The Creativity Side Of ADD/ADHD

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Anyone else care to elaborate?

Because it's been documented that Kurt Cobain had it, and that it somehow played apart in his creativity and even success because of the risk-taking behaviour and such.

Are we with ADD more creative or lucid in our thinking?

Are we more strange or surreal in our imagination?


This is Glasgow based comedian Brian Limond, or Limmy.

This guy is very odd/weird with his sketches, and he talks about on his webcam about how he was always daydreaming etc. in classes, which leads me to think he might have it and somehow played apart in his success into a creative career.

So, if anyone else with ADD feels this way, I'd like to know your thoughts on this.

Yeah this issue really interests me as well...

Russ Barkely (sp?) (THE add/hd guy) apparently insists that add/hd shouldn't really be regarded as a positive part of someone's makeup - they're 'creative' with or without the add, but add doesn't add anything to this.

Now, I don't intuitively agree with this because it seems that someone whose thoughts are racing can, at least quantitatively, think of more 'stuff' than someone whose thoughts are not as prolific, although in the add person these thoughts may be less structured and therefore communicable.

Many 'diagnoses' seem to have been given to Cobain, many posthumously (after he ate the humous...?), it's pretty clear there was some kind of bi-polar, add, depression spectrum-thing going on with him. Also it's important to remember that he was also a creative genius who ultimately blew his own brains out, so it's important to not romanticise his state of mind too much.

The question is always like this - would WE as an audience, like our artists tortured and brilliant, or (as if there HAS to be an 'or') psychologically healthy but creatively assinine/bland...? Is suffering synonymous with genius?

So many questions, argh! Apologies for the ramblement.

Yeah, exactly. I tend to get billions of ideas in short periods, but there's no way I can do anything with 99% of them.

I guess that harnessing the power of ADHD as part of a stand up act is a good idea, if you can do it. I think you'd need to be fast on your mental feet to make humorous use of that kind of mental activity.

This is one of the topics I would avoid since I wouldn't technically know.

I don't know what it's like to not having Asperger's and ADHD, so I can't say how more or less creative I would be without it. Therefore, I cannot compare "with" and "without", so can't judge either to be more or less creative.

Regarding creativity for ADHD/ADD, in my view a case could be made for imperfect creativity due to the attention deficit aspect of ADHD - especially ADHD Inattentive.

The primary symptoms of ADHD are: Inattention, Hyperactivity, and Impulsivity.

Creativity is often a (somewhat) controlled process (my view).

A good artist has to choose from a variety of possible paintbrushes and colors so the whole process involves intense, relaxed concentration.

Am aware that the term ADHD/ADD has been used for some musicians such as Kurt Cobain and Miley Cyrus, however, their musical gifts mirror the ability to sustain attention (vs inattention) which raises a question as to whether they mirror symptoms of ADHD yet are not actually ADHD; they are uniquely gifted (world class) performers and perhaps have been mislabeled as ADHD/ADD?

Sometimes ADHD medicines are given to persons to shut them up/quiet them down because their behavior/movements are deemed to not fit in by the political powers that be.

That doesn't mean the persons are actually ADHD; it may mean someone wants to reduce their behavior using strong drugs so their movements are more politically correct and a classroom is quieter.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/

Cognition
Perception
Creativity

Symptoms of ADHD/ADD vs actual ADHD/ADD

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodmi ... ntion.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/

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