when people meet me and they find out
that I’ve got a loving wife and a loving
daughter and an amazing career working
with some really big brands and that I
have ADHD they’re often surprised and so
am I because I wasn’t supposed to be
here you see in seventh grade I was
taken down to the guidance counselor’s
office to schedule my eighth grade
classes and there were my mom and dad in
the guidance counselor’s office and I
wasn’t expecting that the guidance
counselor was going on about how George
shouldn’t be in the academic level
classes next year he should be in the
basic level classes there something I
wasn’t really paying attention but my
ears did perk up when she said to my
parents mr. and mrs. CC your son is not
going to go to college as a matter of
fact he’s gonna have a hard time getting
out of high school now I knew this
wasn’t the case I have friends and
family it didn’t go to college my
grandmother didn’t go to college and she
founded an empire of a business within
the dance industry my best friend didn’t
finish college and he is the head of IT
for a massive national corporation but
the thing is I wanted to go to college
you see I have this uncle who’s just 10
years older than me he was going to
Duquesne University and when he would
come home from college for any family
occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas
or anything like that it was an event
the family would swarm him and ask him
all these questions how is college going
what are you doing for fun what classes
are you taking
and he would talk about these exotic
subjects I’ve never heard of before and
for fun I remember this one time he said
that he and his friends stayed up 24
hours in a row at a dance-a-thon to
raise money for a Children’s Hospital
and I said that’s what I want I want
that I want to be able to stay up 24
hours in a row with my friends at a
dance-a-thon doing good things for good
people but also I want this experience
of coming home from somewhere and having
people be like hey it’s George how have
you been
and I idolized him I’ve begged my
parents let me go to college with him
they relented I went for about half a
day and I went to Duquesne University
and he took me around just me and him
and some of his friends
and I got to see his dorm room and it
was so cool once again this is the 80s
like remember he had this Devo poster
and he had the tiny mini fridge that’s
the first time I had seen that I don’t
I’m loving it I’m like this is this is
it I need this in my life and then he
shows me where the rest of his classes
are and they’re not all in one building
we walked between buildings to get to
his classrooms this is getting better by
the moment the piece de resistance is I
had to go to class with him
there was one he couldn’t get away from
and so we sat in the back and he took
notes and I doodled and ate the
microwave popcorn we cooked out in the
hallway I’m in I want to go to college
but there wasn’t 7th grade being told
you’re not gonna have any of that you’re
not gonna have the homecoming is you are
not going anywhere you sure as hell
aren’t could eat microwave popcorn in
the back of a lecture hall in eighth
grade I was pulled down to the
principal’s office this time because I
was bouncing all over the place in gym
class acting like a crazy person
my dad was called away from the company
he runs to come up and talk to the
principal I said mr. Sisi we think your
son’s own drugs possibly speed my dad
vehemently defended me and said he’s
just enthusiastic and energetic and
you’re lucky to have him as a student
and what I learned that day from my
guidance counselor was also pulled in
because I might have been on speed the
great irony here is that in my Walkman
was a cassette tape from Minor Threat
look the band up the irony would just
slayed their straightedge band okay
that’s the punch line for that but the
guidance counselor in the principal
basically that day said to me if you
want to succeed in eighth grade like
that’s a goal
and get to ninth grade like that’s a
goal you need to sit down shut up and be
quiet here’s the thing I’m genetically
incapable of sitting down shutting up
and being quiet nobody with ADHD is
genetically capable of sitting down
shutting up and being quiet I didn’t
know that at the time I only found this
out after I was diagnosed at 31 years
old the behest of many good friends and
a loving wife and a daughter who was
tired of me losing my keys and I
couldn’t drive her anywhere but when I
was able after treatment have a slower
mind and read my first books from cover
to cover at 31 years old I became
obsessed with who I was
ADHD I don’t have it I am and I found
some amazing things out there are these
study these scientists who have studied
genetics and they found out that the
three main traits of ADHD impulsivity
risk-taking a constant novelty seeking
you know finding new ways to do
something when you don’t need to find
new ways to do something as stopping
projects to start new projects cuz
they’re more exciting or call it
