Dr. Parker, thanks for joining ADDer World! I have been a reader of your blog for sometime now and have found it very helpful.
C: Thanks for your invite Bryan, you are setting an important theme by starting early to build a community of like minded folks so we can all pull together! It looks like your ADDer World Community site it really taking off, and see that your work is already providing a significantly positive service for the ADD community - Time for the docs and the patients to really have a dialogue about what’s going on in ADDland.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
C: My story, Bryan, has some easy repetitive themes: Since I was a kid in rural Indiana and Missouri, I learned a farm work ethic early - the cotton crop does not get to the market if you don’t pick it. And if you set out to pick cotton, don’t plan on a morning stroll - this is an all day affair. Even picking cotton I learned to get better by looking at the details of the process.
Most of the ADD folks that I see have complex issues, that can’t be solved by hasty or superficial interventions. In fact I rarely see a simple garden variety ADD anymore, as most of those are picked up and treated by others. My psychoanalytic training years ago in Philadelphia really helped me understand the importance of perseverance for the long haul, and the importance of digging relentlessly for deeper information.
So, my mission is simple: to become the most informed psychiatric practitioner possible, by accumulating more nuances of new brain and body information, translating and using that new information with patients, and then teaching those deeper understandings to both the public and the medical community. In a word: I love to learn, and love to teach.
Why did you create your blog and what is its purpose:
C: I started the blog simply because I knew it was up to me to develop, as you are doing over here, a community of like minded folks who may or may not be frustrated or lost with the complex challenges of dealing with ADD/ADHD issues. The blog is actually about more brain and body subjects than ADD, but as I said in a recent post: I can see at least 14 different ADD/ADHD brain patterns from SPECT imaging - and probably, when the full count is in, at least another 20-30 ADD presentation subsets [that can be measured as molecular and cellular physiologic challenges], for example, in the laboratory. Comprehensive evidence always brings a better treatment prognosis. The community needs this information.
You have some very helpful and informative posts about ADD ADHD. Could you tell us a little about your relationship with ADHD:
C: Thanks for your comments and support on my blog, I do hope your readers do join our CorePsychBlog and Podcast group over there for regular email updates on the blog and the podcast for MP3 audio and video programs. I have planned so many interesting topics over there, and also plan very soon to present weekly *free webinars* [you can simply sign up and listen to it on your machine] for one hour a week to better connect personally with my readership. My webinar tools will permit 2000 web participants and 200 callers, so we shouldn’t have a problem accommodating any one interested. So please sign up to stay tuned through our email blog/newsletters.
My relationship with ADD is simple: many years ago I realized as I was seeing literally thousands of patients [actually saw 1000 new patients in 2003 the year before opening Amen Clinic in DC for SPECT imaging] - and discovered what the pharma companies were telling me I should do with the meds… just didn’t work in predictable ways. I set out in my own practice to redefine “predictable.”
As I began to develop these more comprehensive, more predictable, understandings my patient improvement and compliance rates skyrocketed, and I quickly became the busiest ADD/ADHD psychiatrist in an area of about 2 million people. Following that happy development I then had the opportunity for the last 12 years to teach my medical colleagues nationally, and have lectured all over the USA, Paris, Virgin Islands, Canada, Grand Cayman, with coaching clients as far away as Japan.
It’s been a remarkable tour, there are some very significant problems to overcome, and I just love the opportunity to become a part of the solution process.
Thank you Dr. Parker for taking this time to tell us a bit about yourself and your blog. Do you have any other websites?
C: The CorePsychPodcast site is the only other current site, and there I will be interviewing some of the most important people nationally regarding immune dysfunction, imaging, measurement of medical problems, DAN doctors to better discuss how ADD fits in with Asperger’s and ASD, and most importantly how we can get the mind and body working together. As it stands now, so many are focused only on *mind drugs,* not paying attention to such important variables as simple exercise, and even with that basic *mind emphasis* don’t pay attention to often catastrophic drug interactions. All of these podcasts on this important new information will be available through free subscription and downloading in iTunes - so signing up is the best choice.
Some of the more specific educational programs and topics will have available slide shows that you can rent for your PTA and show through an internet link… lots of cool ideas coming soon. I have a number of educational modules that can be easily used to take out understandings to the next steps.
