Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Marsha for RADIOI, and today I will
Speaker 1: be reading National Geographic magazine dated November twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI
Speaker 1: is a reading service intended for people who are blind
Speaker 1: or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
Speaker 1: printed material. Please join me now for the first article
Speaker 1: entitled Seeing Life through a Bug's Eyes, A Japanese photographer
Speaker 1: hacked his camera and revealed a strange and curious scene
Speaker 1: right under foot. The realm of insects is right in
Speaker 1: front of our eyes, filled with kaleidoscopic characters flaunting vibrant
Speaker 1: colors and dramatic action. But it's so minuscule it's easy
Speaker 1: to miss. That's why it's Several years ago, photographer Takuya
Speaker 1: Ishiguro began altering his camera, adding a magnifying lens between
Speaker 1: the sensor and main lens. Such modifications are tricky to
Speaker 1: pull off because mispositioning any of the components will ruin
Speaker 1: the image quality. But once he perfected the set up,
Speaker 1: he was able to capture the tiny but glorious lives
Speaker 1: of the insects around the lakes and field of his
Speaker 1: home in Osaka. Japan. The new perspective left him with
Speaker 1: a deep respect for nature's inventiveness. Ishiguro found that the
Speaker 1: invertebrates displayed a remarkable sense of creativity as they harvest food, mated,
Speaker 1: and burrowed to build their homes. He came to see
Speaker 1: insects not as specimens, but as beings that lived together
Speaker 1: with us. This by Nick Martin next, How ADHD became
Speaker 1: an adult disorder. Millions of grown ups are now being
Speaker 1: diagnosed with what was once thought to be a childhood condition,
Speaker 1: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. What did health care providers miss
Speaker 1: and how do you know if you're affected? In the
Speaker 1: following pages, we explore what science is telling us about
Speaker 1: how the adult symptoms manifest, what risk factors may be
Speaker 1: at play, and how one overlooked population women is offering
Speaker 1: a new perspective on how this disorder really works, What
Speaker 1: makes adult ADHD different. Researchers are taking a French look
Speaker 1: at why symptoms of the disorder seem to shift as
Speaker 1: we get older and what that means for people already
Speaker 1: coping with a world of distractions. This by Darryl Austen.
Speaker 1: The doctors had it wrong for decades. Many psychiatrists believe
Speaker 1: that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as
Speaker 1: ADHD might simply outgrow it, but new evidence reveals a
Speaker 1: different truth. While approximately seven million children in the United
Speaker 1: States are currently diagnosed with ADHD, a recent survey from
Speaker 1: the Centers for Disease Control shows that fifteen point five
Speaker 1: million American adults also have the disorder. In fact, about
Speaker 1: half of them were diagnosed as adults. Today, researchers recognize
Speaker 1: that adult ADHD tends to look different because adults are
Speaker 1: often better at masking the symptoms. People living with adas
Speaker 1: HD typically have difficulty paying attention or staying on task.
