In this episode we took a deep dive deep into ADHD, focusing on the crucial role of Adderall. From unpacking ADHD symptoms to discussing its real-life impacts. With insights into the brain science of Adderall, personal anecdotes, and warnings about misuse, this episode was packed with eye-opening moments. Plus, we explored effective strategies for managing ADHD, blending behavioral interventions with Adderall’s support. Whether you’re living with ADHD or curious about its treatment this was a good episode to listen to.
Tune in to see the Adderall Epidemic Through a Therapist’s Eyes.
Think about these three questions as you listen:
- Do you know what Adderall actually does?
- Why would people overuse or abuse this?
- Is this an effective response to ADHD?
Links referenced during the show:
Statistics On Stimulant Use | PBS – Medicating Kids | FRONTLINE | PBS
Adderall Addiction: Signs, Causes, Statistics & Treatment (orlandorecovery.com)
Essential Adderall Usage Statistics Statistics in 2024 • ZipDo
ADHD medication shortage persists as schools start in 2023 (nbcnews.com)
ADD: Daily behavior … Is this you possibly – Ep129
Intro Music by Reid Ferguson – https://reidtferguson.com/
@reidtferguson – https://www.instagram.com/reidtferguson/
https://www.facebook.com/reidtferguson
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3isWD3wykFcLXPUmBzpJxg
Audio Podcast Version Only
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode #261 Transcription
Chris Gazdik: [00:00:00] Hello, this is Through Therapist’s Eyes. I am Chris Gazdik, and this is February. Is it February or February, Victoria? No R? February? I like to play with the R’s sometimes. February the 1st, 2024. Today we’re going to be talking about the Adderall epidemic. And the questions that we want to focus a little bit on is Do you know what Adderall actually does?
And why do, or would people Overuse this, abuse this, misuse this. Talk a little bit about addiction today, I think as well. And then is there an effective response to ADHD with Adderall? Does it have efficacy really? So
Victoria Pendergrass: Also, before you get any further, happy Black History
Chris Gazdik: Month. Oh, is it Black History Month?
I suck at the ribbon days, colored days, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So this is Black History Month. It is. All [00:01:00] right, cool. And is there any national recognition that my birthday is in this month?
Victoria Pendergrass: Would you like national recognition that your birthday is in this month? Possibly international. Okay happy birthday month?
Thank
Chris Gazdik: you! You’re welcome. Ironically,
Victoria Pendergrass: I don’t know when your birthday is.
Chris Gazdik: Did I, am I supposed to tell the world? Neil’s asking me when, you know.
It’s the 25th, but I don’t think too many care. At least it’s not the 29th. Why is that? Yeah, I know. Although they get a
Victoria Pendergrass: birthday this year.
Chris Gazdik: Yeah, they get a legit, that’s a weird thing, man. Isn’t that weird? The leap year
Victoria Pendergrass: birthday? I think it’s a little off. Yeah, like there’s someone, who is it? I can’t remember.
Some famous person whose birthday is on the 29th. And technically I heard it the other day that they’re like 40 something. But they would be turning 12 this year. Yeah, if it was actually like if you actually that’s silly though. Yeah, that’s so crazy though that
Chris Gazdik: But that’s not I always thought that was stupid.
I always thought that [00:02:00] was a silly way of thinking about it Anyway, let me do my stuff to get the bills paid a little bit and intro to what we do. So Through therapist eyes is where you get insight directly from a panel of therapists. We’re gonna miss John today He’s got some some family stuff that he has to tend to but it’s not to delivery of therapy services in any way We got the book That’s out and another one coming out.
I’m kind of getting a little closer
Victoria Pendergrass: to an official.
Chris Gazdik: No, I got the pub. The production meeting is coming up next week, actually, or the week after. Anyway, a lot that goes into the pre production, but you can’t get pre publication pre orders that I need to start pushing. You can actually push books. Yeah. So, and the next one’s coming out, it’s going to be on marriage.
Anyway, you can click subscribe. Please John’s not here to tell you
Victoria Pendergrass: about so I’ll tell you that we need five
Chris Gazdik: stars five stars He loves pushing that it does help us out guys. Click the bell for notifications and Helps us get found. It’s your job. That [00:03:00] is your job listening to show if you like our content We really need you to do your job as we’re doing our job providing you with some cool content That we really hope that you enjoy contact at through a therapist’s eyes calm as a way to get up with us and We do want to very much mention two things.
One Reed Ferguson does our little interim music. We’re really appreciative of him for driving down that, right? And he would love to get your call or contact. He’ll come out and do parties, events comes to your place to, to play his music. He does a really cool job. Single man guitar show. It’s amazing.
So reedferguson. com spelled weird though. R E I D. T. F. E. R. G. U. S. O. N. dot com. You can find them on Instagram and all the fun places you might be out there. Also, lastly, not least, we have
Victoria Pendergrass: First Horizon Bank as our sponsor.
Chris Gazdik: They’re riding with us in 2024. We appreciate them staying on board. They’re a great banking system all around [00:04:00] the country.
We now notice. There are branches everywhere we go. Cause it’s kind of cool. Yeah. First horizon really cares about financial literacy. They really engage you on what your bank banking needs are. All the simple and large and complex banking needs that you might have. First horizon is your friend.
We’ve
Victoria Pendergrass: got to get out of Memphis, Tennessee. There you
Chris Gazdik: go. You get it. You got it. They have it. All right. Hey, let’s get to it, man. Let’s, let’s get to the stuff. Get her going.
Victoria Pendergrass: So
Chris Gazdik: actually, you know, I thought I’d do a little bit of through a therapist’s eyes. Yeah. You know, people, I think, have a natural curiosity about how we live, how we work.
Like, what’s it like being a therapist? You want to tell them about my day?
Victoria Pendergrass: So one thing that we do, I do in the office, okay, so we have couches in our obvious office. Obviously I am a very avid napper. I’ll admit that I will, if I have a free hour in [00:05:00] my day where someone doesn’t show up or I don’t have anyone scheduled, I will lay down on my couch and take a nap. Chris, I’m Always makes fun of me for that.
Chris Gazdik: I don’t make fun of you. I just make fun of you for as many things as I can find. Yeah,
Victoria Pendergrass: and he actually took a nap today. I did, man. I was
Chris Gazdik: so proud. I crashed. Well, it’s funny because you don’t really get the opportunity to. Yeah, well, you’re a lot fuller than I am. I don’t know what went on with me today, but honestly, like, I had a couple of new clients.
You did have a lot of, you sure don’t do have that. I’ve been slamming. Lately, I mean, slamming hard and with just a lot of business stuff and then clinical stuff
and throw some personal stuff in there. And I don’t know if that’s what it is, but yeah, I just, I crashed and I poured a lot into those sessions this morning.
I, is that really engaged pretty purposefully and intentionally when I’m meeting somebody new? Like I don’t take an initial appointment lightly. I really, I really
Victoria Pendergrass: don’t. [00:06:00] Well, and also, I mean, I think what some people don’t. Grasp about therapy or being a therapist is that yes, we’re not doing like physical labor all day But it is very a mental mentally and emotionally draining because okay Yeah, but I mean, okay, if you think of yourself as a client and think about what you talk about in therapy times that Well, I but I mean, it’s a good way of understanding like we’re like A full day for me is nine
Chris Gazdik: people.
