zacirving

> [ADHD] doesn't allow me to 'think freely and creatively' as the article asserts, it prevents me from continuing to think about what I want to think about.

Really liked this comment.

On the one hand, studies have suggested that ADHDers are generally more creative than their intelligence matched peers. This is true with respect to laboratory tests of creativity [2] and creative achievements in the real world [3].

On the other hand, @viewer5 brings up a couple deep points about how we should qualify our interpretations of this research. First, ADHD comes on a spectrum, and is going to affect different people in different ways. So conclusions about the "average" individual with ADHD aren't going to generalize to everyone.

For example, I have the inattentive sub-type of ADHD, but am low on the spectrum. So my ADHD creates all sorts of problems (I'm late to appointments and deadlines, distractible, find it hard to sleep, lose expensive stuff, etc.), but I feel those are outweighed in my case by advantages (e.g. creativity).

Others who are further along on the spectrum might experience way more of the disadvantages, and in any case, it's deeply personal.

Second, @viewer5 brings up a super-deep point about creativity (though I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind). Being creative isn't just about generating novel ideas (which ADHD probably helps with, on balance). Creativity also requires the ability to focus long enough to assess and develop those original ideas.

There's an old idea that different psychological capacities support the generation and evaluation of creative ideas (see [4]). Psychometric (e.g. [5]) and neuroscientific (e.g. [6]) research has supported this idea. So ADHD might help idea generation, while hindering idea evaluation and development, which seems consistent with @viewer5's experiences (disclaimer: I'm spitballing with this last hypothesis).

[2] White and Shah (2006) "Uninhibited Imaginations: Creativity in Adults with ADHD" http://totallyadd.com/wp-content/uploads/White_Shah_ADHDCrea...

[3] White and Shah (2011) "Creative style and achievement in adults with ADHD" http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886910...

[5] Campbell (1960) "Blind Variation and Selective Retention in creative thought as in other knowledge processes" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245588360_Blind_var...

[5] DeYoung et al. (2008) "Cognitive Abilities Involved in Insight Problem Solving: An Individual Differences Model" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234819098_Cognitive...

[6] Beaty et al. (2016) "Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26553223

LOVED these comments about whether ADHD is a "mental illness" (@Yanwar and I talked a lot about this.). Here are some thoughts.

> ADHD is labeled a "mental illness" in the opening paragraph

@skywopper is right that our article suggests the value of neurodiversity, and thus it's weird to think of ADHD as an "illness". But @Yanwar is right that because so many people think of ADHD this way, it's important to acknowledge this POV, and think about how our research puts pressure on it.

I'd add that negative perceptions of mind-wandering (and by extension, ADHD) go WAY BACK in the history of Western thought. Back in the 1200s, Aquinas classified mind-wandering as a "daughter sin" of sloth (!) [1].

So we wanted to engage, head on, with this intellectual tradition that casts mind-wandering as a "sin" and ADHD as an "illness".

[1] Thomas Aquinas (1273) Summa Theologica, IIa IIae q.35a.4

I'm one of the authors on this paper, and was so happy to hear this thread was going! I've heard about HN from my hacker friends, and it's hilarious and flattering to be here!!

Seems like you've been having a great discussion. Thank y'all and stay curious! I'll go through the comments and respond where I can.

[Edit: thanks to @upen for posting this!!]