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What are your ADHD strengths? Knowing what they are is really powerful because it helps you to celebrate the good things about you.
That doesn’t mean you are glossing over the challenges; you’re just creating a balanced view of yourself.
Classic and well-known ADHD strengths include
- Lots of energy
- Thinking outside the box
However, ADHD strengths are much more diverse than that, and they often go against the stereotypical view of ADHD.
For example, it is generally thought that tasks requiring attention to detail are hard for ADHDers, but some of the best proof readers I know have ADHD and spotting spelling and grammar errors is fun for them.
I asked Untapped Brilliance blog readers what their ADHD strengths are, and I received some fabulous responses. You can see them below.
In addition to people with ADHD, there are 2 quotes from readers who are married to an ADHDer and are mom’s to grown-up ADHD children.
After reading them, leave a note in the comments to let us know what your ADHD strengths are!
ADHD Strengths
Good at thinking up solutions to problems and a brainstorming whiz.
Roberta
People with adhd are always scanning the environment. I’ll share an anecdote:
I walked into a dorm room once. There were 5 people all looking around the floor, One of them said “watch where you step, someone’s contact just fell out”.
They’d been looking for a minute or two. Without missing a beat – having satisfyingly scanned the entire floor as a whole while they looked bit by bit – I immediately pointed it out to them and then turned and walked out thinking “non-ADDers”.
That’s my anecdote, recounted with appropriate ADD flourish.
Ed
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Being able to run a scenario through in my head from start to finish just like a movie and like Dr Strange give you all the possible outcomes:…This works well in meetings
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Like Sherlock Holmes: seeing everything
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Being able to forget.. lol makes it easier to forgive and move on
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My sense of humour…
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To be fully engaged in the moment once excited.
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To be easily excited about something… I could make an Eskimo get excited over ice
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Being able to connect all the dots before others and then further to connect another dot they didn’t even know existed
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To provide excellent analogies.
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To see things from someone else’s point of view… because I can drop effortlessly into their world.
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To love you like it’s the first time falling in love with you every time.
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Being wild and fun
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Understanding friends that are not good with the “call me every day” thing and being ok with it because… well I’m that friend
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Empathy!
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Billions and billions of ideas!!! non-stop!
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Being able to escape to another world (distraction and daydream) when ‘normal people’ can’t
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Being able to truly enjoy movies… because I’m in them lol
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Being able to relate to my daughter better than any non-ADHD adult ever could… because hey, I can be 5 and 34 in the same day!
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Me! I’m my biggest ADHD strength!!! and many many times I fail to see that…
TJ
My ADD strength is in the area of music. From a very early age, I hyper focused whenever I heard music. My dad played classical, showtunes, and folk. When I was in early elementary, I could sing Peter, Paul and Mary with perfect pitch. During the 60s and 70s, I was obsessed with the creative rock I heard ( a good friend tells me a mild obsession is a lovely thing!). My other hyperfocus was reading literature and writing. Although I became a teacher, eventually the music came back in to my life. I met my wonderful husband, who is a musician when I was in my late 40s. We have fronted three bands, and write our own music.
Sonja
I think that some of my ADHD Strengths include being really good at puzzles of all kinds. I can spot patterns, shapes, and differences in colours where others seem to miss them. I think this is related to the fact that my worst/best distractions are visually related. This visual acuity also seems to help me spot birds, unique flowers, and animals while on my hikes.
Another strength that I feel is related to my ADHD is that I am obsessed with understanding the why/how behind historical events and even in fictional stories. I love timelines and understanding how characters (both real and fictional) get to where they are. That sort of “need to know” permeates other areas as well and I often won’t rest until I feel I understand the background of something. I feel this gives me unique insights into events and people that other people miss out on. It piggy backs on the puzzle thing as well as I need to have all the pieces fit and make sense or I am unsettled.
Melissa
One of my ADHD assets is spelling and being a wordsmith
Matthew
Because I have ADHD *with executive functioning disorder*, unfamiliar signage, forms, charts, maps or websites can jam my brain at first sight, which creates a great aversion to exploring further. But because of this, I have a great sense for clean, balanced, user-friendly design and easy way finding. I am a great colleague to test the design of signage, or a new web page or digital screen on. I can identify places where the design might be busy, confusing, or distracting, font styles and sizes and colors that might be easier to digest, and ask questions that help identify what important information might be missing for easier way finding
Noel
I’m good at figuring things out. I’m good at looking at situations differently.
Darcey
My husband of 48 years and daughter are ADD so I have observed a lot of ADD weaknesses and strengths
Strengths:
They are very peripherally aware——they notice everything going on around them.
This could be both helpful and dangerous cities or in forests— Also, it can be fun in that they notice beautiful things that I, in my focus, could miss. My daughter can spot every person she knows in an auditorium in 5 minutes—-
They are very loyal to those they love–more so than non ADDers
They have an innocence that continues into adulthood that is refreshing and endearing
There’s more but this is it for now!
Christine
I do not have ADHD, but my husband and son do, and a strength of theirs is their caring for others.
Lisa
Protected by Patchstack
A couple of my ADHD strengths:
– Remember the Where’s Waldo? books? I always found him in seconds.
– I can pick up on someone’s mood from across the room.
I am new to the world of ADHD and just recently realizing that I most likely have it. (Gettings diagnosed soon–it take MONTHS to get an appointment.) I have been following Untapped Brilliance for a bit and THIS is the BEST article, for me, yet. I have always thought there was something about me I needed to “fix” and if I could just figure out whatever “IT” is, I’d then judge myself as OK.
THIS article in particular, PLUS the comments, is sssssssssooooooooo helpful!!!! Truly a breath of fresh air. Thanks a MILLION!!!!
My strength is I can start over multiple times. I often forget how things made me feel and for better or worse, I’ll do or try things again. Sometimes it’s like groundhog day! But other times I recognise I’m getting better or moving forward – if I didn’t start again, I’d never know.
These are wonderful! I always feel much more “normal” knowing I’m not the only one who thinks like me. It’s helpful to know that some of my frustrations often arise because of my ADHD strengths – colleagues who think more slowly than I do, for one, drive me insane! I finally figured out that not everyone processes a dozen things at once…their brains must be so boring!
I also have finally accepted my “need” to know everything about certain subjects… if I have a new hobby, I dive right in. I recently had a (fairly rare) medical situation that I researched to the extent that I was informing my doctor of information he didn’t yet know!
Sometimes, I wonder if I’d have been better off in a career as a researcher – of course, the only requirement would be that I’d have to actually be interested in whatever I was researching because once I lose interest, I move on 🙂
I can absolutely relate to your hunger for knowledge about everything! Me, too. The internet is a blessing and a curse—so easy to wander into that forest and get lost. I love your self-acceptance about the limits of being a researcher—great until you are bored. So nice to hear from you!
Thank you for your post and in particular writing about the internet. Me too! You have no idea how helpful this is. Much appreciated!
Thank you so much for posting this. VERY helpful! All the very best to you 🙂