Sometimes we just think about what we did that was “wrong” or didn’t work out.

While it is important to learn from what we did that didn’t work out, often we put most of our focus on that while ignoring what we did that DID work out. Many people do that, but arguably adults with ADHD do that more than most people.

What you focus on expands.

So why not make a list of what you did well in 2011? Well, not perfect.

What did you try and succeed at?

What new skills did you learn?

How can you continue to focus on what you did well in 2011, and do them more often in 2012?

If you want to make some New Years resolutions, maybe include some of those answers in them. Or consider an alternative to a New Year’s resolutions, a New Year’s theme.

8 years of ADHD Awareness Weeks/days for in the US starting with the original nation resolution in the US Senate in 2004

Zero ADHD Awareness Weeks/days in Canada. None at the Federal level. None at the provincial level. None at the municipal level.

But I’m happy to report that on Tuesday Oct 18th The Vancouver City Council declared the week of October 16th to 22nd, 2011 as “ADHD AWARENESS WEEK” at a ceremony at Vancouver city hall.  Mayor Gregor Robertson read out the resolution and I and Parks Commissioner Sarah Blyth who has  gone public on having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder spoke after.

Just before the ADHD Awareness week proclamation the outgoing Vancouver Poet Laureate Brad Cran in his final speech and poem to council went public that he had ADHD. Great timing! Thanks Brad. I’ll do a post later on that.

In this post, I’ll show a scan of the proclamation, text of the proclamation, photos and videos of the Mayor, Sarah and I speaking at the event.

Usually it take a several months to get city hall to do a proclamation. But I worked with Vision Vancouver Parks Commissioner Sarah Blyth who had recently gone public with ADHD and Vision Vancouver city councillor Andrea Reimer to get this through on short notice and we were able to make this happen. Thanks Sarah and Andrea.

And thanks to all the city councillors from all 3 parties who made this happen, Vision Vancouver, COPE, and NPA Vancouver.

Here’s the scan of the ADHD Awareness week proclamation, courtesy of one of my Vancouver adult ADD Support Group members.

Thanks  to Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Councillors: Andrea Reimer, David Cadman, Ellen Woodsworth, Kerry Jang, Suzanne Anton, Tim Stevenson, Geoff Meggs, George Chow, Heather Deal, and Raymond Louie for helping to support awareness of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Here’s the text of Vancouver city council’s resolution as read out by Mayor Gregor Robertson.

WHEREAS Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopment condition that affects approximately 8% of children and 5% of adults. Every mainstream medical, psychological, and educational organization in the world now recognizes that ADHD is a chronic, impairing and treatable medical condition that deserves the same recognition and access to services as depression or any other mental illness;

AND WHEREAS with Vancouver’s problems with drugs and crime, diagnosing and properly treating it’s citizens with ADHD saves taxpayer dollars and prevents needless human suffering. Research shows 20% or more of drug addicts and alcoholics have ADHD, and 21-45% of criminals in prison have ADHD;

AND WHEREAS Whereas there are high rates of school dropouts, underemployment, work problems, divorce, eating disorders, depression and anxiety with ADHD (especially untreated ADHD);

AND WHEREAS there are many positive characteristics of people with ADHD, especially when properly managed, high levels of creativity and energy, hyperfocus, willingness to challenge the status quo and create something new and innovative. 3 Billionaires, several Olympic gold medalists, artists, and entrepreneurs with ADHD have been very successful;

AND WHEREAS some believe ADHD is over diagnosed, yet one in every two children in Vancouver with ADHD and 9 in every 10 Vancouver adults with ADHD will go undiagnosed and untreated;

AND WHEREAS there is a need for education of health care professionals, employers, and educators about the disorder, anti-stigma campaigns and a need for well-trained mental health professionals capable of conducting proper diagnosis and treatment activities;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gregor Robertson, Mayor of the City of Vancouver, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM the week of October 16th to 22nd, 2011 as

“ADHD AWARENESS WEEK”

In the city of Vancouver.

Photos of the event

Photo of Mayor Gregor Robertson reading the Vancouver ADHD Awareness Week Proclamation

Photo of Mayor Gregor Robertson Parks Commissioner Sarah Blyth and Adult ADHD Coach Pete Quily who’s still in shock that this happened with the Vancouver ADHD Awareness Week Proclamation

Videos of Mayor Gregor Robertson, Sarah Blyth and Pete Quily During ADHD Awareness Week Proclamation.

Here’s the video of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson Proclaiming the first ADHD Awareness Week in Vancouver.

Here’s the video of Vision Vancouver Parks Commission Sarah Blyth who has ADHD talking about her experiences with it.

Here’s the video of me talking about ADHD in Vancouver and the need for more resources and of course to reopen the closed after a year long wait list BC adult ADHD clinic at an adult hospital.

Maybe you can help get your city, province or state to declare ADHD Awareness Week for next year? Maybe one day Canada will catch up to the Americans and declare a national ADHD Awareness Week?

I was quoted in an article on Adult ADHD in Monday’s Globe and Mail Newspaper (the major National Canadian Newspaper) written by Adriana Barton, Oct. 3rd, 2011 p L1 in the Life section.

Sarah Byth the Vision Vancouver parks commissioner who is the first elected politician in Canada and the US to go public with ADHD is profiled in the article.

I was quoted on Adult ADHD coaching in the article and on the positives of having adult ADHD. I think it was a great well researched article. I do disagree with Dr. Russell Barkley, there ARE advantage of ADHD, 99.9% of all research studies on ADHD are looking for the negatives of ADHD, and there are true negatives but almost no one is looking for the strengths of ADHD.

