Do you ever feel like your mind is constantly racing and always working? Popping out ideas like a popcorn maker with an endless supply of kernels? Have you ever been described as highly creative or do you ever find yourself focusing on something until it starts to interrupt your daily life? Only to then find yourself distracted by negative feelings and thoughts so that it seems like you tend to start new things only to not see them through? Perhaps you experience feelings of failure that make you stop what you’re doing even though you were once excited to be doing it? If any of that seems familiar, this blog post was written just for you. Read on if you want to learn some of the neuroscience behind how brains process information, why yours seems to insist on making you feel like the odd person out, and tips to help you access your fullest potential.

Hi, I'm H.T. Geek, short for HypnoTechnoGeek. I’ve been Stephanie’s mascot since she first opened her hypnosis business, ten years ago, and I am the voice of her blog posts. She has been an avid reader all her life and loves to share her favorite books with her readers, so they can reap the same benefits from them that she has. While she is busy practicing hypnosis, I get to hang out here with her readers and share tips, tricks, and hypnotic suggestions for success!

This month’s blog post is about the most recent book Stephanie read from beginning to end, a few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, called ADHD 2.0 by Edward M. Hallowell, MD and John J. Ratey, MD. There are so many good books out there, are there not? And sometimes she starts a book and doesn’t finish it even if it’s a good book that she is interested in. This last book really caught her attention, though, because it seemed as if the author was describing her entire life, in detail.

So she is excited to share what she learned with her readers here at Hypnotic Wellness with Stephanie, because she knows there are others out there like her who could really benefit from this information.

As the title of the book implies, this book is about the experience of living with ADHD, what causes it, how it’s diagnosed and how we know it’s a real condition (and not “just in the mind” or a “lack of discipline”), as well as how to live with it and have a very successful life. But it also teaches about something called VAST, Variable Attention Stimulus Trait. While 5-10% of the population are born with ADHD traits there are many people today who exhibit ADHD-like tendencies without a formal diagnosis. People with VAST experience these ADHD symptoms brought on by the deluge of stimulation we all receive every day in various forms. That is why it seems like so many people easily relate to the list of common symptoms of living with an ADHD brain.

The author describes living with ADHD or VAST like “living with a brain that has a ferrari engine but with bicycle brakes.” The good news is, it is absolutely possible to strengthen the brakes and we will get into that later on in the post. The other thing many people experience is “an omnipresent itch” to create or do something, to always have something stimulating their mind. The author suggests that the second somebody with ADHD or VAST experiences boredom they "reflexively, instantaneously, automatically and without conscious thought seek stimulation.”

Using MRI technology, neuroscientists literally have the ability to observe thought in motion. They have found consistent biological differences between brains that reside in a person who has been diagnosed with ADHD and that of brains in people who get the lucky moniker of “neurotypical” because they exist in people who don’t have ADHD traits. They have observed specific areas of the brain “lighting up” in an MRI when a person is engaged in a task while other areas “light up” when a person is day dreaming or just letting their mind wander.

Neuroscientists call those areas in the brain that light up together “connectomes” and lending to the phrase, “neutrons that fire together, wire together.”

When someone is engaged in a task, the connectome that lights up on an MRI is referred to as the task-positive network (TPN). When these neurons are engaged and firing we are in a focused state paying attention to the task at hand.

“In this state, you don’t consciously know whether you’re happy or not, which is just as good as being happy, if not better, because you’re not wasting any energy on self-assessment. You may become frustrated with what you’re doing and have moments of anger or dismay, but if you stay in the task, in the TPN, those moments will pass, and the TPN, buoyant connectome that it is, will carry you along.”

The authors mention that when the TPN is activated in someone with ADHD, focus can present as the “hyperfocused state someone with ADHD can find themselves in, when they get stuck in a task from which they cannot disengage.” Have you ever been so engrossed in an activity that you couldn’t put it down even though it was in your best interest to stop? There is a section in the book that discusses how addiction can be a symptom of undiagnosed ADHD that we aren’t going to go into for this review. But if you want to know more about that, ADHD 2.0 is a quick and easy 132 pages that can be read in an afternoon.

