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

Stephen talked about how ADHD was personally beneficial for him since everyone in his life was so supportive. He learned a lot from being impulsive and letting his interests lead him into new directions or to further explore things he already loved. Stephen also mentions how not everyone is lucky enough to have supportive parents and teachers. He gave an example of his friend that grew up minutes down the road, that illustrated difficulty for ADHD students, especially during medication changes. The teachers preferred the inattentive zombie over the hyperactive attentive child. Stephen believes people with ADHD should not take stimulant medications until it is necessary and/or their brain and body are able to tolerate the effects of the drug and its withdrawals.  “ADHD is a difference in cognition, not simply a disorder. We're attention different, not attention deficit. (TEDxTalks, 2010).” It is only a disorder in the sense that people don’t know how to adapt, their teaching methods and/or their views on how people should think and behave, is one of the major points he depicts.

Attention

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is mainly characterized by the attention networks of the brain and two neurotransmitters (dopamine and norepinephrine). The brain’s attention networks are alerting network (right frontal cortex, DLPFC, anterior cingulate gyrus, right parietal cortex), orienting network (frontal eye fields, superior parietal cortex, superior colliculus, temporal parietal junction, pulvinar nuclei of the thalamus), and  executive control network (anterior cingulate gyrus, lateral frontal cortex, basal ganglia) (Posner & Petersen, 1990; Posner & Rothbart, 2007). The alerting network manages vigilance and attentiveness. The orienting network processes stimuli. The executive control network controls goal-directed behavior, conflict resolution, target and error detection, inhibition of automatic responses. (Notes: Attention 2 of 2, 2022). Norepinephrine is involved in the alert network, while dopamine is involved in the executive network. (Posner & Rothbart, 2007).

ADHD symptoms may include: aggression/anger/irritability, hyperactivity/fidgeting, impulsivity/excitability, boredom, mood swings, difficulty focusing/paying attention, forgetfulness, and short attention span. Personally, I relate to short attention span and ‘following the dopamine.’ I can’t focus no matter how hard I try, if something is not interesting or if there are interruptions/distractions around me. Medications can help with attention in respect to the neurotransmitters. According to studies on attention and ADHD and the in-class notes, there are multiple forms of improving attention other than stimulants. Some methods and non-stimulant medications include attention training methods (Posner & Rothbart 2007), Atomoxetine (norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) (Bush 2011), and meditation (Notes: Attention 2 of 2, 2022). 

Reaction

ADHD is considered a disorder because people with ADHD have trouble learning in a standardized way. “Patients with ADHD can perform well on interesting tasks, but show inabilities to perform on tasks that are deemed boring or irrelevant. (Bush 2010)”  In the YouTube video, Stephen spoke about hyper-fixating, which is having so much interest and focus on one thing that nothing else around them holds their attention. Hyper-fixations and the inability to focus on uninteresting things represents attention as a mental capacity proposed by Kahneman (1973). “We have control over the tasks we choose to allocate more resources to, and this choice depends on our interest in the task and our current intentions. (McBride & Cutting, 2018, p. 84).” Fixations come and go and very rarely do they match a standardized lesson plan. ADHD symptoms such as hyper-fixations and risk-taking are not always negative and can be used to our advantage. For example, people with ADHD are more likely to have entrepreneurial goals and follow through with venturing actions (Lerner, Verheul, & Thurik, 2019). If people with ADHD follow their passions and have supportive environments, learning and attention would be less problematic and almost effortless.