids my age.

They were all playing with a big inflatable rainbow-shaped beach ball, and as they moved around the field, all I could do was follow them. So I leaned a little to the left and a little more to the right before the disaster. Even today I maintain that that window was a trap and that I was prepared. (Laughs) Then I got rejected from high school because I was an eight-year-old kid who couldn't sit still in his chair. There was a complex marshmallow-related incident between me and some staff, but anyway. I ended up at Episcopal School in Dallas. For the next 11 years, I tried everything.

When I say everything, I mean everything. Extracurricular activities: I tried computer science, robotics, carpentry, canoeing, rock climbing, poetry club, logic club, poker club, comedy club, and camping. I went camping at least twice a year for four years. And the band... oh my god. I tried trumpet, saxophone, electric bass, piano, double bass, guitar and acoustic. Did I mention I played sports? It was Texas. We played sports. I tried them all. And the drums. I even received a brief stab wound to the heart. I played seven different instruments; "Touch" is a very generous term. (Laughs) When suddenly my theater, my school built a theater, and I thought, why not?

So I started building the tent sets, then the sound booth and the lighting booth. Then my teacher asked me to act, so I played Conrad in "Ordinary People." I said, "Can I direct?" and she said, "Go ahead!" So I directed "12 Angry Jurors" - because this is high school, people, and you can't direct "12 Angry Men" with a drama school that has three boys and four girls - for people who do math at home, There are seven theater students for a show with 12 people in it. (Laughs) Before I knew it, I was auditioning and interviewing at theater schools all over the country, and that's when Carnegie Mellon found me.

And I love it here. I really do. But we keep going. So what?! I have ADHD, and ADHD is misunderstood as an inability to concentrate, but it's much stranger than that. It's not a lack of concentration, period. It's just that it's hard for me to select something and give it my full attention. Something has to catch my attention, spark my curiosity, and then I can hyperfocus. This is a good and bad thing. It's a bad thing because I have a hard time completing things that I'm not excited about. We live in a world where you have to read your textbooks and pay your taxes.

And yes, big textbooks without pictures scare me. And no one likes handling taxes; In fact, some of you may like that. (Laughs) But the good thing is that when something piques my curiosity, I become obsessed and concentrate too much. I spend a lot of time with cinema. I can spend over 12 hours straight editing clips, sometimes until 6:30 in the morning. In the theater, when I have to put on a show, I work 15 hours a day for weeks on end, and I enjoy that; I love that. I can read a 500-page novel that I love much faster than a one-page article that doesn't interest me.

It's easier for me to see the bigger picture. As a director, I have to follow 20 people with very different jobs, from designers, writers and actors, and I find it much easier to manage than finishing that one-page article, which I'm still working on. (Laughter) David Neeleman, founder and CEO of JetBlue, who also has ADHD by the way, says, "I have a hard time doing the mundane things in life. It's easier for me to plan a fleet of 20 planes than it is for me." pay my electric bill." Yes. So, another good thing about ADHD is that I felt compelled to try everything, I was able to explore all the possible career paths that maybe I didn't have and maybe I haven't figured out what I really want to do. expects many teenagers and young adults to focus on one or two fields of study and one or two hobbies, and hope and pray that they like the ones they have chosen or the ones that have been chosen for them.

My job is to tell stories to others. people, and I find it's easier to do that when I can take advantage of all these other perspectives. It's easier for me to see the world through the eyes of a drummer because I've tried. eyes of a graphic designer because I have also tried it. ADHD is a

difference

in

cognition

, not simply a

disorder

. We are different attention, not attention deficit. But because it is treated and misunderstood as a disorder, it is treated as. something that needs a solution. So the idea seems to be this: we need to get rid of my ADHD, but there is no way to get rid of it.

