Is ADHD a Superpower? 

People with ADHD chasing a functional life is like an artist constantly chasing his muse. Once in a while we find it and we produce a masterpiece. The rest of the time we are depressed and we might cut our ear off.

hyperfocus is cool until you never touch the thing you are working on ever again

The problem I found myself with ADHD is that your emotions can be too strong sometimes. So if something bad happens in your life that shit can overwhelm you.

I feel like when people with adhd come together you'll just be serounded by happy excited people. But when you start talking about adhd everyone becomes excited and happy about sharing how their lives are fucking miserable... Its a very odd expirence

Personally a lot of how my ADHD affects me is in a negative almost debilitating way. Hyper focus can cause procrastination if you are focused on the random thing. Academic systems are my personal hell. Yes, it does make me more creative, better at problem solving, etc.... But sometimes I would rather just remember to eat, or be able to study. I know the "ADHD superpower" is a optimistic way of looking at this condition, but it also invalidates all the daily hardships it brings in life.

I have had my own father and brother admit that they think my ADHD is fake to me. Didn't matter if they had a psychiatrist diagnose me in the first place, on recommendation from my own teachers. They would rather suggest I was lazy. My straight A's did nothing to convince them that something else is going on in my mind. Something even a ton of hard work can't fully compensate for. As horrible as ADHD is, the worst part is the way others treat you. Watching relationships slowly fall apart in passive aggressive disrespect makes you eternally suspicious of your closest friends. People just get annoyed over time, and they forget why you are the way you are. Or maybe they just suspended their disbelief until it "gets too hard" and they start making disrespectful comments. ADHD is so easy for neurotypical folk to mock. Sometimes it's not even the ADHD. Sometimes it's just the label that makes people reinterpret everything you do. They get to lose their keys and still be treated like human beings. When ADHD folk do it, it makes you a target. Or worse, they "worry" about you. Suddenly you're not allowed to drive your own car because it "scares them" even though they're worse drivers than you. I'm reminded of Suicidal Tendencies "Institutionalized" as a critique of how America handles mental issues in general.

From my experience it’s a combination of things. Society wants us to be “normal” and that gives most of us low self esteem. No matter how hard you try a fish can’t climb as well as a monkey. Another problem is that we aren’t taught how to be us, we’re just shamed for it. For example I think adhd are natural polymaths, yet society tells us to stay in one job, do one thing, be able to sit in a cubicle for hours a day typing on a blank monitor. So boring. I myself am more comfortable jumping from one activity to another, I’ll study html5 for an hour or so, work on 3d software the next hour, draw the next, html5 etc,. Really it’s my self esteem, not adhd that’s kept me down and I’m working through that now. It is a superpower, but more so a double edged sword. You need to learn to work WITH it instead of against it. Build confidence and learn not to use social norms as a comparison. That’s my experience.

the hyper focus does feel like a gift sometimes. may not be able to control quite where it’s aimed but it follows the muse.

00:11 - Reddit post 01:10 - Overview 03:26 - What do you think contributes to successful performance? 09:02 - State vs Trait 10:45 - How do we cultivate states? 24:33 - Recognize that it's about states 29:09 - Slowing your mind down 33:02 - What if your mind is hypo-active? 36:03 - Gut bacteria's impact on mental health 41:13 - Pro biotics and mental health

Short answer. No.

It's a superpower that gets taken advantage of by mid level managers and executives that need all-star employees that work feverishly without complaining.

Me and my friends have accepted that my ADHD have made me the funniest being in this planet, but mean that I can't learn physics if It was life or death. So for me, socially, it is a super power, and sometimes in education as well, but with a boring class and a boring teacher it is a death sentence. Edit: Lotta people are saying that this mentality will be quite bad academically, but it's only really for physics where ADHD does not help, it's quite good in my main focuses of Biology and English. Helps me memories terms in silly ways and also think a few sentences ahead while writing an essay or story.

