Makes a motion picture animated movie within my head before I go to bed with music, characters, a coherent story, drama, action, the whole nine yards.... The next day when I try to write it down: "There was a tree."
Yes! Now add in dreaming everything in full technicolour, emotional detail and forgetting everything the next day and writing something completely different instead...
I am trying to Start writing my first book of a series that i have imagine in my head for years. I have like 20 books in my head close to 100 characters and I dont know how to start.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 great work Stephen! Your animations make watching these videos so much fun and entertaining and easier to follow and focus on!!
I’m a coder by profession and I have made some name for myself in problem solving. Now my managers don’t give me mundane tasks, even when I changed jobs, it was evident what drives me. The problems I solve aren’t common. And that motivates me like nothing else.
That’s great! I was really good at programming in A levels and got As in it, but I chose to do a degree in psychology because it’s more interesting for me, I know I will be motivated to learn when I actually want to learn :) can’t do a job I don’t find interesting. Congratulations though!
I'm just the same. I now specialise in the complex and unique coding projects/solutions! One of the perks of course is being able to script away mundane tasks sometimes!
as a mechanic I like to perform diagnostics. I get to see weird things and solve some weird problems. also im on my feet and get to play with power tools
As a painter, and someone who was diagnosed late, I was worried about the meds affecting my creativity, but in my experience they absolutely don't. They help me finish the projects I start, but I haven't noticed my ideas slowing down. I'm just less likely do drop what I'm currently doing for the new idea, and more likely to write it down for later. So, to my fellow artists out there, don't be afraid of the meds if you feel like you need them!
Whenever I'm working on a creative project, I'm also writing down a ton of other ideas. It seems like creativity breeds new ideas. I'm always capturing those ideas.
Thank you so much, that is indeed what I was worried about. Having not been diagnosed yet, but like the signs for ADHD are so OUT THERE, I was really worried that the shrink may just put me on drugs or something, lol. And now I am looking for a professional to figure things out with. :)
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I was just recently diagnosed and was prescribed medication and this was something I was worried about. It’s so nice to hear someone else’s experiences.
I used to think I didn’t have adhd because I wasn’t creative enough, but I only applied it to artistic creativity. Turns out, I’m really good at logical problem solving and coming up with more efficient methods of doing tasks. Taking my medication also makes me more efficient at coming up with those ideas, narrowing them down, and executing them.
You should try exploring other creative avenues too! I never liked artistic creativity, I found it super draining, but I love the logical creativity, which is why im going to school for engineering. But there's other creative outlets that can be fun. I've found writing and improv to be exciting, as you can further extrapolate on an initial idea, not dissimilar to logical problem solving. You may enjoy things you never thought you would.
So i am an archeologist and i just got diagnosed with adhd, so the first thing i thiught was oh what would the archaeology of adhd be...read the hunter vs farmer hypothesis and thought wait what, how the f does adhd make u a better hunter and a worse farmer. It makes 0 since. If anything adhd could make for better foragers but that seems tenuous.
Lol I've never heard that, how strange. Being chronically homeless, I can relate to how ADHD makes me a bit better survivalist, because I can rig anything out of anything (I get such a kick out of building what I need out of whatever random objects are available for me to scavenge or buy cheap lol) but I don't really see it being germane to specifically hunting or foraging. If anything my impatience and poor visual integration would make me worse at those.
@@Creationweek Yeah, I get the foraging thing, but don’t hunters have to remain still and quiet for hours at a time? Doesn’t sound like a very ADHD-friendly activity lol. And farming would involve a lot of different tasks that would create variety and keep us busy... but maybe I’m projecting a little because I’m an avid gardener. 😂
Worth noting: Nowadays, doing art or any creative job for a living also requires you to have the skills required to work freelance/independent and GOD is that hard while having ADHD >.< (I've been painting the same painting for a month. HELP)
Seriously!! The amount of times I've left a painting because I started worrying about how to tag it on Instagram without being obnoxious or searching what tools I'll need to learn for freelance accounting is unbelievable. Its like, how do we enjoy creating when the same ADHD brain that sees no box also needs to make a living, pay the bills, market yourself without getting overwhelmed by rejection sensitivity, and idk, Excel sheets have more boxes than my brain can handle anyway I guess that's a good reason to be kinder to ourselves tho. I put myself down for looking up freelancer tutorials and abandoning my WIPs, but it makes sense, you know? We love to create but we gotta eat, and the stress of supporting ourselves is a lot! That helps me speak more kindly to myself, at least. Survival and creative work are conflicting demands on our brains, and it doesn't make us worse creative workers or people. It's genuinely really difficult and pur ADHD brains are doing their best. And good luck on your painting! You've taken a month on it, and sure, it's a long time, but that tells me you're dedicated to your art whether or not others can see it from your output. Self-compassion won't make rent, but boy howdy self-defeating beliefs and negative self-talk are the worst managers on a deadline
May I recommend you Adam Duff Lucidpixul channel? He is a freelance graphic artist and does great talks on art in general, how to learn etc... It really helps with motivation, for me at least!
@@thespiralingshapes Excel is fun though. I like playing around in there making spreads. When I had to learn it, I didn't like it most of the time, but now I enjoy it (including coming up with new ways to include stuff into spreads). Might be my analytical side now that I think of it. I've always love analytical and critical thinking and I love science so it's probably a suitable extension :D
@@ammalyrical5646 oooh that actually is really cool! In the video there was this pirate ship tree house to make a hard task more motivating. My version in excel is more like mapping geographic data around my neighborhood and city. Pretty ambitious for someone who doesn't know basic formulas, but its ok because some other ADHD brains in my life are into Excel so I'll ask questions along the way Thanks for your reply, it helped me fill out some motivational planks!!
@@thespiralingshapes happy to help you 😀 I'm currently having to go further and learn basic MATLAB skills. I hope the experience will be similar. I think I just need to give myself permission to have fun trying stuff
Okay the fruit drawings HIT me. In middle school art class we had the option to make up and draw an alien plant and I made this hyper efficient plant that photosynthesized, ate bugs, had trap doors in the bottom for ants to be consumed, and a bunch of other wild mechanisms. I should have known right then and there lmaoooo
This channel made realize i had ADHD. I got medication, and it has been a game changer. It’s crazy to think i could have gone my whole life not knowing.
@@melody0007 I live in Ireland and the procedure here is you speak to your GP and get referred to a psychiatrist. If you don't know how to bring it up, writing it down first can help, that's worked fer me in the past
I do find that because of the way my brain works I do understand things differently. This can be a real blessing but also a curse. One time in college I was doing a mock essay and I got the exam back and it turned out that I had completely misinterpreted what the question was asking. On the other hand, most of my university professors praise how I look at things in a different way and provide unique arguments that nobody else gives. I always say don't think outside the box but think as though there is no box.
I once got a lower grade on a math test that I answered correctly because the teacher didn't understand my thought process 🙃(we were not asked to do it a specific way)
I had to take a philosophy class. Hate philosophy. Anyway, I learned the material and went to do the exam. I draw a topic, and tell the teacher what I learned. The teacher said "you totally misinterpreted the whole thing". Yeah, at least he gave me a passing grade. Then again, in high school we had to come up with our own philosophy and the teacher was so impressed, he told the whole class how good my essay was.
I was thinking that I'm not that creative, so thanks for bringing this up. I've hit this issue so many times... Poetry interpretation is the worst, for example
@@nazrarain1452 OMG, I hate it so much! In my country like 95% of literature class is just poetry and "what the poet was thinking". I love reading, but that was pure boredom.
People wondered why i came up with awesome ideas and projects at college but i was a mess, always late, too hyper and lazy at once lol. Got diagnosed and started meds a month ago and just wow
I think a dark side of my creativity actually contributes to my social difficulties: I don't know how to NOT think creatively, so it can be super challenging to be on the same wavelength as everyone else, it's like guessing the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign language.
I'm a ADHDesigner, that's what I call myself at work as a multimediadesigner. Almost every adhder I meet is extremely creative, music, cooking, writing. And I LOVE it! Thank you for this video
Just realized halfway through that I missed most of what I'd already "watched." I bet your stats are hilarious for this channel. All these ADHD brains watching for 5 minutes, going "wait, I spaced out what just happened," rewinding, going back, leaving it paused halfway through for a week until they find the tab while looking for something else...
People with ADHD need to hear this! Going through graduate school for protein chemistry with ADHD was kind of a nightmare. But I eventually discovered the same brain that make me terrible at tests and other school work makes me great at applying technical knowledge to complex problems. It’s this exact creativity the vid talks about. Now four years into my career, I’ve published multiple technical articles and a textbook chapter, and I’m working on my third and fourth patents at the same time. I’ve already found multiple novel protein interactions that are game changers for our team too! The world needs more chemists and engineers with ADHD. Even if the education system is designed to weed out people like us.
I work in IT as a tier 3 support specialist and often I am praised for what I now have a name for "divergent thinking". I am often able to find a solutions quicker than co workers or even sometimes find solutions when co workers can't. This has made me very effective in this position as the last line of defense and the person who has to solve the problem. Also I have to say thanks for your channel I was diagnosed this year at 32 and your channel has allowed me to see I am not alone here. As well it has provided many ideas and ways to address the problems from ADHD.
