Eric Arzubi, MD

You can't concentrate. Your mind wanders constantly. Tasks feel impossible to complete. Everyone assumes it's ADHD. But what if they're wrong? Inattention is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Here are 8 other causes that steal your focus: 1/ Depression & Anxiety ↳ Cognitive slowing and mental fog ↳ Concentration problems secondary to mood 2/ Sleep Disorders ↳ Sleep apnea damages brain white matter ↳ Fix the sleep, fix the focus 3/ Thyroid Problems ↳ Slows mental processes and memory ↳ A simple blood test reveals this treatable cause 4/ Nutritional Deficiencies ↳ Low B12, iron, vitamin D starve your brain ↳ Even "normal" levels may be insufficient 5/ Traumatic Brain Injury & PTSD ↳ 65% of TBI patients report concentration problems ↳ Trauma diverts cognitive resources toward threat detection 6/ Chronic Pain ↳ Over 50% report cognitive decline ↳ Brain can't focus while processing pain signals 7/ Sensory & Learning Issues ↳ Vision, hearing, sensory processing disorders ↳ Undiagnosed learning disabilities look like inattention 8/ Medications & Lifestyle ↳ Benzodiazepines, antihistamines, opioids impair focus ↳ Chronic stress weakens prefrontal cortex The truth? Your brain isn't broken. It's trying to tell you something. Before assuming ADHD, find out what it's NOT: → Sleep assessment → Thyroid testing → Nutritional panels → Mental health screening Stop accepting "it's just ADHD" as the answer. Your focus problems deserve the right diagnosis.

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Stop confusing the terms "mental health" and "mental illness". They DO NOT mean the same thing.

The US doesn't have a mental health crisis. We have decades of chronic dysfunction. Our Surgeon Generals published "crisis" reports in 1999 and 2023. I think we're way past calling this a crisis. This is dysfunction by design. Agree?

We still don't know how to train psychiatrists. Little to nothing is taught about leadership and population mental health. Training us shrinks to see one patient at a time is never going to move the needle on the US mental health mess.

Trauma rewires us. And so does healing. The body always keeps the score.

10/ Healing isn't linear. Some days feel like breakthroughs. Others feel like setbacks. That's OK. The path to recovery isn't a straight line.

"The Body Keeps the Score" is more than a book title. It's a movement that transformed how we think about childhood trauma. Here are the top 10 lessons from Dr. Van der Kolk's work:

Trauma rewires us, but so does healing. The body always keeps the score.

Healing happens in community. We weren't meant to heal alone. Group therapy, theater and other communal activities are powerful ways to process trauma.

"The Body Keeps the Score" is the most powerful title for a book on trauma that I can imagine. Here are 10 lessons from Dr. Bessel van der Kolk's work:

Healing isn't linear. Some days feel like breakthroughs and others feel like setbacks. That's ok. It's normal. The path to recovery isn't a straight line.