I needed this so much. Twice exceptional ADHD/gifted human here- that's right folks, MENSA level IQ with the executive functioning of a potato. 🥔 These states are the key- I'll get so frustrated with myself because I'm SMART, yet I can't get my crap together. I'm painfully self-aware yet willfully ignorant. "WHY CAN'T I DO THE THINGS?!?", I scream into the void while dusting the Cheeto dust from my fingers while chugging energy drinks running on 3 hours of sleep. 🥴

I’ve been wondering if I have ADHD for a while. People say I don’t because I was fine in school, but it’s things like this that keep me wondering. I’ve never been able to stick to anything long enough to accomplish anything in life but I feel like I _should_ be motivated. And it’s these moments every few weeks where I feel like…this is how I should be. For how much I care about my success and how many times I’ve tried, I should be like this. Maybe it shouldn’t be impossible to focus on everything I care about. Maybe “the kid next door” just feels like this all the time. Maybe if I were like this for even half of the time, I would actually be able to be proud of myself for once in my life.

This is what makes youtube a great platform, this guys time as a doctor is probably worth, hundreds. With an internet connection, and youtube I can listen to him for almost free.

Only on good days imo. The rest of the days are just me having absolutely no energy left to do anything. Although honestly the good days are absolutely amazing and dopamine rewarding, like declutter your entire room without anyone's help. The only downsize is that those days are rare in my case.

Doesn't sugarcoat things but isn't needlessly blunt either. Since I learned about my ADHD, the vids from this channel have helped me to process all the baggage that I've picked up during the years I didn't know why I was the way I am. An absolute beaut and a great person.

Man, literally the intro. It's a bit of a conundrum. You're in a bad place so it's hard to eat healthy and get sleep and not smoke pot, but if you manage to somehow do those things, it's like a whole new world opens up because you actually experience what your life could be.

I've not seen the video yet, but my gut reaction to the title is: Yeah, ADHD gives you superpowers and a kryptonite necklace that can be randomly unlatched but will always be on your neck next morning

No. Definitely not. I feel cracked out of my mind from time to time. But 99% of the time I feel like I'm a smoothebrain.

I got back into exercising recently and it has made all the difference. Can't recommend it enough to y'all who struggle with ADHD and/or depression. Do something fun like aerobic dancing or shoot some hoops.

It's a min-max class, like being a sorcerer where you can't do anything alone until level 8 where you get stoneskin (an accidental little RPG party analogy about how useful group study and accountability partners are)

ADHD is great for creativity, but we live in a world where creativity isn't vauled as much as a 9/5 job. ADHD is a curse for the current world we live in.

This person described that so well I have always got this feeling and never really knew how to explain it other than feeling like I woke up from a dream and was actually myself for a while.

I think it would be interesting to hear about the effect music has on your brain. As someone with ADHD, I feel like music gives some distraction from outside stimulus. In a sense, it drowns out all the thoughts and directs my focus on the task I’m trying to complete. It may be similar to neurotypical minds but I have no experience there. This is purely anecdotal but I’m curious.

Saying ADHD is a superpower is like saying being blind is a superpower because your hearing might be better.

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu, _The Art of War_ That book is relevant for so much of daily life, its honestly kinda weird.

As someone who spent age 18 to 23 being an unaccomplished loser who failed out of college and is now back in college near the top of my science classes, my number one tip is. Engineer your life around your hyperfixations and mentally configure everything you learn in class around your hyperfixations. Example, my main hyperfixations rn is drugs and I wanna go for biochemistry/pharmacology. So in chem and bio, even tho I'm not learning the cool stuff yet, I apply all the basics I'm learning to some of the cool stuff and it motivates me to understand so I can know more about the cool stuff on a more rigorous level. Ex learning about basics like amino acids, redoz rxns, genetics, mitosis meiosis, etc and every time I master a concept I reward myself by doing extra research applying it to my interests and being able to understand on a deeper level then before. Also, learning to enjoy solving problems. I used to want to enjoy it but couldn't make myself (math chemistry etc) but now intead of trying to brute force my way into problems sets because I have to, I tell myself it's because I want to and it's necessary to rpg grind my problem solving stats so I can get thru orgo chem, math, biochem etc and one day be a distinguished drug guy (a pharmacologist) I just re read this and realized I did all of this in high school but it didn't work until I also was able to make myself take notes and write down problems neatly instead of just cramming on yt videos. You do to some extent need to learn proper study habits. Adderall helps too

I'm 8 minutes in and this content itself is great but I have *no idea* yet why it has rolled with such a potentially inflammatory title/thumb that so far feels totally unrelated.

