Dr. Kristin Carothers
Appearances
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So like for me, last two days I've been in New York, I've decided not to really set my alarm, which is not a good idea. I like winged it and I made it, but I made it down to the wire. That's another thing. Wait till the last minute.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I can do this in eight minutes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Time blindness.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Okay. I'm a clinical psychologist. And when you work with children and adolescents, one of the predominant disorders or mental health presentations you're going to work with is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You likely don't have great sleep hygiene. Right. You know you should go to bed at 8 o'clock, but you really want to watch that show.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because your brain is like, but I could just watch this one episode and it won't be that bad. And then you get hooked on the episode and you're like, but now I want to watch another. Or you're like, I want to read this book and my brain isn't tired yet. So I'm going to read a few chapters of this book. Like I need my brain to be exhausted to fall asleep and stay asleep.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because your brain is reinforced by dopamine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What is happening with ADHD is your brain functions differently.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so the dopamine or the reward centers of the brain need a lot of input for reinforcements.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Office brain people are reinforced by being in the office and getting their work done.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Task oriented.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
No, they're probably more organized and have better sleep hygiene.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They're routine and structured. So they go to bed. They have a routine.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They sleep while they're in bed.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Yeah, I don't know that it's giving them dopamine, but their brains and bodies are reinforced by having that eight hours of sleep. They know they need it to function. It really helps them to get through the day. It makes them feel comfortable and secure. And so they prioritize it. For a person with ADHD, sleep isn't necessarily a priority. Getting stuff done and having fun is a priority.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Like doing as much as you can in a day is a priority. Like being able to multitask, even though you might not be good at it. That's the priority. That's what's reinforcing. Like usually I have to get up at 610 to wake my son up. But hey, got somebody waking him up because I'm not there.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so for me, I diagnose ADHD in its three forms. I provide intervention and I do consultation or coaching of parents when it comes to kids. Now, my practice has taken a bit of a turn and I work a lot with adults who have just learned they had ADHD or they have it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So I switch my alarm back 30 minutes. And before I left... Atlanta, one day I decided like, oh, I'll just take him to school. Forget getting on the school bus. Right. That's me deciding I'm not going to engage in routine because I just decided I didn't want to. But I am training my child to respond to an alarm.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so I was still in the bed and got a knock on my door and my child is like, it's 630. And I was like, oh, I was going to take you to school today. He's like, I'm dressed. I was like, okay, you know the person. So, yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Absolutely. But I was like, good. Look at me. I'm making excuses. So in school, I don't think my teachers would have complained about me. I just talked. I just talked.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I'm black. And when I got into my clinical psychology program, I had never been to therapy. All of my white colleagues, most of them had been to therapy before. They had seen a psychologist. So I decided to do this sight unseen. I never went to therapy or nobody in my family went to therapy.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You pray.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And you say, it's nothing wrong with that girl. Ain't nothing wrong with her.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
We're going to pray. Like, get out of here. You don't have no problems. We got problems. Like, you know, that's how it goes. So like when I went to grad school, I used to take copious notes so that I could focus and then I would doodle.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And then in undergrad, I remember getting called out by a professor because they knew I was doodling, which is pretty embarrassing at the collegiate level to get called out for doodling. Like I'm in college, like this is not fifth grade, but I got called out. But I've always just figured out how to make it work.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And my grades were high. I got everything done. But I just know that there's a there's a book that talks about ADHD and functioning and they talk about like brain glitches. And one of the glitches is go ahead and forget it. Like, go ahead. You're going to have enough time later. Go ahead and do what you want. You're going to be able to cram that in.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What is that?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You could do so many other things now.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And I'm teaching them how to manage like parenting and having a relationship and having a career while you're trying to also live a life with ADHD. Does does everyone have ADHD? We all have characteristics. But that does not mean we meet clinical criteria for the diagnosis.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Plus or minus 30. You know what I mean? It's like six minutes, you put your things on.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It's absolutely not bullshit. If you've got a kid with ADHD or you have ADHD, you've got to do one thing at a time. You give one command in the room where you want it to occur. You wait for the person to start so then you can reinforce the fact that they're starting. Thank you for listening. Because you're trying to get them to listen to you.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Absolutely.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You're supposed to go with them. And nobody has time for that. That's our issue, right? We don't have time to go. I need you to go to your bedroom and make your bed. Actually, you go to the setting where you want the behavior to occur in order to increase the chances that the behavior will occur. So ABC, antecedent, behavior, consequence. Antecedent, we're going to go to the kid's room.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