What you don’t look for you won’t find. Barkley’s done great research on the pathology of ADHD, and there are true negatives of adhd. But Barkley is not a clinician he’s a researcher. He doesn’t actually treat ADHD patients, like clinicians such as Dr Ed Hallowell who has ADHD does.

Dr Hallowell considers ADHD a strength wrapped in a challenge. Talk to clinicians or Adult ADHD coaches who focus on adults with ADHD and you’ll find them talking about the strengths of ADHD as well as the negatives. They don’t consider ADHD 100% pathology.

The title of the article highlights a huge problem with adult ADHD in Canada, Coping With Adult ADHD: First You Need a Diagnosis. But you can’t assume that you can get a proper one reasonably easily. The vast majority of  adults with ADHD are undiagnosed and untreated.

Many doctors, psychiatrist and psychologists have no training on adhd, especially on adult ADHD. At UBC medical school they only get one hour on ADHD during their whole program, totally inadequate.

Why doesn’t the The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC  and other provinces properly educate doctors and psychiatrists on ADHD, especially adult ADHD by demanding family doctors take Continuing Medical Education courses on ADHD in adults and children?

The preamble of The Canada Health act states that

the objective of Canadian Health Care policy is “that continued access to quality health care without financial or other barriers will be critical to maintaining and improving the health and well-being of Canadians.The primary objective of the Act is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.” (Section 3).

Well by that definition, aren’t BC and other province are violating the Canada health act by not providing “reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers”? The barrier being not finding enough doctors competently trained in diagnosing and treating ADHD in adults and children. I hear this complaint constantly. Will someone with ADHD have to sue the provinces to allow ADHD adults and children to get properly diagnosed and treated?

What did you think of the article?

Billionaire entrepreneurs, Gold medal winning Olympic athletes and entertainers, and pulitzer prize newspaper columnists have gone public with ADHD but up until now no elected politician in Canada or in the US has gone public with having ADHD that I’ve been able to find. I’ve searched the web and asked many people in both Canada and the US who work with people with ADHD.

This is despite many politicians going public with depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc.

I’m a political science major who has ADHD, coaches adults with ADHD and who started working on political campaigns at 16 and I’m a long time politics junkie. I think many politicians have ADHD but are afraid to go public with it.

There are many reasons why ADHD can be an asset as a politician that I’ll list below.  I’ve talked to others who work in politics behind the scenes who know ADHD and they agree.

So I was surprised and happy to hear the first elected politician to go public with having ADHD was in my city of Vancouver. Sarah Blyth is a Vancouver parks commissioner and a member of Vision Vancouver and she went public with ADHD in the Georgia Straight Newspaper print and online. I was also quoted in the article written by Matthew Burrows.

Sarah Blyth

Here’s more information about Sarah Blyth. Sarah was a

founding partner of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition and helped secure the declaration of Skateboard Week, the relaxing of the ban on skateboarding on city streets, and the development of five new skateparks.

She works at the New Fountain Homeless Shelter in the Vancouver’s Down Town East Side  and is a founding member of Portland FC, a soccer team that started out from the New Fountain Homeless Shelter.

There are many problems with having ADHD and as an Adult ADHD coach I see a wide variety of them. But ADHD is not all negative, there are many ADHD strengths.

Here are some reasons why ADHD can be a competitive advantage as an elected politician:

• very curious

• good at multitasking

• good at scanning their environment and noticing what others miss, except for paperwork:) lucky many have staff for that

• high energy levels for those 14 hour days

• can hyperfocus for hours like a laser IF interested

• not afraid to question or challenge authority

• not afraid of changing the status quo

• very adaptable

Here are some quotes from staff writer Matthew Burrows’s great article on Sarah Blyth in the Georgia Straight 

Not surprisingly, Blyth said she looks back on her school days with a certain horror but has learned to have a sense of humour about what were chaotic days.

“Well, you’re more aggressive,” Blyth added. “You’re different socially, I think, when you’ve got attention deficit disorder, especially when you’re hyperactive, because you tend to be a bit impulsive. So you’re poking other kids and fighting. I was a big fighter and a big poker, you know?”

When asked why she was going public with ADHD, Sarah Blyth gave an answer I hope more politicians will one day to develop the courage to do.

Now Blyth is going public about her condition, she said, in part so that other kids won’t suffer the same way she did.

“Mainly, I want to raise it because it’s more about learning disabilities and mental-health issues and kids growing up, and I feel like, maybe if they looked at me, they could go, ‘Well, she’s sort of doing stuff with her life, even though she had challenges growing up,’ ” Blyth said.

“That’s why I wanted to, because I know that young kids suffer. When I was told as a kid that I had a learning disability, you think there’s something wrong with you. You know that you are different and you learn differently.”

I asked Sarah Blyth some questions about ADHD, here are her answers:

Pete Quily: When did you suspect you might have ADHD? Did someone else family member friend work colleague suggest you might have ADHD before getting diagnosed? How did you respond at the time?

Sarah Blyth: I was diagnosed when I was a child in grade 1.  I didn’t understand what it meant I just knew I was different

Pete Quily: Many ADHD adults stay hidden in the ADHD closet because strong stigma against ADHD, what finally made you decide to go public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: The only reason was that I want people with learning disabilities and mental illness to know that they can achieve their dreams just like anyone else.

Pete Quily: How have your Vision Vancouver colleagues reacted to you going public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: My Vision Colleagues have been really supportive. I feel really supported and accepted for who I am and my abilities. I don’t make excuses for who I am. If someone asked me if I would give up having ADHD as annoying as it is sometimes…I would say no way Jose, its what makes me, me.