Speaker 1: They may feel restless, talk excessively, act impulsively by interrupting others,
Speaker 1: or struggle in situations that require waiting their turn. Where
Speaker 1: a child may not be able to sit calmly in
Speaker 1: a classroom and continuously gets out of their seat. An
Speaker 1: adult may be very impatient at red lights or waiting
Speaker 1: in grocery store lines, says Jill rosch Weisel, a psychology
Speaker 1: professor at the University of Maryland Medical Center. And where
Speaker 1: a child may impatiently raise their hand in class and
Speaker 1: disrupt the flow, an adult may interrupt others conversations. Then
Speaker 1: there is the intensity of the reactions to consider, and
Speaker 1: children and adults alike. Such symptoms can range from very
Speaker 1: mild to very severe. Rasch Weisl says having ADHD means
Speaker 1: that a person frequently exhibits these tendencies across multiple situations,
Speaker 1: including school, of home, or work, impairing the ability to
Speaker 1: complete tasks. Craig's Sermon, a physician and psychiatrist who runs
Speaker 1: the adult ADHD research program at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains
Speaker 1: that though the impulsive and hyperactive nature of the disorder
Speaker 1: usually diminishes in adulthood, the inattentive traits often persist. The
Speaker 1: growing prevalence in adults is driven in part by greater
Speaker 1: awareness of the disorder and people with previously missed diagnoses
Speaker 1: reaching out for help. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, meaning
Speaker 1: its effects. It affects how the brain develops in functions
Speaker 1: and is predominantly genetic. Environmental factors or issues during pregnancy
Speaker 1: may also play a role. Some researchers are now suggesting
Speaker 1: that our overreliance on technology could exacerbate the disorder or
Speaker 1: cause similar symptoms. It is legitimate to look at the
Speaker 1: possibility of acquired attention deficit, says John Rayti, a physician, neurophysici,
Speaker 1: neuro psychiatrist, and associative Associate Clinical Professor of psychiatry at
Speaker 1: Harvard Medical School. People today are pushed to multitask and
Speaker 1: are bombarded by constant technological stimulation, which may result in
Speaker 1: screen addiction. This could potentially lead to a shorter attention span,
Speaker 1: he says. Although some research has explored the connection, the
Speaker 1: conclusions aren't definitive. Nearly a decade ago, a study in
Speaker 1: Psychology of Addictive Behaviors affirmed that ADHD is associated with
Speaker 1: compulsive and excessive use of video games and social media.
Speaker 1: More recently, in twenty twenty, scientists at the University of California,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles found that although the majority of research has
Speaker 1: focused on children and adolescents, the link between extensive screen
Speaker 1: time and symptoms of ADHD has been found in individuals
Speaker 1: of any age. To be clear, acquired ADHD is not
Speaker 1: an official diagnosis. The connection between technology use and attention
Speaker 1: problems could also be attributed to the fact that people
Speaker 1: who are constantly in front of screens have fewer opportunities
Speaker 1: to allow their brains to rest in their default mode
Speaker 1: For a long time, the association between ADHD and heavy
Speaker 1: online use was a chicken and egg question in our field,
Speaker 1: says Elias Obojuade, a clinical professor at Stanford University School
Speaker 1: of Medicine. Do people become heavy online consumers because they
Speaker 1: have ADHD an online life better suits their attention span
Speaker 1: or do they develop ADHD as a result of excessive
Speaker 1: online consumption. Both clinical experience and continuing research, he says,
Speaker 1: increasingly suggest screens are influencing behavior. Some scholars dispute this idea,
Speaker 1: but Lydia Zelawska, a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota
Speaker 1: Medical School an author of the Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD,
Speaker 1: says that are always on smartphone connected culture probably contributes
Speaker 1: to some people feeling distraction and may worsen pre existing
Speaker 1: ADHD or train and otherwise non ADHD brain to feel scattered.
Speaker 1: Factors beyond technology use may also be contributing to or
Speaker 1: causing ADHD traits in adults. Rady says that hormonal changes
Speaker 1: relating to menstruation or metapause commonly bring out latent ADHD
Speaker 1: symptoms in women. Women are one of the most undiagnosed
Speaker 1: demographics of ADHD and are often given antidepressants and anxiety
Speaker 1: medication when in reality they are suffering symptoms related to
Speaker 1: having ADHD. He explains the tendency of ADHD symptoms to
Speaker 1: overlap with other mental health conditions certainly isn't unique to women.
Speaker 1: In adults, ADHD rarely travels alone, Zylauska says, and just
Speaker 1: like a fever, can have different explanations, attention problems can
Speaker 1: be due to different reasons. She says that factors such
Speaker 1: as stress, side effects of medication and insufficient sleep can
Speaker 1: also make focusing difficult. Similarly, other mental or physical health symptoms,
Speaker 1: she says, including anxiety, depression, sleep apnea, age related cognitive changes,
Speaker 1: and thyroid problems, may mimic ADHD. Because ADHD often appears
Speaker 1: alongside other disorders, there is nothing benign about leaving the
Speaker 1: condition untreated, says Mark Stein, a psychologist in the ADHD
Speaker 1: program at Seattle Children's Hospital and professor of psychiatry and
Speaker 1: behavioral sciences at the University of Washington. My most important
Speaker 1: piece of advice is to get a good evaluation, he says.
