The ADD/ADHD Resource Project

Herb Cohen, LCAT, ADHD Certified Clinical Services Provider

Herb Cohen Creative Art Therapy, PC

81 New Street Huntington, New York 11743

(631) 237-5656

Welcome! This web resource aims to be a one stop resource for those seeking answers regarding yourself, a loved one or a student or colleague.

I am trained and Certified ADHD Provider. I have consolidated what I have learned as well, what I practice to best understand ADHD. The information aims to offer solutions for how to do to live with it.

Do I have ADD/ADHD? What it is and what is not.

Attention Deficit is a disorder of Executive Functioning and performance. Executive functioning is compromised. Executive Functioning involves working memory (our RAM), inhibitory control (impulsivity), and cognitive flexibility. It can result in impairment in attention, planning, goal attainment, judgement and decision making. Such impairments are stressful and thus anxiety related disorders may also manifest or be present.

Executive Functioning is fundamental to human cognition- to remember information, to filter stimuli and responses, and in resisting impulses. The Ability to sustain attention is challenged as is the ability to self-regulate emotions and behaviors. Working memory is the temporary storage of task relevant information. We know how to do something because we did it before and have retained how from working memory. IN ADD/ADHD we are distracted while accessing working memory by a daydream or other competing stimuli.

Differentiating Whether ADD/ADHD or Not

Please Note: If anxious, know that anxiety can impede short term memory and recall. It can distract us from focus and task completion.  By itself does not mean that is ADD or ADHD.

Anxiety can result from experiencing and living with ADD/ADHD.I can become anxious if I cannot perform as other expect and this is common, I practice Trauma Therapy and 90% of my trauma clients have ADD Or ADHD. For many Childhood experiences of ADD/ADHD growing up and in school have been traumatic- blaming oneself for such deficits. We internalize the idea that I am not good enough. That is a lie treatable with EMDR. More females have inattentive type, whereas males are 3 times more likely to also have hyperactivity.

Fidgeting- This is one way people with ADD/ ADHD express anxious energy. It has helped many to focus better.

Our hi-speed culture. Many of us grew up watching Mister Rogers, though my kids watched Sesame Street. Mister Rogers used one to two cameras with long running view without any editing. Sesame Street had numerous cameras, changing angle, cameras, and scenes every few seconds.  I became used to watching Sesame Street with my kids, but one day my daughter put Mister Rogers on, and my brain could not handle watching- it was too challenging! It simulated the experience of ADHD. It means we now live in a world of fast edits and rapid responses. If you live in NY and Journey to Ohio, you will instantly become impatient with the slower tempo of Ohioans. We must consider this in the experience of ADD/ADHD, how that reality is a factor in making these challenges harsher.

Our phones provide rapid flows of over stimulating data and we have habituated to this new normal, but some cannot look away from their phones or even briefly put them down. That is not ADD/ADHD, but no doubt phones can be a source of distraction from someone suffering from ADD/ADHD.

Anxiety interferes with executive functioning EMDR can treat anxiety. Emotional lability such as explosive emotional outbursts may result from the frustration of repeatedly expected to perform, but ultimately disappointing over and over. If we experience this as a child, we will use another memory system to record and store the frustration and disappointment as it is an extreme state It is stored a implicit memory, and now sits in our limbic brain as a filter waiting to be triggered. We react as adults in the present exactly as we reacted as kid when that was stored. The emotional outburst can be a loved one, a teacher or a boss.  EMDR, a special trauma therapy is indicated to take that down. Emotional lability is often associated with PTSD but by itself is not indicative of ADD/ADHD. However, it may be a part of a larger story.

OCD is commonly co-morbid (simultaneously occurring) with both PTSD and ADD/ADHD. OCD is an attempt by our mind to feel safe by replaying something, so it is predictable. It is driven by a catastrophic idea thus I must compulsively act, or harm will come if I don’t. Both ADD/ADHD and PTSD are so stressful so OCD may manifest. OCD by itself is not pathanomic of ADD/ADHD.  OCD can be taken down with another type of Trauma Therapy tool called Brain Spotting.

If I procrastinate doing my homework, until the moment before it is due, behavior common to those with ADD/ADHD. If I have no problem rehearsing daily for a musical presentation, and I am ready on performance day without any prompts then I do not have ADD/ADHD. If I cannot bring myself to rehearse either, this would then indicate a possible positive diagnosis.

ADD/ADHD are not disorders of information processing – it is not a learning disability, nor a reflection of a lower IQ or compromised ability to learn information. Certainly, children struggling to focus on what is being taught while simultaneously distracted by the garbage truck collecting the trash out the window, is going to miss absorbing what she is there to learn. If we ignore this, bad grades will follow from not being able successfully complete tests. It does not mean this child with accommodations can’t be the intellectual star of the class.

Complicating this is a high comorbidly with both learning disabilities and as much as 50 % of those on the Autism Spectrum. TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) can have damage to the Thalamus, Prefrontal Cortex or Cerebellum and therefore manifest challenged with Executive Functioning thus ADD/ADHD can result.