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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think PP was talking about kids who are hyperactive, so they have a lot of energy and can accomplish a lot. However there’s also the inattentive type, who has arguably less energy and is often “day dreaming” at school. I think some of these kids are creative, smart and sensitive/empathetic. I wonder how you would harness their ADHD. Not everyone is cut out to be in a creative field.[/quote]

NP. I am an adult with adhd inattentive and have to push back. It’s a common misconception that adhd means you can’t concentrate/pay attention (of course the naming “inattentive” doesn’t help - that’s a DSM problem). ADHD is trouble *regulating* attention, and leads to hyperfocus as easily as inability to focus. Think of your kids spending hours playing a video game or reading a new book, not remembering to eat, pee, or sleep. Sound familiar? It’s a common story for people with ADHD when they are doing something they are interested in. The lack of attention comes in when they are bored.

The key in harnessing this as an adult so that it becomes a “superpower” is that you need to find a way to turn your natural interests into a career. Not in a “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” way. But rather, figuring out the activities that you tend to hyperfocus on (e.g. building things, sorting stuff, reading, etc) and finding a career that uses those skills. Many adhd adults make great programmers because programming is a good environment for hyper focusing on a task all day, there are deadlines to meet, and there are mini milestones that can provide the dopamine burst people with adhd need to keep going (e.g. implementing a new feature, working out a bug). In this kind of job, ADHD can be a superpower. I know ADHD adults who are successful in a variety of different roles (event planner, electrical engineer, carpenter)… the key is that these jobs involve things that are interesting and rewarding to the individuals pursuing them, and support the adhd natural working cycle of big pushes to meet deadlines, followed by break periods with lower activity/motivation.

ADHD adults won’t do typically well in jobs that they find boring, in jobs without defined deadlines, or in jobs that are very consistent day to day with little change in activity/workload. We tend to thrive in jobs that challenging, have variety in day to day tasks, and have busy and slow periods.[/quote]

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