ADHD and Creativity?
ByWhile most doctors focus on the negativity in ADD/ADHD, I like to take a more balanced approach, and I focus more on differences than deficits. It is my opinion that when we take a strength based approach, we can help people with ADD/ADHD a lot more. Today’s blog post discusses an interesting study on creativity in ADHD.
Researchers recently studied whether college students with ADHD were more creative than their non-ADHD peers. They had the students complete tests to look at their creativity.
You can read a summary of the study here.
Some of the findings from this study include:
- Adults with ADHD are better at divergent thinking than non-ADHD adults. Quoting from the link above: “Divergent thinking involves generating several possible solutions to a problem”.
- Adults with ADHD did better finding ideas to find solutions to problems. As the report says:
Another questionnaire assessed the respondents’ preferred creative style: clarifier, who defines and structures the problem; ideator, who like to generate ideas; developers, who elaborate or refine ideas and solutions; and implementers, who incorporate a refined idea into a final product or solution.
Non-ADHD participants preferred problem clarification and idea development. ADHD individuals liked the ideator style.
Knowing the creative style can help identify careers suited to the strengths and weaknesses of individuals with ADHD, the researchers said.
Do you find that people with ADHD are more creative than non-ADHD’ers? Is this an advantage for people with ADD or ADHD? Please share your thoughts and ideas below.
Best,
Dr. Kenny
Thank you for reminding me to look at my strengths.
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As an educator, the “ideator” aspect of my ADHD is very, very useful. It’s less important for my students to have one correct way to solve a problem than it is for them to be able to think through a problem and use a process that works for them. My ability (and drive, really) to think up many different solutions helps me teach to all students
Thank you for your comment, Ash. It’s great to have an educator like you out there.
This is a very interesting study. Focusing on strengths can be much more effective than focusing on weaknesses! Its better to start by including opportunities than making a list of things that are out of reach due to weakness.
I believe this. My daughter is ultra-creative in a way that I am absolutely not. I admire and envy her for it. (I should mention I have twin daughters with ADHD; one is very severely affected, one not very much—the one who is super creative is the one most affected.)
The trouble is the follow-through. It’s no good being full of ideas, if nothing ever comes of them. Which is not the case with my daughter exactly…her problem is more one of being obsessed with her own projects to such an extent that nothing else matters and she can’t force herself to do the other things that are required of her, even if they involve things that she is potentially good at. For example, she will stay up day after day after day writing an ongoing fiction series that she is working on until three in the morning. Her writing is truly amazing and she is beginning to win prizes for it. But when it comes to completing written assignments for school, that is another story. I practically have to tie her to the desk to get her to finish. She complains that she can’t write in short story format, or she has no ideas she is prepared to share with her teacher, or, or, or…
I think if she is going to succeed, it will be because she will not only be allowed / encouraged to work in the particular area that she is good at, but to do so in a way that interests her and in the way she wants to do it. Accommodating herself to the parameters of others is just not something she is capable of.
Whenever I feel a sense of despair about this, I take great heart from the story of Dav Pilkey the author of Captain Underpants. He had a miserable time at school, where he was constantly in trouble. His teachers would send him out into the hall for hours at a time. There, he would pass the time drawing comics with markers and paper. Ironically, practicing his drawing for hours in the hall in Grade 2 set him on the path to becoming an artist and one of the most successful children’s authors of the past 20 years.
That is my hope for my creative daughter, an outcome like that. My fears are something else altogether.
Here is a link to a speech Pilkey gave to a teacher’s conference some years ago. I think it should be required watching for all mothers who have children with ADHD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=momqRMAbKfQ
I have a student in my class that is so completely and obviously ADHD, that, ironically, I knew he had ADHD before I knew I did (I was just diagnosed several months ago). He is so incredibly smart and verbally gifted, but he can’t sit still or keep focused for more than 45 seconds at a time. His previous teachers also saw ADHD in him (most extreme case I have ever witnessed). The problem is that his parents REFUSE to even consider the possibility, and I find that so frustrating!!! Any suggestions?