Pete Quily: How have your civic political opponents NPA Vancouver, COPE and the Green party of Vancouver reacted to you going public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: I think this is an issue that crosses party lines. I think to go after me politically for being open about having ADHD would be a bad political move though I am sure the NPA have given it some thought. lol

Pete Quily: How have your family and friends reacted to you going public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: They have all been really supportive.

Pete Quily: How have the voters reacted to you going public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: I have had so many wonderful letters. I will say that I have heard from folks that can’t speak about having ADHD for fear of being judged at work school or by family and friends. Its very stigmatized, people don’t see it as an attractive trait even though it has many benefits.

Pete Quily: What are some of the benefits of having ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: Hyper Focus, multi tasking, outgoing, take risks

Pete Quily: The only public clinic in BC diagnosing Adult ADHD the BC adult ADHD clinic was forced to shut down in 2007 after a year to 14 month wait list for an entire year. The asked the BC liberal govt for funding to deal with the wait list and they refused and they shut down the clinic. I asked the office of the then BC NDP health critic and now leader of the BC NDP Adrian Dix to raise the issue in the legislature but just got shuffled around, promises made and ignored.

During a town hall I asked BC Premier Christy Clark about reopening the BC Adult ADHD clinic and she said  “I’m absolutely committed to working with you on it”
and this was reported both by CKNW radio and the CBC, the audio is on my blog.

Drugs and crime are very common issues in the news and in politics in Vancouver yet no one is talking about the high rates of people with ADHD who are self medicating with drugs and alcohol, 20+% of addicts have ADHD vs 5% of the population.

Plus 21-45% of prisoners in jail have ADHD clinical research shows

Given ADHD is 80% genetic and only one out of ten adults with ADHD get diagnosed, do you support reopening the BC adult ADHD clinic at an adult hospital? What needs to be done to make it happen?

Sarah Blyth: I would say we need more support and facilities to diagnose and treat ADHD so I am surprised the province would be shutting facilities down. There is definitely not enough support and many needlessly suffer because of it.

Pete Quily: You’re doing a great thing by going public with ADHD but most Vancouver politicians in ALL parties totally ignore ADHD.

Sarah Blyth: Well I’m listening:) And hopefully we can raise some awareness.

Pete Quily: As a political science major and long time politics junkie I think a lot of politicians have ADHD, it’s actually a competitive edge in politics ie we’re naturally curious, have high levels of energy, not afraid to question or challenge authority, not afraid to ask questions, good at multitasking, can hyperfocus for hours like a laser IF interested, creative problem solver, good in a crisis, good at scanning their environment and noticing what others miss, except for paperwork:) very adaptable, etc

Plus many entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers and people in high tech have gone public with ADHD but as far as I an tell by searching and asking many ADHD professionals, you’re the first elected politician in North America who’s gone public with ADHD.

Given that plus elected politicians have gone public with depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar, alcoholism, drug addictions etc, Why haven’t more politicians gone public with ADHD?

Sarah Blyth: I don’t know, perhaps they will now:)

Pete Quily: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with my ADHD readers?

Sarah Blyth: Don’t forget to breathe…

If you know of any elected politician in Canada or the US who has ADHD, and that has the guts to step out of the ADHD closet and go public, please let me know.

Girls with ADHD were 2.7 times more likely to develop Anorexia Nervosa a study in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics showed. This post will show that girls and women with ADHD have higher rates of Anorexia Nervosa and explain some of the reasons why.

Anorexia isn’t a “trend” for some models/actresses/singers. Its a serious eating disorder and a mental health condition where people starve themselves /exercise to try and maintain a weight far below what’s normal for their age & weight.

Girls and women with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have higher rates of ALL eating disorders.

• Women with ADHD had higher rates of past Anorexia and Bulimia, and past and current panic disorder says a study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

• Girls with ADHD have 5.6 times higher rates of Bulimia Nervosa than controls according to a study in The Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics

• 8% of girls with ADHD-Combined had engaged in at least one DSM-IV defined binge eating episode in the last year …relative to 0% of girls with ADHD-Inattentive and comparison girls. Study in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology

People with ADHD also have higher rates of obesity.

26.7 % of severely obese women had Adult ADHD, more than 5 times larger then the regular population a study in the journal Eating Weight Disorders showed. They had problems with impulsivity, distractibility, attention and staying focused. Several other studies have showed the links between obesity and ADHD

A study in the Journal of Abnormal psychology showed the links between eating disorders and ADHD.

ADHD girls compared to non ADHD girls had higher rates of:

• pathological eating

• desire to lose weight

• peer rejection

• punitive parenting

• disruptive disorders

• internalizing disorders

• externalizing symptoms

• internalizing symptoms.

ADHD girls compared to non ADHD girls also had lower rates of satisfaction with their appearance. Girls with the combined form of ADHD showed higher levels of pathological eating behaviors than did both girls with inattentive ADHD and comparison girls. Have a look at Pieces of a Puzzle: The Link Between Eating Disorders and ADD by Dr. Carolyn Piver Dukarm. She’s a a pediatrician and eating disorders specialist, and her book

focuses on the overlap between eating disorders and ADD and points out how diagnosing and treating both of these disorders can fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle that hold the key to recovery.

Joanna Poppink a LA psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders says

Early in their lives, people with eating disorders have experienced, on a sustained basis, relentless boundary invasion on every level.

As someone who has ADHD, has coached Adults with ADHD for many years, who runs the Vancouver adult ADD support group and is on the board of CHADD Vancouver, I’ve noticed a large number of adults with ADHD have problems with setting and enforcing boundaries. This may have to do with the nature of ADHD.