Speaker 1: What adults seeking a clinical diagnosis may find, of course,
Speaker 1: is that the underlying issues have always been there. Psychiatrists
Speaker 1: often look for symptoms that presented at a young age.
Speaker 1: The diagnostic cutoff is age twelve, even if they went
Speaker 1: largely unnoticed, and they can spot clues by reading the
Speaker 1: journals or teacher notes, interviewing family members, or listening to
Speaker 1: a patient's recollection of memories from that time. It may
Speaker 1: turn out that when parents or teachers fail to recognize symptoms,
Speaker 1: the child developed workarounds. Some children simply may not struggle
Speaker 1: enough to prompt concern. It is not uncommon to have
Speaker 1: an inattentive child that is not disruptive in the classroom
Speaker 1: and thus overlooked. Zylowski says fixed schedules, structured activities, and
Speaker 1: help from parents can also make it easy to overlook
Speaker 1: symptoms until a person loses such structure and help once
Speaker 1: becoming an adult. Roch Weissel explains that when ADHD is
Speaker 1: missed and these children grow up and leave home, they
Speaker 1: sometimes begin to struggle or notice they have to work
Speaker 1: two or three times harder to achieve the same level
Speaker 1: of success as their peers. The good news is that
Speaker 1: once the disorder has been properly identified, numerous options are
Speaker 1: available to those seeking help. It's a very treatable condition.
Speaker 1: After diagnosis, rush By Baisel says, treatments often include medication
Speaker 1: or therapeutic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Speaking with
Speaker 1: a professional who diagnoses and treats ADHD can determine if
Speaker 1: medication or non medication therapies may be helpful. ADHD has
Speaker 1: its challenges, but it also comes with tremendous gifts that
Speaker 1: include creativity, enthusiasm, curiosity, loyalty, and project oriented focus when
Speaker 1: something is of interest, Rady explains, it's about finding the
Speaker 1: right job, the right friends, and the right partner to
Speaker 1: build on the strengths of the ADHD brain to make
Speaker 1: it sore. How to determine if you're at risk. Scientists
Speaker 1: are mapping the characteristics that adult with ADHD's share and
Speaker 1: finding new coping strategies for people living with the disorder.
Speaker 1: By Rina Goldman and Demi Gul The signs were there,
Speaker 1: but subtle. Dustin Chandler never did his homework. He was
Speaker 1: labeled lazy at school. Who wasn't until years later when
Speaker 1: his mother, now working at a pediatric clinic, watched him
Speaker 1: struggle to renovate his first house, that something clicked. Son,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for this, she told him, but you need
Speaker 1: to go get tested for ADHD. Chandler was officially diagnosed
Speaker 1: at twenty five. He learned that the developmental disorder could
Speaker 1: be passed on to his children, so he and his
Speaker 1: wife looked for signs in their kids like her father.
Speaker 1: Their second child, a daughter, seemed to be the quiet,
Speaker 1: day dreaming type. She enjoyed reading independently since she could
Speaker 1: go at her own pace, and she excelled when her
Speaker 1: teacher taught her one on one in elementary school. However,
Speaker 1: their concerns increased during a math challenge or students had
Speaker 1: to solve as many problems as possible within a minute,
Speaker 1: and she worked too slowly. In second grade, she was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with ADHD. While doctors and researchers still aren't sure
Speaker 1: of the exact cause of the disorder, the predominant theory,
Speaker 1: explained Stephen Rush, a professor of psychiatry at the University
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, is primarily genetics and the biology of what's
Speaker 1: going on in the brain that seems to be associated
Speaker 1: with it. Studies show that about eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: time there is a similar genetic component found among people
Speaker 1: who have ADHD compared to people who do not have it.