When someone is daydreaming or otherwise not engaged in a task, a different connectome will visibly engage and light up on an MRI automatically, that scientists call the Default Mode Network (DMN). The Default Mode network is where we imagine, day dream, and think of new ideas.. It has two parts, the posterior cingulate and the medial prefrontal cortex. The posterior cingulate, also referred to as the “back half” is where we store the memories of our experiences and personal history. The medial prefrontal cortex or the “front half” is where we make plans, imagine the future, and problem solve.

People with ADHD, VAST, or who are otherwise highly imaginative and creative can get stuck in the DMN and be unable to stop themselves from ruminating, imagining, or thinking about something. This can be a real problem if you have stored a long history of feeling “misunderstood, alienated, left out, on the outside looking in” in the back half of your Default Mode Network.

In neurotypical brains, the TPN and the DMN are engaged separately and work like a see-saw, when one is on, the other is off. But scientists have used MRI to observe that in the brain of someone with ADHD, the TPN and the DMN can both be activated, with the DMN trying to compete with and distract from the task at hand. Have you ever been intent on a task, maybe even doing something you love to do, and then find yourself distracted with thoughts of failure or other discouraging thoughts? Or maybe have trouble staying on task in general because you get distracted by something shiny? SQUIRREL!!

What’s more, scientists have also observed that in neurotypical brains, the front and back halves of the DMN go up and down together but in ADHD or VAST brains, they can be “off kilter, out of sync.”

“It explains the confluence of the creative and depressive we so often see within the same person, even within the same hour. The creative side gains expression and something beautiful takes shape. But then the depressive side carps, “That’s ugly. You’ve failed again….. …The blessing and the curse vie for top billing, for attention. When the DMN brings lovely images, it is our golden tool. But when it jumps track into the TPN and hijacks consciousness, then the DMN becomes…. The seat of misery, the disease of the imagination.”

So what can you do about it? I have really good news for you if any of this sounds familiar. Our brains have the amazing ability to change throughout the course of our lifetime due to something neuroscientists call “neuralplasticity.” The old adage that an old dog can’t learn new tricks is outdated and wrong.

“Thanks to the work of many neuroscientists, we know that what you do, who you love, where you live, what you eat, how much you move, what kind of stress you experience, if you have a pet, whether you laugh a lot- all those things and a zillion more bits of experience constantly change who you are in subtle ways. Your brain responds to all the cues in turn.”

The authors, who are both psychiatrists who have ADHD or children with it and treat people with it in private practice, offer several strategies to help strengthen those bicycle brakes including medication, balance training, yoga, meditation, exercise, purposefully activating the TPN for simple tasks, building relationships and connecting with community. They discuss a case study about a young boy who struggled with his ADHD symptoms and how they worked with his mother to help him. They taught her to remind him when his brakes were failing him and guide him back to a balanced state without using any shaming techniques of any kind. Then, they made the most poignant observation in the entire book, “Shame is the most disabling learning disability.”

And Stephanie thought, “Well,if that isn’t the truth.” After finishing the book, Stephanie spent some time in the back half of her Default Mode Network, remembering times her Ferrari brain made life more difficult than it had to be.. All the times she put her foot in her mouth, noticing things people didn’t want her to notice and did not want to talk about. All the times she started a project and didn’t finish it… all the times she couldn’t stop ruminating about something that was upsetting.. All the times she felt ashamed because she just never seemed to fit in… Does any of that sound familiar?

Throughout her life, Stephanie has employed many of the strategies recommended in this book in order to make life manageable, all the while clueless that she probably had ADHD since childhood without realizing it. Intuitively, she found these techniques to help. But what has helped the most, is her journey with hypnosis. Hypnosis is a fantastic way to release shame, to strengthen focus, and take advantage of the natural neuroplasticity to finally reach your full potential.

Below are the 20 traits of people who have formally been diagnosed with ADHD or who may have VAST. If any of these resonate or if you have been diagnosed with ADHD or VAST and would like some additional help managing your Ferrari and strengthening those brakes, reach out and book your Discovery call or first hypnosis session with Stephanie now!

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