Susan Smalley: ADHD is beneficial to humanity
Susan L. Smalley, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and founder of the Mindful Awareness Research Center.
In her article Living And Loving ADHD, she writes about her husband Kevin Wall who, along with Al Gore, just won an Environmental Media Award for the creation of Live Earth.
She notes that she studies “exactly what my husband embodies - the mind of someone with ADHD - creative, novelty-seeking, a ‘connector’, intuitive, and happy..”
She adds, “Although ADHD is still classified a disorder because of the challenges individual’s face with it, I’m more convinced everyday that it is a way of thinking and processing the world that is so beneficial to humanity, we must turn our attention to it.”
[The image is from the book ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says.]
Also see more material on the page ADD / ADHD.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
I totally agree with Susan Smalley. I have met some BRILLIANT people who have been diagnosed with ADHD. I think if the person is encouraged in what he/she is passionate about they can thrive possibly even more than the non-ADHD person. I wrote about ADHD on my blog and refer to Greg from Holistic Personal Development blog who treats his ADHD without drugs and is super intelligent. I LOVE seeing things like this being written! Thank you! Gratefully, Jenny Mannion