Who says ADHD is just a disorder? Paris Hilton is celebrating its creative side! Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she brought together 50 creative minds with ADHD at her Los Angeles mansion on October 15 for UNSTOPPABLE, an ADHD Awareness Month event spotlighting the imagination, originality, and talents that too often get lost in conversations about ADHD.
Now, don’t write this off as a superficial publicity stunt. We need high-profile figures like Paris to build awareness, and I love her focus on the connection between ADHD and creativity. I also love her efforts to combat the misinformation about ADHD that is so prevalent online these days. So, looking beyond the glitter and pizzazz at UNSTOPPABLE, there’s an inspiring, positive message here about ADHD: the connection between ADHD and creativity gets far too little attention.
But what exactly is creativity? Researchers often head off in the wrong direction, trying to find a single, simple measure of something that is incredibly multidimensional. One commonly used measure is the Alternative Uses Test, sometimes called the Brick Test, associated with psychologist J. P. Guilford’s research on divergent thinking. It’s a simple timed test in which you’re asked to think of as many different uses for a brick as possible. Responses are scored in terms of:
- Fluency: How many different uses can you think of?
- Originality: How unusual or unexpected are your ideas?
- Flexibility: How many different categories do your ideas fall into? A brick as a weapon, an art supply, a doorstop, a weight?
- Elaboration: How much detail can you provide about each idea?
Interesting. But does this really capture the breadth of creative endeavors?
The Cambridge Dictionary describes creativity in terms of producing or using original and unusual ideas. If you do a web search, you’ll find multiple articles describing the eight steps of the “creative process”: recognition, diagnosis, incubation, insight, elaboration, assessment, articulation, and production. Really? This sounds an awful lot like groupthink within a business enterprise. I seriously doubt that the Talking Heads or Vincent van Gogh followed these eight steps. It seems to me that these models confuse problem-solving with creativity. Yes, good problem-solving calls for creativity, but creativity goes so far beyond following a step-by-step process to solve a problem.
And what does this have to do with ADHD, you might ask. Well, first, let’s think about the thought patterns associated with ADHD. ADHD brains are known for non-linear, divergent thinking. Start at point A and you never know where an ADHD brain might end up.
As an example, I’ll recount my own thought process as I began writing this article. My plan was to write an article for ADHD Evolution about ADHD assessment practices and why they need a significant overhaul. So, I went online to get started and decided that, before writing, I should close the countless tabs open on my laptop. (Could the number of open tabs be a good measure of ADHD? How many tabs does a neurotypical person keep open during a day? Has anyone researched this?) At some point, with too many tabs open, my laptop starts to malfunction and complain. So, I decided to do a little digital housecleaning before starting my article. Digital housecleaning—a habit I’m always working on. The number of open tabs was 47, if you’re wondering.
As I began closing tabs, I came across an article I’d read yesterday about Paris Hilton’s event celebrating ADHD and creativity. Suddenly, I decided it would be terrific—and timely—to write about Paris Hilton, ADHD, and creativity instead. So here I am! It’s a topic I love, and there’s no time like the present.
Instead of writing about how we assess neurodivergent brains, I’m suddenly writing about ADHD and creativity. Now, was this an example of distractibility? Impulsivity? A failure to stick to my original plan? Probably all three. But it was also the spontaneous recognition of an interesting idea, followed by the impulse to do something with it.
And that brings me back to something I’ve been thinking about for years: What if we began thinking about ADHD as a type of brain rather than simply a disability? Any trait, taken to an extreme, can become disabling. But have we been missing the boat all along? By focusing almost exclusively on people who are significantly impaired by ADHD traits, are we overlooking the strengths and talents that may accompany those same traits?
Yes, I gave in to an impulse this morning. And it resulted in writing this article. I’ll sit down and write the intended article later this weekend. Promise! Despite my ADHD, I get things done – get articles written. Books written. Presentations prepared. Projects launched. If anything, I think of my ADHD as part of what allows me to accomplish so much, albeit sometimes at rather odd times of day.
