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In This Issue . . .
 Why does ADD CrusherTM Alan Brown believe ADD or ADHD can have a positive effect on an individual, like a unique talent that sometimes accompanies attention issues? Read his article, entitled "ADD Positives: The Talents that Often Accompany Attention Issues," from his blog in our Featured Article section of this issue.
 In our Guest Writer section, Frank J. Granett, Registered Pharmacist, shares some thought-provoking insight concerning America's tipping point in the battle against childhood behavioral challenges in his article, entitled "A Call for Reform: Assessing Behavioral Health."
 In our Facebook Corner, we share Veronique St. Martin's point of view regarding our Attention Talk Video interview with Linda Roggli of ADDiva.com entitled, "Attention Deficit Disorder: Meet the Neurotransmitters."
Also featured in this issue of Attention Talk News, you will find our video interview with master certified coach Barbara Luther as she shares her thoughts and a graphic caricature in our interview, entitled "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: The ADHD Tornado."
In our Attention Talk Radio show on June 19, 2013, Dan Sullivan shares his experience and insight on life with a spouse who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in our interview with him, titled "Men Married to ADD Women: A Survival Guide."
On June 7, 2013, we interviewed Evelyn Green, president of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA), Dr. Charles Parker, comedian Rick Green, and ADHD coach Sari Solden on Attention Talk Radio in a special show, entitled "ATR Special: The ADDA Conference is Back!"
And more.
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Audio News
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Recent Shows to Listen to in Our Archives
ATR Special: The ADDA Conference is Back!  Neuro-diversity, bio-diversity, and neuro-bigotry? What role will these concepts play in the presentations at the upcoming Attention Deficit Disorder Association conference? Find out by listening to our interview with ADDA president Evelyn Polk Green, Sari Solden, Rick Green, and Dr. Charles Parker on Attention Talk Radio, titled "ATR Special: The ADDA Conference is Back," on June 7, 2013. Men Married to ADD Women: A Survival Guide  Imagine if your wife is in an accident and it is very bad. She'll be laid up for six months in bed, and you've got two kids. What are you going to do? Somehow you just have to figure it out. This echoes Dan Sullivan's philosophy: Go to the extreme and then pull back. It's much easier to manage in an ADHD relationship. This tip and more in our interview titled "Men Married to ADD Women: A Survival Guide," on Attention Talk Radio on June 19, 2013.
Reminder to Calendar This Upcoming Show
Is ADHD a gift or a curse? What role does stigma play in the debate? Was Dr. Russell Barkley stigmatized as "Dr. Evil" on this important topic? How does he feel about how he has been cast? How does hope and resiliency play into the discussion? What is Dr. Barkley's take on the personal examples given by host and ADHD coach Jeff Copper how his own dyslexia and learning disability challenges have manifested in his life? All this and more in our interview with Dr. Barkley on the topic. Join us as Jeff and Dr. Barkley try to put all this into a context that makes sense while defining a strategy to put the discussion behind us and move towards destigmatizing ADHD!
Be sure to visit the Attention Talk News website at www.attentiontalknews.com.
Attention Talk Network.. Your ADHD information Source!
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Video News
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Brought to you by the
ADD Coach Academy Find a Coach
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: The ADHD Tornado
Master certified coach Barbara Luther uses a tornado as a metaphor to put attention deficit disorder into a context. In our interview Barbara shares an ADHD tornado graphic to illustrate how many start with ADHD, and like a tornado, it metaphorically sucks in depression, judgment, negative self-talk, and more. ADHD coaching is about unwinding the tornado down to the basic challenges of ADHD that can be managed. In the interview she shares a graphic she developed depicting the metaphor.
Click image to watch the video
Exercise
Does exercise make your brain better? Can it help you focus? Think? Does it make you smarter? Here is a video I found to be quite interesting on the topic.
Click image to watch the video
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Guest Writer
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A Call for Reform: Assessing Behavioral Health
by Frank J. Granett, R.Ph.
Over 12 million children and young adults in the United States consume ADHD stimulant and psychoactive medications. This rate of consumption represents 3x the consumption of the world's children combined, according to data collected by American Scientific. More alarming is the escalation of teen addiction rates to opiate prescription medications. A recent survey by Drugfree.org states that 1 in 5 teenagers have taken an opiate, like Vicodin, without a prescription. America has reached a tipping point regarding the battle against childhood behavioral challenges.
