Hi, I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson, and you're listening to episode 14 of the savvy psychologist.

I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

We'll use the best of psychology to help you be happy, healthy, and most importantly, yourself.

Today we'll talk about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD,

which was once thought to be the fault of lousy parents or a conspiracy

propagated by drug companies.

Thankfully it's neither.

It's a brain-based disorder but quite the disorderly disorder it can be.

So I'll walk you through both common and surprising symptoms, and then I'll give you 13 tips

to handle them for both kids and adults. So first, how common is ADHD? Picture a

classroom full of kids. ADHD affects up to 7% of kids, which translates to at least one or two kids in every classroom.

It also affects around 4% of adults.

So why the lower percentage of adults?

Some kids with a specific genetic variation of ADHD will grow out of it, but the majority won't.

So overall, about 60% of kids with ADHD grow up to be adults with ADHD.

The part of the brain affected is called the prefrontal cortex, which lies directly behind your forehead.

And it's responsible for something called executive functioning, an umbrella term for skills that include

paying attention, making plans, using past experiences to solve problems, making decisions, and shifting

from idea to idea.

Trouble with executive functioning translates into two groups of symptoms.

The first is inattention.

Symptoms like disorganization, forgetfulness, and losing things from homework to cell phones,

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