Many view ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as primarily a children’s affliction, but many children carry their symptoms right on into adulthood, some of them not ever having been diagnosed, or treated, as children in the first place. Often it is when a child is diagnosed that parents begin to recognize the same symptoms in themselves and end up with the diagnosis as well. Tonight at 10pm on NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” Kate Snow interviews two adults who fit this description and were diagnosed with ADHD after they were grown and had families.
Bonnie Ihme is a wife and mother from just outside Traverse City, MI, who gave up her dream of becoming an architect early in life because she was just too scattered to concentrate, despite displaying a budding talent. But even as an adult, her life seemed to be a constant juggling act. Keeping up with a husband and two kids was a constant challenge and more often than occasionally, things would fall through the cracks. Eventually, at age 42, Ihme was diagnosed with ADHD. Clinical Psychologist Rachel Klein of New York University Langone Medical Center, is a pioneer in the field. “The person (with adult ADHD) is overwhelmed by the details of life, and they neglect them,” she said.
Frank South grew up without a diagnosis because, “there was no such thing in the 50s and 60s.” He had a hard time of it growing up. “I was always bad. I got kicked out of boy scouts.” Then as he grew up and married and started a family, things got better. He became a writer and hit a 15-year writing streak writing, producing and directing for several television shows such as “Cagney and Lacey” and “Melrose Place.” Then the down slope emerged. “I was drinking too much, I was working more hours, I wasn’t home enough.” Then when his son was diagnosed with ADHD he got tested too and found that his scores were “off the charts.” “I was a mess,” South said. But that diagnosis helped him right his ship and start to sail straight once again. “I wouldn’t have been able to stop drinking without that diagnosis,” he said. And “I was present. I could see people, without all of that scramble going on up inside my head.”
NBC Nightly News represents the largest single daily source of news in America, according to NBC’s website. Brian Williams in the show’s seventh anchor and managing editor.
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