15 ADHD Traits that Are Actually Beneficial (according to science!)
With more and more celebrities, business leaders and entrepreneurs revealing ADHD diagnoses in recent years, I’d like to think the days of people thinking ADHD is some terrible life sentence that means you will never be successful at anything are long behind us, but in case not, today I’m going to talk about positive traits that make ADHD adults successful.
Firstly, this blog today is based on a YouTube video I put out. If you would prefer to watch instead of read, you can find the video here:
This video & post is based on a paper called “The Positive aspects of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a qualitative investigation of successful adults with ADHD” which looks at the common traits of successful ADHDers to bring out some of those positive parts of ADHD.
There are some limitations as the paper is a small sample size of only six adult males who are gainfully employed but they counter this by saying the aim was to explore in depth and understand personal knowledge and lived experience and point to other studies that agree on similar aspects.
The interviews themselves were conversational but ended with three important questions: “What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of having ADHD?”, “Please describe a time when you felt that your ADHD helped to achieve something” and “What aspects of your ADHD would you miss if it went away?”
The paper grouped the results into six themes with nineteen subthemes but some of the grouping was a bit arbitrary and they used Freud to argue one of the sub themes so I’ve re-grouped and reinterpreted their analysis into 15 different traits. So let’s take it away.
Was going to make a joke about how I could write an essay on this topic but that's basically just what this blog post is so...
The first trait is given by divergent thinking, the ability to think outside the box and come up with new and interesting ideas. It’s considered a measure of creativity and from my own experience tends to be a strength that many of my clients exhibit. Their ideas are often left-field in that they’re unusual but these ideas are often ingenious ways to solve problems that no one had previously thought about.
The paper refers to divergent thinking as part of “Cognitive Dynamism”, or as you and I know it, a restless brain that never stops spinning. But the speed and creativity of our brains is what creates these unique ideas that we’re known for.
At number two we have hyperfocus, which I’ll be honest I was surprised to read on here. Hyperfocus gets a bit of an interesting reputation and I’ve seen articles clearly written by people who don’t experience it advocating for ADHDers to choose to hyperfocus on their work so that they’re super productive, completely neglecting the fact that we don’t get to choose what we hyperfocus on, and it can also lead to us forgetting to eat, or as many of my commenters enthusiastically share with me, forgetting to go to the bathroom until we really need to.
However, for the participants of this study, hyperfocus was seen as an asset when it came to productivity. They called it a state of flow and the paper references a study that says that the “focused work rate that hyperfocus produces enables creative genius to grow”. (Fitzgerald M (2010) Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder link to genius, Thursday, 4 February 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8496955.stm. Accessed 1 May 2018)
And in fact this creativity is a bit of a recurring theme here and continues with the next trait which is: curiosity.
How's this for a visual representation of hyperfocus???
Curiosity was one I didn’t relate to at first because after 4 years studying maths followed by 7 years working in the same space, by the time I got my ADHD diagnosis my curiosity in that area had completely died off. But I was looking at curiosity in one dimension because I love learning about my special interests, but also I’m the person always asking questions at the opticians and am fascinated by coming across new information and opportunities to learn.
This is something the participants agreed with, suggesting it was a positive aspect of their ADHD. The paper defines curiosity as being inquisitiveness, openness to experience and a desire to learn and it’s often clear with the variety of knowledge we have on a range of different topics due to copious hyperfixations that learning is often a big part of our lives.
Our fourth trait I would describe as being a strong sense of justice, something that is very common among neurodivergents and it links very closely with the fifth and sixth traits of bravery and non-conformity as well.
The participants grew up knowing that they were different, that they didn’t fit in and were keenly aware that they were an outsider, however this wasn’t seen as necessarily a bad thing. By not conforming they stayed true to themselves and were better able to advocate for themselves in terms of recognition of their ADHD as not a negative pathological thing.
Their sense of justice also enabled them to push back against the negative stereotyping of ADHD in society that prevented them from fitting into certain social groups or having access to certain social opportunities. Disclosing their ADHD made them feel authentic and honest, that they had integrity.
Of course in order to be a nonconformist and advocate for what you believe in, it takes a large amount of bravery, especially when overcoming restrictive social norms and beliefs. Being open about their ADHD means that they had to deal with stereotypes between ADHD and poor educational outcomes, substance misuse and it does take bravery to stand up for what you believe in when peoples’ perceptions of you are likely to take a hit as a result.
Look I'm not big into my superhero movies but isn't Batman kinda a non-conformist? Maybe I should just stick to the topics I know about...
The bravery was also extended to cover number seven, their adventurousness or spontaneity and thrill seeking. Often spontaneity or thrill-seeking gets construed as impulsivity which usually comes with negative connotations, but one of the quotes from the participants is particularly perceptive here:
“The participants said that an action was judged as either impulsive or spontaneous depending on how other people reacted to it. If the reaction of others was negative, then the action (or behaviour) was viewed as impulsive, but when the reaction was positive, then the action was described as spontaneous (or intuitive).”
And in fact when it came to all of their brave and adventurous undertakings, one of the participants said this:
“I have done a lot in my life and achieved a lot and experienced a lot…… I would see a lot of that as being quite positive and a lot of that is ADHD drive…”
It’s something I find relatable too - taking on challenges and adventures that others wouldn’t mean that you acquire quite the collection of interesting life experiences that many people are envious of.