And thanks for your postings over at the CorePsych sites!
Thanks, Bryan!
Best of luck with ADDer World!
Chuck
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Thanks again Dr. Parker!
It is an honor to have interviewed Dr. Parker and have him as a member of our new ADDer World Interactive Community. Be sure to visit his sites, linked at the top of this posting and feel free to join the new ADDer World Interactive Community, also linked at the top. Dr. Parker is very active on his sites and takes the time to answer reader comments.
From time to time someone writes me and asks why many adults with ADHD find the diagnosis liberating.
The first thing to understand about diagnosis is that it helps explain our often confounding and misunderstood behaviors. We tend to do things which we know are not helpful and can be disruptive. Once we understand the why’s behind our actions and why some people react to us in certain ways it opens the path for us to forgive ourselves and learn to be less hard on ourselves. Knowledge is power in everything in life. The more we know about ADD ADHD, the better we can cope and modify our behavior. Not knowing why or how or what the heck is going on, especially when we repeat things over and over again drives us up the wall, creating emotional distress and quite often low self-esteem and depression.
Not everyone finds the diagnosis to be liberating and some are very upset by it and even more so that there is a label for it. Even so, by learning more about it, even if not willing to accept the label, there exists the potential for coping and overcoming.
I was personally gratified to learn I have ADD. I was tired of kicking myself and putting myself down for my behaviors and not learning how to control or correct my behaviors. Heck, when I was put down or punished for my erratic behavior I would go and punish myself twice as hard as anyone else. The reason I put so much punishing and damaging pressure on myself is because I had the belief if I suffered enough I would stop getting myself into jams. Knowing I have ADD has helped me learn about the common traits most of us share, why those traits affect us and how others have learned to cope with them. Knowing and understanding is so very important and at least to me it has been a very liberating experience. With knowledge of why I do certain things and how my mind tends to work things out, I have started accomplishing things I only faintly dreamed of in the past. I am no longer inhibited by own negative and self-defeating thoughts about myself and others cannot bring me down or stop me from creating something better for myself.
Just in that previous statement alone there is something of critical importance and that was the impression that others wanted to stop me from becoming a better person in my own right. That wasn’t the truth of it at all. I made mistakes, I said the wrong things, spoke impulsively and acted impulsively and people reacted to that, believing I was doing it on purpose. Just that understanding alone had a profound impact on my life. Forgiveness to self and others.
I was born on May 21st 1969, today 39 years ago. Oh my, that is so hard to believe, 39 years. How time flies. Normally I dread my birthday, because it usually means that another year has passed and I have not accomplished anything that I wanted to accomplish. Not so this year, this year I can look back over the past year and know I set out to do certain things and have accomplished them!
That’s a great feeling, you know, accomplishing things. Not just talking about them or wishing for them, but doing them, making them happen, creating reality.
Why did it take me so long? That’s not so easy to explain. I have always felt like I should be doing ‘something’, but I could never place my finger on exactly what I should be doing. It seems to me that I was reaching for something and I did not know what I was reaching for, therefore, naturally, I never reached it. When I was diagnosed with ADHD, things changed for me, something clicked in my mind and I started to see things differently, feel things differently, as well as understand things differently – all for the better. When you go so many years of your life doing things on impulse and seemingly uncontrollably and not know why, it can wear on you, it can bring you down. Diagnosis brought with it a type of liberation I never expected to feel in my life. Sometimes, just knowing ‘why’ is powerful.
The last few months I have had some extreme pain in my jaw and it bugged me, but I knew how painful it would be to remove the offending tooth’s infection, so I kind of just let it go. It got worse and worse and before I knew it I had a big lump under my jaw and I started to think I had cancer, a tumor. Finally, on Monday, I had the infection extracted from my mouth and it was oh so painful, but the lump went away in just a day and my mouth feels so much better now. ADHD can’t be cured like that, it can’t be extracted, but understanding it, the ins and the outs, provides power over something which had power over me, because I just didn’t know why I did what I did.
