ADHD vs. OCD
OCD and ADHD: What’s the Difference? Learn how OCD and ADHD can be similar and different. Erin talks about common misunderstandings and explains the signs and treatments for both conditions. She highlights why getting help early is important and gives tips for handling ADHD’s emotional challenges. Next week, tune in to hear Sam Temple share her story about living with OCD.
00:00 Introduction to OCD Awareness
00:09 Understanding Relationship OCD
00:28 Effective Treatment for OCD
00:51 OCD and ADHD: Key Differences
01:18 Meet Erin: Your OCD Specialist
02:04 Episode Overview: ADHD vs. OCD
02:45 ADHD: Signs and Symptoms
03:57 ADHD Diagnosis and Misconceptions
07:29 Inattentive Type ADHD
10:01 Hyperactive Type ADHD
11:26 ADHD vs. OCD: Common Confusions
13:35 ADHD Testing and Treatment
16:26 Nine Truths About ADHD
19:43 Emotional Challenges of ADHD
26:32 Final Thoughts and Next Episode Preview
27:05 Conclusion and Call to Action
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[00:00:00] We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and feelings.
And urges about your partner or loved one, breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to n ocd.com to get evidence-based treatment, the sooner you get into treatment, the better, because it seems like the longer these behavior patterns are there, the longer and the more work we have to put in in undoing these beliefs and fears and challenging those intrusive thoughts.
Now, keep in mind, it can happen where someone has both OCD and ADHD, but overall, these are both two different conditions, even though they have some similarities. They are very different in how they show up and when they show up, and they require different treatments and different supports in getting you to where you want to go.
Hi, I'm Erin, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and OCD Specialist. I'm also a wife, mom to three, and small business owner. Helping those who are spiraling from intrusive thoughts to come out of that valley with long term recovery and self awareness. Reheat your coffee and pop in your air pods to learn how to boss up to OCD.
Alright, alright, alright. Well, I hope everyone is having a great summer and you're having a lot of fun and doing all the things you want to do. And in today's episode, it's particularly special since We're out of routine and we're not in that school calendar regimen. Today, I'm going to be talking about ADHD versus OCD, and there are some overlapping things that happen if you've got a child with ADHD, or you suspect that they have ADHD, you will probably relate to a lot of the things shared in today's episode.
So I'm going to be covering like what the signs and the symptoms are of ADHD. I think you've heard a lot about the signs and symptoms of OCD, but we'll also do that cross comparison of how they can look alike, how they're different and what treatment looks like for both sets. So, I look forward to sharing all this fabulous information with you guys.
Now, once upon a time, I did ADHD testing and it is another one of those diagnoses that people throw around way too much. Have you ever heard someone say, Oh, they're so ADHD or I'm ADHD because I'm all over the place and again it's invalidating and insensitive to the people who do truly have an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
And let me also, my goodness, now it's coming to my mind too that the diagnosis book changed the terminology with ADHD. So you remember back in the day. We used to call it ADD and ADHD because one signified the hyperactivity and the other was more of the inattentive type where you're more focused on yourself and not necessarily bouncing off the wall as well.
So in the latest diagnosis book, which is the DSM 5, ADHD back in 2013, y'all, but don't you still come across people who are like, Oh, no, they have ADD, not ADHD. So let me just give you a quick rundown of the diagnosis. what has happened with how we phrase ADHD now. So think about it like ADHD is the bigger umbrella term and off of that it splits.
So either you have the hyperactive, Subtype, or you have the inattentive subtype, or third option is you have both. So with ADHD, I don't see it as an advantage in any way. If anything, it is a true disability, and it does create a lot of struggles for the people who do suffer from this. And with ADHD, there's a lot of misconceptions about it as well.
Like, it's not just about a lack of focus or that behavior of bouncing off the walls. It's much more than that, and it can show up in a several ways. So typically with [00:05:00] ADHD, it is a developmental delay in the front part of the brain, which is that prefrontal cortex. And in that front part of the brain, it's in charge of those skills.
Okay. And you may have heard this before, but they're called executive functioning skills. And all that is, are those that involve like planning, impulse control, organizing, Starting task, being flexible, your working memory, time management, attention, and persevering through multiple tasks that you need to complete.
And so with the ADHD, it's something that has been there since early childhood, but the signs and symptoms become a lot more apparent and obvious as the kid gets older. So like as the school demands get harder or. the child needs to do a lot more organized activities and has a hard time with it, or you notice they're losing things.