Coming in at number eight is spirit, which could be seen as spirituality but also can be seen as connecting to a sense of purpose and meaning in life or higher aspects of themselves. In fact all participants described feeling connected to something much bigger than themselves and I relate to that desire for meaningfulness in life.
Spirituality is something that is increasingly coming up in conversations about neurodivergence recently. It's something I personally am sceptical about but perhaps something I should explore a little more.
Number nine the paper calls the “psychological energy of will” which I guess could be interpreted as having willpower but honestly when I read this section I definitely picked up a vibe of ADHD stubbornness and some participants described it as the Drive of ADHD. There’s actually an interesting quote on this:
“I think ADHD got me through my corporate career but it nearly cost me my mental health completely….having said that…..without that drive I would never have been that successful…I don’t think I’d have been as good a salesman as I became…and I don’t think I would’ve been able to go back to my career once I’d had a breakdown and actually go on to become even more successful”
Which makes me think of last video’s concept of hitting the wall and then building back to success again. The ADHD drive doesn’t go away when you hit the wall, and you can harness that energy anew to start moving forward again.
On a similar theme is trait number ten, an abundance of physical energy. All of the participants spoke of their high energy levels and how this worked to their advantage in many ways. It made them feel younger than their peers and enabled them to get into many different activities, such as sports, which can improve general wellbeing as well. I also find that ADHD energy is infectious but that one is just my observation!
Coming in at number eleven is one of personally my favourite aspects of ADHD which is a fantastic sense of humour. One of my favourite quotes from this paper is that “when asked what they would miss if their ADHD went away, all of the participants said it would be their sense of humour” and I think there’s something beautiful about that. In amongst all of the hardships that ADHD comes with, as well as all the positive stuff as well, I love that our ability to laugh regardless is one of the most precious elements of ADHD.
The next three however came as a big surprise to me when I came across them because they contradict existing perceptions about ADHD or maybe give a different spin on something that is often seen as one of the more negative aspects of ADHD.
Starting with number twelve, having a positive mental attitude. This one took me by surprise as my biggest frustration with the ADHD community at large is how negative we often are and how that can sometimes lead to us feeling defeated or missing out on good things due to our negativity.
But in this paper, a positive mental attitude was present in the participants, something the paper pointed out as being positive to wellbeing due to coping better with stress and being more extroverted than those with a negative mental attitude.
And while many aspects of ADHD are uncontrollable, like being unable to enter hyperfocus at will as I mentioned earlier, the attitude you bring into life is determined by you and so making that mindset shift to see the positive side more often could make a huge difference to your future wellbeing.
Honestly, sometimes it's really hard to work out what to put as an image and accompanying caption so here, have this person doing yoga pointing to a sunset. That's nice, isn't it?
Sticking with the controversial, the participants all spoke of being able to initiate social conversations relatively easily. In fact they described high social intelligence which contrasts with the DSM-5 criteria that suggests ADHD symptoms interfere with social interactions.
And in fact, this skill with relationships with extended even further with one participant suggesting that ADHDers make great sales people. Here’s their quote:
“…I didn’t know that ADHDer’s made great salesmen by the way…. you probably know that’s another good career for an ADHD person and my son is a brilliant salesman…”
And I can see this side of things - I know ADHDers who are wonderful at meeting and making friends with people, astoundingly charismatic and able to win people over to their side rapidly. But it also contrasts with an aspect of ADHD that doesn’t go over so well, and that’s rejection sensitive dysphoria, or RSD, which to me gives more evidence that our experiences with ADHD are not universal and the ways it intersects with each of our individual lives can be very different.
But the trait that surprised me the most that this was viewed as a positive was number fourteen and that was… you’re not going to believe me when I say it… emotional dysregulation. I’ll just read you this quote from one participant:
“…the emotional rollercoaster…. the highs and the lows….makes you feel alive….this is an intense experience emotionally whether it’s part of ADHD….but I think it is….they say mood fluctuations are a negative aspect…but when you enjoy something or when you’re excited about something you think….all the enthusiasm…and the energy…would I feel this if I didn’t have ADHD…. would I have felt so much pleasure about the good news I just heard….”
And this reframing is just beautiful in many ways and a demonstration of the positive attitude of earlier. And this person has a point, I often say that I wouldn’t trade my hyperfixations in for anything. I’m a passionate person who loves the things I care about deeply and this is a challenge to my own perception; that maybe all those parts I love are with the trade off of the negative emotions I experience as well.
So that’s it. Fifteen traits of successful ADHD adults that to me encapsulate a beauty within ADHD that even I, as someone who considers myself ADHD neutral and therefore invests a lot of time into seeing the positive sides, hadn’t fully realised.
And what I love about this paper is that it acknowledges that ADHD is hard and there are bad aspects, it’s not trying to perpetuate toxic positivity but instead it wants to show an underrepresented side. It says:
“ Too often people with lived experience hear about ADHD in relation to deficits, functional impairments and associations with substance misuse, criminality or other disadvantages on almost every level of life (school, work, relationships). This is a study that reaches out to people with lived experience of ADHD: service users, patients, family members, carers, partners, to say that not all symptoms of ADHD are maleficent. Recovery, high functionality and flourishing with ADHD are possible.”
So off you go into this world. I want to see you flourish. And if you’re not sure yet about how it is that you in particular flourish, you might want to go back and watch my previous video to find out what your unique strengths are.
If this resonates with you and feel you would be interested in talking to an adhd and autism-friendly coach, feel free to get in touch. If you’re looking for more blog posts, you can find them here.
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