This year on my birthday I am doing something different. I am looking at the past year and viewing my accomplishments and they are very profound for me – I am taking them in and enjoying the moment. I wrote and published a book about my life growing up with undiagnosed ADD, how I learned to cope and how I managed to succeed in spite of the confusion in my life, depression and PTSD. I created my blog online ‘ADDer World’ and have published over 200 articles in that time – this is important because prior to these publications I had never, never finished any writing for myself, on my own, in my entire life! In the last year I have met so many wonderful people, people who have ADHD, people who are related in some way to ADHD, and I have met many other wonderful authors and prestigious doctors all over the world who are treating ADHD. Lately, I have had the pleasure of talking to some very influential people who are concerned about ADHD and how to treat it. On my birthday last year, I did not imagine any of what I have accomplished.
Today, on this birthday, I have a great vision for the next year and part of that vision started a little over a week ago when I created the ADDer World community for anyone related in some way to ADHD, either you have it or know someone who does. By the way, please visit and join! I know why I have had problems and the more I come to terms and understand the way my brain works, the better I become. Heck, I see myself going before congress and discussing ADHD with legislators! That’s not quite that far fetched at all, but I am not going to write everything I am going to do or work towards, I am going to work towards my goals and take them as they come and hopefully help others along the way. That is my ultimate goal, which is to help others realize their potential and that ADHD is not a term for ‘the end’, there is so much more to having ADHD and just because there are some traits that don’t necessarily lend themselves to an ‘easy’ way, that doesn’t mean they are all bad and cannot be utilized for creating wonderful things.
Have you ever heard of the Shame Game? It is an easy game, I used to play it a lot and I won a lot. Actually the Shame Game is a very difficult game to lose and is a very easy game to win.
The Shame Game only requires a few things and if you can master those things, you will win:
Negative Self Talk
Pessimistic Attitude Say, Think, Express and have others join you in Saying, Thinking and Expressing anything and everything negative about who you are and the nature of who you are.
Basically anything self critical and negative helps you gain points in the Shame Game.
Like I said, the Shame Game is an easy game to play, but winning it does not bring happiness or achievement. It is one of the few games that when you play to win, you will ultimately lose.
This is one incredible movie! This is one awesome movie! I saw Iron Man last week and have to admit that I loved it, but after watching SPEED RACER I had to catch my breath, take a few minutes to gather myself and just hope, beyond hope, that there is a sequel! Iron Man did not have quite that lasting effect, actually, okay, the Robert was pretty darn awesome as Tony Stark and the whole Avengers hook up was… sorry, got distracted.
Go SPEED RACER GO! If you read the prior reviews about there being no plot and that there was too much color for too long, well, they got the colors right, but I loved the story and felt that it did the original series justice. Not only that, the movie revealed a lot more than I expected about the Racer family. Nobody overplayed or underplayed their parts, all the actors did a great job and to imagine that most, if not all, the acting was done on blue or green screens. The movie is a master’s piece all of its own, forget The Matrix, this goes beyond The Matrix.
Not many movies, Iron Man included, have the ability to keep my attention through every single scene. I know for a fact I went to the restroom at least once during Iron Main, but there was no way in the world I could leave the theater while watching SPEED RACER. Too much color? Maybe for anyone who does not have ADHD, but if you have ADHD, then prepare for a feast like none other than you have ever had. The driving scenes are out of this world! If you expect realism, then you will be disappointed; however, if you go into this movie realizing that it is the product of an animated cartoon series ,which was never meant to be taken, or even remotely considered, as real, well then, you won’t be disappointed.
The problem with the movie, for many reviewers, comes down to the fact that the movie is supposedly too improbable, too self involved and has too much color. I wonder though, were those reviewers ever kids and do they know what the definition of animation and cartoons are? Someone send them a memo and for heaven’s sake, if they can’t review the movie for what it is, and not for what they want it to be, then review something else.
Okay, not everyone is going to appreciate this movie as much as I do, but I would love to hear from our fellow ADDers and what y’all thought of it. (short spoiler) One of the best parts is when Speed Racer is in elementary school and totally ignores his teachers and school work, doing nothing but racing cars in his mind and drawing cars on his exam papers! Okay, I am not saying Speed Racer has ADHD, but C’mon! And while you are watching it, remember what I have been writing about concerning mentorships.
It’s like thunder, the roar and they are off! The precision, the strategy, the speed and the most important factor of all = the race against others. It’s not about the cars, they are supposed to be as equal as possible, and it’s not about the race track, because it is the same track for everyone.
