Ron Sterling MD - Interview With Seattle Public TV -- 'Upside and Downside of the ADD Brain.'

Stan Emert of Rainmakers TV, an established independent video journalist in Seattle, interviews Ron Sterling M.D. This is the second interview in July 2014. The first interview was in February 2014. It focused on the ground breaking effects and the paradigm shift brought about by Dr. Sterling's 2011 book "Adult ADD Factbook - The Truth About Adult ADD Updated November 2011." Since then Dr. Sterling issued a new and updated edition of the book in 2013, which went to print after this interview in 2014.


This interview focused on the question of "Is ADD Even a Disorder?" Dr. Sterling's book covers an extensive amount of primary literature and uses over 900 citations to assist his readers in understanding how 2008 was a turning point in understanding what is the strongest biological variable for producing most of the characteristics traditionally used to diagnose ADD.

His discoveries in the literature have led him to view the ADD brain as a particular brain that has the downside of suboptimal dopamine for working memory capacity and functions, but the very important upside of optimal dopamine for threat responsiveness. This is a dichotomy in a true sense in that the very same substrate of suboptimal dopamine presence and function can produce both a significant downside and a very important upside in humans.

Dr. Sterling uses the phrase "ADD is the best brain for the jungle, but not such a great brain for civilization, where the emphasis is on academics, self-regulation, organization, and follow-through." And then he says, "The non-ADD brain has both a significant downside and upside that is different from those characteristics and is the best brain for optimal working memory, but it does poorly in threat response scenarios."

Since those two quite different brains both have significant downsides for certain important human activities and needs, Dr. Sterling asks the question "Shouldn't they both be disorders, then." His conclusions that are well developed and have not been discounted to date (2020), are neither one of them should be classified as a disorder.

More information about ADD and links to his eBook and Amazon paperback can be found at www.thinktwiceaboutADD.com and www.adultaddfactbook.com

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