Local authors offer strategies, resources in new edition of 'ADHD For Dummies'

Mar. 14—Jeff Strong might never have stumbled onto his decadeslong clinical research career if he'd been a better student.

Now 61 and a Lamy resident, Strong was in music school in Los Angeles in the '80s.

"I was struggling with my academics and got diagnosed with ADHD," said Strong, a percussionist who initially went on medication to treat his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder but hated the way it made him feel.

Then he discovered a hack that made all the difference. He started doing sight-reading exercises — training that helps musicians practice playing from sheet music they've never seen before — just before turning to his more academic studies.

"I found that if I did that before I did my book work, I actually studied better," Strong said. "I actually played better, and my grades went up."

Strong never forgot about that tactic, and eventually he went from touring with bands to conducting clinical studies on how musical rhythm affects the brain, and later founding Strong Institute Inc., which offers tools for rhythm-based therapy. About 20 years ago, he partnered with a New Mexico neuropsychiatrist to write the first edition of ADHD For Dummies.

Last week, the publishing company Wiley released the second edition of the book, which Strong co-wrote with Santa Fe therapist Carol MacHendrie after his original co-writer lost his medical license.

Strong and MacHendrie, 74, said the book is accessible for just about anybody: people who have ADHD, their family members and friends.

" 'Dummies' books are really books for people who want to have a good overview of topics and yet at the same time, dive in. ... It's really considered a resource book," she said.

The book is full of strategies to help those with ADHD as well as resources for how people can access help. Strong said many of the tactics outlined aim to help people focus, organize and cut down on distractibility.

MacHendrie said it's timely, in part because of an "explosion" of people, particularly women, who have been diagnosed with ADHD since the pandemic.

"Women were multitasking, doing so much," she said. "At some point when you're juggling, you have too many balls in the air."

Strong said on the other hand, there are also plenty of people who, thanks perhaps to widespread social media use and sedentary lifestyles, "are mischaracterizing just the inability to focus" with true ADHD, which is a neurodevelopmental disorder. The book has a chapter on conditions that share features with ADHA, a list MacHendrie says is lengthy and encompasses everything from certain allergies to anxiety disorders, "which is why you need to have a differential diagnosis."

It was time to update the old book, the two said, because there's so much more information available today than there was 20 years ago about the brain, including understanding of the human genome and about the increased chances of ADHD for people whose close relatives have it, MacHendrie said.

"We've identified 27 genes so far ... that have been linked to ADHD," MacHendrie said. "How and why they get expressed we don't know yet."

MacHendrie, who also lives with ADHD, said there has been a shift over the years in how neurodiverse people — like those with ADHD — view the way their brains work: not as necessarily better or worse, but simply different.

"I love my brain. I wouldn't trade my brain for anything," she said. "But it's a neurodiverse brain. ... It's learning how to work with the brain that you have."

MacHendrie said she particularly loves the theory ADHD is a holdover from "hunting brain."

"It's not a farmer's brain," she said. "It's like, what's over the next hill? ... In your distractibility, you will see something that nobody else will notice."

That's not to say there aren't negatives. MacHendrie works with many couples where one or both partners has ADHD and said a lack of understanding can lead to a lot of conflict. People with ADHD can be messy or have poor time management.

"The [partner] who doesn't have ADHD will feel like that person doesn't care about my needs, and the other person will feel like, 'I'm being diminished or I'm being controlled or I'm being scolded,' " MacHendrie said. "You can get into a dynamic that feels like parent or child."

Learning more about living with ADHD can help build what MacHendrie calls "a big bridge of compassion."

"We don't just marry each other," she said. "We marry each other's brains. We marry each other's families. We marry each other's biographies. ... There's a lot at play."