Is your IQ so high it can't be measured? ADHD superpowers

[Ginniebean]

The thing is no researchers are looking for the upsides of adhd, they are looking for the deficits. It needs to be taken into account that our experience does count.

There are good reasons to find positives about adhd, not the least being that if there are ‘none’ then it’s been shown in studies that acceptance of ADHD as a disability and willingness to accomodate it will be lessened when there is ‘no hope’.

I understand that the whole feel good positivity vibe which is a staple of the adhd satellite businesses cost us a lot in terms of being recognized by labelling adhd as a gift. I’m not a fan of the positivity crowd and their ‘adhd is a cheer deficit’ mantra, I don’t need happy thoughts, I’m by nature optimisitic and that has been as much to my detriment as anything else because my attitude of ‘things will get better and better’ has flown in the face of reality.

Yes, we do need to take the disorder seriously but demanding that research be provided for positive benefits is intellectually dishonest as everyone knows there is precisious little and that isn’t what researchers are charged with looking for. It’s a disservice to people with adhd to say that our actual experience is of no significance, and reminds me of how many ‘psychosomatic’ illnesses have later been shown to be not only real but cause great suffering. The it’s not real until there’s proof causes needless suffering and in the end works against us.

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[Wgreen]

I’m wracking my brain. But so help me, I can’t think of any other disease or disorder that has so many “fans.” I am reminded of that old Gershwin lyric, “it’s wonderful, it’s marvelous… it’s awful nice, it’s paradise!” Nobody gets amped up about obesity, or bipolar disorder, or autism. Do they? But when you dig around on this forum, you’ll find people who genuinely seem excited to have ADHD. Just look at McKenna(?) sporting the AD[lightning bolt]HD t-shirt with the big smile on his face; you’d think he had just won the lottery. I don’t get it.

Well, actually I do. It’s because lots of folks honestly believe—or want to believe—that ADD comes with an outstanding benefits package. They are convinced ADDers are, ipso facto, more creative, more outgoing, generally more interesting than non-ADDers.

But, if this is so, why do most mental health professionals remain skeptical? If there is credible evidence that ADD makes you smarter, more creative, more fun to be around, then let’s see it. Anecdotal evidence doesn’t count, because… it’s anecdotal. That ADD can ruin your life is well documented. That it also can make you a superstar is yet to be demonstrated.

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[Anonymous]

I’ve recently been told in a formal job assessment that it is astounding how I can listen to another person so intently to the point with one person, that I am the only one besides her spouse, that can understand her. This served me well when I worked with developmentally handicapped folks too. Is that a “superpower”? If it is, it has it’s shadow side.

On the same assessment, people report that they were ignored if I was already engaged in conversation with someone else. I may have had a sense in a crowded room that someone else was close by, but certainly not that someone was wanting my attention. I am told this appeared rude, although it was acknowledged by my supervisor that they were aware that I was not trying to be rude.

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[Scattybird]

Oops – my superpower is I post incorrectly!

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[Scattybird]

It strikes me that the issue here is one of perspective and how the original question was posed by FB.

FB asked if any of us have ADHD superpowers. FB’s aim was to have a happy theme where we could all celebrate something good in our otherwise fractured lives. I applaud FB’s desire to see positives. There are enouigh negatives around.

However, yes there is a however…. In my opinion, the problem is how do we separate the positives from our ADHD and from our ‘natural’ selves?

Yes we should all celebrate our good points – so let’s do that and be glad.

But linking those good points to ADHD would take some effort. So we could do it…. All we need to do is to decide what factors have influenced us and do some snazzy statistics. It’s not beyond us to do that, but enough of us would have to participate and give personal info. Easy to set up on SurveyMonkey if people were interested.

So, we’d have to take into account:

Type of ADHD and score the severity; our age; our sex; our education; our parent’s educational level; did our mother’s smoke or no etc when we were a foetus; our IQ: details of our superpowers: and on and on. Of course we’d have to get the linears to do the same survey and the stats will tell us if we are more likely to have superpowers than others.

It’s possible. Let’s do it.

The point is, yes let’s celebrate our good points but their link to ADHD is speculation. I am not saying that’s not fun, but scientifically it doesn’t stack up.

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[trashman]

so here, is from some one with some of if not a lot of these attributer’s .it comes from some one with what they say is a low iq. so is being kind or able to problem solve or able to say with something, are all the good things about you credited to your adhd. NO this is who you are and great on you are there times something shines that you can do better and faster then others so that is part of adhd ? I think not it is you finding the ability to be you.

Now all the times you have not done the right thing or said the right thing and your world ends up a mess now THAT IS adhd. This very thing of giving the credit away for all the good things about oneself that is adhd. I could keep going but I will stop with one last question ? W hy is it that we have trouble believing the good things about us? but no trouble letting the negative things run wild in our minds, to the point of defeat?