Compared to non ADDers, people with ADHD are more likely to be easily distracted, forgetful, impulsive, time blind, disorganized, have trouble planning and prioritizing, have trouble learning from past experiences, have higher rates of anxiety etc. All factors that would interfere with setting and maintaining boundaries.

Plus ADHD is 80% genetic, so if a child has ADHD usually one or more parent have it. You can’t teach skills you never learned.

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious disease. Canadian doctors have calculated that women with Anorexia die on average about a quarter of a century earlier than other women. 50% by suicide, the rest succumb to medical problems.

Anorexia Nervosa is basically not recognized as a serious disease by society and government, in my opinion, certainly not compared to heart disease and cancer,” said Dr. Laird Birmingham, the UBC psychiatry professor who led the research.

People with ADHD have higher rates of suicide and ADHD is also not recognized as a serious disease by society and government.

I know one woman who had undiagnosed ADHD and became Anorexic, then later she became Bulimic, then became addicted to alcohol, then drugs, then later developed a Binge Eating disorder. Finally she got diagnosed with ADHD.

What would her life be like if she got properly diagnosed with ADHD at a young age instead of being neglected due to the ignorance of the medical and addiction system? How many others with ADHD have to needlessly suffer like her? How many tax dollars are being needlessly wasted because ADHD isn’t taken seriously?

Why not ask your politicians, media and doctors to start screening girls and women with Anorexia Nervosa and other eating disorders for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and if they have ADHD, properly treat it?

People with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD have much higher rates of alcohol and drug addictions, depression, anxiety disorders and crime.

Higher rates of Anorexia Nervosa and other eating disorders are even more reasons why the media, govt & health systems should stop stigmatizing and neglecting ADHD, and start taking it seriously and put resources into diagnosing it and properly treating ADHD in adults & children earlier so we develop less comorbid conditions. Wendy Richardson is a Licensed Marriage, Family Therapist, and Certified Addiction Specialist and the author of the book  The Link Between A.D.D and Addiction: Getting the Help You Deserve and the book  When Too Much Isn’t Enough: Ending the Destructive Cycle of AD/HD and Addictive Behavior. Here are some excerpts from an article she wrote called The link between ADHD and eating disorders.

As we learn more about ADD, we discover that people manifest ADD traits differently. Obsessing on food, exercise, and thinness gives the anorectic a way to focus their chaotic ADD brains. They become over-focused on thoughts and behaviors that related to food.

Frequently these people will only become aware of their high level of activity, distractibility, and impulsiveness after they have been in recovery for anorexia. Self-starvation curtails hyperactivity.

Distractibility and spacey-ness are characteristics of both anorexia and bulimia, whether or not they’re accompanied by ADD. In each case the inability to concentrate or focus results because the brain is not being properly nourished. For people with ADD, however, there is a history of attention difficulties that predates the eating disorder. Their concentration, impulse problems, and activity level may not improve when their eating disorder is treated.

As a matter of fact, their ADD traits can get worse once they are no longer self-medicating with food, or organizing their lives around food and exercise. If you are someone who has struggled with eating disorders, and suspect you may have ADD, it is important to get an evaluation. Both your eating disorders and your ADD must be treated.

It is essential that both ADD and eating disorders are treated. Too many people are struggling with their eating disorders because they have undiagnosed or untreated ADD. When ADD is properly treated, the individual is better able to focus and follow through with treatment for their eating disorders. They also have greater control of their impulses and less of a need to self-medicate their ADD symptoms.

Here are more reasons why girls and women with ADHD are more likely to develop Anorexia Nervosa than non ADHD girls and women.

Evidence suggests that children with ADHD-C in particular have trouble with accurately perceiving and regulating their own emotional states (Maedgen & Carlson, 2000). Eating pathology may be most likely to result for dysregulated girls if they lack supportive parent-child or peer relationships to buffer against stressors.

This pattern is supported by our finding that negative parenting in childhood more strongly predicted pathological eating behaviors for girls with ADHD than for comparison girls. Children with ADHD are at high risk for concurrent problems in parent-child and peer relationships (Asarnow, 1988).

It is well documented that children with ADHD have more conflictual relationships with their parents than do children without ADHD (Johnston & Mash, 2001).

Parents of girls with ADHD also show higher levels of expressed emotion (EE)— composed of critical and overinvolved attitudes parents hold toward offspring—than do parents of comparison girls (Peris & Hinshaw, 2003).

Dopamaine, ADHD and Anorexia Nervosa Dopamine is one of the main neurotransmitters involved with ADHD, we have lower levels of dopamine than non ADHD people. A study showed Increased Dopamine D2/D3 Receptor Binding After Recovery from Anorexia Nervosa Measured by Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Several lines of evidence support the possibility that disturbances of dopamine (DA) function could contribute to alterations of weight, feeding, motor activity, and reward in anorexia nervosa (AN). These data lend support for the possibility that decreased intrasynaptic DA concentration or increased D2/D3 receptor density or affinity is associated with AN and might contribute to the characteristic harm avoidance or increased physical activity found in AN.

Most intriguing is the possibility that individuals with AN might have a DA related disturbance of reward mechanisms contributing to altered hedonics of feeding behavior and their ascetic, anhedonic temperament.

Dopamine release fuels anxiety in the brains of Anorexics a study in The International Journal of Eating Disorders showed.

In healthy subjects without an eating disorder, the amphetamine-induced release of dopamine was associated with feelings of extreme pleasure in the brain’s “reward center.” However, in people with anorexia, amphetamine made them feel anxious and activated the part of the brain that worries about consequences.

