Part of #ExplainAdultADHD. A campaign to reduce the ignorance, misinformation, and stigma against adults with ADHD.
You Still Can Focus And Be Creative And Productive With ADHD! Explain Adult ADHD
“I feel that having adult ADHD doesn’t have to be a curse. Sure, there can be times when it seems impossible to focus. Or, we may indeed be productive, but we end up twenty steps away from the task we originally began. However, it can actually be turned into a great source of creativity.
Our tendency to hyperfocus can be incredible when it comes to something like writing a book…so long as we’re not also cooking pizza in the oven! It may take a little discipline to sit still in front of a white screen (or notepad) and create something from scratch; but, our tendency to daydream and seek out newer, more thrilling things can add to our creativity.
We end up watching different types of movies, listening to an eclectic mix of music, and reading a wide array of books. All those things can feed into the creativity for writing. Daydreaming can also help us concoct some pretty interesting things.
I finally got screened for, diagnosed with, and treated for ADHD this year. The medication my doctor and I agreed on seems to work very well with no side effects.
It has helped me be a little more focused, a little less agitated, and perhaps a bit less anxious as well. I feel those things have helped me complete my self-edits on a very beefy fantasy novel, plus finish and refine two children’s books as well (all about to be pitched to agents).
I think many of my ideas came from the ADHD tendency to dream up things for amusement or drift from a boring conversation to a more inspiring topic. If anything, it’s still a personal challenge to keep Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail from being a distraction while writing, but most of the other challenges have been reduced or removed all together.
In short, ADHD doesn’t have to rule our lives and make us feel like outcasts with little to contribute to life. In fact, with or without medications, we have the capacity to dream up and create things that might be spectacular to the world around us.”
By Mark
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