ADHD May Not Be A Disorder After All

Isaac’s energy level, enthusiasm, and talkativeness were too much—at least for a traditional classroom.

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); one psychologist explained that he had a high IQ but low maturity.

Illustration by Lumi Liu

It wasn’t until Heather Rodden began homeschooling him in fifth grade that she realized what years of frustrated teachers couldn’t put their fingers on—what looked like a liability in one setting can flourish in another.

Like Rodden, other parents, researchers, and professionals are moving away from treating ADHD purely as a disorder that 1 in 10 kids have.

The word “deficit” in ADHD, they argue, obscures strengths—such as creativity, hyperfocus, and cognitive flexibility—that often accompany the condition.

“‘Different wiring’ isn’t automatically bad,” Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, brain-body clinics that use imaging instead of checklists for mental health issues, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Sometimes it’s simply diversity in how people think and create. ADHD isn’t a character flaw—it’s a brain pattern.”

At the heart of the matter is finding where and how people with ADHD will thrive.

An ADHD Brain

One frustration for people with ADHD is that it’s rarely lack of knowledge that holds them back. It is that their brains don’t consistently concentrate.

Focus requires a coordinated effort between the brain’s frontal control system, which helps you stay organized and resist distractions, the basal ganglia, which regulates motivation by using the reward chemical dopamine, and the cerebellum, which coordinates timing and attention. In ADHD brains, that coordination is inconsistent—not absent—but unreliable under demand.

“That helps explain inconsistent performance,” Amen said. “It’s called a disorder because it can disrupt performance at school, work, and home.”

While most research focuses on the deficits of ADHD, some studies suggest that many who have symptoms also have specific strengths.

Those with ADHD outperformed others in divergent thinking, particularly in fluency (generating many ideas quickly) and flexibility (combining concepts in unexpected ways), according to findings reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

A study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry found small to moderate positive correlations among ADHD traits of hyperfocus, sensory processing sensitivity, and cognitive flexibility (the ability to rapidly switch tasks, behaviors, or perspectives).

Hyperfocus is becoming absorbed in a task, sometimes to the point of losing track of time and surroundings—called flow in someone who doesn’t have ADHD, Claire Sira, a neuropsychologist who specializes in coaching adults with ADHD, told The Epoch Times.

Sensory processing sensitivity is typically thought of as a low sensory threshold—being overwhelmed by stimuli such as light, sound, and smell. However, in the study, sensory processing sensitivity was defined differently—a sensory appreciation for aesthetics, nature, or architecture, for example.

Another study of adults with ADHD published in Frontiers in Psychiatry noted that impulsivity and hyperactivity are seen as positive by some people with an ADHD diagnosis.

In an analysis published in BMJ Open, adults with ADHD reported dual benefits in weakness traits. A 30-year-old woman noted that being overly active allows her to do more than her peers in less time: “Then I get to experience more.” Another woman reported that her inattention has led to overhearing “amusing conversations.”

Traits such as impulsivity and hyperactivity can become strengths, rather than liabilities, by focusing on neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new neural connections—possibly even after injury and later in life, Amen noted. Meditation, breathing exercises, physical activity, and learning new skills are all associated with improved neuroplasticity.

“Focusing only on deficits misses the point,” he added. “The real goal is to help people build a better brain so they can access their strengths consistently—especially when life demands concentration and follow-through.”

A Classroom Problem

Life’s demands, however, may partially explain the prevalence of ADHD, which some argue may be more of an environmental problem than a brain disorder.

An article published in BJPsych Advances noted that children of generations past were not expected to sit rigidly and concentrate on academics for several hours a day.

“My feeling has been for a long time that we make ADHD into a disease state or abnormality that really runs along a continuum in different directions,” retired pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman told The Epoch Times.

“And we tend to see it as abnormal because we want to see children sit still in class and do their schoolwork.”

Adjusting schools and workplaces will not only lift the stigma and shame of ADHD but also benefit everyone by making space for the skills and talents those with ADHD bring, according to psychiatrist and researcher Annie Swanepoel. “We need to recognize that variations are the spice of life,” she wrote in an article published in Clinical Neuropsychiatry.

Everyone would likely benefit from school and workplace adjustments aimed at improving focus, Sira said. Yet there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, she added.

For some, working in an open, busy office environment can offer accountability and motivation. For others, the visual distractions and noise can make work too challenging. They may need to work from home or behind an office door, Sira said.

“It would be way better if we could match the environment to the person.”

Zimmerman noted that children suspected of ADHD deserve a thorough evaluation, because in some cases, inattention and hyperactivity have underlying causes such as fetal alcohol syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and premature birth that are not always identified in schools.

However, in most cases, he said, ADHD is overdiagnosed and overtreated, when the real solution could be a different style of schooling altogether.

“If I had a child in that situation nowadays, I would certainly look for [an alternative school] where they could express themselves,” he said. “So much of what is important is relationships—it’s social development, to have kids learn fairness, and how to get along—all maybe more important than calculus.”

