Dr. Russell Barkley

I could really get into the weeds.

Believe me, this really is the 30,000 overview.

But that's what's going on here.

So notice multiple causes all converging on a single network in the brain that is the brain's executive system that gives us self-regulation.

And for various reasons, it goes wrong.

Well, I'm glad you asked that, because there's a lot more going on here than the surface features of inattention, distractibility, impulsiveness, and maybe some hyperactivity, though that's really an early childhood symptom more than it is an adult symptom.

But that said, to me, that's the superficial nature of ADHD that everybody sees.

Now, let's look under the hood.

What's going wrong

under the hood in the mind that is leading to you to behave that way.

And that's where we get into the executive functions.

And there are seven major executive functions that come from largely your frontal lobe, but also interactions elsewhere in the brain.

And they give us our capacity for self-regulation.

They take about 30 years to mature.

And they're delayed in people with ADHD by several years or what I estimate to be probably around 25, 30%.

But, you know, the number doesn't matter.

The fact is these abilities that everybody else is getting, you're not getting.

What are they?

Let's have it.

Number one, inhibition, self-restraint.