Rendaview – just provide info, and suggestions. If things persist over time, the family may realize that they have to do something. If you push, then you become one of ‘those teachers’ that everyone complains about…
The initial comment Dr Kenny makes struck a chord for me, I am convinced that I am merely at a different point on the circle (with normality at the centre) rather than disabled or suffering from some sort of syndrome.
I feel that I fall victim to socially constructed expectations at work and in education that disadvantage me and isolate me from my true potential – my measured IQ would easily get me into Mensa, but I have habitually failed to gain an education at several levels (I got onto my degree course after failing my A-levels by sitting an exam) and my career is stuck on the bottom rung of the civil service at 37 years of age after a working life of dead ends.
I self DXed with ADD at 35 and confirmed by a specialist at 36, it was only my own efforts to examine what I was doing wrong and apply differential diagnosis techniques to my gathered information that got me there. I get sad thinking about all the other people out there without answers because they are accepting what they are told, have not happened across the right person/Doctor/job/lottery win or have not had an epiphany that has led to the knowledge they need to acheive personal insight.
When is this going to stop I asked myself, thinking aboutthe barriers society has for me; then I realised, I can’t stop it, I need to find ways around the barriers. I can ignore, educate, confront, learn, avoid and simply refuse to accept things; yet the ‘positive thinkers’ still mostly focus on my weaknesses instead of my strengths.
I am still judged in the workplace by the handful of small failures over each appraisal year which apper to me to be disproportionate to my successes, yet my ‘disability’ as it is seen is not allowed to be mentioned or considerred and I must find my own solutions – my workplace insists that it is not thier place to understand my ADD, however they are still prepared to make decisions about me that are heavily influenced by my differences. This is something I am struggling to tackle.
ADD _is_ a unique characteristic that takes many forms and cannot be characterised by simply examining the outcomes of the condition, the differences from ‘normal’ must be understood, supported and valued; not with accomodations, but by changes in attitudes and expectations within society and the workplace.
Would this not be better than the current social perspective that often leads ADDers into unemployment, benefit culture and even inprisonment?
I am not a burden or a risk, but I am artificially made into one by ignorance that breeds predudice.
Matt, I really appreciate you sharing your story above. It is so helpful for people.
I have many inspiring ideas but hit a wall when trying to flesh them out even a little (literally it feels like a thick blank wall, I can’t see what’s on the other side, even though I know its there, somewhere in my brain, going untapped, and my thoughts seem impossibly vague, uninspiring). The big frustration for me is how this problem dries up what I think is a pretty strong creative impulse. Occasionally a deadline pushes me through, but not reliably. Therefore, I was surprised by the finding that “Non-ADHD participants preferred problem clarification and idea development. ADHD individuals liked the ideator style.” In opposition to this, I seek out the clarification and idea development roles, since they build an an already existing idea, providing a framework I can work within, limiting my tendency to be distracted, and giving me opportunities to build on my ideas and experience in a creative way that feels more lucid. Have you ever seen this tendency in your patients?
I was diagnosed with inattentive subtype at 60 yrs of age. Forty yrs prior I applied for a job, had an IQ test and was told that I was “extremely intelligent” and should go back to school and “You could become successful at any profession that you choose.” Me study? You must be joking! In 1988 I had a fundraising idea. One charity alone went on to raise over $1 billion with it. A yr. later I had another fundraising idea. It has also raised over $1 billion. I figure that the 2 ideas have brought about $3 billion to charities (and the potential per yr. exceeds that). I am a volunteer. While my ideas are simple, unfortunately they seem to be too complex for some reason for most fundraisers to appreciate.
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I learned over the weekend about “divergent thinking” from the book “Outliers” and earlier tonight from an ADD coach presentation. Now I can appreciate where the creative thinking comes from.
That’s cool, Murray – thanks for sharing!