ADHD/ADD Speech

Title: ADHD – Curse or Blessing? (provisional)

ppp: Slide 1 - Welcome to ADHD-curse or blessing?

Speaker: hello, and good… (something). I am very excited to be here and you are
so very welcome to this event

ppp: Slide 2 – who am I

1. Introducing myself

Before I get more into the details of this presentation, Let me first tell you a bit
about myself

My name is... I am not a medical doctor, nor a counsellor, nor a psychotherapist,

who normally would occupy this stage. I am an educator, and it is about time
that we look at ADHD/ADD and Autism from an alternative angle.

a. Now what is an educator?

This word comes from the Latin word “Educare”, which means to draw out…
drawing out the answers and the talents and skills that are inside of you.

b. Educator vs. Teacher

What is the difference between teachers and educators?

The difference to educator is that teachers regard the children as empty vessels,
which they need to fill up with their (the teacher’s) knowledge, and then check
(exams), how much of the information is retained in that vessel and then
acknowledge this by marking it with a letter between A and F. This is how the
education system is run – as far as I know – all over the world. There is little
space for “drawing out” the talents and skills that are already there and often,
none of the children are asked about their special talents or how they see the
world and what they can do to make it a better place. Mostly they are just put in
this world and then they have to cope with it as it is.” Fit in or you’re screwed”.

There are 15000 different ways our brain can be wired. But we just follow one
particular way and everyone must follow that way or you’re declared as being
strange, odd, weird, mad, totally insane and some, who apparently are very
involved in the ADHD world, seem to know that having ADHD is a pretty sure
road to become a delinquent, if not treated correctly, which means to stuff and
drug them with medication.

It is so important that we turn the table and all work together and help the ADHD
children to get their power back, not make them feel so inadequate and start re-
building their lives.

2. Rescue Vision

It is my vision to rescue these traumatised people. I feel that it is their God given
right NOT to be ecposed to these traumas tat society puts on ehm; they have a
God given right to be able to live up to their potential, to learn and be the person
that they are meant to be and contribute to society in their own way, and it is on
us to open the world and move aside and give them some space and not
constantly smother them.

My work

I felt that my work is trying to explain what is going on in the minds of these
people, so we all can find ways of living, learning and working together, and by
understanding, it will make it a lot easier for everyone, because this is not easy –
for no one, in fact, it is pretty tough going – and it needs a lot of energy.

What I found out is that when a child is diagnosed by a specialist, communication

was done in such a way that it created more confusion and chaos for the parents
and their child, because it wa never really explained what other methods you can
do apart from drugging them.

What I am going to share with you today therefore is a concept that gives you an
understanding of how an ADHD/ADD brain works.

ppp: Slide 3 - TV programme

3. Imagination Exercise

ADHD/ADD is not easy to explain, but to get a good first impression of it, I would
like to take you through an Imagination Exercise.

Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes. Imagine that you are in one of
the shops where yu can buy televisions, DVD palyers, CD players and the likes.
Imagine you are standing in front of a wall with all different kinds of televisions.
Each TV is tuned to a different channel and shows a different programme. You
are standing right in front of this, looking at all these different channels and
trying to make sense out of what happens on each one of them.

Wouldn’t you agree that this s is very confusing?

Now imagine that some authority figure like your boss, a teacher, a supervisor
comes up to you, gives you a notepad and a pen sand says: “Alright, today it is
your turn ro write an exact report on what is happening on each of these
channels.”

So, what happens now? You are looking at all these programmes, trying to
choose on which one to start firs, trying to put words to the pictures…you choose
one programme, then you see something else, you go there, start writing, then
another and another and another one, you can’t make up your mind, because all
these programmes keep changing and you can’t get hold of any of them.

Now your boss comes back, looks at your notepad, shakes his weary head and
says: by all means, that is not good enough, you surely can do better than that.
Margaret has finished her report in no time. Now get on with it, do it a bit faster,
youa re falling behind and don’t disappoint me again. I need that report urgently.

Now what happens?

The pictures on these televisions start to flicker, they disappear, reappear, they
start to move faster and faster, and now you can’t grasp anything anymore of
what is going on.

This time your boss is pretty frustrated with your performance, He gives out, rips
the notepad out of your hand, call you incapable of doing anything right and
leaves you standing there… (Pause)

You can open your eyes now…

How do you feel? Hands up of all those who feel:

• Frustrated

• Useless

• Incapable

• Stupid

Welcome to the world of ADHD/ADD

People, diagnosed with ADHD/ADD have these multiple moving pictures in their
heads and they are trying to physically respond to all these pictures while
parents, teachers, bosses, supervisors, peers, society keep putting more and
more pressure on them.