We definitely meet TikTok criteria. I mean, we all meet TikTok criteria.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
We're going to say, if you're going to give some information, you give it now. I need you to make your bed. The room's a mess. You don't have to throw in the room's a mess, but I need you to make your bed.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
The room's a mess. I need you to make your bed. Please make your bed. And you can say please because it models a social skill, being polite when you make a command. And it's not a question. It's not like, are we ready to clean up the room? It's like a question. No, it's a command. So this is not gentle parenting where it's like, oh, I'm being nice to the kid for the sake of being nice. Got it?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
There's a difference. So please make the bed. You wait. You say nothing. The kid starts to make the bed. Great job, listener. I'll be back in two minutes. You think you could get this done in two minutes? Like, make it a little game. Kid's like, yeah, I got this in two minutes. You go.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Gamifying tasks that are non-desirable or non-reinforcing is a big thing for people with ADHD. You set that timer. You see if you can beat it. So back to the kid. We want something done. We have to do the command in a setting where we want it done. If you do it from afar with multiple parts, they're going to lose it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They're just going to lose the task because their brain is not wired to keep up with multiple tasks at a time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Yes, sorry. I'm not sorry I'm Black.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Systemic racism.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
them out of that because it seems that once you're on that track it's hard to get it's hard to get off i think the first thing and this is like what i've learned as a behavioral psychologist is we don't discuss like children's traits characteristics we talk about the behavior right so we're externalizing a behavior from a kid so it's not that you're bad because you won't sit down and listen it's because it's hard for you to sit still
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You have difficulty sitting still for long periods of time. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. It's just better for you to be able to move around. So getting parents to see behaviors as behaviors and not as children's personality or what they're going to be when they grow up.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So first of all, what is it that you have? Because there are three different forms.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
The other thing that we've got to be really aware of is like messages that get passed down through generations and through families that can be really kind of negative and trying to like compare kids to people around them who we think that they're like. And we have all this anxiety and this angst and this worry about whether or not our boys are going to be okay or what the future is going to hold.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so we want them to like conform to all of these like behaviors that are going to ensure that they're successful. And now we're learning that there's no perfect recipe. I mean, look at him. Come on. There is no recipe for this. But for black people, it's like, well, if there's no recipe, if you can't just be good and go to college and get a good job, what do we do now?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So there's hyperactive impulsive presentation.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And we're learning that that's not necessarily the recipe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You know, but that's the recipe that's kind of been pushed, which is why I think a lot. And if systems around you, I hate to go here, but whatever. If systems around you are built so that you don't succeed, then you got to wonder if people are going to be more likely to blow you off and dismiss you for any difference.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Rather than looking at it as like a positive or saying, this is my kid who likes to talk in the classroom. So I'm going to have him stand up and explain to the class what I just said. Oh, interesting.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
This is my kid who likes to beat on the table. Then I'm going to say, if you all get through this assignment, I'm going to let you come up with a beat on the table and the rest of you all dance. If this is my kid who likes to challenge and question, then let's have a debate about this subject. But you got to care and you got to believe that this type of behavior is functional. Right.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And what does that look like? That looks like you are always on the go, energizer bunny. You keep going and going and going. You talk nonstop. You're doing 15 different projects. You are moving from one topic to the next. You're running when you should be walking. If you're a little kid, you're climbing when it's dangerous to climb. You're just acting before you think.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You've got to believe that there's functionality to being busy. There's functionality to thinking outside of the box. There's functionality to like thinking. And many systems are set up for that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Absolutely.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
How do they train? No, but that's... No, no, that's what reinforces it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Their hyper-focus is their sport. So I'm intrinsically, internally motivated to... to do this activity that I love, this athletic. And so I can do it for hours. I can train for hours. I'm around my people who also love it. I'm so reinforced by it that I just want to be in this setting. And I can perform and I can excel.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So then that to me goes to the conversation about partners. Right. So the athlete is hyper focused in doing what they have to do to maximize what their bodies can do, maximize their amount of time. But then that is one part of your life. And you miss out on the other parts of your life that are kind of orbiting around that. That's your livelihood. That's not your life. It's your livelihood.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Okay, so that hyperactivity.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But for many of them, it's their life.