ingenuity those same three traits are
tied to a genetic mutation on the drd4
gene this genetic mutation inhibits the
production of dopamine the feel-good
chemical so in order for people with
ADHD to feel good we need stimulation if
we don’t find stimulation out there we
will cause the stimulation we will fight
we will draw extremely long penalties in
hockey games we will escape or buell
snowboard we will go to punk rock
concerts in the dangerous parts of
Pittsburgh every Friday and Saturday
night for six years in a row just to
feel normal and quote normal our normal
not your normal but to feel good the
same scientists also found out that this
gene mutation has been positively
selected since time immemorial now if
you’re like me you have to look up what
positively selected men that means that
whenever somebody of our caveman
brothers or sisters exhibited those same
three traits impulsivity risk-taking
ingenuity they got to make more often
this is usually the point when people
with ADHD in the crowd kind of sit up a
little more proud feel less ashamed but
why is that what do these three traits
have to do with passing on a gene think
about it we’re in the same
tribe or clan of cave people it’s night
time we’re sitting out in front of the
cave we have a little of a fire going
and out beyond the edge of that fire
beyond what we can see there is a very
slight snap of a twig that was about a
hundred of us here right now that means
between five and seven of us are often
in the night with Spears and we sink
them into whatever made that sound
saber-tooth Tiger bear wolf
whatever it was we returned to the tribe
we saved and we mate with your partners
and this is phenomenal if we’re being
hunted down by saber-tooth Tigers but
how do we take a survival mechanism in
the Stone Age and turn it into a success
mechanism in the 21st century you do it
by purposefully engaging the
fight-or-flight response
see people with ADHD we are the
fight-or-flight response our nervous
system is primed to live with our heads
on a swivel and constantly look for that
saber-toothed tiger
because we are ready and when it happens
we are at our best when things that are
worst we do better so how do we bring
this fight-or-flight response about a
better question is when do we bring this
fight-or-flight response about we bring
it about at the moment of overwhelm
everybody experiences overwhelm at some
point in their life people with ADHD
experience overwhelm multiple times a
day because our brains work so fast and
you have all these ideas going a billion
ideas flowing at once and you have
immense physical energy and you have all
this going on and you’re trying to do
all these things at once except there
aren’t enough outlets for all the energy
and all of a sudden you shut down shut
down is what kills careers for people
with ADHD there’s that moment before the
shutdown though where it feels like the
world is collapsing in on you and you
want to run away from whatever it is
you’re doing
that’s overwhelmed that’s when we pick
up the spear now the spear in this case
is a pen and you do a very simple
exercise called a brain dump I keep this
notebook with me and one just like it
with me everywhere I’ve gone through
about 70 80 90 of these in a second you
start to feel it’s tightening your chest
you feel like the world is collapsing
around you you crack open the notebook
and put pen to paper and you start
writing it doesn’t need to be legible to
anybody but you doesn’t even need to be
legible to you it does need to be
grammatically correct it could be
thoughts it could be words it could be
entire sentence it could be doodles it
could be whatever
as fast as it comes into your head onto
the page into your head onto the page
into your head onto the page over and
over and over again front page back page
front paid back page for as long as you
can and something amazing is gonna
happen it’s just gonna stop and it’s
just gonna stop because you have been
impulsive you have allowed yourself to
do this you have engaged fight or flight
you have jumped into the darkness sunk
the head of the spear into the
saber-tooth Tiger this feeling is what
we get after we get in a fight after we
disrupt a class it allows you to take
all those ideas you had before that
we’re swirling and coming at you at
light speed and categorize them to
prioritize them to do things with them
to create the real superpower with ADHD
is learning to balance the two sides of
this gift it’s knowing when to go into
fight or flight so you can use these
ideas and work with people and do
mundane things like balance books and
knowing when you need to take your hands
off the wheel and be impulsive and be a
little reckless and take risks and have
that flight of ideas everybody with ADHD
needs to master this skill it’s not good
enough that we save the human race
we got us to here because the human race
is facing a lot of big problems right
now and the only way out of it is going
to be with impulsivity risk-taking and
ingenuity thank you [Applause]