Let’s summarise briefly: what is the internal ADD/ADHD experience?

ppp: Slide 4-the internal ADHD/ADD experience

• multiple internal images

• Images move fast, disappear and reappear

• Images often happen simultaneously

• Strong physical and emotiona response to these images

 • Belief that these image cannot be controlled

4. Inside an ADHD/ADD mind

ppp: Slide 5 – Volcano

Volcano comparison

ADHD/ADD diagnosed people can be compared to a volcano. They are charged

with super energy and that is why they are so hyperactive and so pumped up.
They need to relieve the pressure in their body and the way ti d that is to move
around. But moving around gets them into trouble, especially the children who
are forced to sit still in school and listen for hours to the teacher.

Then when they get into trouble, all pictures and images start moving a lot faster
in their mind, because if the upcoming stress and anxiety and so the pressure
builds up even more. All this scares them to death and they feel totally
overwhelmed. They go through great length and try to control their inner
experience and their external behaviour.

They also suffer from fear of rejection, because they come across as being
different; they have trouble with social skills, because of the way their mind
works, they have trouble communicating and often when they are
communicating, people would say:

“God, you’re weird.” “What are you talking about?” “How can you think like
that?”

This is the kind of feedback they are getting from their parents, teachers and
peers. And there is a tremendous pressure on them to fit into this system, but
they don’t know how, and that puts an immense amount of anxiety and stress on
them.

ADHD/ADD diagnosed people are put down and criticised and judged, regarded
as potential criminals.
I am not blaming anyone here – don’t get me wrong – That is just the way society
is set up; they just don’t fit into our system, especially not into our school system
and we don’t really know how to help them. So we drug them and turn them into
Zombies, and then they just sit there and zone out completely.

Now how do we recognise ADHD/ADD? Let’s talk about the symptoms…

As we know, the brain in those individuals with ADHD works differently than it
does in people who don’t have ADHD.

Let’s take a look inside a brain…

ppp: Slide 6 – the neuron

There are about 100 Billion neurons in our brain that allow us to communicate.
And within each of these neurons are 15 000 synaptic connections which is a
fancy name for pathways. These pathways allow the neurons to travel, in order
to communicate. This means that in our brain here are trillions of different
options and ways to processing the world around us.

But our society has the philosophy that we ALL have to process the world the
same way. And if this is not happening, then we very easily and quickly call it:
“disorder”. But maybe we can see this brain not as a disorder, but as unique
brain wiring, in other words, we believe that the brain is not broken, it is
uniquely wired.

Your beautiful children that you love and adore ARE NOT BROKEN. They are
divine and talented and it is just that the rest of the world says that we all have
to do everything in one uniformed way and if we don’t do it that way, then
we are considered as failures.

One of the few things we know about ADHD is that in areas of interest and
passion, the ADHD/ADD brain works perfectly fine.

But with boring tasks, things that are hard to organise, anything that is not
interesting, the ADHD/ADD brain shuts down. These brains simply shut down
even though they try hard, while the non-ADHD can keep up the concentration
and focus until a boring task is finished.

If your ADHD children are bored, they will create a fight – just to stimulate the
brain.

However, if they find something that is their strength or their interest, they can
completely hyper focus on it.

We also know that the strength in ADHD children and adults is very strong, much
stronger than in the average population but the weaknesses are also much
weaker.

There is no in-between. In certain situation ADHD individuals can excel and in

other situations they can’t. It is very hard to get them out of something that they
are hyper focused on – like a game or movie.

If you need to go somewhere, you nearly need an hour before the time to start to
get them ready and to get that child out of its hyper focused state – before there
is trouble.
Let’s look at the symptoms that can show up in the ADD/ADHD brain:

ppp: slide 7 – ADHD/ADD symptoms

Distractibility – Constantly distracted by internal and external stimuli that

interrupt actions or conversations.

Explanation: They can’t focus on one task or one thought. The smallest noise
can distract them. How focused were you when we did this multiple image
exercise? There is so much activity going on in their minds, in their experiences
and emotions. They don’t have any strategy or criteria how to pick something
and stay with it except for movies and games they are interested in.

Forgetfulness – Often forget things that were said, or tasks that they tried to
remember to do. Often can’t recall what they just read.