I think every single IT person that I know has ADHD. They're all incredibly gifted at solving problems and finding solutions. I believe that ADHDers abilities to solve problems is greatly overlooked.
Ugh I'm studying networking and mind you I find it very interesting when the teacher explains it and gives us examples but doing the homework for it is so boring and unappetizing for my brain that I'm so far behind. Any tips for an ADHDer from an ADHDer in a similiar field?
Yeah, I'm pretty bad at most traditionally creative endeavors like drawing, but there are so many more "boring" areas where creativity can come in. Ex: the apartment we have is terribly insulated and summers are horrible lmao. So in April, I made fun curtains for the windows out of reflective insulation from the hardware store. Now the place is both at least 5-6F colder every day AND looks like a spaceship! Win-win. 😊
When something breaks, whether it's my game console, someone's outfit or my car. I either do a bunch of research myself or I use the info I've learned. I have been learning to sew from when I was 6, so cosplaying for me is a MUST. I love the improv aspect of my costumes, whether it's the material that I don't have and I'll sub it with something else or add a part that goes well. I got quite a few compliments on my mask for my character that I was ecstatic that I followed thru with it. This year cons required masks and I could've worn a blank one, but I decided to paint one based on a movie for this character, and even though people saw him wearing it for a few minutes in the movie, people understood the reference
It's like coming up with an extremely amazing idea but forgetting and getting it mixed up with a trillion things you think about. And I hope Palestinian ADHDers are able to find support because of what have to deal with each day
Capture ideas the second they hit. I use Evernote, Things 3, and Notion. As soon as an idea hits me, I immediately open one of those apps and type in the idea. That way I have it for future reference. No matter where I am I can capture ideas since Evernote, Things 3, and Notion are on my computer, iPad, and iPhone.
@@GoADHDGo that's the thing. There are a hundreds of things popping up in my mind that thinking on words to write each makes me kind of focus on one and makes me forget others
@@luqmanqureshi5026 That's when a voice memo app comes in handy. When I have a ton of ideas hitting at once, I open the voice memo app on my iPhone and start rambling away. Then I can go back later and sort everything out and write it down in Evernote, Things 3 or Notion. One thing that's nice about using a voice memo app is that while I'm talking about ideas other ideas seem to blossom. What started as a few ideas that popped in my head end up becoming 20 or more ideas. It's like the more I talk the more ideas pop up. I love when that happens. f
I get so jealous of people who have one or two passions that they get really good at. I've got so many interests (sewing, designing clothes, making jewelry, makeup, special effects makeup, guitar, bass, songwriting, acting, etc. etc. etc.) that I can't seem to get past being a jack of all trades, master of none 😭 At the same time I can combine all of interests to make something even cooler! So many ideas! If only I had the motivation to actually finish those projects 🙃 Getting there! One therapy session at a time 😅
I did love tutoring (English, math - but not geometry because f*** geometry) and teaching piano. Not something I could do as a primary source of income, though. Too stressful. Was a music education major forever ago, but talked myself out of teaching.
I'm 16 in high school and pretty much everything you said applys to me. When I'm doing math paper work I get side tracked and start doodling but when I'm in art class painting or doing a project at home I end up spending hours on it without knowing. I am medicated. I love my creative aspect to projects and I know other people do too. I always think of new ideas and problems and ways to find solutions for them. I know a lot of people think that ADHD is just not putting forth effort and being lazy when something doesn't interest us and that's not true. Up until last year I didnt know my adhd was such a major factor in my life and that it effects so much. I didnt know that the reason I have trouble sleeping at night is because of my adhd. So thank you for helping me discover more about myself and I'm looking forward to the next video
Thanks! A good reminder of some positives of adhd.. I've had 40 jobs, started 5 plus businesses ha. I try to not get depressed but look at it as making my life and history much more fun to look back on.
OH my gosh, I feel so validated. I thrive on collaboration and problem solving together with other people. Synergy right? Sometimes, when I get to do these things in high doses, I get what I feel is an 'ADHD High', or an hour or so afterward I feel so incredibly focused and motivated, so positive and 'can-do'. The creativity of the collaboration and problem-solving that happened must dump some serious dopamine!
OH AND TO THE DUDE WHO DRAWS THE VIDEOS, i want to say in my opinion your animations/tweening is very swag :D i lowkey find them comforting ALSO i find them really fun and interesting i never get bored of them :D makes me happy when i look at it them heh :)
3:11 omg you just hit the nail on the head. I'm great at divergent thinking but convergent thinking is a nightmare. I wish I had a partner that was good at convergent thinking. We'd make an awesome team 😊
I'm gonna add my 'thank you' to the loooooong list. I got diagnosed a couple of weeks ago and it wouldn't have happened without your videos. The first one I stumbled on was the 'wall of awful' and even though everything applied to me I still thought I couldn't have adhd because my depression is so bad that a lot of the tine I barely move. I enjoyed how fun, well researched and easily understandable your vids were so I kept watching more and more and learning that jist cause I'm not hyperactive doesn't mean it's not adhd and I kept relating to everything and so thanks to you, at 34, I feel like I have the tools to help me actually live my life. I am so grateful for you and this channel. 💜🖤💜🖤
Oh gosh I understand the depression 100%. I was literally at the bottom of a pit last month and I finally got diagnosed. Ever since I started taking meds, even though I don't get as much done as I want to through the day (somewhat unrealistic expectations here most of the time) I still have been able to get more things done in a day now, than in a week, a mont ago. And the depression has slowly subsided as I feel more accomplished and happier
In the 1990s I was fortunate to been hired with a company that wasn't bent on procedures, but results. The company was growing where many of their old routines wouldn't work as the company expanded; unbeknownst at the time, I didn't realize I had ADHD; and management left me alone to handle the responsibilities at hand. The creative side of ADHD kicked in; where thinking outside the box on several projects saved the company considerable dollars; where thankfully, they did acknowledge my creativity with recognition and financial bonuses.
Great video! I plan to watch this with my guys in class tomorrow. I am an ADHD reading specialist. I was an art major in undergrad because I loved art and because it was easier for me to be creative than it was to be organized or studious. After college, I had several creative jobs including being a personal stylist and a portrait artist. None of them were terribly fulfilling. So I volunteered for a year at school to see if maybe I’d like to be a teacher. It turned out I found working with kids extremely motivating and I found it I was creative in my approach is to working with them. Though I am not the most natural student in the world, I excelled in my masters program in special education.I applied the learning strategies I learned to use with kids to my own studies and did surprisingly well on my comp exams. I have different approaches to dealing with students with ADHD and dyslexia than a lot of other people because my perspective is divergent. I don’t think I am a better teacher than many, but I do really work hard at it I am creative and what makes it easy to be creative is the knowledge that what I’m doing helps.
You mentioned the research study and 0.2 seconds after you said “alien fruit” I already had my version of alien fruit pictured in my head lol. YES we need more information about ADHD strengths. I heard that there wasn’t enough research and I started screaming “YES YES YES” while driving. I got some really weird looks... I was diagnosed 3years ago (at 31 yrs old) and given medication. That was it. I so wish someone took time to tell me “here’s why you lose things, can’t change your focus direction, are sensitive to sounds, and can’t force yourself to do some of that boring adult stuff everyone else seems to have no problem with. You are not lazy, a failure, or unworthy. Let’s figure out some strategies to help with the things you aren’t good at, and explore your strengths!” I have a hard time myself yes, but my kids are 8 and 10, with autism and ADHD. It’s beyond hard seeing them struggle in a school system that tries to force them into a box.
I didnt write for years before i a) got medicated and actually established a daily rhythm of sorts and b) joined a writing group. Still dont manage to sit down by myself and write, but twice a week, when i have external pressure, my brain bursts with ideas AND I ACTUALLY PUT THEM TO PAPER and im so glad to have gotten to that stage again
This is why I'm a video game developer. I've always loved writing but felt constrained by exploring only one storyline. In games, I can do as much as I want. Plus writing stories that way means I don't have to worry about the minute details. There's more I can do with the characters and little asides aren't bad pacing, they're just optional side quests! I wish I were a better programmer, but my brain does NOT like coding, even if it's not half bad at problem solving. I guess I kinda have to bully it into practicing more if I want to make more complex games.
I would draw a mind map....the problem is you would not only need an incomprehensibly large sheet of paper, but you would need a hieroglyphic translater, because my writing looks like a chicken ran across the page to get corn. Yes, this is me laughing about myself, as well as popping in a corny joke .
My first language was another so I can pretty fluidly switch between the two and confuse people around me so well. Mind you it has been 15 years since and yet I remember quite a bit of it. So I get the hieroglyphic thought lol.
Absolutely loved this video thank you so much! I didn't really realize how much ADHD affected my life until I found this channel and got myself diagnosed so you quite literally changed my life
I always tell people I am lazy. But I will always find the fastest and easiest way to solve a problem. One of my wonderful supervisors was doing my performance reviews and I told him I was lazy and he said "You're not lazy, you are effective and efficient" so renaming it in my own mind has helped me see it as an asset.
I always tell people to look outside the box, because the view is wonderful. Your channel is the best thing to happen to me since I learned at age 63 that I have ADHD. Thank you for all your hard work.
