We describe ADHD as a disorder because the characteristics of it are incompatible with the world we live in today. Most of us perform dull, repetitive jobs with very little variation or problem solving involved. People with ADHD stick out, because we suck at that sort of thing so much more than regular people.
The best description I’ve heard for ADHD is that it’s not a disorder, it is a form of neuro-diversity. As a population, we do better with a mix of neurotypes. ADHD tends to appear in about 5% of the population, the leavening in the dough, so to speak. We daydream, we wander, we talk too loud, we play with stuff that isn’t meant for play, and we irritate the hell out of the play around us. But. When the crunch comes, we are awesome, and it’s good to have us around. The example I like is that while the rest of the tribe is focused on picking berries and hunting lizards, we’re hopping on one foot, staring around and just happen to notice the leopard creeping up on us.
Would I give up my ADHD? No. Most of what really sucks about it can be helped by an accepting, supportive circle of friends and family. In the absence of that, there are coping mechanisms and medication. I take Adderall XR nearly every weekday. It certainly helps me do my work, but it’s also a relief when it wears off. It’s like wearing a corset on my brain. Without it, my mind feels like a bunch of balloons, all knocking together and bouncing of each other. Sometimes the bounces generate cool stuff, sometimes they just distract me. Add a stimulant, and the balloons lock in. A lot less distraction, but also a lot less cool stuff.
ADHD isn’t all bad. I’m the hyper active type and I have a lot of energy compared to other people my age and even younger. And I don’t need as much sleep as other people to have all of that energy, either. I’m also creative, and people think I’m flexible because I’m patient with tasks being interrupted and ready to switch gears at the drop of a hat. I’m good at coming up with solutions other people miss because I seldom think in a linear manner, which makes people I work with happy.
But it’s far from all good either. As I mentioned I’m horrible at dealing with anything involving banks, bills and mail. And while I’m creative, I have the same typical trouble completing tasks that plague most people with ADHD. Part of this is because I have trouble simply sitting down and concentrating on writing or whatever because I still have the impulses to do X, Y and Z at the same time too, even though you can’t do four things at once, and a lot of times I get so frustrated I don’t do any of those things because it’s too hard to choose or I feel pressured to do something else instead. If I need to sit very still (like in a meeting with my boss and grandboss, for example) I can…if I spend half of my energy concentrating on being still instead of listening to what I’m supposed to be. I’m not sure how many other people are hyperactive-impulsive, but the impulsive part gives me problems as well as the never sitting still part: I can resist impulses for a while, but the longer I do the more anxious I get. Some of these are an easy fix and I tell myself it’s okay to leave the room to do something else, but the impulse to go to store X doesn’t abate just because X is closed and I can’t, so my mind worries at the idea until I can do it.
So I don’t know if I’d take a cure or not. Life would be easier, but I’m not sure it’d be better.