Lesson 1: Focus on the Positive
What comes to your mind when you think about your ADHD? Do only you focus on the challenges you face? Are your feelings overwhelmingly negative?
Have you ever thought about turning those feelings around to find some positivity?
Life as an ADHD is challenging, that’s for sure. But it’s not all negative. Try thinking of your ADHD like a double-edged sword. There are difficulties, but gifts as well. Our ADDA community member explains:
Some challenges you’ll face when you have ADHD can feel overwhelming. You might feel stuck or hopeless sometimes. And that’s normal. But, if you can try to reframe your mindset, you’ll be able to see that ADHD has given you strengths too.
Having ADHD makes you stronger and more resilient to future challenges.
ADHD may have been your own trial by fire. But you’ve come through to the other side. You’ve developed incredible strengths from your ADHD journey – and resilience. Have you thought about how your resilience can bring you success in the future? Dr. Terry M. Dickson and Alan Brown explain further:
As an ADHDer, you have incredible creativity. You have an ability to think about the world in ways that neurotypical people don’t.
When you have ADHD, you see the world differently.
This difference is a character strength. When you see your ADHD in a different light, you can turn around the negative. Yes, having ADHD can make your life harder. But it can also give you an advantage. Think about it – your passion, your drive, and even hyperfocusing are incredible strengths – that comes from having ADHD. Dr. Terry M. Dickson explains:
When you have ADHD, you can think in ways that other neurotypical people can’t. You can engage in lateral thinking, instead of just linearly – seeing things in only black and white. Alan Brown has more:
When you’re first diagnosed, or at an early stage in your ADHD journey, it can be difficult to find anything positive in your ADHD. You’ve probably had a range of emotions, just like our ADDA community members, as they’ll share with you:
Our ADDA volunteers have been right where you are. They’ve had to learn to move away from only the negative connotations of ADHD, too. It’s definitely a challenge, but one that you’ll be equipped to handle – especially with all you’ve learned throughout this course.
Let’s hear from our community members and what they think about focusing on the positive when it comes to their ADHD. They’ve been through the ups and downs ADHD brings, and they’ve come out stronger on the other side.
It can be all too easy to focus on the negative when you think about having ADHD. And certainly, ADHD brings challenges to your life. But you can turn those negative thoughts around.
Try focusing on your resilience and creativity – that ADHD contributes. You might be surprised to realize how it does so in ways that neurotypical people don’t experience.
It is possible to live well with ADHD.
Learning to turn around the negativity of your ADHD is also a part of learning to build up your self-confidence and self-esteem. It’s something we’ll hear more about in the next lesson.
Coming Up Next…
Check your knowledge of what you’ve learned in this lesson with a quick quiz. Then stay tuned to learn how to become more confident and increase your self-esteem.