The right medication can help my mind go from a web diagram of spontaneous ideas. Into a somewhat organized hard drive with properly labeled files. Also, your channel has completely changed my life. Thank you for existing! Keep being you! You're the only one I know 😀
Huh...maybe this is why I've always been interested in teaching type activities. I love the art of coming up with new ways of explaining a topic or concept to someone that's unfamiliar with it. I also have a knack for quickly identifying what people are good at and pulling those traits to the surface where they can see them.
Wow I related to this so much! Last year I started working for a logistics company and found a skill I've never really notice before of problem solving. I love problem solving and creating new ideas, I found for me I worked well under a little pressure for immediate problem solving. Being good at it actually really motivated me and it really helped with focus and drive. Thank you so much for your videos, they're amazing and as a late diagnosed adult you've really helped me. ✨
A thing that has helped me harness my creativity, is making gifts for my partner, it gives me the motivation I need, while also holding me to a strong but forgiving deadline.
I'm on wellbutrin for my depression and it's the only med that's made a difference. Both my mom and my brother are diagnosed with adhd and when I asked my doctor about getting screened and I started rambling about WHY she agreed it would help me. I honestly just want a little boost to what I already take, like, wellbutrin is amazing, but not perfect. Your videos have given me the will to actually pursue treatment
A friend told me once she marvels at the way I see the world, at the connections I make and the creativity springing from those connections or leaping thoughts. I couldn't believe her then, thought she was exaggerating, that surely I couldn't be that much of an outsider... but I do now, and I cherish that compliment. It's taken quite a while to accept and love my adhd. My creativity is one of the very few things I've always liked about myself, and the only thing depression didn't rob from me - although said depression was brought on by my adhd, it's very heartening to know that this also bolsters my creativity, especially now, long down the road of recovery ^^
i love that i'm naturally a gifted artist so my career path as a graphic designer and my adhd pairs so well together and i have the ability to excel at what I love
2:50 I always had bad grades in art class and now I’m actually getting a chance to skip a whole year of school because how good my drawings have become in my former school I was told what to draw and as soon as I had the freedom to do what I like I became really good at it
I'm author and with my ADHD I have definitely come up with far more novel ideas than I can actually write on! My creativity is one of the aspects of my ADHD that I love the most.
This explains so much! I'm the go to guy around the office for fixing things without the manual - hooray divergent thinking! So glad to hear about meds *not* messing with creativity too - that puts some fears to rest.
I just want you to know that I am an ADHD teacher who encourages his ADHD students to watch your videos. You do excellent work! Please keep it up. If you ever need a guest speaker from a teacher who side hustles as a performer, I'd be happy to help. :)
I'm at 2:50 rn and YES!! Guy who does the animations: YOU ARE AMAZING!!! I was just thinking this during the gearwheel animation again, it always blows my mind how on point your analogies are and how they so effortlessly manage to portray what you want to express in brain's story! Big applause!! 👏👏
I think a ton of ADHDers and also autistic people write fanfiction, which is the way I usually use creativity. It works so well for my brain to get to engage with my special interest and have a format to share it with other people, and I often come back to the comments I get that say how I've impacted someone's life.
I hope you will do more on creativity and ADHD strengths. Also, the monkey wrench of ADHD that interferes with making ideas into reality, getting motivated. Thanks to you and your team!
Best compliment I ever got was (paraphrased) 'Many people are decent at thinking outside the box. Michael is able to start his creative thinking as if there IS no box to think outside and narrow his ideas down from there'. That will stick with me for life. Thanks, Klara.❤ Also, would LOVE a video specifically dealing with the difficulty dealing with frustration. You've given us a lot of videos about how to deal with specific issues, but general frustration would be great.😅❤ Also, awesome work, Animator!❤❤❤👍👍👍
Mind maps help me the most because I need to structure my thoughts in a non-linear way (filmmaker). My perfectionism definitely gets in the way a lot so I like to just brainstorm and allow (or force) myself to make mistakes to free up space. You mentioned a few apps that help with ADHD, I’d love to see a full video on that if you haven’t already made one? Not so much just time management apps but would be interested in what else actually helps, (especially cause time management isn’t our only struggle but most therapies, other help or I suppose apps focus on)
Hello there, I was kinda scared to take medicine to treat my ADHD and thanks to your videos help me out a lot. I have to say this is my first time taking medicine and I feel the difference right away. I haven’t felt this happy since I was kid, I can pay attention to people when they are talking to me 🤯😱 thanks for your awesome videos.
I'm nearly 37 and only just found out I have adhd and it was really over whelming but at the same time completely mad sense. I've always been creative and thought outside the box and a bit of a dreamer... somehow just made it work!
I started taking meds recently. One thing I started doing while worldbuilding is to brainstorm off of my meds but then revisit them later when I'm on meds to clarify and polish the ideas. It's been very productive. It's a little more difficult to apply this for work (network engineering) but I think it could work for more creative roles such as marketing or design.
The amount of time my bosses have told me "hmm, I never would've thought to bring that in"... Thankfully my current boss loves when I bring in off the wall ideas. Bye bye box!
I'd really love escape rooms because school made me always feel dumb, but then, wow the first time I was in a escape room with so much people who were smarter in my eyes. I finally felt like a was smart. Maybe not in a school study way, but I definitely was at problem solving
I know for my fiction writing I use regular 3-ring binders since with loose leaf paper I can move things around as I think of them instead of trying to keep track of various notes in a spiral. And when I'm actually working on a story I use a combination of a dry erase board and a a cork board as a way to visualize the scene and shuffle things around and have them all in front of me rather than trying to flip through pages. And I keep a dedicated binder for story ideas and concepts I think of that I can update as those random thoughts pass my brain instead of letting them pile up in my mind.
I've always thought I'm the one adhd person that's not creative. Thanks for this video explaining I'm just creative in different ways. I'm not good at coming up with ideas from scratch, but I'm really good at finding associations and building on or tweaking ideas!
In absolutely classic ADHD style, the mindmap is now so huge, so packed with ideas and connections...that it won't load before the page times out. [...just wait...Chrome will complain it can't load it, but just wait for 3-5mins, it'll get there...]
Your channel is my guilty pleasure. I always say I'm not going to watch it because it acknowledges that I have (severe) ADHD. I've actually tested 94-99 percentile in the FDA approved Qbtest on every metric they have. But every once in a while I find such a great gold nugget here and there, that I get excited and optimistic about my abilities. I hear this great news, forget to write it down, then forget what was so great about it 😂 that's besides the point! Still love your channel. And on occasion, I share your videos with my girlfriend who has the memory of an elephant (not the body! She gets upset when I bring up the elephant memory metaphor lol). So when I show her some ADHD educational videos like from you, it helps deepen our understanding especially since she has read a couple books on adhd before even dating me. Thank you for making such great content! (even if I don't always remember them enough to implement them) BTW do you have any videos on planners or scheduling? Like the best templates or apps or methods you've found to keep yourself honest on time and tasks? Internalizing time is so difficult and unless I have made myself a list for the next morning of things I need to do, I will be very behind the next day and likely not do much at all due to 1) obviously forgetfulness and 2) lack of motivation. I'm scatter brained so I have like 5 random notepads/notebooks everywhere with things to do and all in different formats because I just not down what I think of as I think of it, not much in ways of having an organized format to make recalling my notes easier. It would be an awesome video if you could do that or interview someone else too! Thank you!
i saw the notification and said to myself “oh cool! i’ll watch that right now” then i saw another notification and ended up watching that one first, then it made me think about my gaming set up, then i did an amazon search for a bunch of new gaming stuff, then i ended up looking for random stuff, then i remembered i don’t have any money, then i looked up jobs around me that are hiring, then i got on my phone to look up age requirements, then i went on spotify and made a playlist, then i took a shower to listen to it, then i got our and started working on schoolwork, then i went on my phone to clear my tabs, then i saw youtube, then i saw the video, so now i have to rewatch the video because i wasn’t paying attention. i was writing this comment.
I’m a graphic designer and in school for projects we always had to present three concepts with mood boards and a brief explanation of what the concept is. So the work behind the scenes to get to that point always includes writing a list of everything I can think of, and then mind mapping and adding the ideas that branch off of the concepts (these things usually happen at once in a notebook lol). Then I research 3-5 concepts that I have that feel the most interesting, bring those to class/get feedback from peers, and theeeennnn we get to start thinking about how the project actually looks (colors, type treatments and fonts, illustration or photography, etc)
Thank you so much for this channel! I was born during a time when children with ADHD were called lazy. I was put in "special education" because the school system didn't know what to do with me. Now that I am 34, I embrace the fact that I am a creative thinker and excel in areas where other do not. My creativity has pushed me to get 5 college degrees in graphic and web design to be a better professional in ways my colleagues do not.