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It's been their life. It's finally where they feel secure and productive. And it is a way out of poverty. It's a way out. It's a way to help family. It serves so many functions. But when it comes time to being a partner of a person... you've got to be able to be empathic and to understand what it is you need and what it is your partner needs.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so can you give me an example about what might make it hard to be in partnership with somebody with ADHD?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So people can be anxious and do that. People can do that to self-soothe. There can be lots of different functions of certain behaviors. So that's another thing. Like the tapping doesn't mean you have ADHD, but what you will find is that people with ADHD tend to be a little bit louder. They tend to move their bodies more. They tend to have difficulty being aware of like,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But love is not transactional. Well, for some people it is. Okay, so that's one thing. So if love is transactional, then you need to know what the currency is. My currency and your currency is going to be different. Your currency is going to be organization.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You are going to be able to, like, make sure the kids have the schedule, make sure that the cleaner is scheduled, make sure that we know what day the trash goes out, we know how much money is in the bank account. The other person's currency may be, like,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
fun stuff and it can be hard when you are the person of the currency of responsibility and the other person seems like to do the gets to do the fun stuff but it's like making sure that you all are having family outings the person who has relationships with everybody in the neighborhood that might be the person who's able to make sure that they check in with the family to make sure that you all are going to have a family vacation so it may seem like one person is like
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
day-to-day like what's happening right here on the ground the other person may be bird's eye view and I think you've got to know what your strengths and weaknesses are in the couple so if you are the partner of a person with ADHD and you know that money management is not their thing then we don't want to put all money responsibilities on them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
We want to make sure that they're knowledgeable, but we may say, hey, so we have a system and there's a budget. Your budget is this. We have a credit card that is set to this amount. And once that amount is over, we're done. There's going to be some tension there. But you're helping that person to structure.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But then you're also reinforcing them by saying, like, look, since we were able to stay within our budget, we have this much more to take that vacation you wanted. You wanted to plan this great vacation.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It can go either way. But I think really you've got to be honest about who you are.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
their bodies and that their bodies are moving. And that's sometimes it's restless energy, but that can, you can also see that for people who have like anxiety. Then you have the inattentive presentation, which is like space cadets. You are forgetting things. You're losing things. You're drifting off into space. You're supposed to be focused on one task.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You think you're letting everybody down.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Let's talk about it. Absolutely. Is it that experience? I think so. Yeah, you internalize it. And I think already the research we don't technically I don't think we have a ton of it just yet. But anecdotally. I believe that many people who struggle with ADHD often have underlying anxiety and depression. For kids, anxiety and depression tend to kind of co-occur.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It's hard for us to tease them apart. But what happens a lot of times is kids who, once they're medicated, or once a person is medicated for ADHD with a stimulant medication, which actually slows your brain down, then we start to see all of these anxious thoughts come up. And it's not that the medication is causing those thoughts, it's that we can hear them now.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And before you know it, like a bunny runs across your path and you're onto the bunny.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
The person was so busy or so distracted that all we were focused on was their behaviors and we didn't know what was happening in their minds.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
No, no, but you should be able to use pregnancy to get out of stuff.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
No, I use it as an excuse for everything. Pregnancy should be used as an excuse for everything.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Okay, so anecdotally, what I tend to notice is that we attract opposites. A person with ADHD is typically going to attract somebody who's more structured routine, right? It helps them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
No, I didn't.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You said it, not me.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Did you pack my bag?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But if they did, you were happy.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
That's called control. And that's what I was going to say. A lot of times people who are with someone with ADHD start to get engaged in over-controlling behaviors because you are so worried about what happens when the person with ADHD forgets something.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So you over-correct. Okay. And then the person with ADHD becomes resentful because they think you're trying to control them. Huh. And really what you are trying to do is manage your anxiety about something being forgotten.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because they do forget everything. But they're not forgetting everything to get at you or to be annoying. It's just something that happens. But what then you may do is list out a schedule, make sure that everything is just so. And when that person doesn't comply, you lose it. When they do comply, you're happy, but what you're teaching them is not to engage in the behaviors on their own.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Who are you?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So if I am scheduling all of your appointments, packing all of your bags, when do you have to think and when do you learn to do it yourself? Okay? So what you have to watch for if you're the partner of a person with ADHD and you don't have ADHD is that you could start to do too much. And then you start getting into this control dynamic.