Patients responded well in times of ‘high environment demand’ because sense of urgency led to hyperfocus
A recent study has revealed that some people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cope best during periods of high stress.
Maggie Sibley, a clinical psychologist and psychiatry professor at the University of Washington and the study’s lead author, initially set out to learn whether it is possible for adults to recover from ADHD. In an earlier study, published in 2022, she investigated a National Institute of Mental Health data set that tracked 600 patients with ADHD over 16 years, starting from childhood.
“What we found was this pattern of fluctuating ADHD, and most of the people that were getting better, they would then get back to ADHD again,” she said.
The number of times I have been down voted for telling young ADHD sufferers to lean into the advantages of ADHD instead of bemoaning the disadvantages, are numerous.
I have to regiment myself every day, if it’s a boring same-old day with nothing urgent. I purposely put things off to increase urgency so I can accomplish mundane tasks. BUT when the shit hits the fan, I thrive. I can take multiple simultaneous inputs from vendors and engineers and pissed-off business people, and correctly direct and respond to those inputs when others are falling apart due to stress.
Lean into your strengths! If you have ADHD. You have a super power. Use it!
Hard disagree. This isn’t a superpower. It’s pressure put on us by timelines due to our chronic procrastination that causes a lot of stress. It leads to less sleep and while it may motivate us short term, the long term health effects aren’t good for us. And yeah we may get things done, but at least in my case they’re splotched together clumsily out of desperation and still haven’t gotten the attention and focus that was required.
It’s more of an “oh shit I have 1 day to do this important thing that I really needed a week to do properly. That doesn’t enable me to do it properly, it just makes me panic and focus long enough to pull an all-nighter and get the bare minimum done that will pass for something decent.
TLDR I have ADHD and I don’t feel like this is a good thing.
Id say its very situational.
When the shit hits the fan at work and I’m running the show I’m very effective because I have people I can tell to go do things I just thought of then and there. I dont have to remember to do them later which is where I fall apart.
"You, go check this and this and let me know. You go get this done let me know when its done. Think for a moment “and you guys get started on that, you guys get that fixed up and Ill take care of this.”
When the shit hits the fan and I have to resort to my memory and planning skills then we might be in trouble.