Executive functions are like the performance of a symphony… First violins… Second violins… Cellos… Percussion instruments… Trombones… Tubas… contrabass… violas and more A good symphony is the harmony of many instruments. For the performance of a great piece, some instruments must start in order and at the right time… some must stop… Some must start again… A good conductor must be able to follow all these instruments, sustain and restart them accordingly. Moreover, it should be able to suppress irrelevant sounds coming from the hall… Executive functions are the conductor of our brain. Initiates some functions; stops some. It raises the voice of some. lowers the volume of some. It does all this exactly at the right time…
One of the most important functions of the executive functions is stopping (inhibition). In fact, the brain functions largely with inhibition skills. If the brain cells, which receive thousands of stimuli in the lightest form per unit time, were not able to suppress the responses of this crowd of stimuli, we would experience complete chaos… In children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, these inhibition functions are impaired at certain rates in certain areas. ..
If you can’t stop the motor (movement-related) areas, you will be in motion all the time. If you can’t stop the areas related to speech, you talk too much… If you can’t stop the areas related to your emotions, you will give sudden intense and unbalanced emotional reactions.. If you can’t stop the areas in the cognitive area, you will act without thinking or paste the answer without reading the question completely. If you cannot stop yourself, you will live in the present without thinking about the future… If you cannot suppress irrelevant stimuli from outside, you cannot maintain your attention… If you cannot do all these, you cannot regulate yourself.
“Knowledge is knowledge…
Science is knowing yourself
If you don’t know yourself
What if it’s a lot of reading”
Yunus Emre
Self-monitoring is the first step of self-regulation… Those who don’t watch themselves have no awareness of themselves. A person should monitor their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, even their appearance. After a while, the person who is self-aware will try to manipulate their thoughts, behaviors and even feelings for their future purposes. This situation, which we call the ability to self-regulate, is the key to success in social relationships, business life, even in the relationship with lovers, briefly in life itself.
Another dimension of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is the difficulty in maintaining attention. This is especially true in monotonous and mental performance-requiring assignments. people are easily distracted by external or internal stimuli.In fact, this situation is more than a high level of perception. is not caused. It is simply due to their difficulty in suppressing irrelevant stimuli. Worst of all, once they disperse, it takes a long time to reorganize and get back to work; so they linger. This is mostly due to their forgetting “what they did or will do”. This again shows us that another instrument that forms an important part of executive functions is not working well: working memory skills.
The characteristic of working memory is that it keeps a lot of information on the agenda and processes it when the time comes. In other words, it is the memory function that guides what we do. It’s a bit like a computer’s RAM memory. If this memory does not work well, this person may get lost in a math question. While adding, the operation can continue as subtraction. On the way to meet your lover, the situation can turn into a drink with friends.
All this means looking at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a simple inattention, ignoring all the problems these people experience. Moreover, these people are often criticized for their difficulty in stopping themselves, their inability to regulate themselves and forgetting what to do. This can be mistaken for laziness, poor discipline, stubbornness, or rebellion. However, disorganization, disorganization, or other symptoms are not a choice. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a genetic and neurochemical disorder. Being angry with these people all the time is actually like getting angry with “why are you brown-eyed and not green-eyed”. You can’t be mad at someone for having brown eyes. On the other hand, the acquisition of all of the above skills, including the acquisition of self-regulation skills, is not due to the inadequacy or incompetence of parenting skills. In other words, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is not an upbringing problem.
To view attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a mere distraction would be to belittle it. In fact, this means that the whole life is affected. Because these people cannot regulate themselves and their lives.
A child who cannot organize himself is disorganized, lingers, and has forgetfulness in the style of distraction. In this case, he receives more negative warnings from the mother than the father at home. He cannot wait his turn on the street, is not good at games that require attention, has sudden emotional reactions. He is ostracized by his friends. Forgets homework at school, thinks about other things in class, makes careless mistakes; warns teachers. After all, a good child, a smart child, receives constant negative warnings at home, on the street, at school. One of the first reactions to negative stimuli is opposition. Structurally, with inhibition problems, such negative stimulus causes oppositional defiance in the child. In attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiance is observed at a rate of approximately 60-70%. The number is by no means small. Oppositions can develop into behavioral problems over time. Fighting, breaking the rules, truancy… If he misses school, he is exposed to the risks of the street: exposure to accidents, substance abuse, ganging up… Scientific research points out that all these are more common in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. On the other hand, in a group of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, these negative stimuli and sudden emotional reactions begin to develop negative thought schemes about themselves or about life: “I can’t be successful at anything. I won’t be successful. Nobody loves me. It’s too bad to live.” This mindset is one that paves the way for anxiety and depression. People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adolescence have higher rates of anxiety and depression. Due to inattention, lack of motivation and psychiatric co-disorders, these people have less chance of getting a job by reading. They usually have their first sexual experience earlier because of their impulsiveness. They marry earlier and have children. The problems continue in adulthood. For example, in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, more family conflicts, impulsively punishing their child, divorce, having an accident and being exposed to an accident, penalized driving license, parking tickets, speeding fines, conflict with authority, anxiety, depression, substance abuse. use, job change, dismissal and financial problems are observed. Tasks that are particularly “time-limited” are more likely to miss the deadline.
Since there are so many risks, this condition must be treated. A child and adolescent psychiatrist should diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. Because attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a medical disorder and must be differentiated from other medical conditions and psychiatric disorders. There is a successful treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in child and adolescent psychiatry. Medication is the most important part of the treatment. The cooperation of physician, child, family and teacher is very important in the success of the treatment.
