Smart but Stuck

I have had the pleasure to read the book that I could have/should have written. Thomas Brown, Ph.D., is a Yale psychologist who works with much the same population as I do. His book, Smart but Stuck: Emotions in Teens and Adults with ADHD, is a must read for parents of ADHD young people, especially if they have become complicated launchings. Problems with emotion regulation explain low frustration tolerance, impatience, and irritability that are often associated with people with ADHD. Dr. Brown also discusses how emotion dysregulation can interfere with capturing positive emotions that are essential to sustain motivation and persistence even in activities important to the ADHD person.

According to Dr. Brown much research attention has focused on the ADHD person’s difficulties in inhibiting action. Everyone knows an ADHD person who is impulsive, hyperverbal, hyperactive, who may interrupt and disrupt with little awareness of the impact of their behaviors. What his book addresses, in addition, are the consequences of failures of “ignition.” The young adults that I work with want to finish their college degree, know they need to go to class every day, want to write the paper—may have even picked a topic of interest, but find themselves unable to initiate the work. The young person is left with a terrible sense of failure that no one understands or has much sympathy for. It is an awful position to be in, and, individuals who struggle to regulate their emotions find themselves in that awful place over and over.