It’s possible that when people with anorexia nervosa eat, the related release of the neurotransmitter dopamine makes them anxious, rather than experiencing a normal feeling of reward. It is understandable why it is so difficult to get people with anorexia to eat and gain weight, because food generates intensely uncomfortable feelings of anxiety.

If you had or have Anorexia, were you screened for ADHD?

If you know someone that might be interested in this post, please pass it on.

If you’re interested in helping out to create an ADHD Awareness event for ADHD Awareness Week October 16th to 22nd 2011 in Vancouver BC, please let me know.

I organized a previous ADHD Awareness event 5 years ago in Vancouver, BC in  2006 with some members of my Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group, where Diane Sugars, Executive Director of The Learning Disabilities Association of BC, Vancouver Chapter spoke on  My Child Has ADHD, Now What? and I spoke on Adult ADHD – Realities and Roadmaps.

If you want to help organize an ADHD Awareness Week event in Vancouver during ADHD Awareness Week 2011 in the 3rd week of October please email me.

You may also want to organize your own event during ADHD Awareness week 2011 in Vancouver, in another city the lower mainland or elsewhere in BC or Canada. If you do, let me know about it and the details and I’ll blog it to help get the word out on it.

The main ADHD Awareness week website is now up.

ADHD Awareness Week is October 16-22, 2011. Do you think most non ADHD people really understand what ADHD actually is & how it affects people who have it?

If not, read what ADHD Awareness week is about and some ways you can help reduce the ignorance and stigma many people have about ADHD, and increase awareness about ADHD.

The ADHD Awareness Coalition announced the dates for the 2011  ADHD Awareness Week as October 16th to 22nd, 2011. I helped organize an ADHD Awareness Day event in Vancouver, BC a  few years ago. It’s the 7th year of ADHD awareness days in the US, but still none in Canada. Sigh…

The ADHD Awareness Coalition is made up the following organizations.

ADHD Coaching Organization (ACO)

Additude Magazine

Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA)

Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)

The group encourages our colleague organizations and volunteers to plan ADHD Awareness activities during the week of October 16th to 22nd, 2011. Here’s the website for the 2011 ADHD Awareness week campaign.

Here are some ADD ADHD Advocacy Resources From ADDitude Magazine. They list essential articles, expert Q&As, tools & checklists, and resources about ADD ADHD and learning disabilities.

What can I/we do for ADHD Awareness Day?

Here are some ideas from an older article from a previous ADHD Awareness day that is sadly no longer on their website. FYI if you need to book space for an event, start looking for it NOW, things book up very quickly.

For Individuals

• Hand out the ADDA Fact Sheet in your community. Ask if you can place some ADDA Fact Sheets at your physician’s office, schools, disability centers of your local colleges, libraries in your area, or at local coffee shops (many of which have community bulletin boards, or places to leave information).

• Contact the mental health centers in your area. Ask them to put something up on their website and put flyers in their waiting rooms. Better yet, ask them to sponsor ADHD screenings, informational meetings or other activities on Awareness Day.

• Speak to your PTA meeting, Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce or other group about ADHD. Offer ADDA as a resource and/or hand out the Fact Sheet.

• Ask your local library to display ADHD books prominently, perhaps with the ADDA Fact Sheet (see the sample letter in the ADHD Awareness Day Kit on the ADDA website).

• Write and op/ed piece or letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

For Groups

• Place an announcement on your website.

• Do an “email blast” to your e-list.

• Sponsor a workshop on ADHD or have an inservice at your local school.

• Sponsor a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to ADDA.

• Ask your local library if you can set up a table to hand out information.

• Participate in local health fairs where you can pass out fact sheets.

• Collaborate with other advocacy or educational groups in your area to sponsor an event to raise awareness about ADHD in your community.

• Try getting your local newspaper to write an article or op/ed piece about ADHD and/or Awareness Day.

• Ask your Chamber of Commerce if your group can have 5-10 minutes at their next meeting to announce National ADHD Awareness Day and hand out information.

• Place an announcement on your cable company’s free community bulletin board.

• Ask the radio station to do a community service announcement on Awareness Day, or be a guest on a local radio program talking about ADHD.

• Write to ADHD authors encouraging them to request book signings in their local area on ADHD Awareness Day. Most Borders, etc. will order books and let authors sign. They also put up signs announcing the event and some even advertise in their local papers and libraries.

The CHADD ADHD awareness week toolkit for local CHADD groups

Here’s the material it covers

Section 1: Recruit Your Volunteers & Delegate
Section 2: Decide on the Type of the Event
Section 3: Developing A Timeline
Section 4: Plan a Budget
Section 5: Select your Location
Section 6: Solicit Sponsors
Section 7: Publicize the Event
Section 8: Share Information
Section 9: Complete Financial Reports

Do you have any plans for ADHD Awareness week?

Any other ideas on what else can be done to promote ADHD Awareness?

Last saturday shortly after I tweeted about Vancouver South Liberal MP and past BC Premier & Attorney General  Ujjal Dosanjh‘s (on Twitter @ujjaldosanjh ) signs been destroyed or defaced on Twitter,

RT @pqpolitics 35+ of Liberal Dosanjh’s large 4 by 4 signs have gone missing + another 25 have been defaced & damaged http://bit.ly/dZgmJc #elxn41 #bcpoli

I was going down 41st ave and noticed Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murry signs were knocked down. Soon, I noticed some of Vancouver South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh’s signs trashed or defaced, one coincidentaly within 2 blocks of his tory opponent Wai Young’s campaign HQ. I went to the Fraser area & later wandered past Ujjal Dosanjh’s HQ. So I walked in to tell them about their trashed signs.