I only really just figured out that I have ADHD and since then this channel has been my lifeline. You make learning about my brain and how to work best with it so accessible and less daunting. Just wanted to say thank you
While trying to take a nap one time my mind didn’t want to and during this hour nap I made a whole movie in my head that people might actually watch. I got so stimulated by these thoughts I couldn’t sleep and gave up on trying to and just kept making the movie with my eyes closed in the dark
This made me feel so at home ❣️ I've finally found where I can be most creative, in creating my own TH-cam channel 😍 and I find it an amazing balance of reward, challenge and hyper focus. It even helps me feel more focused on my desk job. The trouble is learning how to pace myself and God forbid, switch off 🤣 and try so desperately hard to stay on task if I have to do the administrative bits, like writing emails and arranging meetings.
I worked at NASA, first as a programmer, then as a manager. My ADHD helped me see problems that no one else saw, and came up with creative ideas and processes to solve problems. I was and still am great as solving problems. By the way, I hyper focus when I code software.
This video came at such a spot on time for me. I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD and I'm a freelance illustrator, so my whole job relies on creativity. The connection between adhd and my creativity, as well as how meds might be impacting it has been on my mind a lot. Thanks for talking about it! ❤
Problem solving used to be a frustrating point for me, working with others and they get stuck on something and unable to figure it out because it is unusual. I always wondered why is no one else able to come up with an idea or problem solve when I could see 20 possible solutions? Now I know that it is our super power 😁
\o/ I needed this today. Thank you - I draw, I'm not great at it, but I've been practicing and... learning to work *with* my ADHD rather than against it has shown me some dramatic improvements because I can get more engaged, and that means more practice (and better practice at that).
Turned this on while working on a piece for my budding art licensing portfolio that I started a couple weeks ago. At 36, I decided that I needed a creative outlet and that creating was meant to be my thing. Your videos helped me realize i Had ADHD at 34, and have helped me to this point along my journey. Thank you so much for everything you do!
This has been the most positive and helpful video yet! I also got a low grade in art at school. I then went to University and came out with a first in Fine Art. I'm now self-teaching and practicing as an animator. A lot of days are scary and overwhelming but the drive I have and the ideas I have make me who I am. I used to constantly question what I need to change to improve, but very recently I realise my innate strengths need to be praised and pursued in a way that works for my own brain. This video has further affirmed that. Embrace being different!
The part that really hit home for me is the research that says ADHD meds aren't shown to decrease creativity. I've been really scared of this and because of it I've avoided getting medication. I'll have to rethink this now, thanks!
im creative with cooking!! modifying existing recipes on the fly and troubleshooting solutions when i make mistakes so i end up making something tasty even if i mess up!! *sighs* i love cooking :'D
To the person who does the art for these videos, who got a D in art class: I failed a writing class in high school, and a C- in another one. Now I have a Creative writing degree ;)
This is why I am in College for Electrical Engneering. This has been a big struggle for me. I got my 'formal' diagnosis when I almost got kicked out due to poor performance, before covid I was back on track and doing better than ever before. But with working from home, his has been a hurdle for everyone. Just a reminder don't give up and don't let yourself be your biggest problem. I believe in you.
I love how creative my mind can be. It’s what drove some amazing things I’m proud of in the past (my resurrection video here on TH-cam or a descriptive paragraph I wrote in high school that might become a book some day… if I can focus on it lol). That’s the thing though…I can’t seem to focus on one thing long enough to get it done. Example: Starting my next TH-cam video OR instructional videos for my kitchen staff..
I think of creativity like those connect the dots pictures. Each dot is a point of experience we have. ADHD people have more dots than neurotypical people to create their picture. More points of reference because our minds are subconsciously taking in more because of our multi-focus tendencies. Disparate ideas to others make complete sense to us because we've seen more that fills in our understanding. We won't necessarily be able to explain those connections but chalk it up to intuition. But intuition is based on learned experience, as per Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking, Fast and Slow". Our creativity is definitely in solutions and problem solving, games of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, poker probabilities, and telling Neo in the Matrix that there is no spoon.
I am try to finish my bachelorthesis in social works. And I am still unsure if it would be a good or bad Idea to work with ADHD children and Teenagers😁
@@denycast I think it's a good idea because you know how they feel and you can give them good advice. Also you are showing them that they're not the only one and that they can do it too
I'm so new to this, like a week in of actually considering that this could be me but this is firing off all sorts in my head. The view of creativity only as artistic creativity TOTALLY makes sense to me because that's entirely how I viewed it but I'm so full of ideas that I am overwhelmed all of the time. So thanks for this resource.
I think my adhd made me become a better artist because I learned that if I doodled while my teachers were talking, I could focus, learn, and genuinely absorb the content so much better! I didn’t have access to fidgets, but drawing was a good way to focus, and to the teacher it just looked like I was taking notes ;) So I think becoming an artist, for me, stemmed from coping with my adhd. It ended up helping me develop skills I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to explore if I was neurotypical, because doodling daily for hours on end gave me a TON of practice, so when I got really into art (and creative-type work in general) I already had a lot of abilities! :) your videos are fantastic btw, I love them!
I love doing music and art but it takes soooooooo many hours to do a detailed charcoal portrait or to learn piano. Once I got meds I’m finally doing music. Every day. Even wrote some songs which I’ve always wanted to do. Well a bunch of partial songs hahaha! ;) any way... I notice when I don’t get meds I just play video games even though I don’t like them nearly as much as art or music. So amazing!!! Happy to be pursuing things I love again. :)
Honestly, my meds are a huuuuge help in my writing, because they make it so I can actually make use of those broad and exciting but detail-lacking ideas, and put them into the right words to convey what I want
I've had to come up with extensive written methods to guide my brainstorm process because I'm unable to take the meds. It has worked very well. It is SO maddening to do some kind of group work with neurotypicals and everyone just goes with the first idea that someone said with a hint of confidence!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! 😱😱😱 drives me CRAZY!!!
Another awesome video...I can honestly see these videos being used to create a course about ADHD in adults. A course that could be used to train Human Resource Professionals about how to manage and "utilize" identified ADHD'ers. "I write better when I am on my meds." I am truly curious about this statement...are you saying that your creativity is the same as when you are off meds or are you actually staying on task when on meds to get writing completed...or both?
The meds help me stay on task but also think more clearly I think. My thoughts are more confused and jumbled off of them & I get frustrated more easily. I had wondered if it would limit my divergent thinking, but so far the research says no :)
I love that my adhd makes me a creative out of the box thinker. When my own clients with various disabilities like Autism, ADHD, dyslexia are struggling I am really good about coming up with alternative methods & suggestions to help them! I am also artsy but terrible about finishing my pieces whether that be a painting, drawing, or Cricut project. I’m a great writer very scientific & medical thinking person but it takes a lot of juice to write boring case notes constantly in trouble for that! 💜🧠
Regarding meds and creativity: personally I find it easier to come up with something at bed time (aka once my meds have worn off), jot it down, then use my increased focus the next day to maybe implement it. I don’t know if this is just to do with meds, but it’s interesting. Other than that, I don’t find my creativity meaningfully impacted by my medication, and honestly it would be worth it even if I did!
I can only think outside the box...
I lost my box....
"I don't think outside the box. I destroy the box and leave it smoldering in my wake." - my motto about my creativity. I'm a weirdo. Hi.
Best thing I've heard today! 😆
ahahahah
@JohnR2319881222 but Why is the box?
I took apart the box & built a fort 🤷♀️
Adhd: I can come up with lots of ideas and make new connections at top speed!
Anxiety: I can use this
Ugh yes this is the worst
ikr!
Nailed it
I kinda laughed because I relate to this 😂😂
Y'all... too many of you guys can relate
Makes a motion picture animated movie within my head before I go to bed with music, characters, a coherent story, drama, action, the whole nine yards....
The next day when I try to write it down: "There was a tree."
😅😁 I nearly choked...
Yes! Now add in dreaming everything in full technicolour, emotional detail and forgetting everything the next day and writing something completely different instead...
My brain when I am high 😂😂😂😂
I am trying to Start writing my first book of a series that i have imagine in my head for years. I have like 20 books in my head close to 100 characters and I dont know how to start.
@@diegoadriandlc5273 just start writing and sort it out later
do you ever look at someone, and wonder, what is going on inside their head?
"hello barns"
OMG THANK YOU FOR THE HEART THIS IS MY BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
@@prithvithakur7950 thank you for the comment :D
"I bet your brain is like a dryer full of marbles." - That is the most accurate and best thing that a friend has ever said about me. :)
when she said that i started laughing cuzz its totally something i would make as a joke too :D
Was I the only one that responded with " 's and noble"?
Aw, please tell the animator I really love his animation!!
Will do! His name is Stephen :)
@@HowtoADHD Round of applause for Stephen! Nice work!
Heck yeah! Love ya Stephen 💕
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 great work Stephen! Your animations make watching these videos so much fun and entertaining and easier to follow and focus on!!
We love Stephen! ❣️
I’m a coder by profession and I have made some name for myself in problem solving.
Now my managers don’t give me mundane tasks, even when I changed jobs, it was evident what drives me.
The problems I solve aren’t common. And that motivates me like nothing else.
I'm a rising CS senior so this is very very reassuring to hear
That’s great! I was really good at programming in A levels and got As in it, but I chose to do a degree in psychology because it’s more interesting for me, I know I will be motivated to learn when I actually want to learn :) can’t do a job I don’t find interesting. Congratulations though!