I once planted tulip bulbs by flashlight just before bedtime. I had a full-time job and was the mother of a toddler and hadn’t found a single moment to plant the bulbs earlier in the day. But the tulips got planted!
So, back to my impulsivity. I allow myself impulses, but for the most part, they’re constructive impulses. I don’t impulsively quit jobs, lose my temper, buy sports cars, or purchase one-way tickets to Paris. I don’t usually let my desires or emotions overcome my judgment. A chocolate éclair may be the exception.
Yet I live with this runaway brain that’s always full of ideas, constantly competing with whatever I’m currently involved in. And sometimes those distractions lead somewhere interesting. So, what does all this have to do with creativity? ADHD brains often engage in divergent thinking—the ability to generate multiple ideas, possibilities, and associations. Remember the brick test? How many different things can you think of doing with a brick? That’s divergent thinking.
Contrast that with convergent thinking, in which you’re given information and asked to arrive at a single correct answer. I would starve to death if I had to earn my living playing Trivial Pursuit. My brain struggles to remember names. But, give my brain a concept, and my thoughts leap in all directions toward things that are somehow related. One idea reminds me of another, which connects to something I read, which brings to mind a conversation I had last week, which suddenly suggests an entirely different way of looking at the original idea. And there you have it. My 47 open tabs, in mental form.
Of course, divergent thinking isn’t the whole of creativity, and not everyone with ADHD is especially creative. Research on ADHD and creativity is mixed, depending in part on how creativity is defined and measured. But there is evidence linking ADHD traits with some aspects of divergent thinking, and I believe we’re missing something important when we focus exclusively on the problems associated with this kind of brain. Let’s include the creativity, the novel ideas, the ability to make unexpected connections, and the problem-solving on the fly that so many people with ADHD excel at.
Think about James Carville, the longtime political consultant who later became a professor at Tulane University. He talks 90 miles an hour and has been valued for decades for his ability to think on his feet, generate strategies, and solve problems on the spur of the moment—skills that are constantly needed in political campaigns.
James Carville was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in his late 50’s. At a CHADD convention, he recounted the story of being diagnosed at an airport on one of his many work trips. A physician standing nearby observed him for a few minutes, approached, introduced himself and asked if he had ever been diagnosed with ADHD. After asking more questions, he made an informal diagnosis. James and his wife discussed medication and treatment and James ultimately concluded that he liked how he was, but that the diagnosis brought a level of self-understanding that was gratifying. James described himself as the quintessential bad boy in high school, who was able to graduate from high school and later from college due to the relentless encouragement and support of his mother. Of course, he later went on to become one of the best-known political strategists in the US. His rapid-fire thinking is a wonderful example of how valuable spontaneous, unconventional thinking can be.
Creativity isn’t limited to the arts. It can be expressed in politics, business, teaching, psychotherapy, entrepreneurship, parenting, and a hundred other areas of life. Sometimes it’s the ability to come up with a brilliant solution in the middle of a crisis. Sometimes, it’s seeing a connection nobody else has noticed. And sometimes it’s deciding to write an article about creativity when you were supposed to be writing about psychological assessment.
So, hurrah for Paris Hilton, whose adult ADHD diagnosis helped inspire a celebration of creativity! Let’s start looking at the whole person and exploring their talents rather than focusing only on hyperactivity, distractibility, impulsivity, disorganization, and boredom intolerance.
Of course, ADHD can be seriously impairing. I’ve spent more than four decades helping people cope with those impairments. I’m certainly not suggesting we ignore them. But why should we stop there? Why not ask what else is going on in that brain? What unexpected talents might be hiding behind the difficulties? What might happen if we helped people develop their strengths as enthusiastically as we try to reduce their symptoms?
Perhaps it’s time to broaden our understanding of ADHD beyond the traditional deficit-based model. After all, as E. E. Cummings wrote:
“There’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.”