Speaker 1: Scientists have discovered that people with a disorder experience specific
Speaker 1: brain chemistry changes as their dopamine and no repinephrine systems
Speaker 1: are disregulated. These compounds, which are strongly associated with the
Speaker 1: ability to maintain concentration, seem to become depleted more quickly.
Speaker 1: Dopamine is in charge of motivation, focus, and reward processing.
Speaker 1: Francis xavior psychiatrist and medical director at neuro Wellness SPA
Speaker 1: in Marine del Rey, California, explains no ropinephrine is in
Speaker 1: charge of alertness, attention, and arousal, and these are the
Speaker 1: two main targets of stimulant medications for ADHD. Genetics also
Speaker 1: likely plays a role in chemical changes that make it
Speaker 1: hard for people with ADHD to regulate attention, emotional function,
Speaker 1: and impulses. Our brains have a pologenic architecture, Rush says,
Speaker 1: and what that means is that there are hundreds of
Speaker 1: potential genes contributing to small effects. Their interaction and the
Speaker 1: interaction that these genes have even with the environment, shapes
Speaker 1: the risk for a diagnosis of ADHD. Recent studies are
Speaker 1: uncovering more about genes contributing to developing the disorder. An
Speaker 1: article in Nature Genetics identified numerous genes associated with ADHD,
Speaker 1: many of which are active with the brains developing. The
Speaker 1: most recent studies on the genetics of ADHD have identified
Speaker 1: twenty seven common genetic variants that are associated with having ADHD,
Speaker 1: says Sandra k Lew, director of Pediatric Neuropsychology and Professor
Speaker 1: of Psychiatry at UCLA's David Geffen's School of Medicine. Having
Speaker 1: more of these gene variants is likely to confer a
Speaker 1: higher risk for having ADHD. The combination of elements contributing
Speaker 1: to an individual case of the disorder might be different
Speaker 1: depending on the person. Genetic expression is highly influenced by
Speaker 1: the environment as well as its interaction with other genes.
Speaker 1: Xavior says, so things like physical, chemical, social, and nutritional
Speaker 1: influences can vary widely and that can affect the manifestation
Speaker 1: of ADHD. While Chandler seems to have passed down a
Speaker 1: paternal link to the condition, researchers are learning that for
Speaker 1: some people, what happens during pregnancy or shortly after birth
Speaker 1: may contribute to the condition. There are strong associations with
Speaker 1: maternal smoking, maternal obesity, preoclamsia during pregnancy in the use
Speaker 1: of acet of metaphine, Rush says. Although the evidence surrounding
Speaker 1: acet of metaphine use is still mixed, research published in
Speaker 1: the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry suggests that an
Speaker 1: infection during pregnancy, especially one that causes of fever, is
Speaker 1: a risk factor because the mother's immune system to an
Speaker 1: infection could disrupt the brain development of the fetus. There's
Speaker 1: also literature that suggests that September is a peak birth
Speaker 1: month for children diagnosed with ADHD, Savior says, and the
Speaker 1: idea is that there is a higher risk of prenatal
Speaker 1: exposure to infection during the first trimester in the winter months,
Speaker 1: when in fictions are more common. Another theory suggests that
Speaker 1: the September peak isn't solely correlated with prenatal infection. It
Speaker 1: may be affected by school enrollment cut off dates, where
Speaker 1: children who are young for their grade may be more
Speaker 1: likely to be diagnosed because of developmental immaturity. Well, there
Speaker 1: isn't enough research yet to understand the exact influence certain
Speaker 1: environmental factors have on developing the disorder. There are some
Speaker 1: strong associations. For example, studies have shown a connection between
Speaker 1: lead exposure and young children and the emergence of ADHD
Speaker 1: symptoms has also associated the prevalence of philates or by
Speaker 1: biss phenol a b p A chemicals found in plastic
Speaker 1: consumer products with the condition of the toxins. Exposure to
Speaker 1: high levels of lead has been strongly associated with ADHD risk,
Speaker 1: Lou says, but associations between genetics and our environment still
Speaker 1: aren't fully understood. There's a whole lot of things that
Speaker 1: contribute to these brain changes, Rush says, and we call
Speaker 1: them ADHD because of the symptoms that they cause. For Chandler,
Speaker 1: understanding the condition has helped his family better navigate their