I'm not a coder, but I think that describes me to a tee. :)
I'm just the same. I now specialise in the complex and unique coding projects/solutions! One of the perks of course is being able to script away mundane tasks sometimes!
as a mechanic I like to perform diagnostics. I get to see weird things and solve some weird problems. also im on my feet and get to play with power tools
As a painter, and someone who was diagnosed late, I was worried about the meds affecting my creativity, but in my experience they absolutely don't. They help me finish the projects I start, but I haven't noticed my ideas slowing down. I'm just less likely do drop what I'm currently doing for the new idea, and more likely to write it down for later. So, to my fellow artists out there, don't be afraid of the meds if you feel like you need them!
Whenever I'm working on a creative project, I'm also writing down a ton of other ideas. It seems like creativity breeds new ideas. I'm always capturing those ideas.
Thank you so much, that is indeed what I was worried about. Having not been diagnosed yet, but like the signs for ADHD are so OUT THERE, I was really worried that the shrink may just put me on drugs or something, lol. And now I am looking for a professional to figure things out with. :)
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I was just recently diagnosed and was prescribed medication and this was something I was worried about. It’s so nice to hear someone else’s experiences.
I used to think I didn’t have adhd because I wasn’t creative enough, but I only applied it to artistic creativity. Turns out, I’m really good at logical problem solving and coming up with more efficient methods of doing tasks. Taking my medication also makes me more efficient at coming up with those ideas, narrowing them down, and executing them.
You should try exploring other creative avenues too! I never liked artistic creativity, I found it super draining, but I love the logical creativity, which is why im going to school for engineering. But there's other creative outlets that can be fun. I've found writing and improv to be exciting, as you can further extrapolate on an initial idea, not dissimilar to logical problem solving. You may enjoy things you never thought you would.
yes please do more on ADHD strengths, i'm so sick of "ADHD people are better hunter gatherers" like that's any useful these days.
So i am an archeologist and i just got diagnosed with adhd, so the first thing i thiught was oh what would the archaeology of adhd be...read the hunter vs farmer hypothesis and thought wait what, how the f does adhd make u a better hunter and a worse farmer. It makes 0 since. If anything adhd could make for better foragers but that seems tenuous.
Lol I've never heard that, how strange. Being chronically homeless, I can relate to how ADHD makes me a bit better survivalist, because I can rig anything out of anything (I get such a kick out of building what I need out of whatever random objects are available for me to scavenge or buy cheap lol) but I don't really see it being germane to specifically hunting or foraging. If anything my impatience and poor visual integration would make me worse at those.
wouldn't you just get lost and lose what you foraged? lol
@@Creationweek Yeah, I get the foraging thing, but don’t hunters have to remain still and quiet for hours at a time? Doesn’t sound like a very ADHD-friendly activity lol. And farming would involve a lot of different tasks that would create variety and keep us busy... but maybe I’m projecting a little because I’m an avid gardener. 😂
@@Dezzyyx I love navigating and am great at not getting lost, can't speak for other ADHDers on that one though lol :P
Worth noting: Nowadays, doing art or any creative job for a living also requires you to have the skills required to work freelance/independent and GOD is that hard while having ADHD >.< (I've been painting the same painting for a month. HELP)
Seriously!! The amount of times I've left a painting because I started worrying about how to tag it on Instagram without being obnoxious or searching what tools I'll need to learn for freelance accounting is unbelievable. Its like, how do we enjoy creating when the same ADHD brain that sees no box also needs to make a living, pay the bills, market yourself without getting overwhelmed by rejection sensitivity, and idk, Excel sheets have more boxes than my brain can handle anyway
I guess that's a good reason to be kinder to ourselves tho. I put myself down for looking up freelancer tutorials and abandoning my WIPs, but it makes sense, you know? We love to create but we gotta eat, and the stress of supporting ourselves is a lot!
That helps me speak more kindly to myself, at least. Survival and creative work are conflicting demands on our brains, and it doesn't make us worse creative workers or people. It's genuinely really difficult and pur ADHD brains are doing their best.
And good luck on your painting! You've taken a month on it, and sure, it's a long time, but that tells me you're dedicated to your art whether or not others can see it from your output.
Self-compassion won't make rent, but boy howdy self-defeating beliefs and negative self-talk are the worst managers on a deadline
May I recommend you Adam Duff Lucidpixul channel? He is a freelance graphic artist and does great talks on art in general, how to learn etc... It really helps with motivation, for me at least!
@@thespiralingshapes Excel is fun though. I like playing around in there making spreads. When I had to learn it, I didn't like it most of the time, but now I enjoy it (including coming up with new ways to include stuff into spreads).
Might be my analytical side now that I think of it. I've always love analytical and critical thinking and I love science so it's probably a suitable extension :D
@@ammalyrical5646 oooh that actually is really cool! In the video there was this pirate ship tree house to make a hard task more motivating. My version in excel is more like mapping geographic data around my neighborhood and city. Pretty ambitious for someone who doesn't know basic formulas, but its ok because some other ADHD brains in my life are into Excel so I'll ask questions along the way
Thanks for your reply, it helped me fill out some motivational planks!!
@@thespiralingshapes happy to help you 😀
I'm currently having to go further and learn basic MATLAB skills. I hope the experience will be similar. I think I just need to give myself permission to have fun trying stuff
Okay the fruit drawings HIT me. In middle school art class we had the option to make up and draw an alien plant and I made this hyper efficient plant that photosynthesized, ate bugs, had trap doors in the bottom for ants to be consumed, and a bunch of other wild mechanisms. I should have known right then and there lmaoooo
This channel made realize i had ADHD. I got medication, and it has been a game changer. It’s crazy to think i could have gone my whole life not knowing.
I really want to get medication but I don’t know how to talk about it in therapy
@@melody0007 Tell your therapist, "I'd like to be tested for ADHD."
Me too! Well, haven't got medication yet but working on it.
@@melody0007 I live in Ireland and the procedure here is you speak to your GP and get referred to a psychiatrist.
If you don't know how to bring it up, writing it down first can help, that's worked fer me in the past
!!! so happy for u 🥺❤️
I do find that because of the way my brain works I do understand things differently. This can be a real blessing but also a curse. One time in college I was doing a mock essay and I got the exam back and it turned out that I had completely misinterpreted what the question was asking. On the other hand, most of my university professors praise how I look at things in a different way and provide unique arguments that nobody else gives. I always say don't think outside the box but think as though there is no box.
Ooh I've done that - this essay is brilliant and you'd get an A if the prompt was completely different, unfortunately...
I once got a lower grade on a math test that I answered correctly because the teacher didn't understand my thought process 🙃(we were not asked to do it a specific way)
I had to take a philosophy class. Hate philosophy. Anyway, I learned the material and went to do the exam. I draw a topic, and tell the teacher what I learned. The teacher said "you totally misinterpreted the whole thing". Yeah, at least he gave me a passing grade. Then again, in high school we had to come up with our own philosophy and the teacher was so impressed, he told the whole class how good my essay was.
I was thinking that I'm not that creative, so thanks for bringing this up. I've hit this issue so many times... Poetry interpretation is the worst, for example
@@nazrarain1452 OMG, I hate it so much! In my country like 95% of literature class is just poetry and "what the poet was thinking". I love reading, but that was pure boredom.
People wondered why i came up with awesome ideas and projects at college but i was a mess, always late, too hyper and lazy at once lol.
Got diagnosed and started meds a month ago and just wow
@Crystal Kanashii lol absolutely!
I think a dark side of my creativity actually contributes to my social difficulties: I don't know how to NOT think creatively, so it can be super challenging to be on the same wavelength as everyone else, it's like guessing the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign language.
Yess this is a huge issue! The secret is finding people who will accept you unconditionally and let you be yourself :)
I totally get that I love creative writing and I think I'm pretty good at it but I find it hard to talk to people my own age
Yes I struggle with that too. My fawning people pleasing tendencies don't help either.
Ikr, I can't stop the creative juices from flowing. It's a part of my daily life, like when I write something or when I have an urge to draw
I'm a ADHDesigner, that's what I call myself at work as a multimediadesigner. Almost every adhder I meet is extremely creative, music, cooking, writing. And I LOVE it! Thank you for this video
Me too... Design is great because it compliments being creative and being technical
Aww I'm gonna call myself that from now on
Just realized halfway through that I missed most of what I'd already "watched." I bet your stats are hilarious for this channel. All these ADHD brains watching for 5 minutes, going "wait, I spaced out what just happened," rewinding, going back, leaving it paused halfway through for a week until they find the tab while looking for something else...
THIS lol
People with ADHD need to hear this! Going through graduate school for protein chemistry with ADHD was kind of a nightmare. But I eventually discovered the same brain that make me terrible at tests and other school work makes me great at applying technical knowledge to complex problems. It’s this exact creativity the vid talks about.
Now four years into my career, I’ve published multiple technical articles and a textbook chapter, and I’m working on my third and fourth patents at the same time. I’ve already found multiple novel protein interactions that are game changers for our team too!
The world needs more chemists and engineers with ADHD. Even if the education system is designed to weed out people like us.
I work in IT as a tier 3 support specialist and often I am praised for what I now have a name for "divergent thinking". I am often able to find a solutions quicker than co workers or even sometimes find solutions when co workers can't. This has made me very effective in this position as the last line of defense and the person who has to solve the problem.