This is so easy to explain but this just doesn't work this way. I eat healthy, I work out, I sleep a lot and I drink A LOT of water. On paper, my state is ALWAYS perfect, but I'm just never at that point of feeling at my "peak". I only feel like that once every blue moon and I always chase that feeling when I'm not there. Nothing helps. it just comes and goes.

Wow the first 10 mins of this video made me cry! I’ve been diagnosed and on Adder-all for ADD since I was 8 years old. This phenomenon is so real, I didn’t realize so many people could relate to this. In a way this is so so comforting ❤

If it's a new novelty and it's fun I'll smash it out at 2000% for a few days, maybe even a week, rarely longer I will live and breathe this project for the duration, rarely thinking of anything else But then randomly i lose all interest and it becomes so boring I just can't do it anymore Must have over 1000 unfinished songs on fruity loops 2000 half finished drawings (maybe I could combine them all together to hide the unfinished parts) It sucks, just gotta keep moving on and finding new things that fit around this wonderful brain

This is a recent realization of mine. I know that I have a condition and I completely acknowledge it now. Sometimes it makes me do amazing things but normally it's difficult. I am trying to be careful about my thinking. I am lowering my expectation of myself but at the same time learn to savor the moment when I did an amazing job. I am trying my best not to get too caught up on it, because I notice that I become arrogant when I get convinced that I have so much potential, and I can do more if I am like this everyday which is impossible. High expectations only frustrate me and destroys my confidence when everything becomes difficult again.

about adhd and fish oil, my mum had heard if it and asked my doctor who was like "ah this again" and pulled up a research paper and said that fish oil showed good improvements in those who were lacking in the nutrients that fish oil has. if you are not lacking in those then it does little to nothing. I had salmon often so it saved me fish oil supplements lol

When I do manage to finally get there it really feels like I've unlocked Ultra Instinct. I no longer have an internal monolgue. The middle step of converting thought to words and then to action is no longer necessary. I'm not even fully conscious of what I am doing, but a week's worth of chores can happen in a couple of hours. My left arm and right arm can get separate tasks done, such as cooking and loading the dishwasher. This is not the "Part of task A, now part of task B, now back to A" type of multitasking in my normal state. Both are genuinely happening. There's no emotional involvement either. I am neither excited that I am getting dishes done nor frustrated that I have to do them. I am simply an observer than happens to exist within a space that dishes are being done in.

"Ya bro if u just put more effort into using substances less and coping in more healthy ways life will get better" Amazing ill do that right now my high executive function will totally allow it

"state" it's like when you are always the funny guy in a group till there is another fun person then you just don't feel like making jokes anymore, doesn't mean you can't or you're not fun you're just in a state of No for absolutely no reason

Nothing like some good ol fashioned fight or flight mixed with a heavy dash of crippling anxiety every morning🥰 ❤️ *chefs kiss*

The thing with this glimpse of your potential is that an ADHD brain is just not a brain that has a static level of potential. We vary day to day, hour to hour, and that’s just the natural flow of our brains. The hardest part is figuring out how to lean in and take advantage on those superpower brain days while also not shaming yourself for being less productive on bad brain days. You can only do what you can do *in that moment*. Your best is not your absolute best for all time in a vacuum. Your best is the best you can do today. Just today. It doesn’t matter if your best tomorrow is better than your best today. You can only do today’s best today, and tomorrow’s best tomorrow. It’s taken me 30 years to learn this.

Ur becoming my favorite channel, this is information I’ve been looking for

Very very very random thought, but it just struck me that talking about "state" is a very good way of teaching non Spanish speakers about the differences between "ser" and "estar" (translated as just one verb, to English and other languages: "to be"), because then you can use the similarity and common origin of "estar" and "state": they both mean a temporary condition (state translates as the noun "estado", which is the noun directly linked to the verb "estar"). So I am Juan and I am tired, are both instances of "to be", but in Spanish they translate as "Yo soy Juan (verbo ser)" and "Yo estoy cansado (verbo estar)". I may be tired now, but maybe not tomorrow, but I will always be Juan (or is culturally expected anyways...).

I think of this as the "Flowers for Algernon" effect. The successful days are amazing, then boom it's a regular day and I spend an hour trying to decide something or find something etc. and losing my mind with frustration.

