Chapter 1: What is ADHD and how does it affect daily life?
Yes, ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Symptoms include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. ADHD is considered a chronic condition which impacts on many aspects of a person's life, school, work, relationships, general daily functioning. ADHD may contribute to anxiety and problems with sleep and oftentimes people may have other conditions as well as ADHD.
There's definitely a lot more talk about ADHD of late. Some helpful and some ill-informed. 2% of Irish adults have been diagnosed with ADHD. That's about 83,000 people. Another 9% suspect they have it, but haven't been diagnosed. That's around 376,000.
Chapter 2: What are the common symptoms and co-occurring conditions of ADHD?
5% or 1 in 20 children have had an ADHD diagnosis. That's 60,000. So all told there, You have about half a million people in Ireland who are affected by ADHD. And of course, there's the knock-on effect of the condition on their families. Now, it's not often that you get to hear from someone who knows the facts about something like ADHD, but who also has lived experience.
Well, Colman Nocter is one such person. Coleman was diagnosed with ADHD 18 years ago, and he only recently shared his story in his column in The Examiner. In this podcast, he talks us through his experience of having ADHD and treating people with ADHD. And of course, the great thing about a podcast is we were able to take our time and tease out the details of Coleman's ADHD.
Chapter 3: How has the perception of ADHD changed in recent years?
I hope you find it informative and helpful. So, Colman Octor is a psychoanalyst who specialises with children and adolescents and young adults. And today's chat with Colman is a little bit different in that a few weeks ago, he was speaking on a podcast with Jen Hogan for the Irish Times. And in that podcast, he mentioned that he had ADHD.
It was with regard to the fact that his daughter has ADHD as well. And as a result of that, Coleman was asked to write an article for The Examiner, which he did on ADHD and his diagnosis. And he got a huge reaction to that. And in the article, he says he doesn't want to become a poster boy for ADHD. And he said that he was probably going to leave it there.
But I asked him, will he talk about it to me?
Chapter 4: What personal experiences does Colman Noctor share about his ADHD diagnosis?
And he kindly said yes. And I suppose what Coleman brings to this is not only has he been diagnosed with ADHD, but he has the benefit of professional knowledge, which helps him understand it better than most people. Hello, Coleman. How are you, Ray? Good. And thanks so much for doing this. And is it a condition? A disorder? How do you describe it?
Because I was looking up today, say, for example, the National Institute of Mental Health in America.
Chapter 5: How does ADHD impact relationships and social interactions?
They call it a developmental disorder. And then ADHD Ireland calls it a medical neurobiological condition. What would you call it? Because language is important, isn't it?
It is. I mean, again, I know there's a lot of anti-disorder movement that we shouldn't be talking about anything that's disordered and especially around neurodiversity, which it kind of falls under that umbrella.
And again, that was probably the part of the column that I was probably trying to make that point, that sometimes it's like these things are not deficits, they're variations of brain function. And so there's probably a movement around thinking about them as almost a superpower in some respects. So to have a disorder and a superpower at the same time seems at odds with each other.
My experience of it...
Chapter 6: What strategies can help manage ADHD symptoms effectively?
I would be very comfortable calling it a disorder or a condition. I'd be less comfortable with describing it as a superpower, if that makes any sense.
Well, let's talk about it, just you as a person who has ADHD first, and then we'll talk to you as a person who has ADHD and is also qualified as a psychoanalyst and practice as a psychiatric nurse. So when did you get your diagnosis?
About 18 years ago, 2007, I think it was. And look, I was working, I suppose it's hard to separate the fact that I know so much about it and the fact that I had it as well, because when I was in CAMS, I was working, I was studying all this day in, day out, and it never occurred to me that I would have had any features of ADHD.
But in the same way, I think you can kind of fool yourself a little bit. Like when I was doing this, I had to gather up school reports to bring them to the assessment of what I was like when I was young. And I was kind of going to there going, sure, I never failed anything in my life. I've been a kind of a B student all my life.
Chapter 7: What role does medication play in treating ADHD?
And it was only when I pulled out the school reports, I realized I'd failed loads of things throughout my schooling life that I actually had either been so scaffolded through that I didn't remember or I just chose not to remember it. But it was a genuine reading them thinking this might be someone else's. That's not how I experienced adolescence in that way.
Yeah, so I was working in that area and I had, like everybody else, and when you were working in the 90s and early 2000s, ADHD was seen as a little boy, typically around seven or eight years of age, who would come into your office and just like a Tasmanian devil would tear it apart and they'd be in the presses and out of the presses.
They're like on a motor and you're trying to kind of catch this kid's attention for two minutes to just ask a simple question. And there's a mother there pulling her hair out and there's this exacerbation. And that was what I understood ADHD to be and I wasn't like that. I never had that sort of... level of overactivity that I can remember.
And I certainly wouldn't have been troublesome in any way.
Chapter 8: Why is there an increase in ADHD diagnoses among adults today?
I was kind of a risk averse kid, you know, from the point of view of if there was lads jumping over a river on stepping stones, I'd be the one that going, I'll just go down and find a narrow point and I'll jump at the end. I was kind of that kid. which wouldn't kind of fit the impulsiveness or the, you know, that sort of what we would, the caricature of ADHD certainly wasn't that.
But someone came into my life who has spent a lot of time with me, and I spent a lot of time with them, and they were... their specialist area was ADHD. And they said to me, I think you have ADHD. And I remember thinking, what are you talking, like not a chance. And they were kind of saying, no, I genuinely think you do. And I think you should get it. looked at and I was kind of saying no.
I reluctantly agreed to go for this assessment thinking that this would reveal that I didn't. And it was kind of like, I'll get you off my back now once I go for this. And it wasn't, the assessment gathered up all the stuff that I thought it was and I filled out all the forms I was supposed to fill. And the feedback was, yeah, we think you have it. And even at that time I went, Whatever.
It doesn't make any difference to me. I don't think I have it. I can get on with my life. I've winged it so far, so I'll keep doing that. And back then, it wasn't something that you had. There certainly wasn't any sort of like the mainstream media stuff that you would describe that people would talk about now. It was still the kind of
the kind of tigger on a spring kid that people would have imagined that to be. But then as we got through the next maybe five or 10 years, the reports on ADHD started to change and maybe it was this more inattention that was an issue rather than impulsivity. And and like if I read the things now, I still don't think I like I don't interrupt people in conversations.
I don't you know, I'm not a big spender. I don't impulse buy. I don't you know. So there was loads of things. I was looking at all the things in the list that ruled me out and not reading any of the things that ruled me in. And so I kind of left it be for a while and then revisited it when, as I say, my children were being assessed for something similar.
And in that assessment, I just knew all those answers were mine, not my daughter's or, you know, from that perspective.
So how many years is that from? So it was 20...
2007 was the original diagnosis. Yeah. So probably 2015, 14, 15. Okay.
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