Also I have to say thanks for your channel I was diagnosed this year at 32 and your channel has allowed me to see I am not alone here. As well it has provided many ideas and ways to address the problems from ADHD.
I think every single IT person that I know has ADHD. They're all incredibly gifted at solving problems and finding solutions. I believe that ADHDers abilities to solve problems is greatly overlooked.
Analyst here in IT and I’m absolutely the same way. Everyone knows to give me the impossible issues and I will find a way. Best feeling there is.
for someone like me who is studying thier A+ this is assuring to hear
@@toptierdiscordmod7806 best of luck with A+ mate.
Ugh I'm studying networking and mind you I find it very interesting when the teacher explains it and gives us examples but doing the homework for it is so boring and unappetizing for my brain that I'm so far behind. Any tips for an ADHDer from an ADHDer in a similiar field?
Hello Brain! I agree, ADHD helps with creativity. I just wish I could stick with things I'm creative with. Oh, what a blessing and a curse this is. :D
Same….
Yeah, I'm pretty bad at most traditionally creative endeavors like drawing, but there are so many more "boring" areas where creativity can come in.
Ex: the apartment we have is terribly insulated and summers are horrible lmao. So in April, I made fun curtains for the windows out of reflective insulation from the hardware store. Now the place is both at least 5-6F colder every day AND looks like a spaceship! Win-win. 😊
When something breaks, whether it's my game console, someone's outfit or my car. I either do a bunch of research myself or I use the info I've learned. I have been learning to sew from when I was 6, so cosplaying for me is a MUST. I love the improv aspect of my costumes, whether it's the material that I don't have and I'll sub it with something else or add a part that goes well. I got quite a few compliments on my mask for my character that I was ecstatic that I followed thru with it. This year cons required masks and I could've worn a blank one, but I decided to paint one based on a movie for this character, and even though people saw him wearing it for a few minutes in the movie, people understood the reference
It's like coming up with an extremely amazing idea but forgetting and getting it mixed up with a trillion things you think about. And I hope Palestinian ADHDers are able to find support because of what have to deal with each day
Capture ideas the second they hit. I use Evernote, Things 3, and Notion. As soon as an idea hits me, I immediately open one of those apps and type in the idea. That way I have it for future reference. No matter where I am I can capture ideas since Evernote, Things 3, and Notion are on my computer, iPad, and iPhone.
@@GoADHDGo that's the thing. There are a hundreds of things popping up in my mind that thinking on words to write each makes me kind of focus on one and makes me forget others
@@luqmanqureshi5026 That's when a voice memo app comes in handy. When I have a ton of ideas hitting at once, I open the voice memo app on my iPhone and start rambling away. Then I can go back later and sort everything out and write it down in Evernote, Things 3 or Notion.
One thing that's nice about using a voice memo app is that while I'm talking about ideas other ideas seem to blossom. What started as a few ideas that popped in my head end up becoming 20 or more ideas. It's like the more I talk the more ideas pop up. I love when that happens. f
@@GoADHDGo that seems really nice. Thanks for the suggest. I'll download it ASAP
@@GoADHDGo I used an abandoned group in Whatsapp to write myself things so I dont forget about it... lol
Hey animator. Your works are amazing.
I get so jealous of people who have one or two passions that they get really good at. I've got so many interests (sewing, designing clothes, making jewelry, makeup, special effects makeup, guitar, bass, songwriting, acting, etc. etc. etc.) that I can't seem to get past being a jack of all trades, master of none 😭
At the same time I can combine all of interests to make something even cooler! So many ideas! If only I had the motivation to actually finish those projects 🙃
Getting there! One therapy session at a time 😅
Good luck. I can't tell you how many projects that I'm finding that I told myself years ago that I'll work on lol
I'm a musician and teacher with ADHD. They say every day of teaching is different than the last, and that is exactly what I like about it!
I did love tutoring (English, math - but not geometry because f*** geometry) and teaching piano. Not something I could do as a primary source of income, though. Too stressful.
Was a music education major forever ago, but talked myself out of teaching.
I'm 16 in high school and pretty much everything you said applys to me. When I'm doing math paper work I get side tracked and start doodling but when I'm in art class painting or doing a project at home I end up spending hours on it without knowing. I am medicated. I love my creative aspect to projects and I know other people do too. I always think of new ideas and problems and ways to find solutions for them. I know a lot of people think that ADHD is just not putting forth effort and being lazy when something doesn't interest us and that's not true. Up until last year I didnt know my adhd was such a major factor in my life and that it effects so much. I didnt know that the reason I have trouble sleeping at night is because of my adhd. So thank you for helping me discover more about myself and I'm looking forward to the next video
Thanks! A good reminder of some positives of adhd.. I've had 40 jobs, started 5 plus businesses ha. I try to not get depressed but look at it as making my life and history much more fun to look back on.
I like that perspective!
OH my gosh, I feel so validated. I thrive on collaboration and problem solving together with other people. Synergy right? Sometimes, when I get to do these things in high doses, I get what I feel is an 'ADHD High', or an hour or so afterward I feel so incredibly focused and motivated, so positive and 'can-do'. The creativity of the collaboration and problem-solving that happened must dump some serious dopamine!
OH AND TO THE DUDE WHO DRAWS THE VIDEOS, i want to say in my opinion your animations/tweening is very swag :D i lowkey find them comforting ALSO i find them really fun and interesting i never get bored of them :D makes me happy when i look at it them heh :)
3:11 omg you just hit the nail on the head. I'm great at divergent thinking but convergent thinking is a nightmare. I wish I had a partner that was good at convergent thinking. We'd make an awesome team 😊
I'm gonna add my 'thank you' to the loooooong list. I got diagnosed a couple of weeks ago and it wouldn't have happened without your videos. The first one I stumbled on was the 'wall of awful' and even though everything applied to me I still thought I couldn't have adhd because my depression is so bad that a lot of the tine I barely move. I enjoyed how fun, well researched and easily understandable your vids were so I kept watching more and more and learning that jist cause I'm not hyperactive doesn't mean it's not adhd and I kept relating to everything and so thanks to you, at 34, I feel like I have the tools to help me actually live my life. I am so grateful for you and this channel. 💜🖤💜🖤
Oh gosh I understand the depression 100%. I was literally at the bottom of a pit last month and I finally got diagnosed. Ever since I started taking meds, even though I don't get as much done as I want to through the day (somewhat unrealistic expectations here most of the time) I still have been able to get more things done in a day now, than in a week, a mont ago. And the depression has slowly subsided as I feel more accomplished and happier
So good to hear where we shine instead of struggle, once in a while. Thanks!
In the 1990s I was fortunate to been hired with a company that wasn't bent on procedures, but results. The company was growing where many of their old routines wouldn't work as the company expanded; unbeknownst at the time, I didn't realize I had ADHD; and management left me alone to handle the responsibilities at hand. The creative side of ADHD kicked in; where thinking outside the box on several projects saved the company considerable dollars; where thankfully, they did acknowledge my creativity with recognition and financial bonuses.
Great video! I plan to watch this with my guys in class tomorrow. I am an ADHD reading specialist. I was an art major in undergrad because I loved art and because it was easier for me to be creative than it was to be organized or studious. After college, I had several creative jobs including being a personal stylist and a portrait artist. None of them were terribly fulfilling. So I volunteered for a year at school to see if maybe I’d like to be a teacher. It turned out I found working with kids extremely motivating and I found it I was creative in my approach is to working with them. Though I am not the most natural student in the world, I excelled in my masters program in special education.I applied the learning strategies I learned to use with kids to my own studies and did surprisingly well on my comp exams. I have different approaches to dealing with students with ADHD and dyslexia than a lot of other people because my perspective is divergent. I don’t think I am a better teacher than many, but I do really work hard at it I am creative and what makes it easy to be creative is the knowledge that what I’m doing helps.
You mentioned the research study and 0.2 seconds after you said “alien fruit” I already had my version of alien fruit pictured in my head lol.
YES we need more information about ADHD strengths. I heard that there wasn’t enough research and I started screaming “YES YES YES” while driving. I got some really weird looks...
I was diagnosed 3years ago (at 31 yrs old) and given medication. That was it. I so wish someone took time to tell me “here’s why you lose things, can’t change your focus direction, are sensitive to sounds, and can’t force yourself to do some of that boring adult stuff everyone else seems to have no problem with. You are not lazy, a failure, or unworthy. Let’s figure out some strategies to help with the things you aren’t good at, and explore your strengths!”
I have a hard time myself yes, but my kids are 8 and 10, with autism and ADHD. It’s beyond hard seeing them struggle in a school system that tries to force them into a box.
The only channel i can watch without skipping.
And im hyperfocusing on alien fruit now. To the drawing board!
A brain on a mission lol
I've had several images of alien fruit flitting through my brain...