This is why I think it is a disability. Please don’t give the credit for the good about you away to a disability!! Giving away the credit for who you are is a BIG part of the disability.

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[trashman]

so here, is from some one with some of if not a lot of these attributer’s .it comes from some one with what they say is a low iq. so is being kind or able to problem solve or able to say with something, are all the good things about you credited to your adhd. NO this is who you are and great on you are there times something shines that you can do better and faster then others so that is part of adhd ? I think not it is you finding the ability to be you.

Now all the times you have not done the right thing or said the right thing and your world ends up a mess now THAT IS adhd. This very thing of giving the credit away for all the good things about oneself that is adhd. I could keep going but I will stop with one last question ? W hy is it that we have trouble believing the good things about us? but no trouble letting the negative things run wild in our minds, to the point of defeat?

This is why I think it is a disability. Please don’t give the credit for the good about you away to a disability!! Giving away the credit for who you are is a BIG part of the disability.

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[Tiddler]

I adore the T shirts and the video where I saw them was my first introduction to this site. It was also the first time that it dawned on me that I could have this disorder AND feel good about myself, come to terms with things and be happy with who I am.

I can be a great person and be disabled by brittle asthma and I can also be a great person and be disabled by ADHD. That is something I’m holding on to while I’m working through this maze of confusion in my head.

Like most ADHDers, I’m quite black and white about things. My feelings are BIG ones and how I express them is equally big. I see this on here too. We are so often people of extremes. The funny thing with this issue is that I am able to see both sides of this yet I am not on the fence.

Whether our good points and our ADHD are walking hand in hand or fist against fist, we all have things about us that are really fantastic and it can be hard to remember what they are sometimes and celebrate them, so when I see a celebration thread I think that’s great. Bring out the paper hats and party blowers. We should all celebrate our triumphs and feel good about ourselves.

I am someone who enjoys logical, fact based thinking and I haven’t seen any evidence to back up claims that ADHD comes with perks so I want to challenge that in order to find out more and also to try to stave off the horror of feeling like I’m getting it wrong. Too many of us have been told for too long that we’re not trying hard enough and being told that ADHD brings strengths reinforces that negative image for me – what am I doing wrong that I’m not harnessing these things? Am I STILL not trying hard enough?

So, yes, celebration is crucial to our self image, feelings of self worth and generally just important because we deserve to be happy and proud of ourselves. I want the positive threats – as many as there can be. I love the sentiment behind the original post. I am also all for people celebrating the ADHD if they have found a way of working it out. My concern is therefore only in the assertion that ADHD confers gifts such as high IQ or creativity as, until I have seen evidence of it, I not only don’t believe it but I also worry that those people whose self esteem has been ground into nothing see these assertions and feel even worse – if this is a gift, why is my life such a train wreck? It must be because I’m doing it all wrong.

I hope that makes some kind of sense.

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[Scattybird]

Trashman – well said.

Tiddler – yes what you said makes absolute sense. …… In my opinion anyway.

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[Robbo]

I’ve developed a new superpower over the last 5 years or so. I’m not sure what it has to do with ADHD, maybe the hyper-focus thing. But when I really make an effort. I can listen really well. I can listen to a completely insane idiot. And magically show real interest, attention, and even love. Those 3 things make the person I’m listening to become more interesting, lovable, and able to hold on to my attention. This superpower got much better fast over the last year. About a year ago I first saw the ADD And Loving It?! thing on PBS… I’m not sure I’ve ever grown this much in one year for all 47 of my years as a homosapien.

Super powers can be developed. Some we discover/develop because medication makes us less distracted.

The work we do here, really pays. Even the posts I’ve written that pain me a lil bit to re-read. I’ll bet they help some folks.

Thanks you guys. Now I’m going back to my vacation from this place.

catchyal lata tomataz.

5-12-12

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[Wgreen]

Let’s net it out. There is an ongoing debate here (and elsewhere) whether ADD is a disorder or merely an “alternate neurology.”

Those in the Alternate Neurology camp believe that ADDers are merely “different.” Yes, they may suffer from ditziness, procrastination, and disorderly garages, BUT (the gifties assert) they are smarter, more creative, funnier, and more personable that other folk. From this perspective, because there is a robust upside to balance the downside, “disorder” is an inappropriate label for Attention Deficit. “Type” has a truer ring to it.

Those in the “Disorder” camp believe Attention Deficit Disorder is just what the name denotes—a chemical imbalance in the brain that impairs the executive function with potentially devastating consequences. That there can be, in fact, devastating consequences is a matter of undisputed fact. Because research has yet to establish any clear link between ADD and IQ, creativity, or other personality assets, ADD remains akin to other diseases—arthritis, COPD, Crohn’s, schizophrenia, you name it—serious potential downside; little if any upside. Consequently, it should be treated (and discussed) as a disease.