Are We Overdiagnosing?

In less than two decades, the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses among children increased from 6.1 to 10.2 percent. Today, it’s 11.4 percent of children aged 3 to 17. Adult ADHD diagnoses—though they represent about 1 percent of the population—nearly doubled from 2007 to 2016.

Zimmerman has reviewed studies recently that show overlap of symptoms between clearly defined ADHD patients and typical children. He added that even children with typical brain patterns have shown to have improved focus and less hyperactivity on medication.

Such overlap blurs the line of certainty when it comes to who has ADHD and who doesn’t, he said. “It’s a question of: Are we unfairly treating the kids? Are we penalizing them, in a sense, by making them take medication? It makes the kids look better, but it doesn’t necessarily make them perform better or certainly not feel better.”

One reason for the uptick in ADHD, Sira said, is simply the expansive demands on attention in the modern world, including screen usage, larger classrooms, and physical and emotional distractions that make it harder to stay focused.

The key is to teach the brain to shift into focus mode when needed, Amen said. “The problem comes when the focus-and-follow-through network—especially the prefrontal cortex and its partners—doesn’t reliably come online when it’s needed.”

The brain can be supported with a healthy diet, good sleep, and regular exercise, Sira said. “If you wanted to actively build your ability to regulate your own attention, meditation practices do this because that’s literally what meditation is—learning to recognize when your attention has wandered and bring it back—whatever is happening with sensory awareness and mindful movement.”

For children, martial arts and dance can teach discipline with mindful movement and improve attention. Adults can also grow those skills and should, she said, as neuroplasticity should be a lifelong goal.

I got paddled twice in school for just that infraction...both when I was in 7th grade in a school on a Navy base overseas.

I deserved it both times.

I got paddled once by Mr. Nutter who was teaching Spanish, and I blurted out in the middle of class “Andale Andale, Arriba, Arriba!” He was not amused, but the paddling was not bad. I didn’t like Mr. Nutter or his class.

The other time I got paddled was by Mr. Woods, who I liked immensely and who was a great teacher. Mr. Woods had served in the Marines, was about 5’6”, extremely fit, with darkly tanned skin, and at least six lines on his forehead which was topped by short curly hair, and forearms that looked like they had been transplanted from Popeye. He was also the baseball coach for George Dewey Junior-Senior High. Before class began on the first day of school, he told us, in clear, calm terms, his rules for class. No talking was prominent. He said anyone talking in class would be paddled, and he showed us what we would be paddled with. It looked exactly like a cricket bat.

With holes in it.

Well, I talked on the first day of class, and he calmly told me to stay after class. That day, I ended up with five of my seventh grade comrades waiting after class for Mr. Woods. Well, he walked back into the classroom where we were waiting, and he was carrying that paddle. We watched as he had the first kid bend over and grab his ankles, and after two swings, the gentle kind you might see a baseball player at bat do while the pitcher was figuring out what to throw, he suddenly swung hard, and with a loud “SMACK!” hit the kid in the buttocks.

The kid straightened up, wide eyed, grimacing and going “Aghh! AGHH!” and then stumbled out of the classroom, his white-knuckled fingers digging deeply into his cheeks from each side as we watched in startled fear! That swat didn’t seem ANYTHING like what Mr. Nutter delivered, which was laughable. I think the reaction of the first kid made it even worse.

I was next, and as I grabbed my ankles, I peered back between my spread legs at Mr. Woods and his paddle. He gave two premonitory gentle swings, and I heard him saying “You never know when it is going to hit...” and then suddenly, with a loud “SMACK!” he swatted me in the rear end.

My mom had hit me pretty hard with a belt before and had left red marks, but it was NOTHING compared to this. My bottom burned as if I had sat on red hot coals, or alternatively, as if I had sat on a hive of bees! I wasn’t a wimp, but he REALLY whacked me pretty hard, and I straightened up and went out the door exactly the same way the kid before me had!

Well.

Word certainly got around, and NOBODY did ANYTHING untoward in his class for the rest of that year. I remember being in a circle of kids who wanted to know what it was like, and I didn’t have to exaggerate to tell them, just as I have here. I even did a demonstration in that circle of wide-eyed kids of grabbing my ankles, complete with a loud verbal mimicking of the “SMACK!”, replete with me making the “ARGHHH” noises and grabbing my buttocks fiercely and I dug in my fingers in pain!

I didn’t know at the time, but I was doing ALL of Mr. Woods’ work there. I have no doubt that is exactly what he expected us to do...”educate” the other kids!

There were two lessons I learned from that:

First, that telling people how they will be punished for crimes, in clear and simple terms, and following through with that punishment immediately and to the letter, is not being cruel. It is being consistent and fair. To this day, I NEVER faulted Mr. Woods for paddling me.

Secondly, setting an example has a great deal of value. Following through with a punishment, not softening it, not delaying it, and making it painful, ensured that the word got out, and nobody wanted to break laws laid down by Mr. Woods.

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