Dr. Alex George

So you're not doing something to chase dopamine, you're doing that thing to...

to calm yourself so for example exercise you might have an impulsive feeling i want to go out and do a 20k run today i've got into running in the last two weeks and i'm now wanting to run every day that's impulsiveness right ocds i need to go for a run for 20k because if i don't i might get cancer i might get sick i might get sick if i don't run 20k today i might get sick or if i don't run 20k today something bad will happen to happen to my family member

That's a compulsion versus impulsivity.

And when you see it that way, actually the clarity is clear.

But you have to ask yourself, am I doing this because I have an extreme interest in this or a desire to go and do this thing and chase dopamine because I want to feel high and happy?

Or am I doing it to...

Well, I mean, the thing is, I think one of the hardest things to do with any mental health experience... Now, of course, having ADHD is not a mental health disorder.

It's neurodevelopmental.

But we know there's a lot of crossover.

A lot of people with ADHD will go on to have other struggles and so on.

So when you're looking at anything that's to do with the mind and the brain...

The problem is that you're in there with it too.

You're living with this thing in your head or this experience, and that clouds your judgment, your ability to see.

And I think if you look at, for example, OCD, the biggest thing is the lack of insight.

If you had true insight into your experience, you wouldn't experience OCD.

So if you had true insight, honest, complete clarity, as they say, OCD clarity, all of the time, OCD would dissolve.

because your insight would tell you that probability, possibility, and relevance isn't there, but whatever you're worried about, because that's the core of it.

Because if it was an actual problem, it wouldn't be OCD, right?

But you constantly flick between clarity and losing clarity and OCD, that's the problem.

So when it comes to these situations, it is about saying, hey,