ADHD Center for Success

Friday, February 18, 2011
By: Rick Green

ADHD and Creativity: A Double-Edged Study?

Another ADHD myth exposed to the glare of scientific study! Only this time, research confirms what many have long maintained. People with ADHD are more creative.

Holly A. White from the University of Memphis and Priti Shah of the University of Michigan published an ADHD and creativity study this month showing, “adults with ADHD showed higher levels of original creative thinking … and higher levels of real-world creative achievement, compared to adults without ADHD.” They also found that faced with a problem, most people prefer to study the problem or refine ideas, whereas we ADHDers prefer to generate new ideas … brainstorming (what most people call daydreaming!)

I had always suspected some of us were more creative! An informal survey of friends in the entertainment industry reveals at least a third and maybe half qualify as ADHD. In our documentary about Adult ADHD, ADD & Loving It?!, actor Patrick McKenna shares how he became an improv comedian. His drama teacher took him to see Second City’s stage show and Patrick was thunderstruck, mesmerized by the comedians making people laugh using suggestions audience members shouted out. He felt the energy in the room and knew he’d found his calling. READ MORE

By Eileen Bailey (ADHDcentral.com)

Do the symptoms of ADHD strain your relationship? If you have ADHD, does your partner complain about the lack of attention or your inability to follow through on a task? Have you forgotten important events, creating friction? If so, you aren’t alone. Approximately 5 percent of all adults have ADHD and because adult ADHD has only been recently recognized, most have probably gone undiagnosed for much of their life. Even so, the characteristics of ADHD have always been there and create tension in your love life.

To help you find answers, I went to the experts and asked how ADHD impacts relationships and what they would offer as suggestions to help.

Dr. Edward M. Hallowell is a well known expert regarding ADHD. He is also the distinguished author of books such as “Driven To Distraction”, “Delivered From Distraction” and “Married To Distraction”. Dr. Hallowell is often the ‘face’ of ADHD in the media.

Here is an interview of Dr. Hallowell on ABC’s Good Morning America in which he discusses ADHD in adults. The news piece discusses adults who have lived their entire lives never knowing they had ADHD until their children were diagnosed with ADHD. It’s a very good and informative news piece

See video now

Are you one of these adults? CoachRudy is a ADHD specialist,skilled at the diagnosis and behavioral treatment and coaching adults with ADHD.

For further info, click here.

Article by Eileen Baily, ADHD Central.com

What did you forget today? Over the years I have received emails from many adults with ADHD. One recurring theme in these emails is how difficult the symptom of forgetfulness is. Of all the different ADHD symptoms, this, according to one woman, is the worst. Her forgetfulness has labeled her “lazy,” “uncaring,” “unthoughtful,” and “stupid.” She tries to remember, she says, it just doesn’t work but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t care.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition, “is often forgetful in daily activities” is listed as one of

the symptoms of inattention. Although this doesn’t mean that everyone with ADHD is forgetful, it is one of the more common symptoms. In the emails I have received, individuals with ADHD say forgetfulness interferes with their daily life. Some of the things people have forgotten:

• “I forgot to pick up my kids after baseball practice.”
• “I came home to no lights in the house because I forgot to pay the electric bill, even though I had the money to do so.”
• “I forgot to get gas in my car and ran out of gas (again).”
• “I forgot to meet my husband at the restaurant for dinner.”
• “I forgot to set my alarm and was late for work (again).”
• “I spent 3 hours at home doing a report for work and forgot to bring it with me.”

Read more…

Science Daily (Apr. 1, 2010) — Mount Sinai researchers have learned that meta-cognitive therapy (MCT), a method of skills teaching by use of cognitive-behavioral principles, yielded significantly greater improvements in symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults than those that participate in supportive therapy.

The study is now published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Mary Solanto, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Center at The Mount Sinai Medical Center examined the effectiveness of a 12-week meta-cognitive therapy group. The intervention was intended to enhance time management, organizational, and planning skills/abilities in adults with ADHD.

