Creativity and ADHD: Part I

Those who know me - especially my family - know that I do love to be right.  The other night when my sister sent me a link to an article about ADHD and creativity I have to tell you I felt justified, proven right.

The article was reporting on a study which found that people with ADHD are more "creative" than their non-ADHD counterparts.  Creativity has always been a hard one to define and has been the subject of a great deal of debate within the ADHD community.  Some say that creativity, itself, exists independent of ADHD and is, therefore, something that ADHD cannot lay claim to as a positive trait.

Some in the ADHD community don't want to claim to it for fear that pointing out the positives of ADHD diverts attention from the struggles.  That it gives those who would downplay or negate ADHD as a real disorder ammunition.

I have always said differently.  While it is true that ADHD does not corner the market on creativity there is something entirely different that happens to creativity when you add in a little ADHD. Something that holds a great deal of potential. I have six kids - five with ADHD.  I live the life, walk the walk, every minute of everyday and I need the positives to hold onto.  I need them for my children to hold onto and to help them find their way in this world.


What interested me most in the article; ADHD's Upside is Creativity, Says New Study, found in the The Daily Beast was the overall driving forces or characteristics that influence creativity and are so pronounced in ADHD.  The characteristics that came shining through in the study were divergent thinking, the effect of lack of inhibitions on creativity, as well as creative problem solving. 

I would consider our house my own center of research.

Drawing, acting, film, game design, experiments, concoctions (oh, the concoctions), ideas, philosophies, problem solving, music, composition, perspectives, stories, plays, cooking, animation, photography, obsessions;  I can not even list the creative endeavors that this family engages in daily.  Sometimes in the craziest places.  I have often said that we were creatively masochistic.

Just like no two children are alike; no two children with ADHD are even remotely alike.  I deal in extremes everyday.  I have some who stimuli will cause to lash out and some who beat a hasty retreat.  I have inattentive, happy in lala land and inattentive, freaked out OCD to compensate.  I have some with learning disabilities on top of their ADHD and some without them.  I have some that are more verbally and physically impulsive and those who are not.  I have some who are medicated easily and some that we are forever trying to find the right balance for.  I have some that are all of the above and some who are every varying degree in between.

I also have one non-ADHD child who just happens to be a creative genius herself. Because of her I feel a little qualified to speak on the difference between ADHD creativity and non-ADHD creativity.

Impulsiveness is a just a trait.  In and of itself it is neither bad nor good.  But, how it comes out in behavior can sure sculpt my day.  There is no doubt that it can be a burden; but, on an equal note I see the greatness it can inspire.

There is a beauty to impulsivity when it meets the right idea.  It is that lack of impulse control or lack of inhibition that allows the mind to grab on with both hands and turn a thought into a great work of art, a moving and emotional musical composition, a life changing piece of film.  It is in that moment, science takes new steps.  It takes the idea of caring and turns it into fast acting of compassion.  It turns a good athlete great, orchestrating athletics into art.

This trait is a force that can hardly be resisted by the ADHD mind. An immediate translation from thought to action.  I have seen it, watched it unfold.  



When my non-ADHDer was tiny, maybe 3 years old, I came up behind her sitting at the table with her pencil and paper in hand.  Her sisters were already skilled drawing fanatics.  In her tiny voice she whispered, "Oh magical drawing fairy, touch my pencil so I can draw like my sisters."  



My non-ADHD child draws, sculpts, and bakes (cake decorating is her latest passion). She is the eye of a photographer, has a beautiful voice, reads fanatically, and visualizes the movies she will one day direct.  All of that is a calculated and thought out process for her.  I have watched her hesitate where her siblings jump in.  It is work for her to create spontaneously.  In fact, about her only spontaneous act of creativity are cartoons depicting her frustrations with her ADHD siblings. 

It does not make her less creative or less talented by any means; but, there is an intrinsic difference between her creative experience and theirs.

She, like myself, is cautious and careful.  She is more reserved.  Where they have no inhibition - she is burdened by them.  We are the anchor in the house, we keep them from floating off into the atmosphere -- they are the hot air balloons, lifting us off the ground. 

She and I sit squarely in the box with a notebook and pen to plan.  They have no idea there is a box, much less where it is.  We are the concurrent thinkers and they are the definitely divergent thinkers.  We problem solve on known paths, it is so much more comfortable.  They are clearly on the path less traveled.

We try to understand and operate in each others worlds.  It is the balance that we strive to find daily between impulsiveness and calculated thought, between divergent and concurrent thinking, between traditional problem solving and new frontiers. 

In the end we are changed by each other -- largely for the better.  Isn't that what we really want as an ADHD community.  See us for not just our struggles but for our strengths.  Certainly, one does not negate the other.

