Reply To: Famous People With ADD?

[Patte Rosebank]

Based on his behaviour, I’m certain that Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford, is the poster boy for the terrible toll that undiagnosed, untreated, severe ADHD can have on a person’s life.

Unfortunately for him, his charisma got him elected to a very prominent, very public position, as Mayor of Canada’s largest city.  This put him very much in the spotlight (which he loves, when it involves doing something he loves, like giving speeches or coaching football).

However, when ADDers are under pressure to perform (especially being under scrutiny), and we’re out of our depth (like in the slow, procedural, co-operative, day-to-day work of running a city), our performance gets even worse.  Hence Ford’s repeated very public, very “WTF???”-calibre screw-ups.

Add in the blurting; the angrily reacting without all the facts; the uncontrolled anger; the inability to think things through; the morbid obesity; the very public launch (and very private petering-out-in-failure) of his weight-loss campaign; the “black & white” thinking; the terrible judgement; the distraction that resulted in his walking into a TV camera and then swearing and blaming the cameraman for being in the way; the firmly believing that if he just avoids dealing with an issue for long enough, it’ll go away; the (alleged) drinking problem; the (alleged) drug-use…

I feel sorry for him, because he’s determined to do this job that is so very wrong for him, and wrong for the way he works.  As he lurches from disaster to disaster, he seems so “Lazy, Stupid, and Crazy” that he’s become a joke.

If he were to get tested, diagnosed, and treated, he could be an absolutely amazing football coach—which is what he really loves, and what he’s really good at.  Unfortunately, he lost that volunteer coaching job, due to his behaviour and some very inappropriate public statements he made.

And yet, he continues to blame everyone but himself, and refuses to listen to anyone who is trying to get him to get help.

Sad.

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