Dr. Russell Barkley

So it really, the personal side of it for me is it helped me understand my family members and particularly my brother who I grew up with, who was just incredibly impulsive and risk-taking and aggressive.

All of those things.

Quit school at 16, became a rock and roll musician, burned through three marriages, three kids he had no custody of, you know, in and out of difficulties, gifted musician, just, you know, Eric Clapton level talent.

But, you know, that said, couldn't manage a dollar or his life.

at all and eventually cost him his life.

But so it's personal for me.

It's not just professional.

They both intertwine.

But I didn't go into it for that reason.

But having gotten into it, boy, did it help me to understand my family.

Yeah, well, we can go back nearly 250 years.

People don't realize it, but I'm sitting here with an actual copy of the book dated 1770 in Germany, in which this is the first medical textbook ever written in German.

It has a chapter called Disorders of Attention, if you can believe that.

And in it, the author, Melchior Weikert, describes what today we would think of as classic adult ADHD.

And back then, they didn't know what caused it.

They had a number of recommendations for curing it, one of which was horseback riding, sour milk on top of some quinine.

And if that didn't work, lock you in a room.

Oh, my gosh.

So...

None of which works, but very interesting stuff nonetheless.