Let me jump in that because I have a different, I have a different take on that and something that I do want people to understand. It’s not like I get all the time the, the statements of like, Oh God, I don’t know how you do what you do. It’s amazing. You know, that’d be so draining. I couldn’t stand it. I want people to understand that your emotion is so draining to you.
And this is why people are fearful. Of talking to their friends or their family. And I don’t know if you picked up or thought [00:07:00] about this a lot, Victoria, but the person receiving that story or the person receiving that emotion, this is important guys, is not anywhere near as draining to the person who’s receiving it because it’s not theirs.
Right. Yeah.
Victoria Pendergrass: I mean, we’re just listening to people, but a part of our job is making sure that we don’t carry the burden of what people tell us, which is taxing. Yeah. Yeah. Because we’re. It’s, it’s not our burden to carry, you know, or it’s not our responsibility to carry the load of the things that our clients tell us.
But the beautiful thing is your
Chris Gazdik: friends don’t either, is my main point here. That you can do that with family and friends and your supports. It’s just the fact, and where I thought you were going more, Victoria, is like, when you’re using your brain, it’s exhausting. Oh yeah. All day long like anybody doing brainpower all day long like
Victoria Pendergrass: sometimes even when we have When we don’t have someone like I’ve seen when you have a no show you’re still in here doing paperwork You’re catching up on notes.
You’re doing all these other things and [00:08:00] I don’t always have as much to do But still it is like I mean, I do have things sometimes that I need to do like during between people and you know, I’m running all over the place and
Chris Gazdik: So anyway, I want to get to the stuff. So good stuff. Victoria. Yeah, so my feed went weird.
There it is. Statistics we I I don’t I’ve said many times interesting since i’ve been meeting doing the show with the panel I haven’t said many times that this isn’t a statistics show But but they’re helpful and I don’t I don’t go too far in them But I wanted to throw some things out there to kind of get us going to get us thinking about how much In what used to be called the epi, the epidemic, the Adderall epidemic has affected people and the changes, although it’s interesting.
I’m curious, Victoria, what your view is with that? Like I didn’t like the title today, honestly, because I don’t really know that we have an Adderall epidemic anymore.
Victoria Pendergrass: I feel like that’s past. I mean, I actually do have a [00:09:00] client, not. I don’t see them client’s significant other, if I can recall, who is still currently having issues getting Oh,
Chris Gazdik: well, we’ll cover that.
Medication. That’s a different topic. Yeah. We’ll, we’ll cover that tonight. The, the, the
Victoria Pendergrass: So when you say Okay. I think I took your title Right. Wrong. I thought you were going the way of that it’s There’s been a shortage. Right. We’re
Chris Gazdik: not talking about the current event. We’re not talking about the
Victoria Pendergrass: shortage.
We’re talking about, okay. I’m sorry. It’s okay.
Chris Gazdik: No, I knew we were disconnecting on that, but we’re connected now. The epidemic really refers to a period of time where Adderall was like a
big freaking deal. Like, people were getting it. It was all over the streets. Doctors were pushing it. Selling it, yeah.
Selling it, and pushing it, and there was a, a big explosion of, like, kind of in the 90s before you were working in the field. Right. [00:10:00] Everybody had ADHD. Well, I was born in the 90s. Oh, dear God, are you serious? Early 90s. Dude, okay. In the 2000s, then, I’ll say, everyone had ADHD. And it was just a fad. But it’s not a fad people, this is a real thing.
Well,
Victoria Pendergrass: and I, one thing I always explain to parent, cause you know, I work a lot with kids and naturally kids that come to see me tend, a lot of them tend to have ADHD. They might have. But one thing I, I like to explain to parents is that ADHD is a chemical impact. Like, if you take a picture of my brain as someone who has ADHD and, Neil, do you have ADHD?
And you take a picture of Neil’s brain, like, they’re gonna look different when you, like, look at the chemical compounds of, like, our Brain, all the sciencey stuff like our brains are going to look different, not just because we’re different people, but like, because I have ADHD and
Chris Gazdik: he doesn’t because you’re a girl.
No, I’m just kidding. [00:11:00] That was a joke.
Victoria Pendergrass: It was a joke. That’s all it was. It was a joke. And so I explain that to parents because unfortunately I do have parents and I’ve had people say like, oh, they’ll just grow out of this. It’s just a phase. And I’m like, I’m sorry but, you know, if your child really does have this, like, it means that their brain is built differently than someone who doesn’t.
Right. As far as I know, there’s not a way to fix that.
Chris Gazdik: And we talked about it prior and through the show today you’ve said Victoria and you’ve already talked about it on the show a little bit. You’re, you’re more than willing and in a lot today, you got a great panel. You got a great clinician because Victoria is a firsthand exposure of having ADHD.
And so we’re definitely going to pepper that in a lot, I think, to, to talking about it because it’s, it’s a hell of a thing to live it. Yeah. And there’s a lot, there’s a lot there for that. So yeah, that’ll be [00:12:00] cool. I mean, it’s great to have you
with us to be able to do that. So some of the statistics, what do I want to get across here?
Yeah, yeah. It was like produced in milligrams produced is what I, is what it highlighted an aggregate production quota. Kilograms. That’s, that’s how they’re mentioning or measuring rather, the, the Adderall production in use. So like in 1990, there’s 2000. I don’t, I don’t know what all that means. I didn’t do a deep dive on this.
Oh, I meant more the next one. But honestly, in 2000 it was 14,000. So that shows you the jump. Like I said, in the nineties, man, everybody had a DH, D. It was terrible. And in two thousands it was still going on. Right? I mean, that’s a
Victoria Pendergrass: 12, 000. It’s a huge jump!
Chris Gazdik: 10, 000 jump. Well, no, you’re right. 12,
Victoria Pendergrass: 000. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But even here, like, from 2006 to 2011 The illegal use of Adderall among young adults increased by 67 percent while emergency room visits increased [00:13:00] by 156%. Right.
Chris Gazdik: Like, that’s the 2000s. Like, Adderall hit the street and it blew up. Yeah. Right? Like, it was going That’s kind of when we had an epidemic, if you will.
Mm hmm. The next one Oh, we got links for all this. Yeah. So this was interesting too. I pulled, I pulled out that non medical use of Adderall among 12th graders has remained relatively stable at six to seven percent since 2009. Again, you know, I feel like this has gotten better than when we had. Oh no.
And
Victoria Pendergrass: I remember when this was a thing. Do you? I mean, yeah, I mean, I, I.
Chris Gazdik: Were you on Adderall then? I’ve never been on Adderall. Yeah, for a
Victoria Pendergrass: short period of time. I was on Concerta for a majority of my life.
Chris Gazdik: Gotcha. Okay. And we’ll maybe talk a little bit about those. Yeah, we can talk a little bit more about that later.
So more than 16 million adults are believed to use Adderall. That’s a lot of freaking people. Well, and
Victoria Pendergrass: that’s crazy because Like, that’s just one A DH ADHD med. [00:14:00] Right? Like that doesn. Good point. Doesn’t, that doesn’t include the people that take Concerta, the people that take Vyvanse. The people that take other one.
Focal ones Focal, yeah. The people that take Ritalin or even Wellbutrin. Yeah. Like that’s just one .
Chris Gazdik: That’s a
Victoria Pendergrass: excellent point. Didn’t, and I, and I saw that. I was like, dang. So I wonder what it would be if it was, I didn’t think about that. If, if it was people who I want. Okay. And then lastly, this is a study from is, this says from 2024, but is that.