that I’ve got a loving wife and a loving
daughter and an amazing career working
with some really big brands and that I
have ADHD they’re often surprised and so
am I because I wasn’t supposed to be
here you see in seventh grade I was
taken down to the guidance counselor’s
office to schedule my eighth grade
classes and there were my mom and dad in
the guidance counselor’s office and I
wasn’t expecting that the guidance
counselor was going on about how George
shouldn’t be in the academic level
classes next year he should be in the
basic level classes there something I
wasn’t really paying attention but my
ears did perk up when she said to my
parents mr. and mrs. CC your son is not
going to go to college as a matter of
fact he’s gonna have a hard time getting
out of high school now I knew this
wasn’t the case I have friends and
family it didn’t go to college my
grandmother didn’t go to college and she
founded an empire of a business within
the dance industry my best friend didn’t
finish college and he is the head of IT
for a massive national corporation but
the thing is I wanted to go to college
you see I have this uncle who’s just 10
years older than me he was going to
Duquesne University and when he would
come home from college for any family
occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas
or anything like that it was an event
the family would swarm him and ask him
all these questions how is college going
what are you doing for fun what classes
are you taking
and he would talk about these exotic
subjects I’ve never heard of before and
for fun I remember this one time he said
that he and his friends stayed up 24
hours in a row at a dance-a-thon to
raise money for a Children’s Hospital
and I said that’s what I want I want
that I want to be able to stay up 24
hours in a row with my friends at a
dance-a-thon doing good things for good
people but also I want this experience
of coming home from somewhere and having
people be like hey it’s George how have
you been
and I idolized him I’ve begged my
parents let me go to college with him
they relented I went for about half a
day and I went to Duquesne University
and he took me around just me and him
and some of his friends
and I got to see his dorm room and it
was so cool once again this is the 80s
like remember he had this Devo poster
and he had the tiny mini fridge that’s
the first time I had seen that I don’t
I’m loving it I’m like this is this is
it I need this in my life and then he
shows me where the rest of his classes
are and they’re not all in one building
we walked between buildings to get to
his classrooms this is getting better by
the moment the piece de resistance is I
had to go to class with him
there was one he couldn’t get away from
and so we sat in the back and he took
notes and I doodled and ate the
microwave popcorn we cooked out in the
hallway I’m in I want to go to college
but there wasn’t 7th grade being told
you’re not gonna have any of that you’re
not gonna have the homecoming is you are
not going anywhere you sure as hell
aren’t could eat microwave popcorn in
the back of a lecture hall in eighth
grade I was pulled down to the
principal’s office this time because I
was bouncing all over the place in gym
class acting like a crazy person
my dad was called away from the company
he runs to come up and talk to the
principal I said mr. Sisi we think your
son’s own drugs possibly speed my dad
vehemently defended me and said he’s
just enthusiastic and energetic and
you’re lucky to have him as a student
and what I learned that day from my
guidance counselor was also pulled in
because I might have been on speed the
great irony here is that in my Walkman
was a cassette tape from Minor Threat
look the band up the irony would just
slayed their straightedge band okay
that’s the punch line for that but the
guidance counselor in the principal
basically that day said to me if you
want to succeed in eighth grade like
that’s a goal
and get to ninth grade like that’s a
goal you need to sit down shut up and be
quiet here’s the thing I’m genetically
incapable of sitting down shutting up
and being quiet nobody with ADHD is
genetically capable of sitting down
shutting up and being quiet I didn’t
know that at the time I only found this
out after I was diagnosed at 31 years
old the behest of many good friends and
a loving wife and a daughter who was
tired of me losing my keys and I
couldn’t drive her anywhere but when I
was able after treatment have a slower
mind and read my first books from cover
to cover at 31 years old I became
obsessed with who I was
ADHD I don’t have it I am and I found
some amazing things out there are these
study these scientists who have studied
genetics and they found out that the
three main traits of ADHD impulsivity
risk-taking a constant novelty seeking
you know finding new ways to do
something when you don’t need to find
new ways to do something as stopping
projects to start new projects cuz
they’re more exciting or call it
ingenuity those same three traits are