37:57 Dr. K Out of context 1. take the poop from a healthy rat 2. stick it into a depressed rat 3. the depressed rat gets better

Suggestion: add a sound or explicit graphic/ into to indicate where the preview ends and the chronological starting point is so it’s clearer, especially for tho who are just listening

I've notice that it becomes easier to control as I age. I used to be in the same boat, but now that I've become more emotionally mature and gained enough knowledge and wisdom I've found it incredibly easy to control this power every single day.

Dr. K, I absolutely love your content and it would be amazing to see you talk about giftedness too!

Keep doing the good work bro! You are beacon of light in the gaming community!

I cleaned my whole house in a day two years ago. It's been a mess ever since, but I always think back to that day....

I think it’s not only “not clicking” for me, but I was, like, never taught, how to sleep, cook&eat and do sports properly. Parents always said that it’s important but I never taught my organism to kinda live life properly. Pisses me off I need to lose couple of years of my life just to teach myself to live normally

The part about fatigue possibly being helpful makes so much sense to me! Within a limited scope, I have noticed I can focus and function better with a certain level of fatigue and I had suspected that it had to do with calming my mind down just enough to function a bit more optimally. So cool to hear my suspicions vocalized by someone else

I'm a musician. While ADHD could be a part of why I chose this career path, I still feel like it gives me a creativity advantage over my peers and I like music so much that when doing this one thing I almost always go straight into hyperfocus.

For me it is. The creativity side, the ability to connect disparate ideas is through the roof. I can’t do what is expected but the thing that keeps me from getting fired is that I can easily get into a flow state into things nobody is thinking about and that allows me to make new discoveries and create value.

If I could choose what I focus on maybe, but since that's the underlying issue no. I'm a jack of all trades and master of none because I can learn something faster and more efficient than anyone I know if it grabs my attention and then boom, I can no longer focus anymore on that thing my brain has found another thing. The all or nothing approach also seems to be the hardest thing for me to fight against.

PRICELESS INFORMATION! LOVE YOU DR K

I’m REALLY glad you make the point you do at 41:00. The supplement industry is a dumpster fire of marketing gimmicks trying to get people to believe that this supplement will lead to X result without Y behavior that I find uncomfortable or undesirable.

traits are inborn and fixed your performance is determined by your state (which is temporary and alterable) if you wanna improve your performance and/pr make it consistent, focus on entering the right state 1. control your thought and self talk (process your past emotions) 2. become aware of how you're feeling in the moment 3. adopt a sattvik diet cause what you feed yourself affects your state of mind 4. sleep well and in the same time. do not consume alcohol, marijuana 5. environment: spend time with people who make you feel productive or a desire to work/study

Noticed that I work best when backed into a corner. I can hyperfocus and accomplish some amazing things. I just wish it didn’t have to come to that ever time!

I live for the “bottled lightning moments” where everything crystallises in a fraction of a moment - like a bolt of lightning. It’s the most amazing feeling I ever get. And produces some of the most truly amazing outcomes

I just got diagnosed at 28 and I’m so overwhelmed. My emotions are all over the place and I’m trying to find my way back to self love so I can take the next steps.

Currently experiencing this EXACT high that has been described, and dreading the falloff that will happen soon afterwards. The timing on this video is uncanny

Nice to see him mentioning the difference of macronutrients. I asked myself the same 17 years ago when i started to learn about nutrition and saw something called bioavailability. For example an egg and a potato can be broken down and used more easily and than both of them alone. Or plant based protein has a lower bioavailability than animal based ones

Nope. I can’t get anything done, yet have huge ambitions. But maybe I just need to stop going after easy dopamine

Far too many food studies do not take into account the financial position of the individual studied, however I would hope most are aware of that by now. If I need to I'll look but I could on instinct alone feel that none of the older studies took the child's familial history and financial status into consideration before looking at what was the cause of the ADHD.

I found out that sleeping, eating, and being hydrated enough improves my performance in games (even before finding this video), mainly esport games. I never thought that my moment of brilliance also contributed by this XD

I haven’t watched the video yet but the title reminds me of something me and my therapist came up with: autistic people (like myself) are like unicorns living in a world of horses. Yes we are…different…since we have a giant horn growing out of our heads, but we are also able to do amazing and extraordinary things that other horses can’t do. 🐴 🦄 ❤️

Parents and people around us also judge us by our good and productive days or moments, signaling back at us "see, if only you kept on doing what you're doing for once, you would be worthy". Often we're told that it's just laziness or selfishness, and others are disappointed. It's been like this so often I've lost track.