Yeah, I mean, it’s just estimated, I
Chris Gazdik: guess. I don’t want to take a deep dive on statistics and studies and stuff. That’s not what we want to do. But studies suggest 30 to 50 percent of those abusing adults are college students. Because that’s the other point I got from the statistics. Like, that’s one of the biggest populations now.
That has a quote unquote epidemic, because college students are catching wind of the idea that I can go get a diagnosis, I’ll say what I need to say, everyone can Google the symptom sets, and they’ll give me Adderall. And that makes it easier to do an all nighter. That also [00:15:00] increases my focus. That helps me get by with the things that I need to do when I have a lot of intense, you know, needs to accomplish.
Because the thing is, is I understand that Adderall will help anybody focus better. I’ve also always maintained that I’ll throw this in it to get us at this point. It Okay, do I want to say this on the show or not?
Victoria Pendergrass: But they also have a point to make, too, at some point, and I don’t know if I’ll make it right now, but
Chris Gazdik: So What I’ve kind of said is, and this is not a formal suggestion, it’s more of a realization, but sometimes when I’m talking to adults, and let me highlight adults, not with kids.
With kids, they already have a lot going on, a lot of emotional adjustments, all kinds of, you know, emotional shame and all this stuff, so we don’t want to be experimenting with them in any way. Right. Adults, though, can take Adderall, and what’ll happen is, if you don’t have, ADHD, you’re going to get a lot of housecleaning done, like, you know, you’re going to be, [00:16:00] you know, a bit wired, right?
You, it’s speed. It’s, it’s an, it’s a stimulant. Right. If you have ADD, though, ADHD yeah. If you have this issue, then you take the stimulant. It doesn’t do that. And people don’t understand. It doesn’t act like speed. For someone who
Victoria Pendergrass: actually has
Chris Gazdik: ADHD. Yeah, because what it’s doing is Maybe we’ll talk more about this, but I’ll throw this in now, too.
See, we understand that the frontal cortex, the brain, Mm hmm. Right? Is our abstract thinking piece. Right. It Processes data. It takes point A, point B, point C, point D, point E, point F, point G, point H, and it pulls all those things together, unrules point E, and pulls the rest to think through a complicated process.
Victoria Pendergrass: To make a decision and problem
Chris Gazdik: solve and all that. When you have ADHD, you miss point B, you get point B, D, you get point G, but you forget point F, and then you forgot point D, and it’s [00:17:00] like now you’re trying to make a complicated quick decision. It’s all like spaghetti. It’s spaghetti. So Adderall does, as I understand it, it acts as a stimulant specifically to the frontal cortex that is doing that brain function for us and it triggers functioning.
It stimulates the brain to do that. It helps straighten out the spaghetti. I love that. Go with that metaphor a little more. Yeah,
Victoria Pendergrass: it kind of helps. So if you think about how you’re explaining it, the things in your frontal cortex are all jumbled. They’re all mixed up like spaghetti. So, and that’s a brain with ADHD.
So then when you take a stimulant, stimulant like Adderall, it’s going to untangle those spaghetti noodles in your brain, and it’s going to straighten them out and make, and make it so that you can like process information easier. You can problem solve, you can focus, you can make decisions. Right. So as [00:18:00] like, think through a decision making.
Chris Gazdik: So as you were talking about before with the brain imaging, we have had some cool stuff. Guys, therapists listening out there, in my humble opinion, it’s overcooked. We have brain imaging and it’s helpful. Don’t think that you’re going to hear people talking about brain imaging we figured this out or that out and it’s like this magical panacea of new understanding it’s not it really isn’t it helps understand Different fundamental aspects of various issues, including PTSD and depression and other things.
So, but, but you can see on brain imaging the differences in Victoria’s brain and Neal’s. And, and, and what you’ll see is that there’s the, there’s blackened out pieces that aren’t firing. When you take Adderall, it fires! And it makes the brain imaging look Similar. Yeah. To regular and typical functioning,
Victoria Pendergrass: [00:19:00] right?
And I think what I was going to mention is, and I don’t know if we’ll get to this later, but a lot of times also people Well, as an
Chris Gazdik: ADHD show, we’re all out of order, so
Victoria Pendergrass: What I don’t think some people understand, and I’m pretty sure, you know, there’s studies and things that back this up, is that if you are someone who is dealing with trauma, and you take Adderall.
Oh boy. It’s gonna heighten your symptoms and make them way worse. And so, if you’re thinking, like, if you’re in college and you’ve experienced a lot of trauma in your life. Yeah. And, or you have PTSD and you go and you, Someone offers you, you know, you take Adderall because you think it’s going to help you focus.
Oh, man. Oh, your life is about to get a real
Chris Gazdik: Dangerous. Yeah.
Victoria Pendergrass: It’s dangerous. And it, and it’s, and that’s why some people, I mean,
Chris Gazdik: Yeah, to this because there’s another big piece to understand about that with that point, which is an excellent point to teach [00:20:00] people. We have new treatments.
Let’s listen to some, some information about this, that there’s some new treatments. They’re purporting that we have medications that, that fix, that, that cure PTSD, right? And it doesn’t. do that at all. What they’re doing with like nervous twitching and the startle responses is they’re, they’re giving beta blockers.
Okay. And what beta blockers do is they, they sort of shorten and, and shut down the, the sympathetic responses that the brain does. That’s a complicated word. We won’t. I don’t have time to get into it, but basically your fight or flight system will go zing and you’ll be wild and it’s, it’s, it’s terrifying and very disconcerting for people that have trauma.
Well, as you’re saying very accurately, opposite from beta blockers, you take Adderall and even more zing happens. So,
Victoria Pendergrass: yeah. [00:21:00] Well, and, and so I think, and that’s why I think that’s part of people not understanding maybe, you know. I mean, that’s what, what do you know what Adderall actually does? Like that’s one of the things that doesn’t.
And so if you’re taking it and yes, people can have ADHD and also have like trauma in their lives. You can have both.
Chris Gazdik: Also it’s high comorbidity rates with anxiety and or depression, meaning you have ADHD. A lot of the time you have depression and or anxiety. Me. Right, right. Yeah, well. Not me. What says you about that?
Victoria Pendergrass: Yeah. Hey, I think that normalizes therapists a little bit. We’re just like y’all. We have our own problems. And
Chris Gazdik: I love that. Right? It’s real. It’s, it’s, it’s, that’s. I, I’m. Let me say, I should have said this off the get go, I’m really appreciative of you being willing to be genuine about that and talk about the real realities in day to day [00:22:00] and I’m really curious what your experience has been being on Concerta for so long and for so much because the day to day is, is something that I really kind of hone in when I’m working with the ADHD issues.
Because people don’t realize, like, how this really impacts you. Yeah. I mean,
Victoria Pendergrass: I started, I was telling you the other day, I have, my mom gave me the original script. Oh, really? Of like, my doctor writing out that that’s. What, and it was dated 2002. Oh wow. Which means I would have been in
Third grade, fourth grade, end of third grade. When this was first grade. When I, when I was first diagnosed, and I was diagnosed with ADD first. Well, that’s what we, yeah, that’s what we used to call it. Which is now ADHD. But yeah, I mean, so, [00:23:00] basically, third grade, yeah, cause I was in third grade when 9 11 happened.
