Illustration by Lumi Liu
Posted on 03/10/2026 8:40:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
Read the rest here...
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Jim
,,, agreed. I'm OK with hearing nine stories in three minutes :)
I know what I was like in grade-school. I can make a good guess as to what I (as a child) would be "diagnosed" with starting in the early 1990s. I'm glad the educational-psychological syndicate wasn't as powerful when I was a child as it is now.
My two cents.
People learn differently.
Hence there are learning channels.
Some folk learn better visually.
Others learn better auditorily.
Others are tactile or hands on learners.
Sadly auditory learning has gone by the wayside.
Listening skills are no longer valued.
A century ago when colleges were actually higher centers of learning, the best professors were the ones who had spent years perfecting their lectures.
From afar I believe students are given too much busy paper work at too early an age.
Too much focus on visual learning.
I still believe art and music should be a major part of elementary education.
Learning and schooling are two different things.
I remember when John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of American Education got quite a bit of discussion on Free Republic.
It’s a good read.
Don’t know about you, but I was bored silly until High School.
Life was better when we didn't have to have a name and a "diagnosis" for everything. Yeah, people are different in a whole lot of different ways. Yay! It would be boring if we were all "average".
Agree
Like I said, even that is a loaded word. I’m just different.
CC
Do you have a link to your claims ? : )
Backkkkk when I was just a little boy, they called it Daydreaming.
Teacher said, “Quit daydreaming. You’re looking out the window and not paying attention to a word I said”.
I said, “I heard every word you said. I can listen and daydream.”
Our brain is not limited to a single thread.
They have the first part right. ATTENTION DEFICIT. It’s just that it’s chosen, not an illness. I wasn’t paying attention because I was bored. I already understood what the teacher was trying to teach. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The trick is for the student to know the difference. Drugs don’t solve the problem, they just hide it.
Women. They are the ones who don’t like boys who won’t sit quietly in nice little rows like girls do. They created a definition so that they could medicate them. They want your kids medicated and well behaved but if you try discipline that makes them squeamish, they call Child Protective Services which is something they also created.
Adults have the same problem. They think they are ‘in control’ of themselves.
I tell them, “bet you can’t be quiet for 1 minute”.
They say, “yes I can”.
I say, “wasn’t even five seconds.”
They say,”I can too. This isn’t fair.”
I say, “still talking ?”
They say, ......
On and on it goes and they never shut up.
I am an advocate of the Oriental wisdom.
MASTER THYSELF!
I’m working on it.
Thank You. Excellent article. Reasonable analysis of the diagnostic and treatment problems.
Oh my Lord! Quit with the demonization of all women! Get over your problems with your mother, grandmother,aunts,sisters, daughters, grand daughters, great grand girls or wives..or funky extramarital relationship drama brought on by your own exalted self and poor choices.
My wonderful husband of 55 years passed last August. The most important thing he taught me…he was 23 at the time and I was 18… never be a victim, suck it up and enjoy your life. No one is responsible for you but you! He was right and it saved my life.
No two people see the same rainbow.
…and now after months of grief, his words encourage me to suck it up once again, however much it hurts to be without him. He was proud of me, a woman. He loved and cherished me and respected my opinions . He counted on me to take care of some things and I counted on him to take care of other things…we divided this by ability and expedience so our lives were enhanced by this. I cannot imagine how anyone with such animus toward the opposite sex could possibly find any happiness and peace in life.
At my nieces kids school every kid learns the violin. They do concerts during the year and it is a joy seeing them perform. Not all end up playing into the later grades but they all start out there.
❤️🥰
Same!!
It’s my Superpower!
Ain’t my fault people can’t keep up with my quantum leap crazy segue James Burke Connections thought processes!
I always get where I’m mentally going and love the side quests on the way!
😆
.
Schools are little more than prisons. Especially for boys. They lock them away in a sterile jail cell and force them to sit in u comfortable desks all day long when they should be out playing, wrestling, and rough housing.
I never believed in that adhd garbage.
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