You just have to sedate him. I was lucky. My high school teachers were progressive, hip young people who were happy to give me extra time, extra attention, and the general freedom to express myself in any way I deemed necessary. Many other children with ADHD are not so lucky. For example, my roommate. Adam has been my roommate for four years. He is an excellent actor in drama school and a brilliant thinker. We both grew up in Dallas, Texas, and we both have ADHD. Adam's high school was different. Now, even though he grew up just 15 minutes north of me, Adam's high school had harsher penalties for falling off a chair.

When you're a kid diagnosed with ADHD, your doctor gives you a series of amphetamines and everyone waits. Because no one has any idea how you will react. Maybe you'll calm down more. You could get depressed. You might lash out at the people around you. The

difference

between Adam and me is that when a new medication might cause me to act out, my teachers immediately advise my doctors to change my medication. However, when Adam tried a new medication, his teachers wrote this in their report: "Adam is less motivated, less animated, and less involved in class activities, but at least now he is calm." We need a healthier understanding of people with ADHD and it starts at home.

I had a mother and father who supported every obsession. I clearly remember one day my father asked me, "Son, you're only 14 years old. What could you possibly want with an air compressor?" (Laughs) To which I replied, "I want to retouch t-shirts and shorts to sell to my classmates and friends." (Exhales) Very well then. And we would go out to look for it. I played with it and became obsessed. During the summers, when he stopped taking my medications and my body was wracked by the effects of withdrawal, my mother would sit next to me, literally taking my migraines away.

With her support, I was able to explore, my obsessions grew and multiplied, and I was able to maintain my sanity. Schools must also develop a better attitude towards students with ADHD. There are many examples out there. For example, Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Massachusetts. Eagle Hill School believes that all students can learn. That learning differently requires teaching differently. And that we must educate our children, our students, so that they learn to learn to form new beliefs in a search for intellectual autonomy. I am inspired by teachers who act more as mentors than disciplinarians. When teachers are honest with me, I feel like I have more control;

Let there be a dialogue about new ways of thinking and approaching a problem, focusing, completing tasks. We need to create and develop a healthier relationship with medication. I believe Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta should only be prescribed to someone who can physically withstand the effects of these medications and their withdrawal. 12 is too young. 16 years old is still too young. There are so many alternatives to medication. Studies have shown that for some it is just an extra weight or pressure to help them focus. And these things exist. There are weighted pads that help people feel more comfortable so they can complete tasks on time.

For some people, they are tics, like chewing pencils, so give them rubber-coated pencils. We have to teach children to learn for themselves; It is the best thing we can do for our children. And finally, our society needs to embrace cognitive diversity. For example, Specialisterne, or The Specialist, is a Danish organization that trains people with autism and ADHD as IT consultants. and other jobs with more technically oriented tasks. We have to turn this joke on those who believe that my disorder separates me from my "more normal peers." Besides, who here at Carnegie Mellon really qualifies as normal? (Laughter) (Applause) (Applause) A great author, a masterful playwright, and a sublime poet once wrote...

Any idea who I'm talking about? (Audience) Shakespeare! You're right! (Laughter) Shakespeare's Sonnet 121. It is better to be vile than to be vilely esteemed when not being so is reproached for being so and the just pleasure is lost, which is thus considered not by our feeling but by the seeing of others. Why should the false and adulterated eyes of others greet my playful blood? Or about my weaknesses, why are there weaker spies, who in their wills consider bad what I consider good? No, I am what I am, and those who are equal to my abuses consider their own: I may be straight, though they themselves be beveled;

Through their rancid thoughts my actions should not be shown; Unless everyone maintains this general evil, all men are evil and in their evil reigns. In sonnet 121, Shakespeare condemns hypocrisy. He implores us not to allow the false and adulterated eyes of others to condemn us for something they believe us to be. He begs you not to let the selfish and negative comments of others get in the way of the just pleasures that are owed to you. A hierarchy of more fragile spies has asked me to conform to society's means. I propose the opposite. My purpose is to let society adjust to me.

And I implore you to do the same. I'll leave you with something that Robin Williams, an example of us in the ADHD community, (Laughter) once said: "We're all just given a little spark of madness. You shouldn't lose it." Thank you! (Applause) (Greetings)