If that date dates me. But, so, yeah, twenty, two thousand and two. So yeah, I mean, I was third, fourth grade. Yeah. I got diagnosed and and I’m pretty sure I can probably clarify with my mother, but I’m pretty sure I started taking medication almost like Immediately.
Chris Gazdik: So let’s let’s talk a little bit about Victoria the concerns that people have In general, with psychopharmacology, okay?
I don’t want my
Victoria Pendergrass: kid to be like a zombie. Right? Oh, that’s a number, number one, number one thing I would hear. When I worked in a school, that was the number one thing. And even sometimes here in office, I don’t want my kid to be a zombie. I don’t want my kid to not feel anything. Like, and I don’t know about you.
Usually what I [00:24:00] do to explain to parents that to explain that to parents is usually that means that your child is not on the right medication for them and that it, excuse me, that it most likely there needs to be either a change of medication. Or an altercate, an alteration of the dosage.
Chris Gazdik: Titrated up or tapered down.
Victoria Pendergrass: Yeah, or a different medication altogether. I mean, I think my mom told me once that when they first started me out on medication, they had, Ritalin had like just came out. Oh, really? And, or it was like, it was like a new thing. And my mom. said, I think I remember my mom saying that they tried me on that and I literally had like absolutely no appetite whatsoever, like I wouldn’t eat anything.
Appetite suppression is another thing. And so, they took me off it, like I stopped taking that and, you know, started taking Concerta, but. So Concerta was already out there? Hmm,
Chris Gazdik: I think that’s [00:25:00] interesting. Yeah, I thought that was a lot later than that But what doesn’t matter because yeah, I have a whole protocol that I want to help people understand the medication world I mean, I work I had the benefit of working with psychiatry a lot Early on in my career, like I even worked with psychiatry residents in the hospitals, you know, when they were training, so I, I, I was exposed a lot to psychopharmacology and here’s a line and I want to invite you to use this line, Victoria.
Cause I think it, it is something I’ve landed on and I have said more than thousands of times in, in therapy with people and it’s a really disarming reality, but it also highlights the reality that there is efficacy to these things like these things help, they work. Thankfully, we have technology. So here’s my line that.
Medications, thankfully, are a very helpful tool to manage mental health conditions. But, [00:26:00] unfortunately, though, they’re not a solution. Right. Right? I mean, pretty simple, but it cuts through a lot of the red tape. It cuts through a lot of the fears, because it highlights, like, these really are helpful. Right.
But they’re not gonna solve anything. Yeah. They, they just don’t make a problem go away. Right. It’s, it’s a part of the whole wraparound reality in really all of mental health that you have to learn about. Because unfortunately our technology does suck a little bit at this point. So some of the stuff that’s in my protocol for Victoria, that I’m sure you know to a certain extent, add from with what you will.
Mm hmm. We have a little bit of a guessing game. With right medications.
Victoria Pendergrass: Yeah, and I tell that to people
Chris Gazdik: it’s a little bit like throwing the mud ball against the wall and seeing what sticks Right, you have different choices. You have different side effects. You have different dosing And so, you know, you might need more than what I have I might need [00:27:00] less than what you have.
You may have side effects that I don’t have. There’s a lot of Very frustrating. It is. You know, process that you do in the beginning of this sometimes. But then once you get going I mean, how glad are you, I might ask directly, Victoria, that
you had the benefit of a psychopharmacological treatment for ADHD that otherwise, you know, in 1965, you wouldn’t have had.
Victoria Pendergrass: Yeah, I mean, and I just looked it up The FDA approved concerta in 2000. Oh wow, that’s
Chris Gazdik: earlier than I would have thought.
Victoria Pendergrass: Adderall was 1996 and then the slow release capsule came out in 2001.
Chris Gazdik: Oh boy, we’re gonna talk a little bit about abuse hopefully if we have time today. When it, before they came out with that slow release Victoria, you weren’t working then?
Holy donkey, this thing was being crushed and snorted and it was [00:28:00] brutal man, people. But
Victoria Pendergrass: I mean, I think that, I don’t know, I saw benefits from it. I mean, if we look at it, I switched off Concerta for the first time. Gosh, I think I was in college. No, grad school. So I mean, I was on Concerta for 15. something.
That’s a long time. Years. And then, and then I switched to Vyvanse for a little bit and then I switched back to Concerta and I was on Concerta when I got pregnant and therefore I had to stop and I have, which is why you’re still off, right? Which is why I’m still off. I’m working on that. I’m
getting
Chris Gazdik: back on.
So I have two questions for you. One, again, the question is, how glad are you that you had that pharmacological treatment? Very. And why, right?
Victoria Pendergrass: Why? Because I do feel like it improved my [00:29:00] Functioning in quality of life, like I was actually able to function normally comparatively to like other kids and I actually was able to, you know, use, like do well in school and things like that.
Focus. Yeah. When I mean, also, I mean, I think my parents did a really good job because my parents never. Let me use a having ADHD and taking medication as an excuse for not being able to do something. And so, and that
was just my parents. And I mean, they let me have access to the resources that I had access to.
But still, they wouldn’t let me say like, Oh, I can’t do that because I have ADHD or like, I’m not good at this because I have ADHD. Like they did kind of push me and make sure that I wasn’t going to be the kind of person that says like, Oh, you know,
Chris Gazdik: lots of parenting issues, which we’re not going to talk about.
Yeah, [00:30:00] but there’s, there’s
Victoria Pendergrass: a lot. We can do a whole nother episode
Chris Gazdik: on, on that. So what we will honestly stay tuned and have and will again in different forms. So. Fascinating question that I have and we haven’t talked about this, right? So fascinating question I have is how emotion word so blank, how blank are you to?
get back on the pharmacological treatment as an adult because it’s been about a year and a half.
Victoria Pendergrass: Nah, it’s been
Chris Gazdik: about two years. Two years, okay, wow, yeah. Well, actually
Victoria Pendergrass: more than that because I stopped when I got pregnant. Cause like, I don’t know
Chris Gazdik: you. And my kid is almost two. I don’t know you on meds. You don’t.
Right?
Victoria Pendergrass: Right? I mean, you only know me on like anxiety meds.
Chris Gazdik: I, okay, well, there’s that too. So, how blank are you to get back on to pharmacological medication and maybe why?
Victoria Pendergrass: I don’t know if I want to use the word impatient or excited [00:31:00] or Looking forward to and why is I
mean, can you not tell that? I don’t have a heart that I have a hard time focusing
Yeah Bless my clients if you’re one of my clients and you’re watching this bless
Chris Gazdik: you You do wonderful. Yeah, you really you do wonderful. I mean as a compliment you’re on point You haven’t missed any paperwork. There’s been no business problems. Like, you manage this, Victoria, and I mean to compliment you with that.
But, but, but if you know what you’re looking for, which I do, yeah, I can definitely spot it. But if you, but listen to me though, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, I don’t think people spot that in you. I think they just see a bubbly personality that’s fun, that’s engaging, a little flighty. Really, and I hope I’m not being rude.
But, you know, a little flighty, fun, engaging, bubbly, you know. Right. That I don’t [00:32:00] think they, they meet you and are like, Oh my God, this woman is on a I guess
Victoria Pendergrass: maybe I see it more because it’s myself. Right. And so I notice it more. And like my husband notices it of family members and stuff like that. Also, I, and I don’t know.
the science between having a baby and like how your your hormones and like your body chemistry because honestly for a while there i didn’t feel like i needed it after after i had a baby and was like breastfeeding and minus the actual exhaustion from having a baby
Chris Gazdik: i would love to take a deep dive on that
Victoria Pendergrass: but and so There was a period of time where I, and even my husband, made a comment about how he felt like I was like doing really good without it and, you know, and I didn’t have a problem coming off of Concerta and stopping it.