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I don't know, but it's not a good one. And so you got hyperactive impulsive type. You got inattentive presentation. And then the third is the combination of all three.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And then the person starts to resent you because they think you're trying to control them.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Absolutely. You just need a system.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You're capable, but it's that your system may not look like the person who's over control system. Your system may be, okay, when it comes to packing a bag for me, I'm going to set that bag out three days in advance. But guess what? An hour before it's time for me to go to the airport, I'm still rifling through that bag.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because there's something I've forgotten or I decided like I had two blazers and then I'm like, I don't like these blazers. Throw the blazers out. And then I'm like, well, maybe I'm going to need the blazers. Put the blazers back in. So I start to question myself. My brain is getting busy. I'm getting distracted. I'm overwhelmed.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So even though I had the goal of being prepared, I still find myself struggling an hour before I'm supposed to go. Because it's not now. It's not now. It's not now. But when it's now, I'm like, well, got to go with what's in this bag.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So yesterday I had to go buy a blazer. So it requires something. I love how it was about you. It was about me. I'm going to be real with you all. I'm not going to point fingers. Yeah. You know?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But guess what? When you want to have fun.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
See? And if he doesn't come, you're sad. Because you're like, I'm not going to be able to push myself to have fun the way I have fun with Trevor.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
The big boss, which is where in some settings you're hyperactive impulsive. In those same settings, you might be inattentive impulsive. And this is when you see people really start to struggle and you have to have disruption in social and occupational functioning.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What that means is this has to be negatively impacting your relationships or it has to be causing trouble on your job occupationally, right? If you're a kid, you don't have a job, you have school. So what you see is difficulty like getting through a test or forgetting to turn the homework in even though you did the homework or losing the worksheets.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Yes. Coercive cycle of interaction. There's a term for it.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You are reinforced by your coercive behaviors. And this is what we teach in behavioral parent management training. Another plug for an evidence-based intervention for ADHD. So in behavioral parent management training, the first step is teaching parents about the coercive cycle of interaction and how their kids are reinforced to continue arguing because they eventually get what they want.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And parents are reinforced to be more punitive because they eventually get what they want. So when you get when you've done that as a child with your parent and then you get into a relationship and you're like, I can prove that I'm right. I can get you to see. That the way I'm thinking is the way you should be thinking. And you just continue to engage in this spiral until you win.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And the other person is pissed. Oh, they gave up because they're exhausted. They're exhausted most of the time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And you'll be like, can you just stop? And they're like, no. So instead of telling them to stop, you'd give them the positive opposite behavior, the to-do behavior. So instead of, would you stop talking? It's, can we take a quiet moment? Can you be quiet? What do I want you to do? Okay. So instead of stop arguing, can we change the subject?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Or sometimes you got to kind of just turn away and like wait to catch them being good and then turn back. Like if you're taking me down that spiral where you're trying to argue with me, I'm going to like turn away, pretend to do something else. And then the minute you get quiet, even if it's by accident, thanks Trevor for being quiet.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And you're not an ADHD person. You are a person with a neurodivergent brain.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You are, no, seriously, it makes a difference.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You are Trevor who happens to have a brain that is neurodivergent.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It's just attention seeking behavior. Exactly.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Thank you for using that term.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
With my kids that I work with, I'll have them bring the book bag in And it looks like a war zone. But for adults, and I'll talk about myself, the house is organized. But if you open a drawer or you open the closet, it looks like it's chaos. Chaos.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I love that.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And that's the antecedent intervention. That's setting up the environment for success. You saying press record or let me know when you're ready to press record signals to his brain that I've got to do something. I've got to behave differently. And then he's able to follow through and then you reinforce him because then you continue to talk to him once you know that he's ready to listen.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
