As is true for children and adolescents, many adults experience substantial challenges related to having ADHD. These challenges often include relationship problems, educational and work challenges, difficulty adhering to long-term plans and goals, and time and money management difficulties.
Given these well-documented difficulties, it is not surprising that ADHD treatment with adults has largely adopted a deficit model that emphasizes reducing the symptoms and impairments associated with the condition.
While these are important treatment goals, and the focus of much treatment research, little attention has been given to positive aspects of ADHD that some may experience. Attending to this is important, as it could reduce stigma, provide ideas about a strength-based approached to treatment, and perhaps contribute to reducing the demoralization that some adults with ADHD experience.
A study published recently in BMJ Open, titled Silver linings of ADHD: a thematic analysis of adults’ positive experiences with living with ADHD, provides interesting new information on the positive features of ADHD that some adults report.
Participants were 50 adults in Norway–nearly 90% were women; media age = 34 years–with self-reported ADHD who were participating in a study of a new online, self-directed treatment for ADHD in adults (study summary here).
During the study, participants were asked to describe what they experienced as “positive aspects of having ADHD” and four thematic categories emerged from their responses.
Many participants stated that core ADHD characteristics like hyperactivity and impulsivity could be experienced as positive features. Below are some relevant quotes:
“I am active. I am often able to do a lot in a short period of time and then I get to expedience more.”
“If it is something I really like, I have better endurance than others. I can work on something I enjoy forever without stopping.”
“I am spontaneous/impulsive. I can easily just ‘jump into it’ and that has given me a lot of great experiences.”
Hyperfocusing was also commonly mentioned as an ADHD advantage, albeit with some important caveats.
“I think my ADHD has helped me throughout the exam period. If it had not been for a kind of hyperfocus, it would not have worked. But then again, I might not have postponed the reading for as long as I did if I didn’t have ADHD.”
“The only positive is hyperfocus on tasks that are really exciting, but for ADHD to be considered positive in this setting, the task has to be something useful, such as school or work.”
It is noteworthy that only a single participant noted any positive aspect of their inattentive symptoms.
Unconventional thinking and behavior were also commonly noted as positive aspects of ADHD. These included being creative, having novel ideas, seeing things from a different perspective than others, and being good at finding solutions. Participants also emphasized, however, that the social context and expectations of others could be an obstacle for utilizing these strengths. Quotes related to this theme are shown below.
“I am creative and solution-oriented and very passionate about the things that I am interested in.”
“I enjoy trying new things, and if I do not get it right the first time, I will examine the possibility of trying a simpler method.”
“I am pretty forward, and I am not afraid to take up space when I need a bit of attention. I know a lot of people and that is probably because I am not scared to say hi to new people.”
Participants felt that having ADHD contributed to their being adventurous and seeking out novel experiences; this contributed to feelings of being courageous. Here are some relevant quotes:
“I seek new environments where I can learn new things”
“I enjoy trying new things, and if I do not get it right the first time, I will examine the possibility of trying a simpler method.”
“I have experienced things that only would have happened by taking a risk ”
Especially powerful was the sense that although having ADHD was challenging, efforts to cope with these challenges also contributed to their resilience and personal growth. This theme is clearly expressed in the quotes below.
“Being diagnosed with ADHD made me learn a lot about myself. Things I perhaps have been annoyed about, I can now accept and think that it is not ‘my fault’ in a way.”
“I am better at handling resistance or challenges now, because I have learned to handle such challenges, it is part of life to have ups and downs.”
“I discovered that I have ADHD in adulthood, so I lived most of my life in the belief that I am like everyone else. I have had high expectations to myself, compared myself to others, and achieved a lot (…) So when I found out about my challenges, it all became like a piece of cake. I could with good reasons lower the expectations to myself and finally rest with a clear conscience.”
One participant who worked as a teacher felt that “I notice that I can meet children with ADHD with more understanding, so they feel safe with me quickly, and I know I can help them in challenging situations, or prepare them a bit extra, so that they are able to get through their school day.”
This interesting qualitative study exploring adults’ experience of the positive aspects of having ADHD offers an important perspective on the disorder. While clearly acknowledging that ADHD created challenges for them, their perception that ADHD also made positive contributions to their lives is an important counterweight to focusing solely on deficits.
One implication of these findings is that the assessment and treatment of ADHD in adults should include an exploration of any strengths and resources that individuals feel ADHD has contributed to. This is consistent with the view that the most effective psychotherapy will include a focus on clients’ strengths and resilience in addition to ameliorating symptoms and deficits.
As the authors note, “by putting an emphasis on the full range of experiences related to ADHD, both good and bad, one might be able to offer treatment interventions more in line with the needs of adults with ADHD, which may be favorable for treatment engagement and clinical outcomes. For instance, therapist could help adults with ADHD to identify strengths, which may be beneficial for self-esteem and self-efficacy.”
Within cognitive-behavioral therapy, one could also use positive experiences with ADHD to reframe negative automatic thoughts or maladaptive cognitions. These speculations should indeed provide interesting topics for further studies. A focus on positive sides to ADHD within research may also have societal implications by changing social perception around ADHD and by this reducing stigma related to the diagnosis.
There are several issues with this study to recognize. First, the sample is relatively small, predominantly female, and Norwegian. Thus, the extent to which these findings would generalize to men with ADHD and adults from the US and other countries is not certain.
In addition, by framing the prompt to have participants to describe what they experienced as “positive aspects of having ADHD’, some participants may have generated positive features to comply with the question, and not necessarily because they actually experienced positive aspects of ADHD. Asking “Are there any aspects of having ADHD that you have experienced as positive” could have reduced the demand characteristic of the question.
Finally, it should be noted that participants perceptions are not necessarily objectively true and positive consequences they described from having ADHD conceivably could have little directly connection to the disorder. Even so, however, one could argue that what people perceive to be the case about their lives is what matters most.
While these are all important issues to consider in subsequent research. attending to what some adults experience as positive aspects of ADHD is an important issue to pursue. As the authors note, exploring the full range of experiences associated with ADHD in adults may more fully capture what their life is like and may enhance adults’ engagement in treatment.
This perspective may also contribute to incorporating the recognition of strengths and resilience into treatment, rather than a more exclusive focus on symptoms, impairments, and deficits.
– Dr. David Rabiner is a child clinical psychologist and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He publishes the Attention Research Update, an online newsletter that helps parents, professionals, and educators keep up with the latest research on ADHD.
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