And honestly, the only reason they, they wouldn’t let me take it is because there’s not enough research to support that it’s okay to be taken. While pregnant yeah, you just were cautious and yeah, and so I, you know, technically if I [00:33:00] really wanted to, they said they would write me a prescription for it, but I said, you know, I don’t want to risk it or whatever, but yeah, I mean, and the why is just, I just like, I know how effective it can be as an adult because I was taking it before I got pregnant as an adult and that
Chris Gazdik: needs to be a show highlight.
What that needs to be an episode highlight that is
Victoria Pendergrass: effective even as
Chris Gazdik: an adult saying I’m Excited or whatever word you used because you know how effective it can be a day to day function Yeah Like that’s a I want people to hear that because I think I feel like that’s a big deal like look if you are struggling with ADHD And you have the concerns about psychopharmacological treatment, taking antidepressants and all the different medications.
Like I say, that’s a highlight because I want you to know, really you, the listener, you need to know that there is help out there for you, that you don’t have to continue [00:34:00] struggling, you know, with the. Functioning that you may or may not even be aware of all of the ins and outs of it, like it is very reasonable to do a trial with these things and just see, particularly if you’re an adult, to just see how might this be a good thing.
A tool to help you manage the things that you’re managing because I do find that you out there that has ADHD really struggle in some ways and and sometimes I have adults that begin taking this and they’re amazed. They’re like, I never knew that you could think this smoothly and clearly and be this on point and be this feel calm in what it is that you’re thinking about.
Like they’re amazed. It’s not
Victoria Pendergrass: just so you. Now, without medication, I’m probably gonna have, if I stay at home, I’m gonna have 20 different tasks open at one time. I’m gonna start laundry, and [00:35:00] then I’m gonna realize I forgot to put up the dishes. Start putting up the dishes, and then I’m gonna realize that my Coffee mug cabinet is all out of order and then I’m gonna focus on that and then I’m gonna realize oh this coffee mug is broken I need to throw it away, oh the trash is full I need to take it out, oh the bin is dirty I need to clean that, and then it’s like I have like 20 things that are open and Trying to complete at one time.
On medication, I’m able to like fold the laundry Complete that, all the way through, go to the dishwasher, unload the dishwasher, all the way through, take out the trash Like all the way through come back in put a new bag in the trash can like i’m able to do that
Chris Gazdik: That’s a fundamental functioning day to day experience.
I really appreciate that
Victoria Pendergrass: Yeah, and whereas my husband doesn’t have that issue. He can like do the laundry and complete it without Having a million be like feeling like he’s got to [00:36:00] go do other things or
Chris Gazdik: in the middle of an hour long task Such as laundry or something have a disruption deal with the disruption and come immediately back to
Victoria Pendergrass: right Me I struggle with that
Chris Gazdik: right because that task is old news with ADHD Yeah,
Victoria Pendergrass: well because it’s a lot of like you’re just moved on to the next thing It’s why a lot of 80 ADHD people will have Like a craft closet that’s full of ha of all these projects that they’ve Get hyper focused on for about two weeks and then they lose interest in it and then it goes into a closet somewhere And then they move on to the next thing.
You know, what’s
Chris Gazdik: really frustrating to me about ADHD specifically and especially for kids, but also adults. Yeah. Is the misunderstanding that other people have In relationship to a person with a DHT,
Victoria Pendergrass: you mean the fact, Oh, I can do it. Why can’t you? Well, [00:37:00] kind of
Chris Gazdik: thing, those types of things. But so if you think about the kids, they get misunderstood and they get.
Identified because they’re not completing their task or listening or blurting out answers or doing some of the behaviors that we see as lazy, as not intelligent, as disruptive and disobedient, as being the class clown because they don’t care. So they’re apathetic. That’s not what’s going on for these guys and gals.
plays into adulthood, too. Oh, yeah. You know, when I learned that, in adult, ADHD especially, What? Early on, I had a client that happened to be blonde, and we were talking about some of the symptoms Mm hmm. with ADHD, and I picked it out. I was proud of myself at that point, because I was like, Oh, my God, I found this.
Nobody’s talked about this with this woman all of her life. She was like, 40, 30, 35. And, and we were talking about the symptoms, and I was Playing around with it seeing if this fits or not and [00:38:00] she’s like, oh my god. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. Oh my god Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and she stopped Victoria and she looked at me.
She says do you know what people call me Chris? And I was like what? Do you mean like a nickname? She’s like, yeah, all of my friends, all of my family, they call me Ditz. That was her nickname. She had lived with this all of her life and didn’t even know that that was going on. And, and right and that, but that’s the way people experienced
Victoria Pendergrass: her.
Yeah, I thought you were gonna go with like the whole like dumb blonde thing. Well, Ditzy.
Chris Gazdik: Basically. Ditzy. It’s a, I don’t know if it’s kind of an old word, a little bit of an old word, but That was it. It touched me because I was like, oh my gosh, you know, and I was able to help her identify this and
Victoria Pendergrass: Now she can say like, okay, i’m not
Chris Gazdik: insight.
Yeah, she had insight about it
Victoria Pendergrass: But yeah, and I mean i’ve seen it a lot working in a school, especially in an elementary school Oh, I bet and I mean and there’s things to help with that like [00:39:00] 504 plans and whatnot but yeah, I mean it’s it’s hard sometimes because I think a lot of times what happens is It’s the same thing as like, someone who’s experiencing, experiences anxiety or depression and someone who doesn’t.
Like, there is that certain level of like, Misunderstanding, not misunderstanding, but like not being able to understand because they don’t like because they don’t understand like what goes on in an ADHD person’s brain. So it’s kind of like, do you get where I’m going with this?
Chris Gazdik: I do. I’m just pondering, like, I’m aware of like the time of the show already and it’s like, wow.
Right. And I’m, and I’m trying to think like, what do we want to cover? Like, do you think we have done, we haven’t done much of like, what is ADHD? Right. And let me try to do that super quick so that we have a little bit of a, of a guideline and, and basically the, the things that [00:40:00] we look for, you’re, you’ve heard this before, I think, listening.
So it’s, you know, inattention, close attention to details, holding attention, you know, seem not to listen, not following through organizing tasks, avoiding long mental efforts. I do want to. Break the myth of reading. Do you like reading, Victoria?
Victoria Pendergrass: I finished January with reading 17
Chris Gazdik: books. People have this myth out there about ADHD not being able to read.
Like, that’s not true. It’s more
Victoria Pendergrass: the, the attention and like, yeah, like now, if you asked me if I ever read the books throughout high school and college that I was supposed to read. Not interesting. But you know what my mom did to help fix that. Okay. She bought the audiobooks of the books, and I would listen to that instead, and we would just play it over and over again in the car, or whatever, and that was how I managed.
But, but I read a lot now because they’re, that books actually hold my interest, they’re interesting. When
Chris Gazdik: [00:41:00] something’s mundane and boring, it’s like impossible to stay on it. Oh, especially with ADHD, yeah. Right? Boring professional tasks. I mean, school, that’s what makes it. So you can read on ADHD if you’re interested.