For example, like a kid who loses their homework every day, that could potentially be a sign of the inattentive type with ADHD. There are occasions where ADHD can happen later in life, and that may be a cause of like, Maybe a car crash or like some type of trauma to the brain, or maybe it's drug induced.
Whereas, OCD, it can come out of nowhere. Maybe it's been there for quite a while, and it's been building over time, but the exact cause of OCD is unknown. Whereas ADHD, there are some genetic factors. In fact, 70 percent of the time, there is a genetic link to another family member that has ADHD. So let me tell you I'm going to talk to you about the two different subtypes of ADHD, and this is, again, just a general overview.
Do not self diagnose yourself. I recommend that you actually go to a psychologist and do a full psychological evaluation to get further clarification. About you or your kids symptoms because ADHD is a big deal. Well, any diagnosis is a big deal and you want to make sure that you get it right. Because once you get the right diagnosis, then you can get the right kind of treatment.
So with the inattentive type, this is when it looks like they're lost in their own world. They are not paying close attention to details or they're making careless mistakes on their work. They have a hard time organizing. their to do list or their activities. They cannot manage activities that have multiple steps.
So, for example, if you ask your kid to go to bed, are they able to process, and again, it's all in an age appropriate time frame, but Just for example purposes, like if you tell them to go to bed, are they able to go brush their teeth, put on their pajamas, use the bathroom, and then go to their room without being reminded 20 times that they need to do the next step?
Or same thing in getting ready for school, like it may feel like you don't need to tell them that they need to get their backpack and their shoes and their water and their snack and all the things, and don't forget to brush their teeth before they go to school. So that's what it means by they have a hard time doing sequential, multiple step tasks.
The other thing, they may avoid or dislike work or projects or activities that require a lot of mental effort. And it may feel like a lot of mental effort whenever they are doing something that they especially don't like. And oftentimes, one of the misconceptions I'll throw in here is that people think, Oh, well, they can really focus on their video games, but they can't focus at all on their homework.
And so parents think they don't have ADHD because they can focus. With that being said, with ADHD, it's more about how the child struggles with possibly multiple areas of those executive functioning skills. And then on top of that, think about it like ADHD is a disorder of the focus and attention. And that's just one piece of it, y'all, but they are not able to bring their attention to the thing that they need to do at that time.
Or if they do, it'll, the attention will be there very briefly and then it will bounce off. So it's like, they do not have control over their focus. Where other people do like most of us can be in a position be like, okay I know I'm going to be going to class or I know I'm going to be going to this meeting and I [00:10:00] need to pay Attention.
So in order to pay attention I know I'm going to be checking in or I'm going to be asking questions or I'm going to be taking notes and Likely you're not as easily distracted as someone with ADHD or as forgetful So, with these outward signs and symptoms of the hyperactive type, these are the type of kids that talk a lot, they run and climb in places where they shouldn't, they have a hard time staying in their seat, they fidget a lot, they blurt out answers before someone is finished giving the question or the statement.
These kids have a hard time waiting their turn, like they're very impatient and have a very hard time with, like, board games or child games where It goes in that sequential order and they have to wait their turn, they're wanting to skip the line, or maybe they don't even want to play the game altogether because they just cannot stand waiting.
The other piece is they will interrupt or intrude on your conversation. They just kind of butt in there, and they don't have any awareness that they're butting into the conversation, and it's not a lack of social skills. It's a lack of that impulse control and planning and waiting for their turn. Okay, so those are the signs and symptoms of the ADHD.
And what can often happen is some people will mistakenly think that their child has OCD because their child is obsessed with a video game or they're obsessed with drawing something. And when I say obsessed, I'm using it in the sense of the child is overly focused on a particular activity. And I've even had families come through my door thinking that their child had OCD.
But remember y'all, the deal with OCD is that you or your child are experiencing intrusive thoughts. And the intrusive thoughts stress you out, they pop out of nowhere, and then that leads to an urge for the compulsions to do something, to take care of the fear. So, if someone is, quote unquote, obsessed about their game, or, you know, coloring, or drawing, or they can't shift their focus from one activity to another, so like, basically they can't transition away from something, and I think, Some of that's normal, anyway, when you're talking to your kid and you tell them, Hey, you need to wrap up the video game, and like, They're like, Oh, but five more minutes, and then the five minutes is up, and they still don't want to get off the game.
That happens, because Man, I tell you, the video games are so reinforcing with all these video game developers. They know what they're doing to catch kids attention and even adults. But anyhow, so parents can assume that their child has OCD because they are overly focused on these activities. But when I'm talking to the kid, they're not stressed out by these activities or they don't feel compelled to do these activities because of some feared outcome.