Speaker 1: daily life. He currently applies his hands on skills in
Speaker 1: his job as a technician and enjoys motorcycling. After their
Speaker 1: daughter's diagnosis and years of keeping her in the school system,
Speaker 1: he and his wife chose homeschooling for their family. Their
Speaker 1: daughter flourished as it followed her allowed her to go
Speaker 1: at her own pays. Today, she's a teenager and her
Speaker 1: favorite subjects are anatomy and biology. She is preparing to
Speaker 1: begin a welding program, and she shows signs of following
Speaker 1: in her father's footsteps. She just bought a motorcycle. Whatever culture,
Speaker 1: wherein we can help to move it forward. Chandler says,
Speaker 1: to be more accepting of the realities of human nature. Next,
Speaker 1: why women are the new face of ad h D.
Speaker 1: Ad h D has traditionally been associated with unruly boys,
Speaker 1: but to day psychologists are studying the way it impacts
Speaker 1: women to help evolve our understanding of the disorder. This
Speaker 1: by Calin Lynch. At age twenty three, roch Edou was
Speaker 1: convinced she had dementia. She found herself forgetting birthdays, missing
Speaker 1: work meetings, and struggling to manage her credit card debt.
Speaker 1: Her Google searches suggested that she had early onset dementia,
Speaker 1: which her doctor quickly dismissed. It would take her another
Speaker 1: four years in the assessments of two psychiatrists before Idou
Speaker 1: was finally diagnosed with adh D. Suddenly, everything in her
Speaker 1: life began to make sense, her constant fidgeting as a child,
Speaker 1: The caffeine fueled all nighters she spent finishing school assignments,
Speaker 1: and the weeks it took to answer messages from friends.
Speaker 1: It was a mass of eureka moment. Idoo, now thirty one,
Speaker 1: says she has one of millions of women diagnosed with
Speaker 1: ADHD in adulthood. According to the Centers for Disease Control
Speaker 1: and Prevention, that number has continued to rise in recent years.
Speaker 1: Researchers attribute the increase to multiple factors, including greater public awareness,
Speaker 1: the expansion of telehealth, and the historical underdiagnosis of ADHD
Speaker 1: in women. The topic has become pretty popular on social media,
Speaker 1: which has prompted some psychologists to worry that there might
Speaker 1: be potential for overdiagnosis or people misdiagnosing themselves. A recent
Speaker 1: national survey by researchers at Ohio State University found twenty
Speaker 1: five percent of adults now suspect they may have ADHD.
Speaker 1: Part of the issue may be that people with ADHD
Speaker 1: typically fall into one of three categories hyperactive, inattentive, or combined.
Speaker 1: Girls and women are more likely to have the inattentive presentation,
Speaker 1: characterized by disorganization, forgetfulness, and struggles with starting and staying
Speaker 1: on task. They're more likely to be seen as daydreamers
Speaker 1: or lost in the clouds, says Julia Scheckter, co director
Speaker 1: of the Duke's Center for Girls and Women with ADHD
Speaker 1: at the Duke University School of Medicine. Even girls with
Speaker 1: hyperactive or combined diagnoses may display their symptoms differently than boys,
Speaker 1: such as talking excessively, twirling their hair, or constantly shaking
Speaker 1: their legs or reacting emotionally. Their symptoms are just as impairing,
Speaker 1: Scheckter says, but can fly under the radar. Not that
Speaker 1: long ago. One of the first major attempts to characterize
Speaker 1: how ADHD appeared in young girls was widely ridiculed. When
Speaker 1: clinical psychologist Kathleen Nadeau co authored Understanding Girls with ADHD
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine, the research community still thought of
Speaker 1: ADHD almost exclusively as a disorder for boys. We were
Speaker 1: laughed at during conferences, nado says. They said, We've got
Speaker 1: these guys that are in the principal's office three times
Speaker 1: a week, getting suspended and throwing spitballs, and you've got
Speaker 1: these quiet girls making honorable grades, and you think they
Speaker 1: have ADHD. While that attitude has started to change, the
Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of research on ADHD has been done in
Speaker 1: boys and men, leading to the hyperactive and disruptive stereotype
Speaker 1: of people with ADHD. But girls with ADHD may excel
Speaker 1: in school though it comes at a different price. They
Speaker 1: may get an a out of paper, but stay up
Speaker 1: the night before writing it after being unable to focus
Speaker 1: for weeks. Girls work very hard to hide their problems.