That’s my main myth blow up there. But the hyper tasks and stuff you know, fidgeting, feeling restless, unable to enjoy, leisurely, quietly. Like, that’s a big thing. Like, you have interests, but being able to just, you know,
Victoria Pendergrass: It’s very hard for me to sit still in the quiet. Right?
Chris Gazdik: Like, just be calm. I need to be moving.
No, sit
Victoria Pendergrass: down with me. Like, even sitting here, I don’t know if you can see my full body, but like, I can’t even stay in the same position.
Chris Gazdik: It is going to be fascinating, the listeners long term, to see when you get on medications, honestly.
Victoria Pendergrass: Maybe when I get on it, I should just not say anything, and then, Here’s
Chris Gazdik: what we’ll do.
See if you notice a difference. Here’s what I’d like to do. Yeah. When you do, give it a few weeks. You’ll remember this more than I will. [00:42:00] Give it a few weeks. And maybe you don’t even tell me, but I bet I’ll figure it out. We should play a game too. When you start, don’t tell me. And see how long it takes me to say, Hey, Victoria.
Because, you know, anyway. And give it a few weeks on the show and have people listen and see if they can identify any difference or whatever. And then we’ll do like a little current event and revisit this. Does that sound fun? Yeah, sure. Okay, we’ll do it that way. That’ll be fine.
Victoria Pendergrass: But also there’s things like on the go, as if being driven by a motor, talking excessively, which is the big one, blurting out answers or responses trouble waiting in line or waiting your turn, interrupts or intrudes on others.
All those are symptoms slash criteria. Yeah, those are
Chris Gazdik: the things we’re looking for to diagnose. And
Victoria Pendergrass: that’s, correct me if I’m wrong, both inattentive and hyperactivity. Right, so with ADHD
Chris Gazdik: you’ve got inattentive type, you’ve got hyper type, and then you’ve got a [00:43:00] combined type. That’s the way we designate that.
I have combined. You have combined? Yeah. Shocker. Shocker. And actually, there’s also continuum. ADHD can be really mild, it can be moderate, or it can be severe. What would you call yourself?
Victoria Pendergrass: Cuz I’ll give a tip now. I would probably say moderate. Yeah, probably growing up. I was Severe, I was gonna say I don’t
Chris Gazdik: think it’s mild
How
Victoria Pendergrass: many times I interrupt you on this show
Chris Gazdik: I’m dancing a little because I don’t want to be disrespectful, but you’re fine. Okay,
Victoria Pendergrass: cool. Okay, honestly, I’ve probably heard it way worse And
Chris Gazdik: isn’t that so no, that’s all I’m gonna say but isn’t that sad That I’ve heard worse? Yeah. Yeah. Like the emo like listen, listen.
If you have ADHD, listening, you will understand this and I want you to know that It’s frustrating. [00:44:00] This can be maddening. And, and again, other people just don’t, they don’t understand. You know, I’ve had marriages where one, I diagnosed with adult ADHD and it’s like light bulbs come on because people don’t Typically think that way and that’s why they say the worst things that Victoria’s received in life And that’s why people get so frustrated in a day.
They’re sometimes really people are mean It’s it’s I just want you to understand I want to normalize that a little bit it’s because they really just don’t understand and some of the stuff is Frustrating to the other person like Victoria if I’m married to you like I’m just asking you to get lettuce and, and hamburger and, and mustard and I need milk and, and I, and I want, and I want silver, you know, plasticware at the grocery store.
Can you not come back with all those
Victoria Pendergrass: things? I’m going to need you to text me that in order for me to remember it. What the hell?
Chris Gazdik: Right? Like [00:45:00] that, and the husband can be so angry with you. Yeah.
Victoria Pendergrass: About that. Or why did you go to the grocery store for milk, but you got all these other things, and you did not get milk.
Right.
Chris Gazdik: Like. It’s, it’s just this, and if you don’t even know this is going on, it’s just,
Victoria Pendergrass: it’s, it’s heartbreaking. Well, and I think also it’s disheartening sometimes too, and I’m sure people who take ADHD meds have experienced this too. But like, once you start ADHD meds, and other people know that you’re on ADHD meds, like, the time when you forget them, That’s when people are like, yeah,
Chris Gazdik: it’s so harsh.
What’s wrong with you? I mean, like, I remember, I was, yeah,
Victoria Pendergrass: because they’re like, well, at least because they’re used
Chris Gazdik: to, let me get this right. So if you’re taking medications, which is another thing about medications, these. are different than a lot of the other medications in pharmacology. Most mental health medications you really need to take regularly [00:46:00] and routinely.
These are SSRIs, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, your antidepressants, your bipolar medications, especially your antipsychotic medications. So most medications in mental health, you need to get. real regimented with so that it’s on point and, and your body has certain levels with it. ADHD medications, specifically the stimulant medications, they’re very fast acting like ibuprofen.
If you have a headache, you take ibuprofen, it fixes it and you don’t take it anymore. That’s the way stimulant medications work. You cannot do that with your antidepressant. You cannot do that with your antipsychotic. You have to be real regimented with them.
Victoria Pendergrass: It doesn’t stay in your
Chris Gazdik: system. It doesn’t stay in your system very long, which is why we try to do the extended release.
And that makes, it used to be you had to take a morning dose and then an afternoon dose so that by the time you were done with school, it stayed in your system. Now we have extended release that [00:47:00] slowly releases in your body throughout the day. And that’s a big difference. Concerto
Victoria Pendergrass: would typically last me about 12 hours.
Right.
Chris Gazdik: So back to what you were saying when people are used to you on medication and then you skip a day They’re
Victoria Pendergrass: harsh. It’s like oh lord victoria’s gonna take her medication today Like she’s gonna be hard to deal with and like wow, and I guess it’s not necessarily like There are other meaner things that you could probably say, but it is kind of like, Oh, so you don’t like me when I’m myself, when I’m like, you know, without medication, like, because that happens sometimes, like, I mean, I’ve had issues getting things filled.
I’ve been on vacation before and forgot my medicine at home for like a week and good Lord, like, and you know, and I’m a like fun, loving, loving person. So I typically tried to let those things like roll off my. Shoulders, but like when it gets said all the time like yeah, like y’all like I mean, I know I’m not I know I can be a lot to [00:48:00] handle sometimes but like right y’all only want to be my friends when I’m like medicated medicated
Chris Gazdik: Yeah So much there
Victoria Pendergrass: and as an adult, I’m like whatever now, but I mean as a kid
Chris Gazdik: like particularly as a kid Yeah, like kids are harsh, man.
Kids are mean. Kids are mean. And they don’t mix any punches. Yeah. Like you won’t shut up. You’re out of line. You’re gonna get us in trouble. I don’t like, you know, I mean, it’s, it gets rough. You know, yeah. Okay, boy. Yeah, where are we going with this? I figured this conversation would be good and flow. I mean, we didn’t need show notes for this one.
Yeah, and
Victoria Pendergrass: like me personally, I Let
Chris Gazdik: me transition a step. Yeah, no, go for it. Because, because I really want to spend a minute. I really want to have a segment here on the other side of the story. Right. About the concerns with Pharmacological [00:49:00] treatment and the Adderall reality. And that is, is with the college students.
That is what we used to see with more of the epidemic. Like you do need to understand this is a stimulant. It’s not quite as unregulated and bad as what you
get on the street with speed. Right? Amphetamines like meth, amphetamine, those are really, really bad. Right? And unfortunately, these medications get clumped in with that.
