ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction - from Childhood through Adulthood

it helps to think of ADHD as a complex set of contradictory or paradoxical tendencies: a lack of focus combined with an ability to superfocus; a lack of direction combined with highly directed entrepreneurialism; a tendency to procrastinate combined with a knack for getting a week’s worth of work done in two hours; impulsive, wrongheaded decision m

But you can also get trapped in the TPN, doing a task from which you cannot disengage. This is the hyperfocused state that people with ADHD can fall into. Far from being helpful, it can keep you stuck in one task, unable to shut down the screen, turn off the TV, or move from one paragraph to the next. This is the often unrecognized downside of focu

In fact, we do not suffer from a deficit of attention. Just the opposite. We’ve got an overabundance of attention, more attention than we can cope with; our constant challenge is to control it.

Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).

Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.

We like irrational. We’re at home in uncertainty. We’re at ease where others are anxious. We’re relaxed not knowing where we are or what direction we’re headed in.

In the descriptors we offer for VAST below, you will see there is no requirement for impairment, because we are not designating this as a disorder, but as a trait. You will note there is also mention of many strengths. And unlike a formal ADHD diagnosis, for which six out of nine criteria on the axis of inattention or the axis of hyperactivity and

Predominantly Inattentive Presentation: if enough symptoms of inattention, but not hyperactivity-impulsivity, were present for the past six months

We offend people by forgetting names and promises, but we make good by understanding what nobody else has picked up on.

Trouble with time management, and a tendency to procrastinate.