After telling a volunteer about their trashed signs (a few could be random vandals, but not 35) I saw Vancouver South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh in the office. So naturally I asked him this question

“Do you knew that 20-45% of prisoners have ADHD 15 clinical studies show? And only 5% of adults have ADHD?”

Surprisingly, he was aware of the connection between ADHD and crime. BC is very backward on ADHD especially adult ADHD. I then asked him “The UK screens prisoners for ADHD in their jails, would you commit to screening prisoners in Federal jails for ADHD?” He answered “Yes I would”. Ujjal then went on to say that they should be screened for ADHD in the court system before they even reach prison.

I totally agree. Judge David Admire did this nearly 20 years ago in his 2-3 year court in Seattle. His son had ADHD & he noticed many people in his court seemed to have ADHD. He developed a screening program for prisoners with ADHD and learning disabilities. If they screened positive, they got properly diagnosed and had a choice of getting treatment for ADHD and or LD, learning how to properly manage ADHD with skills, pills, how to self advocate etc or going to jail. The ones who got treated for ADHD had their recidivism (return to prison) rates go down massively compared to controls.

20-30% + of drug addicts and alcoholics have ADHD peer reviewed clinical studies show but properly managed ADHD can be a competitive edge. Many entrepreneurs have ADHD. See the top ten advantages of ADHD in a high tech career

Vancouver’s mental health court last time I asked didn’t bother screening for ADHD. Too bad.

I was very pleasantly surprised Ujjal Dosanjh knew about ADHD and crime since most politicians I talk to about this have no clue about the massive disproportionate number of prisoners in Canadian jails who have ADHD. I thanked him and told him about my blog post on 15 peer reviewed studies on ADHD and crime Up To 45% 0f Prisoners Have ADHD Studies Show. Crime & Jail Are Costly, Treatment Is Cheap

So thank you Ujjal Dosanjh for choosing science and evidence over ideology and theology in regards to ADHD and crime. I hope other Canadian politicians do the same.

Health is mainly a provincial responsibility in Canada, but the Federal govt is responsible for jails. So if you or someone you know has ADHD why don’t you ask your local candidate or their party leader if they have a chance if they support screening prisoners in Canadian Federal prisons for ADHD?

Maybe also ask them if they’ll properly diagnosing those who screen positive by people who know ADHD and treat them in jail not only with long term medications that can’t be abused like the short term ones but more importantly also therapy so they learn self awareness and skill so they don’t come back to jail at a cost of $101,000 a year to the Canadian taxpayer?

Ideally you want them to screen children and adults for ADHD BEFORE they end up in jail, get medical professionals trained on ADHD in kids and adults and do a national anti stigma/ ADHD facts campaign. But Canadian provincial politicians don’t seem to want to do that.

If you’re Canadian here’s how to find your local candidate to ask them about ADHD & crime:

Find your local Liberal candidate

Find your local NDP candidate

Find your local Conservative candidate

Find your local Green candidate

Follow the Canadian Federal election on Twitter with the hash tag #elxn41 up until the election May 2nd 2011. Vote or you can’t complain until the next election.

Yesterday I went to two leaders rallies in Vancouver, Michael Ignatieff’s in North Vancouver and Elizabeth May’s in Vancouver

At the Green party rally that started at 7.30pm in front of the train station in Vancouver I asked Elizabeth May who’s @elizabethmay on Twitter

“Do you knew that 20-45% of prisoners have ADHD?”  Only 5% of adults have ADHD. She said a lot of prisoners have ADHD and other mental health problems. I then said “The UK screens prisoners for ADHD in their jails, would you commit to screening prisoners in Federal jails for ADHD?” She answered “Of course”

I was very pleasantly surprised since most politicians I talk about this have no clue about the massive disproportionate number of prisoners in Canadian jails who have ADHD. I thanked her and gave her a printed copy of my blog post on 15 peer reviewed studies on ADHD and crime Up To 45% 0f Prisoners Have ADHD Studies Show. Crime & Jail Are Costly, Treatment Is Cheap

So thank you Elizabeth May for choosing science and evidence over ideology and theology in regards to ADHD and crime. I hope other leaders do the same.

I got a chance to give my blog post on 15 peer reviewed studies on ADHD and crime to Michael Ignatieff who’s @m_ignatieff on Twitter, as he passed on the way out but unfortunately didn’t have a chance to ask him if he’d screen prisoners in Federal jails for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Health is mainly a provincial responsibility but the Federal govt is responsible for jails. So if you or someone you know has ADHD why don’t you ask your local candidate or their party leader if they have a chance if they support screening prisoners in Canadian Federal prisons for ADHD and also properly diagnosing those who screen positive by people who know ADHD and treat them in jail not only with long term medications that can’t be abused like the short term ones but also therapy so they learn self awareness and skill so they don’t come back to jail at a cost of $101,000 a year to the Canadian taxpayer?

Ideally you want them to screen children and adults for ADHD BEFORE they end up in jail, get medical professionals trained on ADHD in kids and adults and do a national anti stigma/ ADHD facts campaign.

If you’re Canadian here’s how to find your local candidate to ask them about ADHD & crime:

Find your local Liberal candidate

Find your local NDP candidate

Find your local Conservative candidate

Find your local Green candidate

Follow the Canadian Federal election on Twitter with the hash tag #elxn41

The Vancouver Sun celebrated ADHD Awareness week by stigmatizing ADHD on it’s front page, & sharing it Canada wide via the Canwest 2.0 / PostMedia News network.

