28 superpowers that people with ADHD keep describing, each with its evidence and its flip side.
Find your superpowers See all 28
Four labels are packed into the letters A-D-H-D. Here is the other half of each.
They said: You can’t pay attention
Your attention is picky.
Researchers say the hard part in ADHD is steering attention. Many people with ADHD say that when it locks on, it locks hard.
Meet Laser LockThey said: You have a deficit
You have extras too.
Ideas, imagination, humor, deep focus on what you love. Researchers have started counting these. Nobody told you that part.
See the scienceThey said: You’re hyperactive
You have an engine.
Some people with ADHD can’t sit still. Plenty can, and the motor runs on the inside instead. Either way, it’s fuel.
Meet Turbo EngineThey said: You have a disorder
You have a different design.
The struggle is real when the world is built for another kind of brain. Change the fit and a lot changes. Getting help is part of changing the fit.
Read the owner’s manualNobody has all of them. See which ones sound like you.
More ideas, stranger ideas, and links that jump out before the obvious ones.
Going looking: new places, new projects, new ways. And a nose for when to move on.
Moving when it matters. Fast choices, deep focus, and a last-minute sprint.
Big feelings, often pointed at other people. Fair, funny and honest.
Tap what sounds like you. Four quick rounds. No sign-up, no score.
Start the quizThis part is our hunch, and we’ll call it a hunch. Routine work keeps going to machines. The work that’s left is exploring, inventing and changing course fast, and we think a lot of ADHD brains are built for that.
Top 5
Employers told the World Economic Forum which skills matter most. Creative thinking and flexibility both made the top five. Curiosity is in the top ten and climbing.
2x
In a study of about 9,800 students, those with ADHD were about twice as likely to be starting a business. It didn’t measure whether the businesses worked.
457
adults played a berry-picking game. Those who scored high on an ADHD questionnaire left a thinning bush sooner, and earned more points.
An Olympic gymnast, the founder of JetBlue and the guy who draws Dog Man all have ADHD. Here is what they say about it.
Most decorated gymnast in history
Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of nothing that I’m afraid to let people know.
Said in: Biles, 2016
Simone Biles has won 11 Olympic medals and 30 world championship medals, more world medals than any other gymnast. In 2016, at 19, she told the world she has ADHD and takes medicine for it.
Facts from: NPR, 2023
Creator of Captain Underpants and Dog Man
…attention deficit hyperactivity delightfulness, is how I prefer it
Said in: Pilkey on CBS, 2017
That’s what Dav Pilkey calls ADHD. As a kid he couldn’t stay in his seat and was always daydreaming. His second-grade teacher tore up his drawings. He now writes books for kids like him.
Founder of JetBlue, Azul and Breeze airlines
I can think outside the box and look at a very complex situation and simplify it and figure it out. And I can look at the world just a little bit differently and figure out solutions to things that people would not have thought of.
Said in: Neeleman in TIME for Kids, 2024
David Neeleman has started or co-started five airlines, including JetBlue, Azul and Breeze. In 1993 his airline Morris Air became one of the first to fly passengers without paper tickets. He builds teams of organized people around him so the ideas get finished.
Facts from: Goldman Sachs, 2024, Deseret News, 1993, Neeleman in Forbes, 2023
Super strength makes a gentle touch hard. Super speed makes it hard to slow down. ADHD strengths work the same way, and some days the other side is really hard. The owner’s manual covers both sides, and when to get help.
Read the owner’s manual