Make sure and read ADHD and Creativity: Part II

** all the art on this post is the copyrighted work of Hannah Aro - our above mentioned non-ADHD child

The Snowball Effect

I was listening to one of my kids tied in knots with anxiety the other night.  He had hit maximum overload and was starting to unravel.

The list was long and came out at an amazing pace.  It reminded me of those old TV commercials with the speed talkers.

"I can't stay still, even when I sleep, I can't stop moving. There are no games I can play on the internet because of our internet limits. I can only take so many showers. I can't fall asleep. My medicine always stops working, what if it stops working?"

Typed words can never do the intensity and pace justice, though I know that some of you know exactly what I am talking about. 

"I can't can draw a transformer in the middle of transforming. Whenever I make structures with blocks and army men I can never save them.  I want everybody home.  I don't want to move EVER. I just want to move and get it over with.  I can't make the world editor work. 

I am trying to calm him down.  Just interjecting is like trying to jump on a fast moving train.

"I just want to pause life take a rest and come back to it later!"  Oh, me too honey, me too!

When I finally get my word in edgewise I am trying to explain that what he's experiencing by comparing it to a snowball heading down a mountain.  It's picking up speed and getting larger and larger.  We have to figure out ways to stop that momentum.  Coping mechanisms are a common topic in our house.  We believe in and use medication - but as we tell our kids - medication will only take you so far and you have to be prepared to function with or without it.


All of the coping mechanisms are failing so I  call in the big guns, Daddy. He understands and can communicate in a way I just am not always as good at.  As he says so often - he speaks the native language of ADHD.  Our son starts over from the beginning, with one exception. "Mama says that its like a snowball but I think its like a snowball with jet packs on!"  Then he added, "and I'm worried about finding a job."


He isn't even old enough for a work permit much less a job.  As bad as the economy is he has plenty of time for it to turn around before he needs a job.  Isn't that the way with anxiety though - everything gets twisted and out of proportion making it overwhelming.  Pretty soon you feel like you've been rolled over, crushed, and dragged along for the ride.

In addition to working with a doctor to find the right medication and taking it consistently; there are things we try and teach our children so they can manage their unique and wonderful brains. Talking about their feeling, finding positive ways to release the pressure, adjusting those methods as they change and grow,  and not letting things get to the point of snowballs with jet packs, all become parts of managing.

On this night, for this child, talking was enough. Talking and the promise of a pocket sized graph paper notebook to draw his transformers schematics in made the world at least manageable - melted the snowball...for tonight.

A Little Slice of Holiday Life

It is time to move on and get back to blogging.  Here are some of my favorite happenings and quotes from the last couple months.

I called home from the store, "How big is the turkey in the refrigerator?"
Fernie, "About as big as Mark's head."
Me..."I meant how many pounds!?"

"It's the 12 days of Christmas...Oooooon the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeEEEE...now someone needs to remind me to sing the second day tomorrow and then the third day the day after that...."


"LOOK!  It's a search helicopter wagging its light around...ooooOOOR... its an oddly placed light house." (on our drive home up into the foothills -- no where near the ocean)
  
"Mom...YOUR son is wearing roller blades on the grass...trying to get on his bike... and ride it..."

"Oooooon the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeEEEE"  Sings and stops - I can see where this is going.

"You can't sleep with that huge wrench in your bed...Mom, she has a huge wrench in her bed with her." screams big sister.  Little sister replies, "It is not a WENCH!"  didn't hear much after that...I was laughing too hard. (sometimes speech issues are pretty funny - who really needs the 'r' sound, right?) 

"NO, Mary, I am not buying you a book on how to split the atom for Christmas."  - what a responsible father :)

 Runs out of bedroom..."I forgot to sing the days of Christmas today!"...starts the song and sings through the fifth day runs back to bed.  Everyday he sings the appropriate number of days to the song.


"WAIT!" the brownies are out of the oven but Hunter doesn't want them cut yet, "We have to put the 'white hand of Saruman' on the brownies."








Overstimulated plus bored equals BBQ sauce art at Sizzler

 You know when people take two fingers and point to their eyes and then your eyes to indicate that they are watching you?  Well, Hunter for a long time has used three fingers to himself and two to everyone else insisting, jokingly,  that he has an invisible third eye.  Needless to say this hat was the perfect Christmas gift for our three eyed boy.  That evening he announced that with the hat on he is a, "hexoclops"




The Ninth Day of Christmas ADHD style!

Jaren: knock knock (on my bathroom door)
Mom:  "I'm in the bathroom"
Jaren:  "Can we open my presents now."
Mom:  "Nooooo"
Jaren:  "why?" (dejected)
Mom:  "For starters, I'm in the bathroom!"