ADHD Empowerment Begins Here
Celebrate ADHD Empowerment Month with this collection of ADD strengths, insights, role models, quotes, and resources highlighting the beauty and benefits of neurodivergence. Click on each image below to learn more.
When a member of ADDitude’s ADHD Support Group on Facebook recently appealed to other members for help lifting the spirits of her discouraged son, she was inundated with responses enumerating the benefits of ADHD. Here are 18 of our favorites.
“A little more than 18 years ago, I gave birth to a super hero. His super power was electricity.” Read this beautiful blog post.
“Hitting rock bottom helped me find the hidden, gritty, scrappy fighter within me.” ADDitude readers share how ADHD resilience and perseverance keep them moving forward with resolve.
A professor analyzes the essays of French writer Michel de Montaigne, and finds his brilliance may be one upside of a distracted ADHD brain. Read more.
Simone Biles, Greta Gerwig, Mark Ruffalo, Emma Watson, Trevor Noah, and other inspiring celebrities and famous people with ADHD.
In your standard-issue “How to Be a Parent” manual, you might find job requirements such as consistency and firmness. Those are all fine and good, but parents of children with ADHD know that more is required of us. Here are the Top 10 essential qualities our kids require every day.
To shed light on a complex and often dismissed part of the ADHD experience, we asked ADDitude readers to tell us: What does boredom feel like to you? Here’s what they said.
ADDitude readers share the (sometimes uncomfortable) truths about attention deficit disorder that they most wish the neurotypical world would understand and respect here.
“I am spirited — even frantic sometimes. I strike gold in the 11th hour. I jump off the highest cliffs. And all of these qualities make me a better leader to my teammates at work. They also expose some serious ADHD weaknesses, which is where my teammates get my back.” — Rich Atkinson
Most people are neurologically equipped to determine what’s important and get motivated to do it, even when it doesn’t interest them. Then there are the rest of us, who have attention deficit — ADHD or ADD — and the brain that goes along with it.
Here, ADDitude readers share more stories of when they reaped the rewards of spontaneity. Read more.
“If you can tune into your voice and communicate your story, that’s when you’re going to create something nobody’s ever seen before.” — Hayley Wall
“I would not change my son or husband for anything. We’ll bundle up all the positives and challenges, stick them into our family jetpack, and navigate the steps, bounces, stumbles, and freefalls of this shared diagnosis together.” Read more.
“My creativity has blessed me at every stage of my life. My grandkids and I write songs or make videos, and I do sing-a-longs at my mom’s nursing home. Being ADHD is a rollercoaster ride, but I love the thrills along the way!” Read more.
Imaginative, resourceful, and fast-thinking ADHD brains can often solve problems that stump everyone else. Here, readers share their stories of seeing the solution everyone else missed.
Star of the stand-up comedy special “Big Guy,” Rachel Feinstein talks about her ADHD journey, from adrenaline highs to rejection lows (and how she’s always losing her passport). Meet Rachel
“When I get to engage in an adrenaline-filled experience, like jumping off a 40-foot cliff, I take it.” Learn more about the risky, sensation-seeking activities that ADDitude readers crave.
“I sometimes feel frustrated that the things that seem so simple (turning in homework, putting on BOTH shoes, turning off the stove) can be so hard for the ADHD brain. But the things my son’s brain creates leave me in awe.” _ Kim Holderness
Here’s how ADDitude readers answered our question, “How has your (or your child’s) curious ADHD brain fueled innovation, exploration, and/or opportunity?”
“The more I talk to colleagues about my fresh diagnosis (ADHD, inattentive type), the more I see that others grapple daily with different demons. And some of the things that frighten or frustrate them about teaching come as naturally to me as breathing.” Read this blog post.
“You can’t see my constant struggles to stay on top of employment, housework, and personal affairs; you can’t hear my every thought scream for my total attention as I fail to hold onto a single one; you certainly can’t feel the smaller effects of ADHD pile on top of each other to create a web of executive dysfunction.” Read this blog post.
25 positive affirmations to lift up ADHD brains
Rebecca Makkai is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award finalist. She teaches graduate fiction writing at Northwestern University, among other places, and she has ADHD.
“When your brain feels, sees, and smells everything, it is more likely than the neurotypical brain to notice something no one has ever noticed before. It is more likely to go down a rabbit hole and discover a new path. It’s more likely to see something in a way no one has ever seen it.”
How to live better with ADHD, according to the experts.
ADDitude readers describe the undeniable signs, symptoms, and strengths of ADHD that may be invisible to others. Read more.
“These mottos have helped me practice self-compassion and affirm my own neurodiversity.” Read more.
From the pragmatic to the profound, readers offer up hard-won wisdom that they’ve found transformative, in the hopes you might benefit from it, too. Read more.
“What if my intense drive is because of — not in spite of — my ADHD?” asks Tracy Otsuka, JD
If you could pay a visit to your childhood self, what words of affirmation, advice, or messages of self-love would you impart? ADDitude readers respond here.
These insights on living and (mostly) thriving with ADHD from the Holderness Family will make you laugh, nod in agreement, and feel a little more understood.
