The Forums › Forums › Ask The Community › Is there really "nothing positive" about ADD? › Re: Is there really “nothing positive” about ADD?
Haven’t we had this discussion before?
The human personality is a palimpsest. ADD is but one layer. Depending on severity, it can have a fairly subtle impact on one’s personality or a dramatic one. I think we all agree on that.
Most of us with a severe disability present similar symptoms. We know what they are. I’m sure there are outliers—there always are—but that shouldn’t cause the rest of us to throw up our hands or recalibrate the consensus of highly credentialed researchers.
Those of us in the Russell Barkley camp (he asserts there is absolutely no upside to ADD) don’t pitch our tents with him because of an innate fatalism, we do it because 1) he is a widely acknowledged expert in his field, 2) he speaks compellingly to laymen (people who are not mental-health clinicians), and 3) we nod our heads every time he says something—i.e., what he says consistently rings true. If eventually new research proves Dr. Barkley to be wrong, then he and those of us who are votaries will have to reassess our positions. Certainly, If somebody could tell me how my ADD has been a blessing, I’d be all ears.
It is well-documented that ADD has crippled or ruined countless lives. As far as Dr. Barkley and his colleagues can determine, with perhaps a few notable exceptions (Robin Williams, for example), there’s no proof ADD actually has contributed in any consequential way to the success of well-known “allegedly” dopamine-challenged luminaries, much less many others who have done reasonably well. But there isn’t a control. Nor can there be. And how do we even know who really has ADD? Some website? I hear the rumors, but I rarely hear corroborating evidence. (I recently saw an allegation that Bill Clinton has “the affliction” despite the fact he was a Rhodes Scholar. But I’ve never heard the former U.S. president say, ” Hello, my name is Bill, and I have ADD.”) In any event, anecdotal stories rarely have any real materiality. If they did, I would assert categorically that ADD is a curse. Period. But I understand I am part of a much larger universe. That’s why I defer to people like Dr. Barkley and his colleagues who work over decades with statistically significant samples. As their understanding continues to improve, we all should benefit.
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