consequence is you all are connected. So like what you all just did right now, there was connection there. You gave feedback about when you were able to really hear her. And then you were like, thank you for giving me that feedback because now I know how to cue you in when I need to talk to you. And that's what doesn't happen in partnerships and relationships.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Parent to child, spouse to spouse, family to family. That's like a process thing. We don't take time to process things because we're so focused on moving forward and getting to the next thing. And so to have the opportunity to say, especially to your significant other, I need you to press record or I need you to say, hey, can you put your phone down?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Welcome back.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because like with kids, we're accustomed to like snatching a tablet, turning off a screen to get them focused. As adults, we're just as guilty of being preoccupied with Instagram, with our screens, with our phones. And sometimes we need help. to get away from those things so we can actually attend to each other.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And one of the things I say to little kids that I'm working with in intervention is, give me your eyes. Thank you for looking at me. Now that I know that you're looking, I think you can listen. Please pass me that. And then we continue to maintain eye contact. It really helps them to know that I'm engaged.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so in a relationship, if you have ADHD or you don't have ADHD, I think that's a skill that we could all learn because many of us think we have ADHD because we are so wired to screens right now. We're so reinforced with screens. We're so reinforced by multitasking. We are hearing a lot of noise and we don't take a lot of time to be fully present and aware anymore. in this moment.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
OK, so let me talk to you about that gateway drug thing. In my opinion, that is a cultural belief that comes out of the crack pandemic. Right. We know that there were specific plans and things that were done to make sure that a certain group of people were destroyed by a drug. And over time, we have become very wary and suspicious. And it is healthy cultural paranoia.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
about the use of medications and drugs. How can we get hooked? How could this ruin life for us? Because we had a whole generation that this impacted. What I want you to know when it comes to stimulant medication, any of the psychotropic medications is consider the ways that you are self-medicating. Are you using gummies and weed just to get out of the bed and have a good time?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
How much alcohol are you drinking? How much are you indulging and overeating? Is this a symptom of some difficulty that you are having in your life? The medication you take for depression is not the same class of medication that we take to address ADHD. And so what you need to know is for stimulants, Stimulants can be abused and they're the same class like their amphetamines.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Those things, amphetamines are similar to what's in cocaine, right? It's an amphetamine as well. The difference is it's highly regulated. It's been studied. It's been studied in children. And we can pretty much tell that there have been there's at least 30 years worth of data about people being successfully treated.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
How are you living like this? I have an extra pair of socks in the door. Oh, no. I know. A knife just in case somebody tries to run up on me. I have like one of those things that you can crack the window. Like all in this pocket. And then in the middle pocket, I have lotion and contact lens solution and an inhaler and like a bag.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
One thing about stimulant medication is once it's in your system, eight hours typically is out of your system. Unlike other classes of medication that take weeks to build up in your system.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Oh, anxiety.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And there's typically a time of day. There's a place.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Time of day. Oh, the rumination is, and that's an anxiety thing too, but that rumination as part of ADHD is made.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And if it's a certain time of day, I'm a nighttime person. I can lose my mind anytime.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Oh, and that pissed, oh, you, oh, that poor person.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What was that pause?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So message for the person or the person with a person with ADHD is not always about you. That's hard to learn though.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But it's not like that pause or that like reticence is not necessarily about you. It's about something that's going on in that person's head that you don't even know about.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And it's not a personality disorder. They're personality disorders, mood disorders, disorders of regulation. They are not the same thing. And I also kind of want to move away from the term disorder.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What about a good dream? History?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Yes, spirits.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Externalize it, hello old friend.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
No ice cream for you today.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Right. Your brain is wired to function differently in different settings. In some settings, the way that your brain functions is optimal. In other settings, it's suboptimal. And so rather than saying like, oh, we're disordered because we can't focus. Well, when it comes time to solve a problem and we're down to the wire, we don't have a lot of time.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You're a thinker.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
That's a problem solver too, right? So that's the ADHD brain again, the superpower. You're a thinker. You think very deeply. And then you are willing to try different interventions to solve your problem. So you don't just give up and give in to the ice cream. And a brain that's like maybe depressed might just say, well, forget it. It's hopeless. It's worthless.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I'm just going to give in to the ice cream. You're like, no, this is serving a function. I need to try to figure out what the function of this craving is. How can I come up with a plan so that I don't engage in this behavior?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Like there's multiple levels and that can be exhausting if you have to do it with every decision you make, which some people get into like analysis paralysis when it comes to that ADHD because they're overthinking whether or not, and it's not necessarily anxiety, but it's like trying to plan out the consequences.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because you're a problem solver.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And problem solvers are very tied to consequences of behavior. So it's like, well, if I did it this way, this might happen this way. This might happen if I did it this way. And then you've lost track of time while you're doing all of that. So I think it's good, though, to be a thinker.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Which is also why the capitalistic society is hard.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And you just said a word, community.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
