This Holiday Season Celebrate the Gifts of ADHD

During the holiday season, with our thoughts on what gifts to buy for friends and family, I am reminded of the gifts of my son’s ADHD. Noted Harvard psychiatrist and ADHD expert Edward (Ned) Hallowell believes ADHD can be a gift. He focuses on a strength-based approach when treating his ADHD patients, helping them to realize there is more to ADHD than negative symptoms. They are also intelligent, creative, imaginative, and risk-takers.

Independence, risk-taking, high energy, curiosity, humor, artistic gifts, emotionality, impulsiveness, argumentativeness, and hyperactivity are traits that have been identified in creative individuals, entrepreneurs, and children with ADHD. Creativity has been found to be important in successful job performance, healthy relationships, and careers involving science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and art.

Research studies suggest children with ADHD may be better at music, art, and computers. Additionally, they may be more inquisitive about how things work and have imaginative ideas about how to solve a problem.

Creativity

Creativity is often defined as original, outside-the-box thinking and the ability to combine unrelated ideas for a unique solution to a problem. Like many ADHD children, my son’s brain is constantly being bombarded with information, and his brain cannot sort through what is relevant and what is not due to deficits in executive functioning. This diffuse attention leads to original and imaginative problem-solving abilities in ADHD kids.

David Neeleman started the successful airline company JetBlue, among others. Neeleman has said his ADHD is what makes him successful since he is able to be creative and think outside the box. Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Records in the 1970s, then went on to build the Virgin Atlantic airline company, and his most recent company, Virgin Galactic, will take tourists into space. Branson views his dyslexia and ADHD as strengths, not weaknesses. My son’s creativity and his talent for origami (the Japanese art of paper folding) led him to start a successful jewelry business; he sells his origami jewelry creations at a local store in our hometown.

Risk-Taking

Risk-taking behavior is a defining symptom of ADHD, and children with ADHD thrive when faced with a challenge. My son will dive into projects headfirst, often with little thought of consequences or the potential outcome.

When my son went to a space camp in middle school, he had the opportunity to go into a machine that simulated a spacecraft tumbling out of control, spinning you left, right, and upside down. Most of the kids in his group declined to try it, but my son was first in line. I admire his willingness to take a chance, rise to a challenge, and be fearless. Because of these positive attributes, individuals with ADHD truly live life.

Hyperfocus

Children with ADHD have difficulty paying attention to what is relevant at the time. However, they can focus intensely or hyperfocus on a project or activity they find interesting. Hyperfocus allows kids with ADHD to become experts at something, boosting their self-esteem.

My son has a passion for learning about space travel and technology. His intense interest enabled him to win a NASA-sponsored contest for designing a spacecraft to land on Mars (his creative, outside-the-box thinking even incorporated his love of origami in the design). This same passion also led him to attend college at an aviation and aerospace university where he is surrounded by like-minded people, critical for those with ADHD, giving him the greatest chance of success.

Championship-winning college basketball coach John Wooden used to tell his team, “Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.” Our ADHD kids are disorganized, forgetful, and unfocused but also creative, intelligent, risk-takers, and experts.

So, this holiday season, let’s celebrate our ADHD kids and all their wonderful gifts.