Explanation: They forget instructions. They forget the tasks that they were
told to do. They will start something and then forget what it was that they were
supposed to do. In order to remember something, it needs to be really important
to them, otherwise they will be overwhelmed by all the other images and
therefore the lesser important thing will be forgotten. So, if a parent wants them
to tidy their room by saying: “Go and tidy your room” - that will have no effect
whatsoever. That is auditory and means talking and listening, which goes right
over their head.

This is why school can be such a problem. It is heavily auditory with the teachers
talking all day. ADHD children aren’t paying attention to it, because they are not
processing of what is going on, it is too slow.

If you communicate with ADHD/ADD you need to give them visual and
kinaesthetic instructions, Get them to picture themselves doing it and t feel it in
their body where possible. That way you are in their system.

So if you want Johnny to tidy his room, this is how you would be communicating:
Johnny, picture your bed. Can you feel yourself and see yourself making that
bed? The way how you bed over to fix the duvet? Do you see the clothes all over
the floor? Do you remember what it looked like the last time when you were in
your room? What does it feel like when you put the clothes away and what do
you see?

Another possibility is to go with Johnny and visually point out what to do to get
him started.

Hyperactivity - They cannot stay still. They are constantly moving and
fidgeting, Children want to climb across tables and under the chairs.

Explanation: Why do they act that way? These fast moving internal pictures
generate a lot of nervous energy and all that pressure is building up inside. The
only way to relieve the pressure is to move around or fidgeting and that is the
reason why you will have some of these children climbing over and under tables
and chairs. It helps to relieve some of this volcano or pressure cooker energy. By
jumping and moving they relieve that pressure that is so high that they can’t
take it anymore. If they have suppressed rage the fast moving pictures even add
to the nervous energy.

Hyperfocus – Focusing on genuine interests so avidly that everything else is

forgotten. They lose all track if time when interested in what they are doing.

Explanation: if they are doing something that is really important to them, more
tham anything else that is going on, then they can focus so intensively on it that
everything else is forgotten. (Risk taker: Schindler of Schindler’s List)

Impulsiveness – Jumping into actions or commitments before thinking them

through.

Impulsivity: Impulsivity can go hand in hand with being hyperactive. They

move or change directions very quickly. Often they act before they think. For
example, when they are at school, and they, for example, hear a noise outside,
they jump to the window. They do that before they think or even consider that
this might get them into trouble.
Lack of Organisation – Cannot do the more complex tasks which require
organising the larger steps into a series of smaller steps.

Explanation: They have trouble to do the tasks that require them to organise
the larger tasks into a series of smaller steps. Someone has to tell them or show
them how to do each step. Again, imagine you have these pictures flying around
inside of you. How would you be able to organise something? Another human
being would start to make decisions according to priority, but this is nearly
impossible to ADHD humans, because they cannot control those images. They
even have difficulties in keeping all the steps in their mind they have to go
through in order to have something organised – the images are just too many.

Procrastination – having trouble to start and complete tasks and assignments.

They are constantly putting things off, miss deadlines or stay up half the night
die to putting things off until the last minute.

Explanation: They have trouble starting or completing tasks or assignments

and they are constantly putting off doing things. They just can’t seem to get
started. Why? Often what is labelled as procrastination is inaction, which results
from the inability to make a definite and final decision that they can act on
comfortably. This inaction is a natural result of being unable to process the
rapidly changing excess of information in their mind.

Does that sound familiar to some people in the audience?

6.The Causes of ADD/ADHD

Now we are going to look at the factors that can cause ADHD/ADD

The symptoms of ADHD/ADD are generated by the idea that the mind is out of
control. This out-of-control mind can be caused by any if the following ir a
combination of any of the following….
ppp: Slide 8 – causes of ADHD/ADD

1. High stress and anxiety

2. Candida Albicans (yeast)

3. Emotional Trauma (past or present)

4. Physical reaction (allergies, sugar, junk food)

5. Attitude (boredom, chores, schoolwork, not knowing how to do something)

Explanations:

1. Stress and anxiety: whenw e put pressure on them, criticise them often,
call the names, make them feel weird and all the other not so nice
treatments, then this causes a lot of stress and anxiety, and it will not
improve the situation at all.

2. Candida Albicans: This is a yeast infection. If that gets into your

neurology, it can create the ADHD symptoms.

3. Emotional Trauma: This can come from past experiences like medical
stress for emle or background of upbringing. I have a client, who was an
adopted child, for example, and even though she had wonderful adoptive
parents, she still had the experience of being left behind by her natural
parents.

4. Physical reactions: Toxins, allergies, sweets, junk food…I guess, you

know anyway – I would check out the children’s diet.