We need to be in community with people and other people who have similar and dissimilar experiences because it can get very lonely.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It sounds like a lonely experience. It can be very lonely. You've got to be in community. Like you've got to find your tribe. And this is a big thing for me right now with the young adults I'm working with who have ADHD. It's like they have not found their tribe. And then they internalize it and then they feel super depressed. Like, what is wrong with me? Why does it never work?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so I want to tell young adults with ADHD and teens with ADHD. You will find your tribe, but you have got to seek them out. And that tribe may not be the people who like look like you or who have the same interests. But the superpower of having ADHD is you're willing to put yourself out there and take a risk. And so you may have to take a risk with different people. You have a tribe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You haven't found it yet. Because you haven't found your tribe doesn't mean you'll never find your tribe. Because I also get worried about those people in terms of suicidality.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
There's the like, does anybody care about me? I can't get anything right. My relationship's in. What's wrong with me? And so just like having some hope and knowing there is, you got a tribe. And then parents, leave them alone if the tribe is online. Like they have a tribe. I just want you to have some social connections. Safe social connections.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Your brain is willing to think creatively to problem solve. But it can be depressing for you if you're in a setting where everybody seems to be able to go with the flow and go with the grain. And you're like, I am dying. I am miserable going along with this. This is driving me crazy and nobody gets why you're so bothered.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I don't want you playing with like adults if you're a kid. But we need to have, that's why we have kids in sports and doing activities. We want them to build relationships with different groups of people. But as adults, once we get into our careers, we can become isolated. And so you've got to have community. You've got to have a tribe. You've got to have community. Yeah. You guys are a tribe.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
If they're manic and they have ADHD medication, it'll go very bad.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Oh, they have a heart problem.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Yeah. So I'm from Chicago originally, and Cook County Jail at one time the person who was in charge of the director was a clinical psychologist. I think this was a few years back. And she did a program where she had, when people came in and they were repeat offenders, they got psyche vows.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
As part of the psyche vows, they were able to determine that many of the people who were coming through this system, through this program, actually had met criteria for diagnoses and then they were able to get them medicated. They were able to get them, or even if it wasn't medication,
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
they were able to get them some psychotherapeutic intervention and the types of gains that can be made from doing that type of intervention, right? So even if you don't have an island, what will happen in terms of reform in the justice system If people had access to high quality mental health care before they got there. Right. I'm in private practice.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And that's what I find happens when you finally get validated or you get the diagnosis. You know, they're like, OK, I knew I wasn't crazy. This is actually boring for me. This is not the way my brain is reinforced. This is not what I'm meant to do in life. And.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
People will ask, why don't you accept insurance? Insurance companies don't value mental health right now. So they're starting to understand that if we can treat depression, you're more likely to follow through on your medication regimen when it comes to to the hypertension, when it comes to like the diabetes, right?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
If you're not depressed, if I've treated your depression, you're going to be more likely to change your lifestyle factors, exercise, diet, et cetera.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So if we address mental health first, we could actually do medicine, physiological medicine of big service because people would be engaged and invested in taking care of their bodies and making different choices about the way they ate, et cetera, et cetera. But it's almost like mental health care is an afterthought.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so I think there are many different avenues to actually make what you want to see happen, happen. It could be school systems. It could be like juvenile justice systems. It could. I just think there's ways. I don't think that's a far fetched idea.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
The reason I say congratulations to you is because I think once people know what's going on with their brains, then they can like not just look at it from like a negative point of view, but almost like embrace it. Like, OK, so this explains it. And now that I know this, I've got to figure out how I work.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They can definitely pay. I took my son to a dinner party. And we were like 45 minutes through and he said, how do you guys listen so long? It's like 10 more minutes and we're out. And he was right. It was just going on and on and on. And it was like, yes, we don't have to do all of this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Call and response.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Praise the Lord.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
My kid says, what is happening?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I'm going to say it again. Because he knows we have an 88 year.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I grew up someplace that was not quite as loud at night. But our brains can exist in this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I love it. That's a beautiful reframe. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
It was so much fun. Thank you all.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Attention Deficit Disorder.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Okay. So that was like...