Speaker 1: I don't want the teacher to be mad at me,
Speaker 1: Nido says. Psychologists refer to this as masking, or how
Speaker 1: individuals who are socialized as females tend to find ways
Speaker 1: to compensate for their symptoms because of societal expectations. They
Speaker 1: have to put in at lease twice the effort of
Speaker 1: other people if they're determined to do well, Nado says
Speaker 1: Janop Mowen, thirty three, a postdoctoral scientists at the Howard
Speaker 1: Hughes Medical Institute, felt trapped in her own exhausting cycle
Speaker 1: before being diagnosed with ADHD in her late twenties. You
Speaker 1: can't let people know that your falling apart, Mowen says,
Speaker 1: like many women who ent your adulthood untreated. Mowen scored
Speaker 1: top grades in school and went on to have a
Speaker 1: successful career. Still, years of masking her symptoms contributed to
Speaker 1: her developing mental health and self esteem issues and struggling
Speaker 1: in personal relationships. Mowen now realizes that her symptoms appeared
Speaker 1: during childhood, but girls and women are more likely to
Speaker 1: have their symptoms mistaken for emotional or learning difficulties and
Speaker 1: are less likely to be referred for assessments. Gender bias
Speaker 1: also may play a role. In two different studies, researchers
Speaker 1: found that when teachers are presented with vignettes of children
Speaker 1: with ADHD, when the child's names and pronouns were changed
Speaker 1: from female to male, they were more likely to be
Speaker 1: recommended for treatment and offered extra support. All these misconceptions
Speaker 1: mean that girls with ADHD are being overlooked and untreated
Speaker 1: well into adulthood. As David Goodman, the director of the
Speaker 1: Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland and a professor
Speaker 1: of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Speaker 1: points out, the ratio of boys to girls with ADHD
Speaker 1: in childhood is about three to one, while in adults
Speaker 1: it's about one to one. This suggests that ADHD prevalence
Speaker 1: is equal across genders, except that women are diagnosed later.
Speaker 1: Children get diagnosed because they're disruptive and a pain to
Speaker 1: other people, Goodman says, the adults get diagnosed because they're
Speaker 1: a pain to themselves. As women move into adulthood, they
Speaker 1: are societal demands to more actively manage their behaviors and emotions,
Speaker 1: so symptoms can become even harder to recognize as ADHD
Speaker 1: or activity may manifest as inner restlessness, inattention may appear
Speaker 1: as difficulty completing chores or meeting deadlines, and impulsiveness can
Speaker 1: manifest as difficulty managing a budget. Despite these challenges, many
Speaker 1: women with ADHD may appear externally as high achieving perfectionists,
Speaker 1: but the consequences of a mist or incorrect diagnosis can
Speaker 1: be severe. Compared with their neurotypical peers, women with ADHD
Speaker 1: are more likely to have anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and
Speaker 1: eating disorders. Canadian researchers recently found that adults with ADHD
Speaker 1: are over five times more likely to attempt suicide than
Speaker 1: those without it, and nearly one in four women with
Speaker 1: the disorder reports having attempted suicide, and Danish led research
Speaker 1: has revealed that the risk of premature death in women
Speaker 1: with ADHD was higher than that of men with the disorder,
Speaker 1: potentially because of women being less likely to be diagnosed
Speaker 1: and receive treatment. Even for those who decide to get
Speaker 1: proper medical evaluation. Finding a skilled provider can be particularly challenging.