ADHD, anxiety, depression, aggression and opiate addition has fueled the Childhood Behavioral Health Crisis to the point of escalating teen and young adult suicides. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death in the United States college student population. If America truly cares about reversing the alarming trend that she has created and proliferated......then reformation of the assessment and treatment process in children with behavioral challenges must become the new course of action.
Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of The National Institute of Mental Health in Washington DC, recently stated in May 2013 during National Mental Health Awareness Month, that the current system of assessing and treating patients with behavioral conditions "lacks validity." He further stated in his newsletter....As experts continue to broaden their understanding of genetics and cognitive science, more diagnoses toward causation of symptoms will be made. "Patients with mental disorders deserve better. The eventual goal is to collect the genetic, imaging, physiologic and cognitive data to see how all the data...not just the symptoms relate to treatment response."
The National Institute of Mental Health is the largest United States government agency funding mental health research with an estimated two billion dollar annual budget reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington DC. The book, Over Medicating Our Youth, has a captioned letter written to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius in January 2012 stating the immediate need for a reformation in the assessment and treatment process for childhood behavioral conditions prior to premature drug therapy. The response was stated, "reforms were in process." The recent bold announcement by Dr. Thomas Insel proves that the assessment process prior to drug therapy, especially in young children battling behavioral challenges, is the new mandate.
The Coalition Against Overmedicating Our Youth (CAOOY) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children and young adults determine causation of behavioral challenges by ruling out nutritional, physiological and environmental risk factors prior to premature drug therapy. The book, Over Medicating Our Youth, in conjunction with the Action Plan for Childhood Behavioral Conditions gives parents, educators, healthcare professionals as well as students the critical knowledge of new assessments that help reverse behavioral symptoms prior to premature drug therapy. Visit www.CAOOY.org for free assessment and medication consultation as well as a free book preview.
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Featured Article
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ADD Positives:
The Talents That Often Accompany Attention Issues
by Alan Brown of ADD CrusherTM
I mentioned ADHD career counselor Wilma Fellman in an earlier blog post because her book was among the bestsellers at the ADHD Coaches Organization Conference earlier this year. In that blog, I noted that whatever ADHD coaches are reading or watching, it must be relevant for the rest of us (so, um, I also mentioned that ADD Crusher™ Video I was among those bestsellers).
Her name came up again recently in an interview with Jeff Copper of Attention Talk Radio. They discuss how "ADD positives" emerge in the attention circles, but usually not in a practical way -- a way that allows us to bring the talents that may stem from attention issues to the fore of our mind, our resume, and most of all, to our plans for what to do with our lives in the world of work.
In Way 10 of ADD Crusher™ Video II, there's a strategy called "Get Lateral," which means to start thinking of your ADHD self as a "lateral thinking, creative problem-solver." It is widely accepted that one of the primary ADD positives is creativity. I won't get into the nuts and bolts of the strategy here, but suffice to say, it's one way we ADDers can identify a strength that can be marketed -- albeit a very generalized one. In fact, it's too generalized. Wilma says we need to do a better job of identifying what you like/are good at. Not just "I like animals so I guess I'll be a vet." It's what you do better than the average bear. What lights you up when you do it. An innate ability that you can polish so that you're more marketable.
Importantly, in thinking about your unique talents, she says, "Don't start by ruling things out -- start by ruling things IN." And for my dollar, the place to start is on the RIGHT side of our ADHD brain, where non-linear thinking is done (love the Mercedes-Benz print ad below!). Work the ADD positives while working on the attention struggles that make life and relationships harder.
Anyway, check out the interview of Wilma Fellman and, as you listen, give some real thought to the issues she raises about how to think about your talents, your ideal place in the world, and your happiness where you are. (...and forgive the use of a Mercedes-Benz ad as illustration, but it does kinda nail where our talents often lie, i.e., NOT on the left side of the brain!)
Article originally appeared on ADDCrusher.com and is reproduced with permission.
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Facebook Corner
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Véronique St. Martin is an Attention Talk Radio listener in Canada who has been blogging her thoughts on our Facebook page about our video and radio shows. We want to share some of her comments. (The content has been edited, as much of it is written on the fly.)
What good idea to make characters who represent the neurotransmitters involved in ADHD! Because, I have to confess, apart from dopamine, I hardly remember the names of the others! Especially because I'm a visual learner, as are a lot of ADDers! With Linda Roggli's method, we can easily remember the names of the neurotransmitters because we can put a face on them, and I find that the characters are well designed. Indeed, in first looking at them, we immediately see that she represents attention; the second, emotion; and the third, inhibition. Congratulations on this fantastic idea!
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Other Stuff
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