Update 2: The Vancouver Sun actually ran a story on the same study nearly a month earlier, August 18th with the title One million children may be misdiagnosed with ADHD: Study.

Vancouver Sun 1st article on Elder ADHD Study on August 18th, 2010

They ran it as a news piece without the 3 comments by people who do not diagnose ADHD in children and are not ADHD experts. So please explain to me why a story The Vancouver Sun (a daily newspaper) covered on August 18th 2010 was also their front lead news story on Sept 13th 2010?

Update:

See: The 2 blog posts Vancouver Psychologist Dr. Jim Roche who diagnoses ADHD and works with ADHD children has written on the Vancouver Sun ADHD stigma article.

1. Vancouver Sun doesn’t get the point about ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment

2.ADHD: Science-Based Medicine and Psychology

Monday Sept 13th 2010 was the 1st day of the 7th annual ADHD Awareness week in the US. Sadly, Canada, which is quite backward in understanding and dealing with ADHD, has yet to have a 1st one. BC is more backwards on ADHD than some other provinces like Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

The Vancouver Sun has done some great articles on depression and biploar in the past. That’s one reason why it was so disappointing on the 1st day of ADHD Awareness week to read their front page lead article stigmatizing ADHD and promoting myths about ADHD instead of exposing the stigma and myths about ADHD. Their Sept 13th A1 headline by reporter Tracy Sherlock was

“One in five hyperactive children possibly misdiagnosed, report finds”

I’m an adult ADHD coach who has ADHD and I don’t have a problem with the actual findings of the study, which talks about children who are younger than their peers in classes being more likely to be misdiagnosed with ADHD. When you consider that ADHD is often considered a developmental delay, and that ADHD isn’t taken seriously enough by the government, healthcare system and the media let alone the general public (for example the BC govt closed the only public Adult ADHD clinic after it had an politically embarassing 1 year wait list ) and that many doctors are unfortunately not provided with proper training on diagnosing and treating ADHD, it was not that surprising for those of us who know ADHD. You can see the full study in PDF format here

It’s the rest of the Vancouver Sun article that’s the problem. Worse, it got picked up by PostMedia News (Canwest 2.0) so they promoted ignorance and stigma about ADHD across Canada in outlets like the Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montréal Gazette, Global TV, etc.

Too bad the Vancouver Sun didn’t do a more responsible, non stigmatizing article on the diagnosing ADHD in children study like the one The National Post (a sister PostMediaNews paper) did 3 weeks earlier written by a doctor that actually diagnoses ADHD in children, Dr. Yoel Abells.

This post has 3 sections

1. Six Problems with the Vancouver Sun’s coverage of the ADHD story (there are more but I’ll limit it to six).

2. Some thoughts on the implication of the study.

3. Some possible actions you can take at the end of this post.

Here are 6 problems with the Vancouver Sun’s coverage

1. It’s OLD news for a daily newspaper.

Nearly a month old. Yet, it was published as a front page lead story in a “daily” newspaper. It ran in Macleans and many other print media sites on August 17th vs Vancouver Sun’s September 13th.

2. The article mentions a study on diagnosing ADHD in children, quotes 3 local people in the article and NONE of them:

1. Actually diagnose ADHD in children or adults.

2. Are recognized experts in ADHD.

Would the Vancouver Sun do an article on diagnosing liver disease and quote 3 locals on it and not have at least one of them someone who actually diagnoses liver disease? How did this slip by the editors? Or was it a deliberate decision to slant the story from the beginning to stigmatize people with ADHD and use them as bait for more readers?

3. The only quote highlighted is a stigmatizing quote demonstrating ignorance of ADHD

This is the only pull quote in the text that’s been bolded to draw attention to it

There is no blood test for ADHD — it’s very subjective and this study makes that very clear,” MacDonald said. “I’ve long suspected that our attitude toward rambunctious behaviour influences whether we perceive that children have ADHD. Barry MacDonald

Where do I begin?

Barry Mcdonald is a RCC, registered clinical counselor, not a psychologist. RCC’s don’t diagnose ADHD.

“There’s no blood test for ADHD”

Of course there’s no blood test for ADHD. There’s no blood test for depression or schizophrenia either. Does that invalidate/minimize/trivialize/stigmatize the diagnosis of depression or schizophrenia?

There are NO blood tests for ANY mental health condition. That’s the most basic point of diagnosing ANY mental health condition. Why doesn’t the Vancouver Sun reporter Tracy Sherlock or any of her editors know this? No one expects them to be experts on every medical condition, but surely shouldn’t there be some baseline knowledge? In an editor at least, if not a reporter?

It was the lead front page story. Shouldn’t there be at least a few editors around with a very basic understanding of physical and mental health conditions? Especially when you see how many editors there on the Vancouver Sun’s contact page?

Does the Vancouver Sun need someone like Psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Weiss, head of the BC ADHD clinic to come in to educate the Vancouver Sun staff on some basic factual knowledge on ADHD and other mental health conditions?

If you want to learn what’s involved in diagnosing ADHD, or let your doctor know, the CADDRA (Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance) Canadian ADHD Practice Guidelines will tell you. CADDAC, CHADD Canada, TotallyADD and my 130 page ADHD resource website are some other good Canadian websites on ADHD.