As it stands today, the mental health community stands by “Disorder.” Those of us who appear to be constantly “negative” are in fact just trying to call this spade the dirty shovel we understand it to be. Any other approach would seem dishonest and irresponsible.

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[Ginniebean]

ADHD is not comparable to any of the diseases mentioned above, it is a developmental disability more akin to other chronic conditions like, blindness, deafness, lameness, HFA, Aspergers, etc… All of the above conditions speak of qualities arising out of their loss of function as people with adhd do. The difference being that there have not been well orchestrated campaigns denying their conditions or minimizing them by positive psychology proponents. Because adhd has been the subject of contrived controversy a rigid and inflexible response has come forth out of the adhd community that demands that ADHD only be seen thru a lens of impairment and tragedy.

Blindness is not a disease state any more than adhd is.

ADHD is a serious condition, it does impair, it does wound and it.can kill. I am sympathetic to this inflexibility but I think it has the potential to be as damaging as the raging gifter nonsense that undermined adhd legitimacy as a disability.

I recently lost my father and along with my loss came the ability to connect in a real way with others who had lost a parent. This visceral knowledge is only an advantage when attending to the grief of another but by no means is it an advantage professionally, or across other domains or situations. Living our lives with a condition that permeates ever part of our lives is a huge event, to suggest that nothing ‘good’ comes out of our experience is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Adversity can be quite a teacher.

The neurodiverse movement is not a gifter movement. It is an exercise in confronting ablism that says we need to squeeze ourselves into an ideality template that does not fit and cannot fit. We are neurologically different but this does not mean we have to be an inferior neurological caste member bowing and scraping and apologizing for our condition. Neurodiversity is about civil rights and other stuff.

I hope I wasn’t harsh, I tend towards bluntness but have no intention of being mean.

ADHD is no gift yet we’re not bereft of the qualities that arise out of being different and I see no reason not to celebrate those differences.

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[Robbo]

There are very few real experts on ADHD, that’s the most important thing I learned from the ADD and Loving It?! DVD. I haven’t read many opinions that sounded like they came from experts here either. Some, but not a lot. Mainly people that think they are right. Well guess what. None of ya, Not one. Zero percent of you are experts.

I can easily accept my own ignorance about it. Ignorance is not a crime.

I think the lack of an open mind is more criminal than anything else. Even open mindedness can be taken to an unhealthy extreme.

This is an excellent web site, maybe the best. It’s not the only good one.

The Internet is cluttered with nonsense. Endless opinions based on nothing but biased egomaniacal pomp.

It’s better to be a student than a teacher.

A teacher is only as good as his/her current teachers. (plural). When you think you’re done learning, you truly are.

If you call yourself an expert, you’ve proven that you’re not.

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[Tiddler]

“ADHD is no gift yet we’re not bereft of the qualities that arise out of being different and I see no reason not to celebrate those differences.”

This!

When I mentioned earlier about the brittle asthma and the ADHD this is what I was driving at. I have strengths that I have simply had to use in order to cope with these impairments and one of them is empathy for others who are also struggling. I once turned up at my friend’s house and she was horrified to see that my lips were completely blue, yet I was standing there smiling at her, unaware that my oxygen levels were so low because until it was adequately treated I just didn’t know that the utter exhaustion I felt wasn’t everyone else’s experience and I was making the best of my situation. There were also days I was unable to move off the sofa and it’s clear that my ability to ‘power through’ didn’t come in a gift wrapped box with the asthma. It was borne out of the need to get through each day. Some days I was able to get on in spite of the asthma and some days I wasn’t.

although I’m not ashamed of the days I couldn’t get off the sofa, I am so proud of myself for picking myself up and getting on with it as much as I did. and I’m proud of the determination and strength that is borne of fighting the problems adhd brings. I welcome any celebration, including from people who have made their adhd work for them.

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[Anonymous]

An ADHD superpower? It has to be that I can totally engage myself in any number of inane activities for hours on end (if I so choose!). I’m never at a loss trying to figure out what I could do to keep myself from getting bored…. In fact, each and every day I have so many different things that I want to do that I need to stay up into the wee hours of the morning to be able to get to just some of them.

But I know, one day I will be able to retire andthen I’ll have all the time in the world to do more of them every day. I hate going to bed because there is so much I still want to get done. I find the idea of sleeping my life in a bed just plain disturbing!

Sorry, but I know being weird and quirky is probably not a superpower in some people’s eyes but I love me just as I am. My quirky, busy, intelligent brain has served me well over the years. It does get off track sometimes due to the ADHD which makes some of my genius friends give me odd stares. The odd stares are just because they’ve told me they’re ‘fascinated’ by my intelligence often likes to hide a ‘blonde’ wig (sorry to any blondes out there!).

I wouldn’t trade my ADHD for anything!

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[Author]

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