Mm-Hmm. . And to a certain extent, you need to understand that they need to be clumped in with that because it’s like speed. It’s a stimulant. If I were to take this, I think I would be wired.
Victoria Pendergrass: So are you saying basically that it can be
Chris Gazdik: addictive? It can be abused. Now, interesting, I’ll refer to the episode when we said what is addiction and we really took a deep dive on that a few months back.
You need to [00:50:00] listen to that show. Let me say that again. If you’re listening to this and you’re curious about the abuse section, you need to listen to that show. Because I’m gonna make a statement and you need to understand the difference between abuse and addiction. clearly don’t have time today. I, I really have anecdotally an experience that nowadays, especially not so much 10 years ago or 15 years ago.
Nowadays, especially that this is really more in the line of abuse of substances that it is not. Typically a drug of choice with people that have addiction and I say that we’re drug a choice Because that’s an important term in addiction world drug a choice just refers to the typical thing That you use when you have addiction, right?
This is not a typical drug of
Victoria Pendergrass: choice because I think And you probably hear this a lot too, but when I talk about medication to parents and adults, what I hear a [00:51:00] lot of times is I don’t want to be taking this for the rest of my life. And so I think that that’s what people fear. Yeah. People have a fear.
Like, Oh, if I start ADHD meds, like, yeah, it is. I mean, I took ADHD meds for like, Over half, like, 24 years of, not 24 years of my life, but yeah, like, 20, 20 years of my life, basically. Yeah. And some people are like, oh shit. Sorry. Can I make, can I make
Chris Gazdik: an ADHD joke, though? Go for it. Can I pull this back to where we were, though?
Oh yeah, sorry. But, no, like Because I wanted, I want to spend time on the abuse of it. Right. There’s a danger. With using Adderall, Focalin, Concerta, Ritalin. Mm-Hmm. These are the primary stimulant medications. Mm-Hmm. That people are prescribed for A DHD for specific reasons that I think you have done a delightful job of sharing with us.
Yeah. . If you don’t have that, you can’t be [00:52:00] taking other people’s medication. That’s where the abuse comes in. Curious question, Victoria. Yeah. And maybe you want to be honest with this. Maybe you don’t. Yeah. I don’t mean to put you on the spot. I mean, have you had anybody say, Hey, can you toss me one? You know?
Yes. Right? Yes, don’t freaking do that because when you’re doing that, you know, I mean, it’s not gonna kill you Don’t get me wrong, but it’s but it’s if you get into a habitual thing with that. Mr. And Mrs. College student. That’s dangerous Well,
Victoria Pendergrass: okay, like you were saying earlier how you know, you give Adderall to someone who doesn’t have a ADHD They’re gonna be like super wired and they’re probably gonna have the cleanest house ever Well, then what happens I think is you You like that feeling right and so then that’s why you keep going back to it is you want to be able to keep the clean house you want to be able to get all your errands done you want to be able to complete this last this project that you’ve been waiting till the last minute [00:53:00] in college you waited to the last minute to write a 20 page paper right so now I’m gonna you know pop it girl Adderall and I’m gonna like blow through this 20 page paper and then I continued that becomes a pattern which is what abuse and It is right, becomes a pattern.
And then now you push all your assignments, all your big assignments to a last minute and you find, and if you find a way to have access to it, then here’s a
Chris Gazdik: tip. You Mr and Mrs college student or business professional who wants to get this engagement with Adderall for that bump that you just did an excellent job, way better than I could ever think about doing a stick with coffee.
Yeah. Just,
Victoria Pendergrass: just black coffee. Stick with coffee. We’ll do basically the same thing. But,
Chris Gazdik: but it’s not, it’s not as intense and it’s not, it’s, it’s not. Right. You know, it, it like, how do I want to say that? The dangers of getting into that pattern that you just highlighted excellently is, is that there’s, there’s also physical realities here.
Like your [00:54:00] brain’s not geared to do that. Well,
Victoria Pendergrass: and then what’s to stop me from, okay, Adderall no longer works for me, so now I’m gonna try meth. Or now I’m gonna try other things. So it’s like, and I’m not saying it’s necessarily like a gateway drug, but. That dance,
Chris Gazdik: it’s not. That dance is into an addiction world.
It
Victoria Pendergrass: does. But, like, I don’t know, like, I don’t know.
Chris Gazdik: Oh, we just dropped. See, you do that
Victoria Pendergrass: on the show. Okay, my mom makes fun of me a lot because I will start a sentence. And you just stop. And then I just stop and I like move on. And my mom will look at me like. Are you going to finish your sentence? So
Chris Gazdik: we’re being genuine.
Victoria does this on the show. And I, I just, I’ve got You just let it slide? No, I jump in and rescue you when you do that, right? Like you just stop and it’s like, Okay, well I need to finish what she was saying or build on that. That’s
Victoria Pendergrass: an ADHD moment.
Chris Gazdik: It really is.
Victoria Pendergrass: It really is real life, real life
Chris Gazdik: example, [00:55:00] but it’s okay.
We, we, you know, I love that, but I
Victoria Pendergrass: think it’s because a lot of times with ADHD, look, I’m going to cry cause I’m laughing yes, but a Gary way that my brain works faster. Then my mouth.
Chris Gazdik: Stay here for a second. And, and. Yeah. What is that? I want people to understand what that means. So a
Victoria Pendergrass: lot of times that means I don’t have a filter.
Sometimes. I say things without thinking because my brain is going, and it’s not necessarily that I’m not thinking, it’s that my brain is moving so fast and going through So many things that I just say it as it comes to my brain and so therefore I don’t necessarily Have that filter and then a lot of times I’ll say things and I end up kind of digging myself a
Chris Gazdik: hole And me listening to that.
I hear disjointedness. Yeah, I hear not a cohesive thought I hear [00:56:00] fragmented speech and
Victoria Pendergrass: I just started a sentence and then I was like What are we,
Chris Gazdik: where are we going? Like, you know? And, and, and that’s contrasted by folks that don’t have ADHD. It’s a, it’s a common reality. I think I’m probably going to miss.
but like normally under all kinds of normal circumstances, the human brain thinks like seven thoughts to the one that you can express. Like that’s a science fact for
Victoria Pendergrass: every thought that you express seven,
Chris Gazdik: right? And so I have all of those. We have all of those. thoughts typically, but we, we understand that we’re going to stay on point.
We’re going to finish the sentence. We’re going to kind of engage in a concerted effort to get all the way to the end of what I was trying to say before I go to one of those other ones that were floating around in my head. And you’re right with ADHD, you can’t do that. My
Victoria Pendergrass: friend and her mom [00:57:00] used to always do this thing, and they would ask me, they haven’t done it in a while, but they would
ask me to like, track that thought, and I would say something random, or at least something they thought was random and not applicable to what we were talking about, and I would trace it, and I would say, like, I would go back, I would say, okay, this is the thought I said, and like, here’s the process of what you said that led me to saying this.
It’s like, Oh, you said this, which when you think of this, this one time I did, this is one time where this happened. And then all of a sudden I said, then what came out of my mouth, like, to me, it made sense. It connected. But to you, you’re like, what in the heck just happened to like, where did that come from?
Right. And in my head, it’s all connected. Like, you want to hear something funny?
