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Our brain has specific regions that facilitate Executive Functioning. The prefrontal cortex is where we think, make decisions and in doing so engage working memory. Right behind the frontal cortex is Broca’s Area, which receives information from the thalamus in the middle of the brain. The thalamus is our selective filter and Broca’s area holds information, though it is processed in the Cerebellum at a site called Wernike’s Area. It is mostly language processing but sends that back to the frontal cortex via cabling that connects these regions. The interplay between all these parts allows us to work, play and function in the world.

What happens in ADD/ADHD to those parts? We see that there is a 2-4 year delay in development and tissue density. By adulthood this delay remains as a static condition resulting in compromised functioning One new theory is that synaptic pruning is incomplete in these regions. Synaptic connections are the connections between Neurons that facilitates communication., activation or deactivation. As children from birth until 5 years of age we are creating new synaptic connections at the rate of 700,000/second. Then we switch to pruning unneeded connections so we can operate more optimally. We spend the rest of our life pruning. Thus a 90-year-old has a smaller less dense brain with few synaptic connections than a 5-year-old, yet the 90-year-old brain will outperform the 5-year-old brain. It has become a super-efficient lean machine. Complicating this is that some areas in prefrontal cortex and Broca’s Area are just coming online at ages 20-25.

One of the latest theories is that the pruning is incomplete in regions affecting working memory and executive functioning. This makes sense when we think about having too much stimulation, perhaps there are synaptic connection that should have been pruned.  The Thalamus acts a filter and allows us to be super focused on what we need to be in attention to. We can select one aspect of reality such as a person talking to us and not hear anyone else in the room. A person with ADD/ADHD hears everyone besides the person talking, multiple conversations at once. It is an unfiltered experience of being. So, we can see how this theory fits.

ADHD appears to be genetic running in families generationally. There is an epigenetic reality to this as well that if a person who is pregnant has trauma unless she is treated in the first trimester her child has as much as a 90% chance of developing ADHD. If she is treated by the first trimester (this is when her blood chemicals are not shared with the placenta) those odds drop to 10% breaking the generational pattern. We see a direct correlation between trauma and ADHD. The closer a town or city is to the frontline of a war, the higher the incidence of ADHD, This is Epigenetics.

Neuroplasticity and ADD/ADHD

Neuroplasticity is the fact that our brain changes and can change in adaptive and beneficial ways. Can we change our brain so that ADD is no longer presenting? The answer is yes and no. In my therapy practice I teach coping skills that can remove the experience of ego (I or me) and shut down our thinking. I can connect people to their Soul which changes their energy of being and noticed that bilateral stimulation is not only calming but quieting. I have someone who has decided on his own to put all these together as a daily practice and when we practice a brain change daily, it gets conditioned. In other words, my client conditioned having no I or Me present, no chatter in his mind by being mindful and meditating daily combined with a Chi Qong exercise and bilateral stimulation. He may have produced enough BDNF via these practices to eliminate his experience of ADD. BDNF is Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor or the condition to build more brain tissue. Mindfulness meditation and exercise are evidenced to stimulate BDNF. He exercises daily and does have a job where he gets to move constantly so it is perfect for his ADD. His ADHD was severe in that the anxiety he had from distraction and overstimulation morphed into phobias and OCD, which I have methods to treat with EMDR (for more on what EMDR is visit my other website: https://herbcohen.one).Thus, we do not know if he got a desk job, would he still struggle? It is encouraging that he is on no ADD/ADHD medications and demonstrates no ADD/ADHD experiences. He goes into overstimulating experiences to challenge himself and he no longer needs to modify his life.  Please note, this was not instant, he was very motivated and very patient. He practices daily and is committed to this ongoing.