Speaker 1: Psychiatrists get about half a day of training in adult
Speaker 1: ADHD over three years. Nadau says an assessment can require
Speaker 1: several sessions to determine if symptoms were present in childhood.
Speaker 1: My doctor told me she didn't think I had ADHD
Speaker 1: because I graduated from university and had a job, Bedouze explains.
Speaker 1: Women are also more likely to have their ADHD symptoms
Speaker 1: mistaken for anxiety or depression. Mowen spent about twenty years
Speaker 1: being misdiagnosed with and treated for major depressive disorder and anxiety,
Speaker 1: only to find her symptoms resolved once she was treated
Speaker 1: for ADHD with therapy and medication. She thinks her anxiety
Speaker 1: and depression were more of a response to the pressure
Speaker 1: she put on herself to mask symptoms while struggling to
Speaker 1: keep up. Psychiatrists think, let's treat the anxiety, let's treat
Speaker 1: the depression, and when those are better, let's if there
Speaker 1: really is any ADHD, says Nado, when it should really
Speaker 1: be the opposite. Meanwhile, social media continues to spread awareness
Speaker 1: and possibly confusion. When researchers at the University of British
Speaker 1: Columbia looked at one hundred most popular TikTok videos about
Speaker 1: ADHD for a twenty twenty two study. For instance, they
Speaker 1: found that about half of what was shared was misleading.
Speaker 1: This is not a disorder where you lose your keys sometimes,
Speaker 1: Scheckter says, when we reduce ADHD to a social media post,
Speaker 1: that real functional impairment gets lost in the mix. Researchers
Speaker 1: also emphasize that attention issues brought on by the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic, remote work, and more time spent on social
Speaker 1: media are not enough to warrant an ADHD diagnosis. Just
Speaker 1: because you have a hard time working from home, or
Speaker 1: get distracted by your phone, or can't do your homework
Speaker 1: with the TV on does not mean you have ADHD,
Speaker 1: Scheckter says, looking for this pattern of symptoms and challenges
Speaker 1: that have been present across time and across settings. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: Scheckter doesn't think social media posts can lead to women
Speaker 1: who visit clinicians being diagnosed. The ADHD was always there,
Speaker 1: She says, we as clinicians are finally catching up and
Speaker 1: getting better at diagnosing ADHD in adult women. That said,
Speaker 1: we still have much work to do for her part,
Speaker 1: Edo has found that since seeking professional treatment, including a
Speaker 1: prescription to help with focus, she has gained control of
Speaker 1: her finances, is thriving at work, and has improved her relationships.
Speaker 1: Her journey and the lack of available information prompted her
Speaker 1: to start a newsletter Adulting with ADHD in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: which she says has helped people get diagnosed. It's very
Speaker 1: difficult to exist in a world where you feel like
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with your brain. Ido says there's a
Speaker 1: power in just knowing. That's the first step towards a solution.
Speaker 1: While doctors and researchers still aren't sure of the exact
Speaker 1: cause of the disorder, the predominant theory is primarily genetics
Speaker 1: in the biology of what's going on in the brain
Speaker 1: that seems to be associated with it. Most recent studies
Speaker 1: on the genetics of ADHD have identified twenty seven comic
Speaker 1: genetic variants that are associated with having ADHD. Having more
Speaker 1: of these gene variants is likely to confer a higher
Speaker 1: risk for having ADHD. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, meaning
Speaker 1: it affects how the brain develops and functions, and is
Speaker 1: predominantly genetic. This concludes readings from National Geographic Magazine for today.
Speaker 1: Your reader has been Marsha. Thank you for listening, Keep
Speaker 1: on listening, and have a great day.