Funny thing is, I've been able to harness my hyperfocus fairly successfully. Here's why: I've found what can motivate me to do things and help get me started. For example, writing papers for class is an absolute chore, because it can be difficult to zone in and know how to start. Despite this, I've been able to find a way to successfully help me zone in. The good thing is once i've started and zoned in, I refuse to stop until done with papers. I've learned that turning on some catchy instrumental music and giving myself a reward to look forward to afterwards helps tremendously. Usually my "reward" after completely an extremely difficult task is food/game oriented, lol.

I stopped thinking what if, I just focus on now and formulating without stress how to get it done. I noticed working from home I am 10x more efficient.

ADHD is telling you when you’re focusing on your life path and when you are trying to focus on stuff that does not actually matter to your authentic self. It’s such a strong feedback system that it will not allow you to focus on things that do not matter to the ADHD person in question.

I can focus only when the task becomes an urgency but sadly by that moment, in most cases, there is not enough time left to produce the outcome which reflects the initial aim. Bottom line, I suffer thrice more than normal while trying to figure out how to stay concentrated through all that long period, than I get into another stressful phase where I am really out of time but I can finally do the job. When everything is over, I keep feeling the same energy for one or two days, then the spark is completely gone and I find myself again flying here and there trapped in that silly bubble. I am 48, I am a composer and this is my painful work routine.

This isn't a bad start of a guide to assist with ADHD, but I think there are some things missing here Dr. K. While this is all great advice from a neurotypical point of view, I have yet to see you address how to manage the brain's dysregulation of emotional states and motivation. And, let's acknowledge that those with ADHD will never 100% be able to control "hyperactive" states. Furthermore I look forward to your future environmental video focusing on the three different types of of ADHD. As someone who was diagnosed only with an attention deficit component (ADD), I can say from experience that the environmental factors for me do differ somewhat from those that have a pure hyperactive component or a blend. Some are the same but some are not. Finally, I think we need to acknowledge that those with ADHD will never be able to fully control our minds. We can do many things to help manage our minds and improved. But this will never 100% be the case. I could be wrong as science develops but by using your strategies alone it is currently not achievable. But it's a good start and these strategies will definitely be helpful for improving

It is weird how your Videos Always fit. Had the Same thought as OP Yesterday.

I don’t see how is it a super power when it makes everything hard and I hate to feel stupid.

Great video, thanks!

I get this were it doesnt feel as random it feels completely tied to my happiness and enjoyment when im doing something that I enjoy and or when I do well at something I can just keep going forever but as soon I screw up or get stuck for to long or I feel like im doing poorly like during a race my motivation drops to nothing and I cant focas on anything because of everything going on in my head or other things going on and my brain want to move to something that id find more fun witch is generally watching a a video or stream or playing a game witch is something I need to fix because my second semester of collage was a complete failer because for the first time things were hard and didnt click so I stressed and struggled and I cant keep going like that

Guys as a member of the adhd community I have figured this out. It takes a lot of hard work but it starts with a book. And then another. Eventually you’ll wanna know more.

My adhd is basically if I don't wanna do something there's no way to physically force me to do it so self discipline is non existent. When I wanna do something I can focus on it for hours on end and be super productive, its not the state of mind or productivity that's the issue its the focus that is nearly impossible for me to control cause my brain will just do what it wants to do and nothing else, and it doesn't help that what I want to do is constantly changing

I feel like once you start embracing and working with neurodivergence and ADHD instead of constantly fighting it, you can be just as if not even more productive than a neurotypical person.

Working out always helps with the anxiety. Perfect amount of fatigue to slow the mind down. But also provides dopamine from the exercise itself, and from accomplishing something involving discipline. Likely it's a goal you set. And making progress on that goal. Gives us some dopamine. So calm the mind. And raise dopamine. Much more clarity.