No, they're just having a difficult time shifting their focus and especially shifting it away from an enjoyable activity. And so that would lead me down the road of starting to assess for ADHD and referring them to a psychologist for further testing. And so the testing I would do with children would be preemptive to kind of give them that first line.
medical guidance, if you will. So it's like, we would do the test and we would talk about, hey, here's some signs and symptoms that are going on and here are some test results to back that up. I encourage you to take this to a psychologist or to your primary care because that way it adds to the evidence because ADHD and OCD both are not ones that you want to take lightly or throw around very easily.
With ADHD, there are a lot of tests that a provider can do. It's not just a question and answer, but it does involve the people that are in your kid's life. So that's going to be the parent's report, a teacher's report, and if the kid is old enough, they're going to do their own self report. There's also computer based testing to see about focus and attention and memory.
And if your child is diagnosed with ADHD, the evidence based treatment is to look at medications because medications can help with the dopamine levels in the brain because oftentimes when someone has ADHD, they are low on that brain [00:15:00] chemical called dopamine and dopamine helps with that reward and motivation.
And a lot of times, video games, like, it gives you those quick rewards, but then after a while, you, you may have experienced this yourself. Whenever you play a video game for too long, it feels very boring, and then you feel very flat. That's because all of your dopamine has been used up with this video game.
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationships stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
If you think you may be struggling with Relationship OCD, there's hope. KnowCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. NoCD therapists are trained in exposure response prevention therapy, the gold standard treatment for OCD. With NoCD, you can do virtual, live, face to face video sessions with one of their licensed specialty trained therapists.
It's affordable and they accept most major insurance plans. Breaking the relationship OCD cycle takes effective treatment. To get started with NoCD, go to nocd. com slash savage. So let me wrap up today's episode with giving you nine truths about ADHD and how it can affect your emotions. So with ADHD, it can bring on very intense emotions.
You may have noticed your kid goes from 0 to 100 very quickly. And that 0 to 100, it's intense. And then it can also be very hard in helping them calm back down. It may take them hours. And so it seems like your kid has that above average difficulty with frustration, impatience, And truth number two is that these challenges with their emotions, they start in the brain and it's not easy for them to control on their own.
Now, they may be able to learn some skills through some ADHD coaching or seeing a therapist who specializes in ADHD. But truth number three is that it's very easy for kids with ADHD to get swept away very fast by their emotions. So they can have an exaggerated response. to a situation, or you feel like their reaction is a little bit too much, like it's out of context.
Another truth is that ADHD kids experience a lot of social anxiety. They get to a place in their life, especially like around the middle school years, where they're recognizing that they can't stop interrupting people, or they can't control their emotions in a way that keeps them present with their friends, and so their friends pick up on it.
And then on top of that, it's very easy for an ADHD child to feel like they're not smart, even though, here's another thing, gosh, yeah, that I want you guys to remember. ADHD has nothing to do with intelligence. Intelligence is a completely separate part of the brain. And so when it comes to the kids who have ADHD and their social anxiety, they worry that their, uh, Not smart, or they're unable to succeed in school when really they are very smart, or they can be very smart and it's just a focusing situation has nothing to do with intelligence.
Truth number 5 is that ADHD kids have a hard time with doing activities that have a delayed reward. So think about homework, for example. Whenever. Your kid turns in homework. They don't feel a lot of satisfaction in doing that. But you as a parent, you know that. The reward is coming. The reward of that good grade, that's going to happen in like 12 weeks or 6 weeks or whatever the reporting period is.
But to your kid, if there's not an immediate reward, it feels pointless. It doesn't feel motivating. It doesn't feel gratifying. And so they're more likely going to lean towards activities and things that give them that immediate reward. reward and gratification. Truth number six is that people with ADHD struggle with depression or a low mood because they experience a lot of frustrations and hardships and think about all the negative feedback they get growing up [00:20:00] and kind of going back to the social anxiety it affects their self esteem because they sometimes feel like they're a quote unquote bad kid when that's not at all the case.
They. They may have a very good heart and a very sweet heart, and it's just they have a hard time controlling their impulses and their actions and their emotions, but that doesn't make them a bad person, but it's very easy for them to internalize that and think that it's a me problem. Truth number seven is that the ADHD brain doesn't do a very good job in seeing the difference between something that's a big deal and something that's not so much of a big deal.