Chris Gazdik: You want to hear something funny? People that know me, you know, particularly other clinicians, sometimes I will get accused of having ADHD. Yeah, and I very well may. I could see that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I very well may, but if I [00:58:00] do, I definitely would believe it to be on the mild side for sure.
But I don’t think I do. Excuse me. I think what actually I have that goes on in my brain chemistry and whatnot is some sort of kind of learning disability. Like. Maybe. Yeah, like I could not. Say the months in a row until well passed developmentally, I, I should have been able to, to do that. Yeah. I still, to this day, I couldn’t tell you what month Labor Day and Memorial Day is, ’cause I don’t care, but I, I don’t match them to the month.
I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you right now. Something like June or something like that. Days usually around my birthday. Something like May is one of ’em or something. Memorial. Memorial, yeah. So I don’t care to keep it in my head. Names are difficult for me, like memory. Whatever brain function has to do with memory and memorizing things, like I don’t do that well.
Like I don’t learn that way. So I think I have a learning disability. I don’t think I have [00:59:00] ADHD, but I’ve been accused of sort of mild versions of it. Well, I
Victoria Pendergrass: mean, sometimes a lot of that stuff can sprinkle in. Or like, I mean, it can, a lot of things
Chris Gazdik: can be, you know. Neurochemistry is amazing, isn’t it? Yeah.
There’s so much with neuro, neurochemistry.
Victoria Pendergrass: Neurodivergent is like the trend word right now. It’s so trend.
Chris Gazdik: Sorry, I
Victoria Pendergrass: laugh at that word. Neurodivergent brain. Which, I mean, it is, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, I think it’s a very, like, fad trend right now to use the word neurodivergent. It is. I mean, and I think the thing is, is to realize that, like, people who have ADHD are on medication for a reason.
Just like, People who have high blood pressure are on a medication for a reason like so it’s not like I’m I don’t have high blood pressure So I’m not gonna go take some high blood pressure medicine. Like I don’t think that would end well for me Yeah, someone who actually does not have high blood although sometimes I might give myself high blood pressure But like back [01:00:00] to that point
Chris Gazdik: of be careful about using this Inappropriately.
Right. And that’s like a big
Victoria Pendergrass: deal. Well, and if you are like, and that’s another thing where therapy and other resources can be useful. Like if you do find that you’re, you’re not having focus that you need to like figure something out, you’re lacking motivation, whatever, like seek out therapy, seek out other resources that can help you like address those struggles without taking medication that is not.
Applicable for you to Appropriate for you to take. Also,
Chris Gazdik: very important, here at the end of the show, Ugh, mom out there, dad out there that you’re wondering if your kid has or doesn’t have, sometimes it can be hard to discern, even for a professional. Right. There is psychological testing that is very, very helpful.
Yeah. To, to rule this in and out. And it’s, [01:01:00] it’s, it’s very it has a high level of validity on the results, and a lot of times what you’re going to find with the psych testing, just so you know, is your son or daughter is going to sit in front of a computer screen, and they’re going to have a screen that they’re looking at, and all they have to do is hit the spacebar, and there’s going to be A, B, Q, D, Q.
And whenever you see the letter S, you hit the, the spacebar. Yeah. And, and so they, there’s,
don’t have ADHD and they know what the results look like. Right. And people that have ADHD, I mean, they’re just, they’re not, they’re not doing it well.
Mm hmm. They’re not, they can’t, yeah, they’re halftime and they’re not looking at the screen. They’re just like, oh my God, this is so
Victoria Pendergrass: stupid. I mean, and that’s the thing, I want to clarify that. A therapist, an LCSW, which is you, and an LC, CMHC, which is me. So what is, what those are, [01:02:00] those, Chris is a licensed social worker.
Okay, I don’t think people care about this. Yeah, Victoria, my licensed clinical mental health counselor. Therapist. But anyways, we are able to diagnose. Yes. Like, we, we are able to diagnose anything under the DSM 5. Right, good point. Anything that’s in the DSM 5. Chris and I can diagnose someone with, however, the psychological testing is just going to go a step further and to provide a little bit more of the backup with data and things when they take, like, they do a little bit more actual, like, testing.
Subjective data. Yeah, whereas Chris and I are going to make our diagnosis, correct me if I’m wrong, based off Pretty, pretty accurately. Yeah, but, like, based off conversation, based off history, based off, like We’re not handing you a bunch of things to fill out, I guess is what I’m trying to say. Which can be helpful to get the little chronic test.
And so the psychological testing is just going to go a little bit more in depth so that that way Because
Chris Gazdik: basically anybody that does psychological testing, they will [01:03:00] do the same thing that we do. Yes. They get a diagnostic impression, is really what it’s called, and then they’ll go further with the computer test.
Yeah. Excellent. Excellent point. Good stuff. Listen, I, we need to wind down. I mean, I knew this conversation would be like this. I, this was really easy show prep to do. Cause I figured
Victoria Pendergrass: it’s great because it’s just like the embodiment of.
Chris Gazdik: I just really appreciate you being so kind and genuine to allow people to take a little peer through the window at what it’s like to really experience this like the day to day experience and what you do with that.
And I, I want to give you a compliment again publicly. You handle this behaviorally. Well, we didn’t get to talk about that tonight. There’s more to learn
about how do you handle this without medication. And there’s a plethora. Oh yeah, we could go on. And so I just really appreciate you, you doing this show this
Victoria Pendergrass: way.
Victoria, it makes me [01:04:00] think of I don’t know if any of y’all know who Renee rap is. She’s a singer. She’s actually from Huntersville. She went to she went to Hopewell High School, I think. Yeah. Okay. And she was in an interview one time and this guy asked her, he was like, the way your brain works is just fascinating.
And she goes, ADHD. ADHD. I’m proud
Chris Gazdik: of that. I like it. Well, you know, I, we had a YouTube comment that actually said that there was a president of the United States that there’s belief that ADHD medication. I don’t know who they were referring to or what that is, but look, all kinds of people have this issue.
You know, it’s okay. And
Victoria Pendergrass: I’m just saying, and I don’t know if we’ve ever talked like this before about certain things, but like with some mental health. Things it’s it’s not it’s not discriminatory picks. Whoever it was. So like you could be a therapist and have ADHD You can be a doctor and have ADHD. You can be [01:05:00] a Janitor and have ADHD like you can be anybody.
Yeah, boy girl But that also doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful, right? You can be successful With and manage A DHD at the same time.
Chris Gazdik: And I love that you’re looking into camera to really help people understand that because you are embodiment of being successful.
Victoria Pendergrass: I have two master’s degrees and a bachelor’s
Chris Gazdik: degree.
So listen, I hope that this has been helpful for you to understand a little bit about what A DHD is, what it isn’t, the Adderall, the, the efficacy of, you know, medications that help with this. We do have tools. That help you manage mental health issues. Adderall being one of them. They’re not a solution, right?
So remember that I don’t know. Anything, I’m gonna let you take us out from there, because this, you know, thank you so much for doing what you’ve done. Yeah, I
Victoria Pendergrass: mean, I just [01:06:00] think it’s helpful to have like a real Example and that we’re not just two people who don’t neither one have ADHD that are talking about this You know, I think it helps to have an inactive like an in person Experience of like what it’s actually like to you know, and I’m very open about it So I’d obviously yeah, I don’t mind talking about it because I think
Chris Gazdik: it helps.
All right. Well, I appreciate that Listen stay with us. Stay tuned. Stay well, and we will see you