5. Attitude: It is vital that we change any negative attitude. For that matter,
we have workshops in place, in which we teach parents how to manage
their child better, how to build family relationships, how to teach their
child respect and responsibility and how to go about their children’s
learning and what else they can do but just drugging their beautiful
children.
7. The physical experience of being an ADHD person

We more or less have tried to understand the theory of ADHD/ADD. But do we

really know how ADHD people really feel? No matter how much we explain it, we
can’t really know unless we have experienced it physically.

I now would like you to experience physically of what it is like to be ADHD/ADD.

Are you ready for this? (Hopefully audience says yes)

Step 1 : On a piece of paper write ten words.

Step 2: four volunteers for demonstrating the exercise

Step 3: I am the ADHD person

Step 4: one volunteer is parent standing in front of ADHD person. ! minute talks
forcefully, the next minute nice.

Step 5: the three other volunteers stand behind the ADHD person. They read
their words off the list and touch the back each time they say a word. All
volunteers must do this simultaneously.

Step 6: ADHD person must remember as many words as possible.

Now get organised in groups of five and do the exercise in turns.

• Feedback and debriefing

• What was your coping mechanism?

• As parent/teacher what label would you have given the child?

8. The other side of the coin

Nothing in the world is just one-sided. And if ADHD/ADD is at the one side
regarded as a curse and very traumatic way of life, what do we get on the other
side of the coin?

When ADHD/ADD is turned around to its positive side, the they become the
children of Da Vinci, Mozart, Einstein, J.F. Kennedy, Richard Branson, Bill Gates
and our very own Bono from U2. All are ADHD or ADD.

And in order to eb able to turn the coin around, we offer workshops that show
you more techniques that will help you with reconnecting with your child, with
how to deal with your child’s rage, how to detach and keep calm when they say
something really rotten to you, how we can take some their strength and bring it
into the area of their weakness, and a lot more, so that the pressure of the
environment is not boredom, but interactive and stimulating. We learn how to
spot them doing things right rather than wrong, and find out, not only what is
right, but how he is doing it to get it right.

…and we learn to pause, because we are so busy doing that we forget to stop
and just “BE”. After all, we are human beings, not human doings.

We now have come to the end of this talk, but before we will part, let me do one
more exercise with you, which serves the purpose of feeling wonderfully relaxed
and getting back into balance after the last experience and getting to know who
you really are – who we really are, and when we operate from this place, you
always will be at ease, because you come from a placeof knowing….

Pure Awareness Exercise (if there is still time)

Sit quietly and close your eyes. (wait about half a minute)

Notice that with your eyes closed, you experience several things: You hear my
voice, you may notice that your body is sitting on a chair, you may notice other
noises or sensations, and you will notice that there are thoughts coming to you.
Notice that the thoughts are like speaking. It is not really one long sentence.
Notice that there are pauses, however brief – in between your thoughts.

Now allow yourself to simply notice the gap between the thoughts, or, if you find
it easier, notice the background behind your thoughts….imagine the display
window inside the train for the next stations. There is a black background and
the name of the stations run in English and Irish fromright to left across the
board. Imagine your thoughts doing the same. They are running from left to right
on that black background and the words have little gaps between them.

Notice that the gap between the thoughts or the background is truly empty,
There is nothing there, It is just pure awareness without the awareness of
anything else, It is lively but there is no object if experience.

Dive right into those gaps between the thoughts or into the background behind
your thoughts. Immerse yourself in the gap between the thoughts If you find that
you are absorbed in thinking, at the moment you are noticing this, simply bring
your attention back to the gap between the thoughts. (1-2-minutes)

Okay, when you are ready, open your eyes: What do you experience?

When I use the word pure awareness, do you know from tis experience what pure
awareness is?

No that you have experienced your own pure awareness in the gap between the
thoughts, it is easy to notice that pure awareness is still there, lively in the
background. So you feel that?

• Is there anything lacking in the experience of that pure awareness?

• Is there anything that you could not do from this place?

• Is there any sense of need in this place?

In most cases people will have had a clear experience of their essential nature as
pure awareness. It is so simple. And our lives are so focused in an outward
direction that we tend to forget that this silent pure awareness is the essence of
who we really are.

Finishing off

Thank you for allowing me to be here with you and to give you some more
information on ADHD/Add. If you are interested in any of the courses, you are
more than welcome to enrol in our workshops.

It has been a pleasure and an honour to be here with you today. Godd bless,
taeke great care of yourself and safe home.