I didnt write for years before i a) got medicated and actually established a daily rhythm of sorts and b) joined a writing group. Still dont manage to sit down by myself and write, but twice a week, when i have external pressure, my brain bursts with ideas AND I ACTUALLY PUT THEM TO PAPER and im so glad to have gotten to that stage again
This is why I'm a video game developer. I've always loved writing but felt constrained by exploring only one storyline. In games, I can do as much as I want. Plus writing stories that way means I don't have to worry about the minute details. There's more I can do with the characters and little asides aren't bad pacing, they're just optional side quests! I wish I were a better programmer, but my brain does NOT like coding, even if it's not half bad at problem solving. I guess I kinda have to bully it into practicing more if I want to make more complex games.
I would draw a mind map....the problem is you would not only need an incomprehensibly large sheet of paper, but you would need a hieroglyphic translater, because my writing looks like a chicken ran across the page to get corn. Yes, this is me laughing about myself, as well as popping in a corny joke .
@@ave_rie Aww you did not get the joke...I'm sorry what.
My first language was another so I can pretty fluidly switch between the two and confuse people around me so well. Mind you it has been 15 years since and yet I remember quite a bit of it. So I get the hieroglyphic thought lol.
Haha, I feel you, in the end, as long as you can read it isn't a problem
Absolutely loved this video thank you so much!
I didn't really realize how much ADHD affected my life until I found this channel and got myself diagnosed so you quite literally changed my life
I always tell people I am lazy. But I will always find the fastest and easiest way to solve a problem. One of my wonderful supervisors was doing my performance reviews and I told him I was lazy and he said "You're not lazy, you are effective and efficient" so renaming it in my own mind has helped me see it as an asset.
I always tell people to look outside the box, because the view is wonderful. Your channel is the best thing to happen to me since I learned at age 63 that I have ADHD. Thank you for all your hard work.
The right medication can help my mind go from a web diagram of spontaneous ideas. Into a somewhat organized hard drive with properly labeled files. Also, your channel has completely changed my life. Thank you for existing! Keep being you! You're the only one I know 😀
Huh...maybe this is why I've always been interested in teaching type activities. I love the art of coming up with new ways of explaining a topic or concept to someone that's unfamiliar with it. I also have a knack for quickly identifying what people are good at and pulling those traits to the surface where they can see them.
Same! 😁
Wow I related to this so much! Last year I started working for a logistics company and found a skill I've never really notice before of problem solving. I love problem solving and creating new ideas, I found for me I worked well under a little pressure for immediate problem solving. Being good at it actually really motivated me and it really helped with focus and drive. Thank you so much for your videos, they're amazing and as a late diagnosed adult you've really helped me. ✨
A thing that has helped me harness my creativity, is making gifts for my partner, it gives me the motivation I need, while also holding me to a strong but forgiving deadline.
I'm on wellbutrin for my depression and it's the only med that's made a difference. Both my mom and my brother are diagnosed with adhd and when I asked my doctor about getting screened and I started rambling about WHY she agreed it would help me. I honestly just want a little boost to what I already take, like, wellbutrin is amazing, but not perfect. Your videos have given me the will to actually pursue treatment
You really have helped me figure out why I'm not dumb at school it's just my ADHD thank you I would like to talk to you more but thank you
A friend told me once she marvels at the way I see the world, at the connections I make and the creativity springing from those connections or leaping thoughts.
I couldn't believe her then, thought she was exaggerating, that surely I couldn't be that much of an outsider... but I do now, and I cherish that compliment. It's taken quite a while to accept and love my adhd.
My creativity is one of the very few things I've always liked about myself, and the only thing depression didn't rob from me - although said depression was brought on by my adhd, it's very heartening to know that this also bolsters my creativity, especially now, long down the road of recovery ^^
The visuals and animations in this are STUNNING, and so helpful in terms of actually understanding the concepts! I could actually pay attention!
i love that i'm naturally a gifted artist so my career path as a graphic designer and my adhd pairs so well together and i have the ability to excel at what I love
2:50 I always had bad grades in art class and now I’m actually getting a chance to skip a whole year of school because how good my drawings have become in my former school I was told what to draw and as soon as I had the freedom to do what I like I became really good at it
I'm author and with my ADHD I have definitely come up with far more novel ideas than I can actually write on! My creativity is one of the aspects of my ADHD that I love the most.
This explains so much! I'm the go to guy around the office for fixing things without the manual - hooray divergent thinking! So glad to hear about meds *not* messing with creativity too - that puts some fears to rest.
I just want you to know that I am an ADHD teacher who encourages his ADHD students to watch your videos. You do excellent work! Please keep it up. If you ever need a guest speaker from a teacher who side hustles as a performer, I'd be happy to help. :)
And this is why I love this channel! It’s nice to hear something good about ADHD once in a while❤️
I'm at 2:50 rn and YES!! Guy who does the animations: YOU ARE AMAZING!!! I was just thinking this during the gearwheel animation again, it always blows my mind how on point your analogies are and how they so effortlessly manage to portray what you want to express in brain's story! Big applause!! 👏👏
I think a ton of ADHDers and also autistic people write fanfiction, which is the way I usually use creativity. It works so well for my brain to get to engage with my special interest and have a format to share it with other people, and I often come back to the comments I get that say how I've impacted someone's life.
I hope you will do more on creativity and ADHD strengths. Also, the monkey wrench of ADHD that interferes with making ideas into reality, getting motivated. Thanks to you and your team!
Best compliment I ever got was (paraphrased) 'Many people are decent at thinking outside the box. Michael is able to start his creative thinking as if there IS no box to think outside and narrow his ideas down from there'. That will stick with me for life. Thanks, Klara.❤
Also, would LOVE a video specifically dealing with the difficulty dealing with frustration. You've given us a lot of videos about how to deal with specific issues, but general frustration would be great.😅❤
Also, awesome work, Animator!❤❤❤👍👍👍
Mind maps help me the most because I need to structure my thoughts in a non-linear way (filmmaker). My perfectionism definitely gets in the way a lot so I like to just brainstorm and allow (or force) myself to make mistakes to free up space.
You mentioned a few apps that help with ADHD, I’d love to see a full video on that if you haven’t already made one? Not so much just time management apps but would be interested in what else actually helps, (especially cause time management isn’t our only struggle but most therapies, other help or I suppose apps focus on)
Hello there, I was kinda scared to take medicine to treat my ADHD and thanks to your videos help me out a lot. I have to say this is my first time taking medicine and I feel the difference right away. I haven’t felt this happy since I was kid, I can pay attention to people when they are talking to me 🤯😱 thanks for your awesome videos.
I always love your content even if I get distracted and have to rewind about 5 times every video!
I'm nearly 37 and only just found out I have adhd and it was really over whelming but at the same time completely mad sense. I've always been creative and thought outside the box and a bit of a dreamer... somehow just made it work!
Also starting my own photography business on instagram!
I started taking meds recently. One thing I started doing while worldbuilding is to brainstorm off of my meds but then revisit them later when I'm on meds to clarify and polish the ideas. It's been very productive. It's a little more difficult to apply this for work (network engineering) but I think it could work for more creative roles such as marketing or design.
The amount of time my bosses have told me "hmm, I never would've thought to bring that in"... Thankfully my current boss loves when I bring in off the wall ideas.
Bye bye box!
I'd really love escape rooms because school made me always feel dumb, but then, wow the first time I was in a escape room with so much people who were smarter in my eyes. I finally felt like a was smart. Maybe not in a school study way, but I definitely was at problem solving
I know for my fiction writing I use regular 3-ring binders since with loose leaf paper I can move things around as I think of them instead of trying to keep track of various notes in a spiral. And when I'm actually working on a story I use a combination of a dry erase board and a a cork board as a way to visualize the scene and shuffle things around and have them all in front of me rather than trying to flip through pages. And I keep a dedicated binder for story ideas and concepts I think of that I can update as those random thoughts pass my brain instead of letting them pile up in my mind.
I've always thought I'm the one adhd person that's not creative. Thanks for this video explaining I'm just creative in different ways. I'm not good at coming up with ideas from scratch, but I'm really good at finding associations and building on or tweaking ideas!
In absolutely classic ADHD style, the mindmap is now so huge, so packed with ideas and connections...that it won't load before the page times out. [...just wait...Chrome will complain it can't load it, but just wait for 3-5mins, it'll get there...]
Your channel is my guilty pleasure. I always say I'm not going to watch it because it acknowledges that I have (severe) ADHD. I've actually tested 94-99 percentile in the FDA approved Qbtest on every metric they have. But every once in a while I find such a great gold nugget here and there, that I get excited and optimistic about my abilities. I hear this great news, forget to write it down, then forget what was so great about it 😂 that's besides the point! Still love your channel.
And on occasion, I share your videos with my girlfriend who has the memory of an elephant (not the body! She gets upset when I bring up the elephant memory metaphor lol). So when I show her some ADHD educational videos like from you, it helps deepen our understanding especially since she has read a couple books on adhd before even dating me. Thank you for making such great content! (even if I don't always remember them enough to implement them)
BTW do you have any videos on planners or scheduling? Like the best templates or apps or methods you've found to keep yourself honest on time and tasks? Internalizing time is so difficult and unless I have made myself a list for the next morning of things I need to do, I will be very behind the next day and likely not do much at all due to 1) obviously forgetfulness and 2) lack of motivation. I'm scatter brained so I have like 5 random notepads/notebooks everywhere with things to do and all in different formats because I just not down what I think of as I think of it, not much in ways of having an organized format to make recalling my notes easier.
