Scientists report that people with more ADHD traits tend to score higher on measures of creativity than others
No shit.
- Every comedian
That’s old news in research circles. ADHD has features you may or may not have: impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness. Supposedly these traits are from a weakness in the brain that controls the “turning off” of other parts of the brain-- that is, you can’t suppress as easily the thoughts and behaviors. I’m simplifying, btw, and why things like Adderall sometimes works or not kinda depends on what’s causing that weakness (e.g. neurotransmitter uptake, underdeveloped section of brain, etc).
Now, imagine where creativity comes from. When your brain gets to just run without suppression, you think of weird shit. Those untethered thoughts can lead to creative inspiration, outside the box thinking, and so on.
There’s other strengths to ADHD, too. Impulsivity under another label is initiative. Hyperactivity under another label is high energy. ADHD is often defined by how inconvenient it is for neurotypical folks, but it shouldn’t. I mean, job posts frequently call for high energy free thinkers with initiative— little does HR know they’re asking for folks with ADHD! Lol
Some recent research also confirmed that the same neuron systems responsible for impulsive behaviour are the same ones that make people curious.
Which of course also aids creativity.
But i find this especially important to note as how many add/adhd medication attempt to inhibit impulsive behavior and how that explains how i lost all interest in science during school, almost instantly gain it back as an adult when i stopped taking them.
That’s interesting, and I should read up on it since I teach about these things (survey class so ADHD being only one week of info, tho). It’s definitely a give and take-- for some, medication can be liberating if they feel out of control; for others like you, it might not have been worth it. Hope you’ve come to appreciate your own strengths!
They want ADHD creativity in the same package as someone that can buckle down and do repetitive and tedious work when creativity isn’t needed. If only they could wrap their heads around hiring two people for different kinds of work…
Who’s ever heard of teamwork? Not the c-suite, lol
“workn in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.”
It’s kinda funny how we need a bit of structure and routine, but also absolutely need some chaos to make it work.
My guess is because we have to develop creative problem solving skills in order to mask symptoms to avoid the stigma of ADHD or accomplish a similar level of productivity or accomplishment in work/life as those without ADHD.
Creativity and ADHD/neurodiversity has long been associated with each other but I don’t think the reason is predominately due to the brain wiring but more due to the environment in which we live. It is a coping mechanism for living in a world not built to accommodate.
True, though it’s also possible that the more “chaotic” nature of thoughts and neural connections in ADHD individuals inherently puts us at an advantage in creative tasks which expect people to make new connections between ideas. Like most things in psychology, the answer is likely a combination.
True as well, it is most likely a combination of many things, both nature and nurture related.
When is there ever a single cause for a behavior when we are studying a complex disorder with decades of unique life experiences layered on top of each person that affect the symptoms of that disorder?
There are an infinite number of variations and to boil it down to one thing is not helpful.
I didn’t intend for my statement to infer that, apologies if it did.
As a psychologist myself, it’s a running joke in my domain that the answer to every question is “it depends”
Also I didn’t take your statement as definitive, I just used it as a jumping off point to discuss other potential variables
My crazy neural connections make me creative. My life of making excuses for my ADHD makes me a great DM and storyteller.
Same for me!
The best part is that making those weird connections really helps with fitting random outcomes into what seems like a coherent story through unexpected relevance after they happen. Less prep needed and I can have a vague idea of something to slot in if a halfway decent connection comes up.
Especially if it is a clever pun!
We started out playing on a system that’s in beta (DC20) using a scenario where the players could wind up intentionally or unintentionally winding up in another reality (I want to try out a lot of different systems).
One of the players had a vision of a future where basically she killed the whole party, but while she knew this was her party, she didn’t recognize them. I threw this in to eventually use in one of the other realties.
Cut to a few months later and DC20 was changing a bit too much for us so we switched to 5e to wait for the beta-ness to settle. I gave the players the opportunity to change their characters up if they wanted, and made the switchover by using a five room dungeon in the form of a dream sequence.
At the end, everyone was their new 5e character except the one who had the vision because she loves her character so much. At the end of the dream sequence, I told her that as she looked around at her party, she saw the faces in her vision and subsequent nightmares. I wound up looking like a master strategist.
We know… but nice to have it scientifically proven
How does one quantify “creativity?” Seems like a pretty subjective kind of thing.
You can read the study to find out. You have to operationalize constructs like that in your paper. you’re not wrong to be hesitant as creativity is a very complicated construct, but it’s also a heavily studied one with many faucets and measurement tools.
Well, according to what I’ve been seeing lately, creativity is anything that can be done poorly with AI.
People without ADHD may be less creative, my personal experience found
This is a load of crap! You’re lucky I’m not creative or I would have a good comeback for this article!
I dunno, I’ve seen the shitty memes on the ADHD community. Every one is just: look at this totally normal behavior that I’ve randomly decided to attribute to adhd. Doesn’t seem that creative
