I recently read a profile in the Washington Post of the unknown member of Seal Team Six who killed Osama Bin Laden. Richard Marcinko, a former Seal, described him as likely, “a positive thinker who gets in trouble when he’s not challenged, a man who “flunked vacation and flunked relaxing.” He said, “he’ll almost certainly wants to get right back into the action, to feel the rev of adrenaline again.” He wouldn’t be able to just sit in what he has accomplished, he would immediately want to go back out.
This description struck me in that it was such an amazing description that would fit so many of my patients who deal with Adult ADD. Particularly in people who have found a career that enables them to balance their brain neurochemistry by pushing their dopamine and adrenaline at all times. These patients may do high intensity trading of millions of dollars a day or jump out of airplanes, but they can’t function on vacation. Even when they achieve something astounding in their career they feel like they can sit back and relish in it and then suddenly they realize that they actually can’t sit back and enjoy it because it was the chase that made them feel ok, but the afterward it all came flooding back.
To most this might just sound like a adrenaline junky, but we are increasingly learning that people are addicted to adrenaline because they need that adrenaline to balance out their brain and allow them to function better, particularly in ADD. Ever had a friend who couldn’t stand to be on vacation or last more than 3 minutes laying by the pool. ADD people can’t stand to just sit back and relax while doing nothing. If they lose that neurochemical balance of having themselves all revved up then the flood of noise overwhelms them and they have to run off to find something stimulating. On the other hand during times of heavy stress they function far better than most people do. We call that the therapeutic window or the place where they feel most balanced. Increasingly we at Care Practice are learning that many of the top minds and most successful people in Silicon Valley are riding this therapeutic window in their daily lives. Our goal now is to help them to harness the creativity and inspiration, while helping them to also replenish and sustain their bodies.
Dr. Blackledge
Read about our efforts
Care Practice and ADD
June 8, 2011
May 9, 2011
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Stands back from the kbeyoard in amazement! Thanks!