Transcription
The newest and most interesting and promising non-medication treatments, uh, which I write about in my new book, ADHD 2.0, uh, right at the top of the list is cerebellar stimulation. The cerebellum is a part of your brain at the back and base of your brain. It's kind of an afterthought in medical training, but the fact is, the cerebellum contains 70% of the neurons in your brain. It's way more important than we used to think, and the cerebellum has rich connections to the frontal lobes, which is where the action is in ADHD.
And if you do physical exercises that stimulate the cerebellum, 10 minutes twice a day for three to six months, you will get marked improvement in the symptoms of ADHD. Sounds counterintuitive. How can a physical exercise influence attention, planning, executive function? Well, it does via the cerebellum and the and the the network involving the inner ear. These exercises are balancing exercises, primarily standing on on one leg, standing on one leg with your eyes closed. There's a fellow in in England who's developed a whole series of these exercises. When for door is his name, and he's he calls it the Zing Method, Z-I-N-G. You can learn about it by by googling that. But but physical exercise that stimulates the cerebellum, uh, is very promising and and really, I think, will will grow in applicability the more people learn about it.
And then, of course, the the standby coaching, very helpful non-medication treatment. Um, the two things for adults I recommend: marry the right person, find the right job. Sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed how many people don't. And and, you know, you you want to be careful in what you what you sign up for, be it a career or a mate. And and then, uh, really trying to embrace the condition, learn as much about it as you can, because everyone's ADHD is different. And learn as much as you can about yours, particularly through a strength-based lens.
And and then you want to do, and I put this right at the top of the list in terms of importance, find the right difficult. We ADHDers, we need a creative outlet, and we need it to be challenging, i.e., difficult. But it's got to be the right difficult. When you find the right difficult, every day you can you can grapple with it and and deal with it. And and we need that. We we're it's like we're cows, we need to be milked. We need to have our creativity milked. And for me, it's writing. That's my right difficult, no pun intended, but my right difficult is writing. I grapple with writing, but it's challenging, and it matters to me. And so whenever I write, I get that that creative, uh, offload, if you will. Yours might be building a business, yours might be cooking, yours might be gardening. Um, if you're a kid, it might be starting a Kool-Aid stand. It might be drawing, coloring, uh, building a model airplane, whatever. But you need a creative outlet. We really need a creative outlet. So find your right difficult, whether you're five years old or 55 years old. Or my oldest patient was 86, and with treatment, he was able to write the book he'd wanted to write his whole life long. So find your right difficult. I'd put right at the top of the list.