Hallie Bulkin says ADHD is real and often a creative strength, but doctors need to rule out sleep-disordered breathing before prescribing medication. Sleep deprivation mimics ADHD symptoms, and untreated airway problems can lead to treating the wrong thing.
And the default response is often ADHD diagnosis and medication. And I want to be very clear, ADHD is real. Like, it exists, and many incredible creative people have it. That's why I joke, but I'm also very serious, that it is my superpower. Without my ADHD, I'm like, I don't know that I would be where I am today because it allows me to really have a lot of creative thoughts and ideas and juggle a whole lot of things at the same time. Whether I'm doing it well is a whole different conversation, but Here we are, right? Before we medicate though, especially in children and especially in young children, we must rule out sleep disorder breathing. But it doesn't mean the child has ADHD. They might just be sleep deprived with an underoxygenated brain. So if no one looks at the airway, at the tongue, at the palate, the breathing, the sleep, right? We risk treating symptoms instead of causes.
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