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So you know what it probably was, was the ICD-10, which is the international system.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Was calling it one thing. And then the United States system was calling it ADD.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so now they try to be on the same page.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Okay, so a couple of different places. ADHD used to be diagnosed, you had to have the symptoms before age six. Now we say you have to have them before age 12.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You make it work.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You don't go like... They bring up a spirit. I'm totally... I'm going to be like, okay, you did it first. But you see, I think so.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because the researchers said... I don't really know. But the researcher said with the new edition of like the manual that we use to diagnose, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
That it was based on the research that people were presenting with symptoms as late as age 12. And so they wanted to make sure that they could be, I guess, more inclusive.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
You're good. But guess what happens at age six? Some kids are just entering formal school.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And then you see it. Now you see it. But you don't send your kids to preschool.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And then you wait until they turn six for kindergarten. And then at kindergarten, it's like this kid cannot stay in a seat. This kid is I've walked into classrooms where I'm coaching and looking for my client and they're under the table. And the teacher is like, OK. That's classic, right? And like, where is this kid? Oh, under the table. Okay, time to go with me, right?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And then you open this drawer, there might be like a greeting card just in case I'm going to a birthday party.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so your original question was, how do parents know if it's like typical behavior or behavior that is different versus a parent? You have to know what your temperament is. Is there a mismatch between your temperament and your child's temperament? That doesn't necessarily mean that there's a problem with your child. That's number one.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I think what you want to look at is how that kid interacts with other kids And what it takes to get that kid through a day. Because typically, if you have a kid who's really hyperactive, it's going to take a ton of energy and organization and routine and planning and accommodating. to get this kid through the day.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Whereas you may have other kids where you can say, put your shoes on, come back five minutes later, the shoes are on. With this kid, if you say, put your shoes on and you come back, they're going to be off to the next thing. But we want to look at age. Oh, they've stolen someone's shoes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They've stolen shoes.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
My makeup, like if I don't get a chance to put on makeup in the morning. Yeah, there's foundation on my steering wheel. I shouldn't be proud to say that, but it's just like, it's just okay.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Look at how observant you are though. Yeah.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Until it's yours.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So that story that I told you about the kid under the desk was a girl. And for girls, unless their behaviors are so hyperactive that it is like really problematic, girls tend to fly under the radar, I think, because of confirmation bias. we expect that boys are gonna be more likely to struggle with attention and focus.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Or we'll say like, oh, it's part of being a boy, but then if it goes too far, it's like, okay, well then we probably need to look at this boy. I think a lot of girls present as inattentive initially and people miss inattention. Or the girls that get caught are the girls who are super talkative, super busy, super on the go.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
And so for girls, you could meet those six out of nine criteria for hyperactivity, But if it's not at a level comparatively to like a boy who's hyperactive or another girl who's super hyperactive, you could get missed. It's like based on like our cultural expectations for girls' behavior, for boys' behaviors, which make it tough.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Absolutely.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
I think you would look for how the girl is doing in friendships.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Are they making friends? Are they sustaining friendships?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Because children with ADHD are most likely to struggle in social relationships. They're going to be the last to be picked to be on teams. And we've got research for this.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
What happens is they stay little. and people developmentally move on. So it's a lot of fun to have a hyperactive friend when you're three or four. When you're nine, 10, not so much. If we're three or four and you're breaking the rules and you're running, it's like, ha ha, fun, this is so much fun, I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna play.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
But by the time we get to playing like the video games or we get to like there's a sport and you got to be really agile physically, that's another thing that kind of tends to co-occur for people with ADHD is physically when it comes to sports and activities, they don't necessarily excel in some of those because coordinations.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
So you may be more likely to be clumsy. And so you need a lot of input. Like if you're playing baseball, you got to stop. You got to watch. That can be really boring for a kid. Soccer for a kid with ADHD. You out there or you out there.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
They're picking the flowers out of the dandelion. A basketball team. We got to get you to be able to look in and follow cues. And so your social functioning is major when you have ADHD. Right. And so if you have a girl or a boy and you're worried about them and wondering, look at their social functioning, how are they doing with friends and on sports and activities?
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
Then academically talk to the teacher about what's happening in the classroom. Is the kid able to sit in a chair or do they stand the whole day? When you put the kid under timed pressure, Do they do poorer or better finishing an assignment? Is this kid likely to stay on task, like to do the assignment until it's done, or do you have to give constant reminders? Think about at home.
What Now? with Trevor Noah
Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers [VIDEO]
How long does it take to wake the kid up? How long does it take for the kid to get dressed? Does the kid lose things? Can they follow a routine without a constant reminder? And it takes a lot of like external stuff to be able to get them to that point where they can't. So it's possible, but you're going to have reminders everywhere.