We observed adults with ADHD who were assigned randomly to receive either meta-cognitive therapy or a support group,” said Dr. Solanto. “This is the first time we have demonstrated efficacy of a non-medication treatment for adult ADHD in a study that compared the active treatment against a control group that was equivalent in therapist time, attention, and support.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

The following article was published in the NY Times on July 19, 2010 and forwarded to me by one of my ADHD Success readers. The toll of ADHD on marriage and relationships can be overwhelming. Does this sound familiar? ~CoachRudy

Attention Disorders Can Take a Toll on Marriage

by Tara Parker-Pope

Does your husband or wife constantly forget chores and lose track of the calendar? Do you sometimes feel that instead of living with a spouse, you’re raising another child?

Your marriage may be suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

An A.D.H.D. marriage? It may sound like a punch line, but the idea that attention problems can take a toll on adult relationships is getting more attention from mental health experts. In a marriage, the common symptoms of the disorder — distraction, disorganization, forgetfulness — can easily be misinterpreted as laziness, selfishness, and a lack of love and concern.

Experts suggest that at least 4 percent of adults have the disorder, that as many as half of all children with A.D.H.D. do not fully outgrow it and continue to struggle with symptoms as adults, and that many adults with the disorder never received the diagnosis as children.

Adults with attention disorders often learn coping skills to help them stay organized and focused at work, but experts say many of them struggle at home, where their tendency to become distracted is a constant source of conflict. Some research suggests that these adults are twice as likely to be divorced; another study found high levels of distress in 60 percent of marriages where one spouse had the disorder.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Let’s hear your comments on this article and this subject.

~CoachRudy

(HealthDay News) — Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) miss, on average, more than three weeks a year in workplace productivity, according to a new global reckoning of the problem.

Altogether, between 3 percent and 4 percent of adults worldwide have ADHD, according to survey data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers say the condition can cause a serious loss of concentration at work due to chronic hyperactivity, forgetfulness and impulsiveness.

But many adult workers with ADHD may not know they have a problem, the team noted.

“While surveying mental disorders around the world, we’ve interviewed close to 200,000 people in almost 30 countries, and we’re discovering that an enormous number of adult workers — more than 3 percent on average — have untreated adult ADHD,” said study co-author Ron Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Kessler is also the director of the WHO’s World Mental Health Survey Consortium, which is based at Harvard.

Dr. David W. Goodman, director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center in Luthersville, Md., agreed that ADHD is an “under-diagnosed and under-recognized psychiatric condition that causes a tremendous amount of disability in the work environment.”

Read entire article>

Article By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

Last Updated: May 28, 2008

I recently learned of a book: “A Whole New Mind – Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World.” In a chapter called “Symphony,” the author estimates that, “self-made millionaires are four times more likely than the rest of the population to be dyslexic. Why Dyslexics struggle with L-Directed (left brained) Thinking and the linear, sequential, alphabetic reasoning at its core. But as with a blind person who develops a more acute sense of hearing, a dyslexic’s difficulties in one area lead him to acquire outsized ability in others. As Sally Shaywitz, a Yale neuroscientist and specialist in Dyslexia, writes, “Dyslexics think differently. They are intuitive and excel at problem-solving, seeing the big picture, and simplifying . . . . They are poor rote reciters, but inspired visionaries.”

In my personal reading and research of successful adults with ADHD I find that several of the most successful adults with ADHD are also Dyslexic. Now that is certainly not to say that Dyslexia is a prerequisite for success but it appears the combination can be a profitable combination that some adults take to the bank.

In recognition of National ADHD Awareness Week, CoachRudy will be highlighted in a LIVE radio interview on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. He will interviewed by local commentator, David Hurand on WCQS Public Radio in Asheville, NC. The topic is “Adults with ADHD”.

You can listen to the LIVE interview from the Asheville area on WCQS at 88.1 on the dial. You can also listen to WCQS Online at: www.WCQS.org and connect via your preferred media player.