The second part of the quote, “I’ve long suspected that our attitude toward rambunctious behaviour influences whether we perceive that children have ADHD.” is another common myth used to stigmatize ADHD, i.e. the old “it’s not really ADHD, its just boys being boys/active”, or “Only people who have massively off the chart behavior problems have ADHD, there’s too many boys being boys diagnosed with it” BS meme. The subtext is trying to push the it’s not a real condition/ only extreme off the chart cases are ADHD, etc. There’s a huge difference between believing something and having a solid clinical diagnosis by someone who really understands ADHD. Trouble is not enough doctors do.

Why does the Vancouver Sun decide to highlight one paragraph, this one? Why highlight ignorance and stigma? Shouldn’t the job of a newspaper be to expose ignorance and correct ignorance and stigma? Versus make it most prominent part of the story and syndicate it nationwide?

4. Study Author Todd Elder also talks about the under diagnosis of ADHD in the study that the media ignored.

Although recent headlines from his research have focused on the possibility that nearly 1 million children in the U.S. may have been misdiagnosed with ADHD, Elder tells WebMD that there may also be a substantial amount of under diagnosis among older kids.

but Vancouver Sun also ignores that. Wonder why? Doesn’t fit their biased narrative?

ADHD is misdiagnosed, overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. Underdiagnosis is the biggest problem, especially in adults, and ignorance & stigma against ADHD is one of the reasons for this. This will continue to happen until people start demanding medical schools and the BC College of physicians and surgeons starts properly training doctors and psychiatrists on ADHD. Maybe start by contacting your local BC MLA or or contact BC’s Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon

5. ADHD is not just Hyperactive

Headline is “One in five hyperactive children possibly misdiagnosed, report finds”. Not all children with ADHD are hyperactive, many girls, and some boys have the inattentive form of ADHD, AND often don’t get diagnosed because people aren’t aware of it. That’s why the actual report and other media used the term ADHD.

6. Most obvious question ignored.

Wouldn’t an obvious question from the study be: given the findings, are BC doctors, psychiatrists and psychologist adequately trained enough in ADHD to be able to properly diagnose and treat ADHD in children? Let alone adults, given there are more adults with ADHD than children, since ADHD is 80% genetic (fathers usually stay in denial longer than mothers) How come that question is never asked? Would it harm the biased narrative?

Go to the end of this post if you want some ideas on responding to the Vancouver Sun and Post Media New’s ignorance and stigmatization of ADHD

Implications of the study

If the study is indeed accurate and SOME medical professionals are overdiagnosing younger children and underdiagnosing older children in those numbers or even near that, it should be a wake up call to the public, the healthcare system, and the media. Too bad the media is sleeping through the alarm clock.

BC Parents shouldn’t have their child diagnosed with ADHD when they don’t have it or not diagnosed with ADHD when they do have it.

BC doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists are NOT adequately trained on ADHD; this is what many of them have told me. Many of them have said they weren’t trained on ADHD during medical school. There ARE some people like Dr. Margaret Weiss of the BC ADHD Clinic at Children’s Hospital and Dr. Gabor Mate who has ADHD and wrote a book on it, Scattered Minds who are world-class experts in ADHD here in Vancouver, but they learned about ADHD on their own.

UBC medical students only get one hour of training on ADHD during their entire program.

Is that enough to diagnose and treat a complex condition like ADHD where there are many co-existing condition with it, and they’re the norm, not the exception? If not what is being done to change that?

One reason the media keeps stigmatizing ADHD is not only the lack of properly trained medical professionals who know ADHD, but many people with ADHD don’t go public with the condition because of the ignorance and stigma surrounding ADHD, which the Vancouver Sun and PostMedia News (Canwest 2.0) perpetuates.

I’ve done an anonymous survey for adults who’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and haven’t gone public asking them what it would take for them to go public.

Of course not everyone should and there are many dangers and benefits to doing this and it should not be done impulsivly. I’ve got 100+ answers so far, some amazing powerful stories, and am working on analyzing it for a media release and a series of blog posts.

But some of the common answers I’ve found from my survey was that when they talked to their families, friends and medical professionals about having ADHD, they often were told ADHD isn’t a real condition. They also had families, friends, and medical professionals insulting, shaming, and stigmatizing ADHD and them for having it.

Here’s one quote from part of one person’s answer.

I am very careful about revealing to people about having ADHD. In conversations, they would say things like “Oh ADHD does not exist” or “it is just laziness.” Someone said “everyone has it these days.” When I hear people mention things like this, I just decide not to reveal anything to them. My mother still yells at me and tells me that I am just being lazy and disorganized on purpose.

What can you do about this?

1. Contact these people and politely tell them your thoughts about their Sept 13th front page lead article stigmatizing ADHD.

Patricia Graham, Editor-in-Chief, Vancouver Sun
Phone: 604-605-2318 pgraham@vancouversun.com

Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun
Phone: 604-605-2033 klapointe@vancouversun.com

Alex Beer, Editor-in-Chief Postmedia New
Phone: 289-396-2066 abeer@canwest.com

or the editor of the local paper that approved and syndicated this article

2. Share your thoughts about this article on twitter, facebook, your blog, or email it to others that might be interested in it.

3. Express your thoughts in the comment section of this blog post

4. Ask the Vancouver Sun and PostMedia News to do an article on ADHD that dispels the myths and stigma surrounding ADHD instead of promoting them. Perhaps by interviewing people who actually know ADHD well enough to properly diagnose ADHD and people who actually have expertise in ADHD

5. Contact your local BC MLA or or contact BC’s Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon and ask them why aren’t they making sure BC’s Doctors, Psychiatrists and Psychologists are properly trained on diagnosing and treating ADHD in children and adults? BC Parents shouldn’t have their child diagnosed with ADHD when they don’t have it or not diagnosed with ADHD when they do have it.

6. Other ideas?