And so what happens is the ADHD person may have a hard time, like, logically working through a problem in a realistic way, and not take it as super stressful or, get really concerned. So you may have come across this in your kid where a balloon popped and they start to get very upset and you're like, listen, we can go get another balloon.
It's just a balloon, but they stay super upset. And so again, it's kind of like bringing it all together here. I mean, the emotions, they just get swept away in it. And here's the other thing that happens with ADHD and like not knowing the difference between a big problem and a small problem. If they're wanting a new phone, let's say, and you tell them no, they will act like it's the end of the world.
And they're not putting on a show. It's just in their brain. It's really sending off these signals of like, this is the end of the world. You will never get that new phone. And so it's very challenging and hard for them to know the difference. So here's what I encourage you guys to say to your kid if they have ADHD, or even if they don't have ADHD, y'all.
Here's a good parenting tip. You ready? Tell your kids not right now. Tell them later. Okay? Because sometimes, what happens whenever we say the word no, they feel like it's permanent. And so switch it up, say, not right now. So when I asked for that new phone, it's son, not right now. And so that can help ease their mind and create more of a transition and feel like it's a maybe and.
You can also give them a clear timeline. Kids with ADHD or not, I mean, they like visuals. So if you can kind of give them a timeline of when they're gonna get that new phone or when they're gonna earn their privileges back if they're grounded or in trouble or whatever. I'm all about reward systems and Letting kids earn rewards and really focusing on the positive behaviors.
All right, truth number eight about ADHD is that emotions are tied to memory. So with memory, You may have experienced this as well when you come across something like on a movie and it makes you feel sad. It leads you to think about all the other sad things that are connected with that particular sad feeling.
Like I feel like there's a lot of variations of sadness. Or when you think of a memory, you normally experience the emotion that comes with it. So thinking about like your wedding day or when your kid was born or when your kid was graduating or whenever you graduated. Even like those memories, when they come up, they feel happy, or at least I hope they do.
So anyway, with an ADHD person, when they remember things, their working memory is not as strong as someone who does not have ADHD. And so their memory may be disorganized, and they may be quick to anger. So that can be, A very likely possibility for someone with ADHD. Alright, last but not least, truth number nine.
The emotional challenges of ADHD are very tough and it requires multiple approaches to support the person because medication can help improve the emotional firing and communication in the brain. But therapy is also needed to help the person like work on their self esteem and do some of those skill building things to help them in organizing.
And here's the good news. With ADHD, I'm not saying a person can outgrow it because not everyone outgrows it. Mid twenties to late twenties is about the time when your brain is fully developed. So, some of these symptoms may start to improve whether it's your brain maturing or you've learned to work with it, like you've got the skills, you know how to deal with it.
Someone with ADHD can get better with time and [00:25:00] resources and support. And with OCD, someone can absolutely as well get better, and it doesn't necessarily depend upon their brain development. Honestly, to me though, in my opinion, the sooner you get into treatment, the better. Because it seems like the longer these behavior patterns are there, the longer and the more work we have to put in, in undoing these beliefs and fears and challenging those intrusive thoughts.
Now, keep in mind, it can happen where someone has both OCD and ADHD, but overall, these are both two different conditions, even though they have some similarities. They are very different in how they show up and when they show up, and they require different treatments and different supports in getting you to where you want to go.
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day. No matter how hard you try to make them go away, that's relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting interest in images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to NOCD. com to get evidence based treatment. Alright, so come back next week where I'm going to have a very special guest on the show. Her name is Sam Temple. You may have seen her on YouTube and on other podcasts. She's a big advocate for the OCD community.
She talks about her own story and her own struggles with OCD and how she got help through KnowCD. And so I can't wait for you guys to hear that conversation and continue to be a part of spreading more awareness about OCD and getting the right kind of treatment. So thank you for listening today and be sure to check out my soul sync podcast where I have mindfulness meditations, which can help.
Both OCD and ADHD. In my mindfulness podcast, it's helping give you practical strategies for everyday life situations so that you can bring your focus to the here and now, as well as focusing on what truly matters. All right, y'all. See you next week. Thank you for listening to another episode of Bossing Up, Overcoming OCD.
This information is intended to be helpful and not a substitute for professional counseling. If you're struggling with any mental health challenges, I encourage you to seek help from a qualified therapist or healthcare professional. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show.
Your feedback helps us reach more listeners, and don't forget to check out the affiliate links in the show notes. For handpicked recommendations that can brighten your day. Your support through these links helps keep the show running and provide valuable content. You're not alone in your journey. Stay strong, stay resilient and keep bossing up.
See you next time.
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