Ever wonder how celebrities, such as Adam Levine and Justin Timberlake, write their most famous songs? What occurs in their head to allow them to create original and creative pieces of work? In addition to their own musical talent, there is another underlying component that the celebrities mentioned before share: Attention Hyperactivity Disorder, otherwise known as ADHD. But, what does this have to do with their ability to sing and create music? New studies are on track to suggest that creativity is enhanced in those living with ADHD.
Before presenting the evidence, we have to understand how Attention Hyperactivity Disorder works to increase one’s creativity. According to Healthline, ADHD is a type of mental state where a person has trouble focusing and controlling their behavior. As a result, the condition is characterized into 3 main points: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. There are also three components to creative thinking: divergent thinking, conceptual expansion and overcoming knowledge constraints. To begin with, divergent thinking, since people with ADHD continuously struggle to focus on a singular idea, they demonstrate the ability to divergently think better than an average person. According to Scientific American, Divergent thinking is one's ability to form numerous ideas from one starting point. This is crucial to people with high levels of creativity because they can generate a vast amount of ideas that most are not able to think of to begin with. For conceptual expansion and knowledge constraints, Scientific American revealed that this component of creative cognition is supported through a study done on college students. In the study, college students with ADHD performed better than those not diagnosed with ADHD on two tasks that focused on a person’s conceptual expansion and their ability to overcome knowledge constraints.
So, ADHD makes people more creative, right? Not exactly.
The research found is not fully concrete since studies suggest a correlation between ADHD or Attention-Deficit Disorder, ADD, and the individual components of creativity. Divergent thinking contributes to creativity but the studies done are not proving a direct correlation to creative thinking, therefore, it is more accurate to say that there is no solid evidence to prove people with ADHD are creative. These people can create more ideas, but they might not always be original ideas, making them creative. Others in the Psychology community disagree since people with ADHD demonstrate all parts of creative cognition better than those without ADHD.
Nevertheless, there are other symptoms of ADHD that can further one’s creative levels in addition to the three original components. For instance, according to Understood, in a study about impulsivity with people who have been diagnosed with ADHD or ADD, impulsivity might lead people to have more original ideas, suggesting higher levels of creativity. This is due to their lack of inner inhibition which causes them to struggle controlling when they want to say or do something. Furthermore, Understood reported that children with ADHD or ADD may be able to create new ideas better than other children who are not diagnosed with ADHD or ADD due to their inability to focus. This causes them to struggle to tune out their surroundings, allowing them to combine all of these elements together in ways most would not be able to.
So, what’s the big takeaway from all of this? Well, in addition to the supporting evidence to suggest that people with ADHD are more creative, not all mental conditions are debilitating. Specifically with ADHD, although people with this condition struggle every day to focus and remain attentive, this increases their talents elsewhere that most would need years of practice to develop. Mental illnesses can affect everyday life negatively in some aspects, however, there are benefits to the negativity that we often fail to realize.