Emotional regulation is critical to living a productive life while living with ADHD. My positive days i feel like I really could do anything the world needs of me. Then theres some days where someone or something screws over my team and i wind up going full Doom Slayer on the threat. I say that jokingly of course but my inabilities to regulate my emotions properly have cost me opportunities. Its forced me into doing the best i can to rework peoples perception of me and my reputation. All tho honestly, it keeps life interesting that's for sure lol. Ima look into dietary and habitual changes to help ensure my emotional regulation is better than it currently is. Cheers guys stay awesome!

As someone with ADAH if you understand how to trigger your ability to hyper focus on command which I can do by putting my hand and restarting it on the back of my head it very much is a super power along with all the manic energy you get so long as you can control it

I find thinking about hey I have ADHD makes it worse for me. It makes you feel at a disadvantage and like your not whole. So I don’t think about ADHD till some one mentions it or I hear the word. I’ve just accepted that everyone is different. I’m better at some things and others are better at some other things. You just have to identify things in your life that you want to work on like every one else. Pick one and go! I was terrible with memory or what I found out it was more the fear of forgetting lol so I wouldn’t stop thinking about a plan I had till the time came. So now I use alarms and my calendar on my phone. If some one is like hey can you have this done for later I’m ok no problem. I just think what the best time for me to do it would be then set an alarm or two in my phone. That way I can let go of the commitment and if I forget then oh well lol my phone will remind me. It’s made a huge difference with obsessing over daily tasks or plans I don’t want to forget and I feel more at peace. If you have ADHD your not a freak lol your just one variation of however many people and you will be ok as long as you don’t get paralyzed by the overwhelming feeling that your not able to be helped. Find things you want to improve and just pick one and experiment. When trying to alter or beak habits don’t be discouraged by the discomfort or pain. Those feelings build your character and will move into other challenges you face. Discipline is your friend :)

I relate to this so badly but one thing to keep in mind if those moments of potential bring you down is that if you were at your best constantly, it would no longer be your best. No engine can run at 100% capacity at all times

It's like a debuff in certain stats but boosts other stats. You just have to know how to use it to your advantage

Well i was diagnosed with slight adhd and aspergers syndrome when i enter the flow i seem kinda OP. In games can beat anyone then and having relative eas with everything. So im trying to figure out how to be in it more.

So relatable.

the superpower that makes u want to end this game

I never know how long I’m going in my full potential so I always try to make the most of it, because I know that it could be gone The next day

Dr K talking about Microbiomes. A whisper inside my head "The Spice, he knows about the spice, the Spice Melange ...."

holy crap that initial post is so relatable. It felt like i was reading my brain in a reddit post.

As an ADHD golfer I remember being 12 and having a ear ache so I took benadryl. I was so tired and did not give any fucks about how I was playing. Ended up playing one of my best days because regulating my thoughts and emotions was basically nonexistent. I could just do what I needed to do. This video made me realize why that day everything fell into place 😂😂 I always wondered why that happened that way.

An article from the NIH actually revised the numbers you provided on bacterial units significantly, it’s closer to a 1:1 ratio, being slightly more bacteria. The study is titled “Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body” if you want to check it out. Also bacterial mass is only 0.3% of our makeup by weight due to the small size of the cells

So I'm ADHD and was an adrenaline junkie long before gaming heavily, it makes a lot more sense why my motivation for games fell off if my adrenaline receptors were already more messed up than the average gamer.

ADHD medication helped with the state change thing immensely, infact it worked too well. I had problems with skipping sleep, missusing my medications and getting into pleasure traps that the combination of all these and other externalities made it not worth continuing to use. Managing my ADHD without has proven to be extremely difficult and I feel like ive lost the ability to force that state change. I now have learned to live with the fact that this component of my life will be fleeting and beyond any control. I will say that all other metrics of a successful and healthy life have increased markedly since elliminating the substance addiction and the behavior surrounding it.

Thank you

dr k is the only person keeping me sane atm 🤣

I always thought this was just a me thing where I suddenly feel super confident and focused, I get it like once a year for a week, then I burn out obviously, I keep hunting for that feeling.

I feel like it is really hard nowadays to find people online that are trustworthy. Dr K just may be one of those folks that are trustworthy.

My heads hurts by the way if I think too much, sometimes coffee makes it worst. My capacity to focus is stretched so much that you get tired. I made habits to deal with it, apparently found out that i'm basically holding a super power.

8:33 the man himself really just told ADHDers to just pay attention