ADHD Strengths: How Brains Wired Differently Spark Innovation

ADHD strengths can create factories for ideas and innovation. getty

When most people hear the term ADHD, they picture a child who can’t sit still or a professional who struggles to meet deadlines. For decades, the dominant narrative has painted ADHD as a deficit, a disorder to be managed or suppressed. Yet as more and more high performers with ADHD go public, their stories illustrate the ADHD strengths that drive their success.

The medical narrative largely includes tales of flunking out of college, inability to keep a job, or that the only fields where people with ADHD can be successful include outdoor manual work.

But what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong?

The truth is that many of the very traits pathologized in ADHD, such as impulsivity, paying attention off topic, and free