My ADHD superpowers: when do they get here?!?

Before I had heard of ADHD superpowers, or knew I had ADHD, I didn’t believe I had any gifts or strengths. How could I? There were just so many things wrong with me that I should be working harder to fix…

To my surprise, getting an ADHD diagnosis helped me to see (ironically enough) that there’s nothing wrong with me. And that I probably share a bunch of magnificent qualities with you! These are what the neurospicy community has called our ADHD superpowers.

Note: There are people find the idea of ADHD superpowers to be painful, or even offensive. For some, it’s a lot to deal with, believing you’re rubbish your whole life, then somebody on the internet telling you that you have superpowers…which then makes you feel more rubbish for not even knowing how to benefit from them.

Fair enough! If you don’t like the idea of superpowers, you can call them ADHD gifts or ADHD strengths. I don’t agree with the statement that ‘ADHD is my superpower’ - it doesn’t make sense to me logically. But I do absolutely believe ADHD usually comes with gifts that we can activate to our advantage.

We all have our own personal gifts and strengths - you might love maths, be good at languages, or have an uncanny ability to pick a good restaurant. But there are also a bunch of positive qualities that are so common in people with ADHD that it’s kind of funny. (I want to see scientific papers about this phenomenon, but it’s clearly not the best way to get research funding?!?)

The ADHD superpowers

So what are the ADHD superpowers? Typical ADHD superpowers include: curiosity, research/learning, humour, playfulness, determination, problem-solving, big picture thinking, idea generation, honesty, a strong sense of justice, a unique viewpoint, independence, empathy, analysis, fun, spontaneousness, pattern-finding, self-awareness, creativity, and openness. You could include hyperfocus, talkativeness and special interests - remember this is a model or framework, rather than a hard-and-fast ‘reality’, so you get to define it in whatever way is most useful for you.

Our superpowers are often most visible when we’re interested, when we’re helping others, or when there’s a lot of urgency - basically, when the brain is woken up. Our superpowers can paradoxically be exactly what we struggle with in settings where we tend to tune out. For me, self-awareness, flexibility, determination, and being good with systems are qualities that can fluctuate wildly depending on context. (There’s a great discussion of these paradoxes in the book ADHD 2.0.)

Amazingly, many of us are reluctant to acknowledge and make use of our superpowers. Maybe we’ve learnt as kids to discount things and strategies that feel ‘easy’. Instead, we decide that the feeling of struggling hard is a more sure sign that we’re going okay - a kind of ‘toxic effort’. People end up ‘dealing with’ situations, putting in heaps of extra energy or time, and getting very stressed, instead of creating a life centred around what they find easy and enjoyable. Let’s change that!

Identify your ADHD superpowers

You are likely to recognise many of your superpowers just by seeing their names. After all, you’ve probably spent many hours trying to puzzle out the inconsistency that comes with having ADHD, which includes noticing areas in which people are visibly surprised by your awesomeness. You’ve done your own research!

Look through the list I’ve given you, and other lists online. I suggest you write/draw them out in beautiful colours on a sheet of paper. You could even include examples of how they play out in your life! You can also ask others for their observations of your superpowers in action - it may help to give them the list to work from.

Focusing on your gifts and strengths is a great antidote to putting yourself down. It’s easy to get in the habit of concentrating on the ways that you’re less than what you want to be, especially if this is one of your makeshift self-motivation strategies. But if you appreciate and enjoy your superpowers, you’re more likely to feel better about yourself, which will probably lead you to be less stressed. And that in turn helps reduce your ADHD symptoms. Ka-Bam!

Engage your ADHD superpowers

Your ADHD superpowers are like having a big magic stash of cash money hidden under your bed. It’s only useful if you remember to use it! Once you know what your ADHD superpowers are, you can set things up so that they’ll be prompted into action.

For example, I have a strong desire to avoid admin tasks. Now, for many emails, there is a real person wanting a reply from me. If I consciously engage my superpower of empathy, I can imagine the person waiting for a response, perhaps even wondering if I’m ignoring them because I hate them. Oh no! How awful would that be? So I reply to the email in good time.

Have you ever noticed that you can sometimes increase your motivation for a task by making it more challenging? If cooking nachos again for dinner is boring, how about making a three-dish meal based on the colours of the Mexican flag…? Ooo, hello there, my superpowers of curiosity, research, creativity and fun!

Shape your life around your superpowers

Ultimately, I want us all to have lives where we can each enjoy and contribute the most awesomeness with the least amount of toxic effort. Accepting yourself as you are is a radical act in our world - and that includes accepting your ADHD superpowers.

Once you know your superpowers and how to engage them, you have a chance to set your life up to maximise them. For example, in my ADHD coaching, my superpowers of humour and honesty are really valued - in contrast to the mixed reactions they got in my brief stint as a receptionist at a backpackers during a bedbug infestation. 

Understanding your superpowers allows you to advocate for what works for you.This might be about having a lot of autonomy in your work. It might be keeping an eye on your stimulus levels so that curiosity can keep you on task. It could include using your pattern-finding superpowers to help you work out a great system for organising your kitchen cupboard, based on how you use the space, rather than aesthetics (goodbye cupboard doors!)

In my coaching sessions, I often help people engage their gifts and strengths to move forward, and if you’d like to know more about how to do this in your life, you’re welcome to have a chat with me. Till then, what’s one of your ADHD superpowers you can engage today to make a task easier?