ADHD is not a Deficit of Attention, But an Abundance of Awareness.

12% of Americans have ADHD.

10% of Americans are not straight.

While we used to consider homosexuality a human disorder, we now know that it is simply a type of sexuality people are born with. Not just people, but hundreds of species of animals are either part or nearly always homosexual. 

Since learning and understanding this reality, we no longer consider homosexuality to be a disability/disorder. So then if more humans have innate and inherited ADHD, then why do we continue to consider people who are ADHD to have a disability?

Over 60% of Young President’s Club members test into ADHD? It is clear that being hyper attentive, hyper intuitive allowed them to build the multi-million dollar companies that got them into that club. By destroying people’s ability to have that drive and that passion and that attentiveness, we undermine the people who create so much wealth and innovation in our country. The do need help sometimes but we should treat them for ADHD no more than we treat gay people for being gay and we should treat them no worse either. 

Perhaps the issue is that we should not call it Attention Deficit, but instead, hyper-attentive, hyper-creative, hyper intuitive, hyper courageous.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. Some see 20/20, some see 20/40. Some hear better, some are innately more athletic, some more artistic, some more musical and some are better at math. We do not try to make all those people worse at their talent and bring them down to the mean, instead we try to nurture their talents, we understand that artistic people will never be great at math so we send them to art school and help them be better at art. We do not send math people to music schools, we help them become better mathematicians. We do not send writers to business school but instead enroll them in writers workshop. And so, maybe we can start to do the same for people who are hyper aware, who are hyper energetic, who are hyper passionate. 

If people with ADHD have a deficit of attention, then the rest of the world has a deficit of energy, a deficit of awareness, a deficit of courage and a deficit of passion.