tied to a genetic mutation on the drd4
gene this genetic mutation inhibits the
production of dopamine the feel-good
chemical so in order for people with
ADHD to feel good we need stimulation if
we don’t find stimulation out there we
will cause the stimulation we will fight
we will draw extremely long penalties in
hockey games we will escape or buell
snowboard we will go to punk rock
concerts in the dangerous parts of
Pittsburgh every Friday and Saturday
night for six years in a row just to
feel normal and quote normal our normal
not your normal but to feel good the
same scientists also found out that this
gene mutation has been positively
selected since time immemorial now if
you’re like me you have to look up what
positively selected men that means that
whenever somebody of our caveman
brothers or sisters exhibited those same
three traits impulsivity risk-taking
ingenuity they got to make more often
this is usually the point when people
with ADHD in the crowd kind of sit up a
little more proud feel less ashamed but
why is that what do these three traits
have to do with passing on a gene think
about it we’re in the same
tribe or clan of cave people it’s night
time we’re sitting out in front of the
cave we have a little of a fire going
and out beyond the edge of that fire
beyond what we can see there is a very
slight snap of a twig that was about a
hundred of us here right now that means
between five and seven of us are often
in the night with Spears and we sink
them into whatever made that sound
saber-tooth Tiger bear wolf
whatever it was we returned to the tribe
we saved and we mate with your partners
and this is phenomenal if we’re being
hunted down by saber-tooth Tigers but
how do we take a survival mechanism in
the Stone Age and turn it into a success
mechanism in the 21st century you do it
by purposefully engaging the
fight-or-flight response
see people with ADHD we are the
fight-or-flight response our nervous
system is primed to live with our heads
on a swivel and constantly look for that
saber-toothed tiger
because we are ready and when it happens
we are at our best when things that are
worst we do better so how do we bring
this fight-or-flight response about a
better question is when do we bring this
fight-or-flight response about we bring
it about at the moment of overwhelm
everybody experiences overwhelm at some
point in their life people with ADHD
experience overwhelm multiple times a
day because our brains work so fast and
you have all these ideas going a billion
ideas flowing at once and you have
immense physical energy and you have all
this going on and you’re trying to do
all these things at once except there
aren’t enough outlets for all the energy
and all of a sudden you shut down shut
down is what kills careers for people
with ADHD there’s that moment before the
shutdown though where it feels like the
world is collapsing in on you and you
want to run away from whatever it is
you’re doing
that’s overwhelmed that’s when we pick
up the spear now the spear in this case
is a pen and you do a very simple
exercise called a brain dump I keep this
notebook with me and one just like it
with me everywhere I’ve gone through
about 70 80 90 of these in a second you
start to feel it’s tightening your chest
you feel like the world is collapsing
around you you crack open the notebook
and put pen to paper and you start
writing it doesn’t need to be legible to
anybody but you doesn’t even need to be
legible to you it does need to be
grammatically correct it could be
thoughts it could be words it could be
entire sentence it could be doodles it
could be whatever
as fast as it comes into your head onto
the page into your head onto the page
into your head onto the page over and
over and over again front page back page
front paid back page for as long as you
can and something amazing is gonna
happen it’s just gonna stop and it’s
just gonna stop because you have been
impulsive you have allowed yourself to
do this you have engaged fight or flight
you have jumped into the darkness sunk
the head of the spear into the
saber-tooth Tiger this feeling is what
we get after we get in a fight after we
disrupt a class it allows you to take
all those ideas you had before that
we’re swirling and coming at you at
light speed and categorize them to
prioritize them to do things with them
to create the real superpower with ADHD
is learning to balance the two sides of
this gift it’s knowing when to go into
fight or flight so you can use these
ideas and work with people and do
mundane things like balance books and
knowing when you need to take your hands
off the wheel and be impulsive and be a
little reckless and take risks and have
that flight of ideas everybody with ADHD
needs to master this skill it’s not good
enough that we save the human race
we got us to here because the human race
is facing a lot of big problems right
now and the only way out of it is going
to be with impulsivity risk-taking and
ingenuity thank you [Applause]
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