Inattentive ADD: Just Like Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is the classic picture of Inattentive ADHD.

In other works people would have called this "Space Cadet" style ADHD.

Dr. Daniel Amen refers to this as "Inattentive ADD". These are people that suffer from "brain fog" as they go through their day.

Although Pooh is very lovable and kind, he is also inattentive, sluggish, slow-moving, unmotivated. He is a classic daydreamer.

People with this type of ADHD are often seen as being:

Easily distracted
Having short attention spans to a task that is not interesting, or is hard
Daydreams when others are talking to him/her
A person who cannot find anything that they have just put down somewhere...
A person who is always late
Is easily bored

This type of ADHD is caused by the prefrontal cortex of the brain actually slowing down (instead of speeding up activity) when placed under a work load, like reading or doing homework. This part of the brain looks normal when "at rest" but actually looks like it is starting to fall asleep when asked to "go to work." This makes it very hard to pay attention to school work, get homework done, listen to the teacher, clean your room, and so on.

They have actually observed this hundreds of times with subjects on an EEG. When at rest, the brainwave activity is pretty normal. But once the subject is asked to read, or to do a math worksheet, the subject's brainwave activity begins to look like the subject is falling asleep. This sure makes school hard for these students!

Winnie the Pooh style inattention is seen mostly in girls. It responds well to stimulants, such as Ritalin and Adderall, but other interventions work well also.

Over-Focused ADHD: Rabbit Tends to His Garden... and don't bother him.

The least flexible character in all of the stories of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin has got to be Rabbit. Oh, he can get a lot of things done, and he's the one character who will be prepared when winter comes, but he has a very hard time shifting from one activity to another. He is absolutely "task oriented" and is focused to whatever that task might be.

The person with "Over-Focused ADHD" is much the same. He has trouble shifting attention from one activity to another, and he frequently "gets stuck" in loops of negative thoughts. He can be obsessive, and very inflexible. He can also be oppositional and argumentative to parents.

He may be like a "bull dog" and not give up until he gets his way, or until his worn-out parents finally say, "yes," to his 100th request for something. His parents are often worn-out, worn-down, fed-up, and ready to break. Parenting a child like this is hard.

Someone with "Over-Focused ADHD" is like Rabbit, in that he:

May worry a LOT, even over things that don't really matter much
Can be very oppositional to parents
May like to argue
May be somewhat compulsive about the way things ought to be done
Will have a very hard time shifting from one activity to another
Always wants to have his way

The cause of this type of ADHD is an over-active Anterior Cingulate Gyrus. This part of the brain is over-active all of the time.

And, to make things worse, when a "work load" is put on the brain, such as school work or a chore to be completed, there is the common ADHD symptom of decreased activity level in the Pre-Frontal Cortex.

In this type of ADHD some stimulants, and too much use of L-Tyrosine to increase dopamine production can actually make the problem of over-focus worse. So be careful.

Piglet is a great friend, but sure scares easily...

Piglet is that small, almost frail character from the Hundred Acre Wood. He is a great friend, and very loyal. But he is always worried, nervous, and easily startles. Sometimes he is so nervous that he stutters. So it is with some kids with ADHD.

This style of ADHD is very similar to the Rabbit style, except that with "Piglet style" the child's mid-brain is so over-aroused that the child is hypervigilant and very easily startled. He may be talking all of the time, and is probably touching everything in the room. And, this child is nervous or worried, or anxious. He has trouble shifting attention from one activity to another, and he frequently "gets stuck" in loops of negative thoughts. He can be obsessive, and very inflexible.

In this type of ADHD some stimulants, and too much use of L-Tyrosine to increase dopamine production can actually make the problem of over-focus worse. So be careful.