ADHD at 33 | Perry Dripps | TEDxPSU

I was running late, I had to give a parenting talk that night, so I got on my bike and immediately all these thoughts started running through my mind and I thought if I had prepared enough for my talk, the parents would like it. and then I start going. to other places too, so I was thinking, you know what I was going to have for dinner tonight and this car pulls up next to me and they tell me I love music and they have a really cool beat playing in the car and I'm dancing and enjoying it and then I'm like, oh there's a really cool store there, maybe I'll check it out sometime, all of a sudden I'm in the building and you know I'm looking at my phone and I was looking at what the room number was again and all of a sudden...

Whoa, I walked right into a glass wall and immediately started thinking, what was I thinking? That was so stupid, why am I always in such a hurry and trying to, you know, get where I'm going, I'm always three steps behind and These are questions I've asked myself my entire life and I could never understand why I thought you know, these are things everyone always does. thinking and I just have to work really hard to do things right so I went to my counselor and my counselor asked me a bunch of questions about my family and my history and do you know why I might be thinking some of these thoughts? and he said have you ever been tested for ADHD for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and I thought not?

You know, I know I have problems with attention, but I always feel good, this is what I have to do and it turns out I was diagnosed with ADHD. and I'm still 33 years old. So what I really want to get to today are these three things that we're in this very distracting society and we're all experiencing this right now, we need to change our ways for better health and I really need to help people. to unlock their passions to really help our society and our world thrive, so you may know someone with ADHD, you may have it yourself, or you may have a friend who has it, or you may think you know, you you really have it. of inattention, then what is called the type of inattention where you are very distracted, hyperactive impulsivity, that is, restlessness and sitting on the edge of your seat and this is the child that is bouncing off the walls of the classroom and you can have one of these or the other and you can also have what I have, which is this type combined, so the more I kept reading about ADHD, the more I thought it's me, one hundred percent me in a book or me on a page, things like talking excessively. right here I'm a musician and these are all song ideas and I'm frantically scribbling song ideas and generating all this content and in my head I'm thinking, oh what's the beat for that and you know what instrument should go. there, but then you look at the page and you think Jesus is a disorganized mess, you know there's no real logical coherence to it and these are the struggles, these are the things that I deal with every day and my favorite kind. of symptom that when you take the ADHD screening tool it is driven by a motor that is exactly, you know who I am every day, so the key here is that we are different by having ADHD and this is absolutely crucial, it doesn't.

It means you're stupid, it doesn't mean you're inadequate or incapable of being a contributing person to society, it just means you think differently, we're chemically programmed to be different, so if you look back at the research. of ADHD, this paradox syndrome, so ADHD, especially if you've worked with someone with ADHD, if you have it yourself, you know that a person with ADHD can be very distracted, but the next minute they can concentrate intensely on something and it comes up this paradox. that happens and another term you might hear is this variable attention disorder, so my attention varies from moment to moment.

How can I deal with this? How can I face all these challenges in my daily life? the pandemic and all these life stressors happening, whether it's family or relationships or anything else that's going on in your life, it's really, really hard and as someone with ADHD, it's even harder because of this overload. of information trying to make sense of everything and process, so what am I doing right? There are some really basic things you can do. I highly recommend getting your own advice. I see a counselor regularly and it helps to have an ally, a coach and someone who really believes in me too.

If you need it and are diagnosed, taking medication can be really helpful. ADHD is highly treatable in many ways and really allows me to continue contributing to society. The last piece is this social connection where you know if I'm really struggling. Call a friend, maybe call home, find those people in your life that you know you can trust and talk to, and those things are tremendously helpful, but all of those things as I processed this and worked through it. in this diagnosis and coming. accept it, it doesn't really change everything, right, I still have those struggles, those day to day struggles and I was trying to figure out what is really going to help me the most and what I realized is that I was following my passions and focusing my energy in my passions.

I can actually focus on the things I'm passionate about, so this has been really revolutionary for me and passions are important for many different reasons in our lives. I think everyone deserves to be. able to follow what really matters to you, there are two main things for me that have been very helpful, so first there is the idea that when I follow my passions I can pay attention, concentrate and dedicate all my time. and resources and energy in what I'm doing, which is something I don't have the opportunity to do in something I don't really care about, if I'm sitting in a boring lecture or in a long talk, immediately let go of the other reason why are really important is ADHD, kind of like I mentioned before, we always feel like we're inadequate, right, we feel like we're not good enough and these passions really are things that I have confidence in and I have that confidence in myself that I know I am. well in this I know that I can do these things well so a couple of examples I love being in nature and I love I grew up on an island and I was a fish growing up and I love swimming and I also love going to the forest and you know, maybe maybe I hear a bird or maybe I'm looking at a particular plant or um and the amazing thing about nature is this totally immersive experience that really is an ADHD person's dream. because there are so many things that I can attend to and I don't feel judged or like other people are criticizing me, right, I just let myself be and be present in that space, my next passion is absolutely I love to cook, so while my family was growing He called me Karité, which is short for Perry.

I love to cook and I love exploring flavors and textures and different foods. The amazing thing about cooking is that it's a really complex task, so I have to start from the beginning. finishing and going through all these different steps to complete a recipe and get to the end is really complicated and, especially for someone with ADHD, how wonderful it is to concentrate and really see something through to the end and I get great satisfaction when I serve a hot meal to someone and just seeing the look on their face and wow, this is so delicious, this is so good, it gives me that self-confidence that I'm talking about.

The other passion of mine is music and I grew up playing music and guitar. and doing audio production as a hobby, mixing and performing, and what I love about music is this free creative space to explore and there are so many things to attend to in music, there are so many different types of music, there are so many things for me. focusing on the balance of the instruments or the particular sound I'm looking for and all those right things is what I excel at, those are the things I know I can confidently be proud of, so the last one is the one I love doing exercise and if I'm going to ride a bike or run when I exercise, there's actually a chemical basis that explains why exercise is really helpful for people with ADHD, so I have a deficit in neurotransmitters that makes me seek stimulation, okay? ?

I exercise correctly, it's this rush of activity that balances that chemical imbalance, so when I come back from a run and I sit down and I have to do a task and concentrate, I can actually do it well, so it has this chemical basis. So, it's a very, very powerful tool to change my body and change my way of thinking, and that's really something that's been revolutionary. So how do we unlock this potential in people? We often look at people with ADHD from this deficit perspective, and oh, they're so annoying and they won't stop talking and they're always interrupting to unlock potential, we need to change the way we think about our development throughout life. and really help people with ADHD discover what they are good at and what they enjoy.

What do they like to do and support them in that right and give them something to be proud of? If we can do that, our world will truly prosper, thank you.