It would be an awesome video if you could do that or interview someone else too! Thank you!
i saw the notification and said to myself “oh cool! i’ll watch that right now” then i saw another notification and ended up watching that one first, then it made me think about my gaming set up, then i did an amazon search for a bunch of new gaming stuff, then i ended up looking for random stuff, then i remembered i don’t have any money, then i looked up jobs around me that are hiring, then i got on my phone to look up age requirements, then i went on spotify and made a playlist, then i took a shower to listen to it, then i got our and started working on schoolwork, then i went on my phone to clear my tabs, then i saw youtube, then i saw the video, so now i have to rewatch the video because i wasn’t paying attention. i was writing this comment.
Yea, this!
Feels like my life 🥲
I’m a graphic designer and in school for projects we always had to present three concepts with mood boards and a brief explanation of what the concept is. So the work behind the scenes to get to that point always includes writing a list of everything I can think of, and then mind mapping and adding the ideas that branch off of the concepts (these things usually happen at once in a notebook lol). Then I research 3-5 concepts that I have that feel the most interesting, bring those to class/get feedback from peers, and theeeennnn we get to start thinking about how the project actually looks (colors, type treatments and fonts, illustration or photography, etc)
I do graphic design also! Best. Job. Ever.
The alien fruit hit me in the feels. It’s such validation that ADHD is good for something.
Thank you so much for this channel! I was born during a time when children with ADHD were called lazy. I was put in "special education" because the school system didn't know what to do with me. Now that I am 34, I embrace the fact that I am a creative thinker and excel in areas where other do not. My creativity has pushed me to get 5 college degrees in graphic and web design to be a better professional in ways my colleagues do not.
I only really just figured out that I have ADHD and since then this channel has been my lifeline. You make learning about my brain and how to work best with it so accessible and less daunting. Just wanted to say thank you
While trying to take a nap one time my mind didn’t want to and during this hour nap I made a whole movie in my head that people might actually watch. I got so stimulated by these thoughts I couldn’t sleep and gave up on trying to and just kept making the movie with my eyes closed in the dark
This made me feel so at home ❣️ I've finally found where I can be most creative, in creating my own TH-cam channel 😍 and I find it an amazing balance of reward, challenge and hyper focus. It even helps me feel more focused on my desk job.
The trouble is learning how to pace myself and God forbid, switch off 🤣 and try so desperately hard to stay on task if I have to do the administrative bits, like writing emails and arranging meetings.
I worked at NASA, first as a programmer, then as a manager. My ADHD helped me see problems that no one else saw, and came up with creative ideas and processes to solve problems. I was and still am great as solving problems. By the way, I hyper focus when I code software.
This video came at such a spot on time for me. I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD and I'm a freelance illustrator, so my whole job relies on creativity. The connection between adhd and my creativity, as well as how meds might be impacting it has been on my mind a lot. Thanks for talking about it! ❤
Problem solving used to be a frustrating point for me, working with others and they get stuck on something and unable to figure it out because it is unusual. I always wondered why is no one else able to come up with an idea or problem solve when I could see 20 possible solutions? Now I know that it is our super power 😁
\o/ I needed this today. Thank you - I draw, I'm not great at it, but I've been practicing and... learning to work *with* my ADHD rather than against it has shown me some dramatic improvements because I can get more engaged, and that means more practice (and better practice at that).
Turned this on while working on a piece for my budding art licensing portfolio that I started a couple weeks ago. At 36, I decided that I needed a creative outlet and that creating was meant to be my thing. Your videos helped me realize i Had ADHD at 34, and have helped me to this point along my journey. Thank you so much for everything you do!
This has been the most positive and helpful video yet! I also got a low grade in art at school. I then went to University and came out with a first in Fine Art. I'm now self-teaching and practicing as an animator. A lot of days are scary and overwhelming but the drive I have and the ideas I have make me who I am. I used to constantly question what I need to change to improve, but very recently I realise my innate strengths need to be praised and pursued in a way that works for my own brain. This video has further affirmed that. Embrace being different!
The part that really hit home for me is the research that says ADHD meds aren't shown to decrease creativity. I've been really scared of this and because of it I've avoided getting medication. I'll have to rethink this now, thanks!
im creative with cooking!! modifying existing recipes on the fly and troubleshooting solutions when i make mistakes so i end up making something tasty even if i mess up!!
*sighs* i love cooking :'D
Same!
It's insane how much I can relate to you through your videos, sometimes it feels like you are my alter ego talking :D
To the person who does the art for these videos, who got a D in art class: I failed a writing class in high school, and a C- in another one. Now I have a Creative writing degree ;)
This is why I am in College for Electrical Engneering. This has been a big struggle for me. I got my 'formal' diagnosis when I almost got kicked out due to poor performance, before covid I was back on track and doing better than ever before. But with working from home, his has been a hurdle for everyone. Just a reminder don't give up and don't let yourself be your biggest problem. I believe in you.
I love how creative my mind can be. It’s what drove some amazing things I’m proud of in the past (my resurrection video here on TH-cam or a descriptive paragraph I wrote in high school that might become a book some day… if I can focus on it lol). That’s the thing though…I can’t seem to focus on one thing long enough to get it done. Example: Starting my next TH-cam video OR instructional videos for my kitchen staff..
I think of creativity like those connect the dots pictures. Each dot is a point of experience we have. ADHD people have more dots than neurotypical people to create their picture. More points of reference because our minds are subconsciously taking in more because of our multi-focus tendencies. Disparate ideas to others make complete sense to us because we've seen more that fills in our understanding. We won't necessarily be able to explain those connections but chalk it up to intuition. But intuition is based on learned experience, as per Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking, Fast and Slow". Our creativity is definitely in solutions and problem solving, games of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, poker probabilities, and telling Neo in the Matrix that there is no spoon.
Hello brains.... Am a social worker with Adhd 😂 best combo right
Hell yeah
I’m starting my Masters in Social Work this fall!!
I am try to finish my bachelorthesis in social works.
And I am still unsure if it would be a good or bad Idea to work with ADHD children and Teenagers😁
@@abbyleedy Best of luckk....Social work was really tough this year
@@denycast I think it's a good idea because you know how they feel and you can give them good advice.
Also you are showing them that they're not the only one and that they can do it too
I'm so new to this, like a week in of actually considering that this could be me but this is firing off all sorts in my head. The view of creativity only as artistic creativity TOTALLY makes sense to me because that's entirely how I viewed it but I'm so full of ideas that I am overwhelmed all of the time. So thanks for this resource.
I think my adhd made me become a better artist because I learned that if I doodled while my teachers were talking, I could focus, learn, and genuinely absorb the content so much better! I didn’t have access to fidgets, but drawing was a good way to focus, and to the teacher it just looked like I was taking notes ;)
So I think becoming an artist, for me, stemmed from coping with my adhd. It ended up helping me develop skills I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to explore if I was neurotypical, because doodling daily for hours on end gave me a TON of practice, so when I got really into art (and creative-type work in general) I already had a lot of abilities! :)
your videos are fantastic btw, I love them!
I love doing music and art but it takes soooooooo many hours to do a detailed charcoal portrait or to learn piano. Once I got meds I’m finally doing music. Every day. Even wrote some songs which I’ve always wanted to do. Well a bunch of partial songs hahaha! ;) any way... I notice when I don’t get meds I just play video games even though I don’t like them nearly as much as art or music. So amazing!!! Happy to be pursuing things I love again. :)
Honestly, my meds are a huuuuge help in my writing, because they make it so I can actually make use of those broad and exciting but detail-lacking ideas, and put them into the right words to convey what I want
I've had to come up with extensive written methods to guide my brainstorm process because I'm unable to take the meds. It has worked very well.
It is SO maddening to do some kind of group work with neurotypicals and everyone just goes with the first idea that someone said with a hint of confidence!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! 😱😱😱 drives me CRAZY!!!
Another awesome video...I can honestly see these videos being used to create a course about ADHD in adults. A course that could be used to train Human Resource Professionals about how to manage and "utilize" identified ADHD'ers. "I write better when I am on my meds." I am truly curious about this statement...are you saying that your creativity is the same as when you are off meds or are you actually staying on task when on meds to get writing completed...or both?
The meds help me stay on task but also think more clearly I think. My thoughts are more confused and jumbled off of them & I get frustrated more easily. I had wondered if it would limit my divergent thinking, but so far the research says no :)
I love that my adhd makes me a creative out of the box thinker. When my own clients with various disabilities like Autism, ADHD, dyslexia are struggling I am really good about coming up with alternative methods & suggestions to help them!
I am also artsy but terrible about finishing my pieces whether that be a painting, drawing, or Cricut project. I’m a great writer very scientific & medical thinking person but it takes a lot of juice to write boring case notes constantly in trouble for that! 💜🧠
Regarding meds and creativity: personally I find it easier to come up with something at bed time (aka once my meds have worn off), jot it down, then use my increased focus the next day to maybe implement it. I don’t know if this is just to do with meds, but it’s interesting. Other than that, I don’t find my creativity meaningfully impacted by my medication, and honestly it would be worth it even if I did!