Just like Fast Eddie said in “The Color of Money” – “it’s about human moves”
“Days of Thunder” is one of those movies that brings it all home, the excitement, the danger, the confusion, the worry and the fear, then it all comes together and we cheer at the end because the hero has found himself, overcome and above all else, and in spite of everything else, he wins! But, and this is important – is it realistic? It could be and yet for most it is not; however, there is a hope within the story of the movie itself that lends to its appeal.
In my opinion, Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) has the symptoms of ADHD. He gets in a car and without understanding the mechanics of the car, its tires or even the race track itself, he can drive like there is no tomorrow – and how! He is the epitome of talent and potential, the poster boy of what talent and potential is without knowledge and maturity. This is so very familiar to me and probably so many others with ADHD. Loads of potential, talent boiling over and yet not a clue what to do with it and yet some of us get lucky as Cole Trickle did in Days of Thunder, someone noticed, someone cared.
Hi everyone, a couple days ago I finally opened a new site for ADDer World. It’s a place you can join and meet new people who have ADHD or a relation to ADHD in some way. On ADDer World, the social network, you will be able to create your own blogs, forums and post pictures, videos and get to know others who have a relation to ADHD in some way. Another wonderful aspect of joining ADDer World, the social network, is that members can create groups and therefore use ADDer World as a meeting place for friends and family. There is no charge for joining and being a member of ADDer World, all you have to do is sign up and a page, which you can modify with your content, will automatically be created for you.
It is my hope that we can build ADDer World into a fantastic place of motivation and inspiration for our members. I know that due to the theme, ADHD, it is not an easy thing to open up about and that has a lot to do with the negative stigma surrounding the term ADHD. I believe that together, we can change the negative stigma to a more reality based awareness and give others the hope and information they are looking for. There are a lot of medical information and news features available on the internet and there are even some very good forums available, but I envision ADDer World going beyond that.
If you would like to become part of the new ADDer World experience, please join here:
Today’s world is obsessed with perfection. We have editors for everything and that way anything created can be perfected to the point one almost believes a machine was the original creator. Dot your I’s and cross your T’s.
The world wants things perfect, so much so that flaws and raw reality have become unacceptable and room for error is so narrow, one must wonder if it even exists anymore. Perfection has become such an obsession that humans have gone to great lengths to even fix things created in past centuries, what was once marveled at and cherished for hundreds or thousands of years, just the way it was, is no longer acceptable.
Is this really advancement? I don’t think so, but medication might be able to fix this and remove any flaws in our understanding of perfection.
The world has changed and you better change with it. What you write, what you say and what you create will be examined with a microscope that no atom can avoid detection.
“You gotta have two things to win. You gotta have brains and you gotta have balls. Now, you got too much of one and not enough of the other.”
Paul Newman spoken as Fast Eddie
One of the most appealing things about the movie “The Color of Money” is that the story is familiar to a great deal of people. You don’t have to have ADHD to have lived through identity crises or not be appreciated for your talents and you don’t have to have ADHD to be lost or unaware of certain things. The world has changed a lot in the last hundred years and people from all walks of life must put aside their inner desires to make their way through designed systems. Most people do fine with the designed systems in place and that’s why those systems will not change much, and those systems are not bad or wrong, but there are some who live mediocre lives due to these systems and with the right incentives, and mentorships, they can break free and become what they were meant to become in the first place. It is rare nowadays, but it happens from time to time. A hundred or so years ago, this wasn’t so rare due to apprenticeships and mentorships systems which had been in place for thousands of years. For the most part we’ve lost those, but sometimes a lucky few find their way half-hazardly into a sort of mentorship, sort of like what happened for Vince in “The Color of Money”.
Dr. Charles Parker is the author of two sites: CorePsychBlog.com, and CorePsychPodcast.com, - and he recently joined our new ADDer World community. I think it would be great to get to know him a bit better:
In my opinion, Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) has the symptoms of ADHD. He gets in a car and without understanding the mechanics of the car, its tires or even the race track itself, he can drive like there is no tomorrow – and how! He is the epitome of talent and potential, the poster boy of what talent and potential is without knowledge and maturity. This is so very familiar to me and probably so many others with ADHD. Loads of potential, talent boiling over and yet not a clue what to do with it and yet some of us get lucky as Cole Trickle did in Days of Thunder, someone noticed, someone cared.
