ADHD Is Awesome

Penn carefully walks a line between sympathizing and cheerleading. This is the same line I've tried to walk in my career, including my ongoing mission to dispense with the hideous, demeaning, and inaccurate term we've had to make do with for the past 30 years or so. The term ADHD, which stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, gets one's entire journey into the kingdom of this fascinating condition off on precisely the wrong foot. We do not suffer from a deficit of attention, just the opposite. We have an abundance of attention. Our challenge is to control it. Once we do that, the sky is the limit in terms of what we can do in life. I prefer a different term, one that is accurate without overly pathologizing what is a potentially advantageous condition. I call it VAST, or Variable Attention Stimulus Trait. The term casts it as a trait, not a pure disorder, and highlights three of its core elements – variability, the meandering of attention, and the search for high stimulation. Life with what I call VAST, what others call ADHD, and still others call a pain in the butt, is never dull. We need to dispel stigma and move past the caricature to reveal what is in fact a complex, rich, and powerful way of being in the world. Penn and Kim are passionate about this mission for the same reasons I am. We have seen what victory and glory, what salvation and success, what transformation of individuals and families result when people catch on to what this condition is really all about. ADHD is Awesome is the perfect companion to accompany you on your ADHD-slash-VAST journey. Just do me a favor and try to hold on to it. Edward Hallowell, M.D. Introduction Hi friend, welcome to the ADHD club. You have joined a tribe of massively creative, fun-loving, funny innovators and non-linear thinkers who aren't easily discouraged. We're often the life of the party and the first ones to take a risk. Yeah, we lose things, like a lot of things, and we occasionally drive other people up a wall with our energy and interruptions. However, we are also some of the most curious, quick-thinking, shoot-for-the-stars types of people on the planet. We're glad to have you on the team. And if you're reading this because someone you love has ADHD, a special welcome. Thanks for taking the time to learn more about us. That is true love. It can be super annoying to live in a world that wasn't really designed for us. Distractions hurtle at us like a hailstorm. Between video meetings, calendar reminders, social media notifications, and a steady stream of obligations and expectations, life can be overwhelming, especially for our ADHD brains. We live in a society that values multitasking, office work, and the ability to stick to a carefully planned schedule. All things that cause the ADHD brain to short out. It can feel blazingly unfair. If there were a button we could push to make everything and everyone ADHD-friendly, we would press that baby in an instant. But until the world catches up with ADHD, we're going to have to live in the world we've got. I'm Penn Holderness, and I have ADHD. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder more than 20 years ago, and my wife Kim has learned how to support me with grace and good humor while enjoying the ride of living with someone who is basically the human equivalent of a golden retriever who occasionally forgets to put his mug under the coffee maker in the morning. Kim and I are not doctors or clinicians, but we know intimately the frustrations and joys of having an ADHD brain. We don't study ADHD. We live it. We live the hassle of keys locked in cars, schedules upended, and endless lost headphones. By the way, why are those things so expensive? I'm sorry. Seriously. Why are they so expensive? And why is it that if you lose one AirPod, you have to buy both AirPods? And why don't they... The system is rigged, honey. Why don't they survive the washing machine? I have a lot of... That's not what this book is about, but... Big headphone industry has it out for ADHD folks. They do. Okay, moving on. Sorry. We live a creative life full of surprises, a life that doesn't always go as planned. I use my ADHD brain to create and execute videos that have generated over a billion views online. I once channeled the power of ADHD to help Kim and me win the amazing race.