ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, being a neurodevelopmental health issue afflicting mostly children. This condition is currently found in 11% of U.S. children within the age range of 4 to 17 years old. If neglected, it can persist for years to come, so for the time being there are something like 8 million American adults trying to get by with ADHD.
ADHD is generally characterized by the following symptoms:
- impulsivity
- difficulty paying attention,
- fidgeting,
- being unable to concentrate on tasks,
- talking too much,
- hyperactivity.
ADHD is mostly a men’s affliction, the reason for which lies chiefly with the fact that in men the dominant symptom of hyperactivity manifests itself with more ease. Meanwhile, in women, the symptoms are not so well-pronounced, and their most obvious symptom is attention problems.
ADHD is a feebleness that interferes with your professional or academic, as well as personal activities, but ways can be found how the condition can be turned to your benefit.
It can also exist as ADD, a neurological disorder responsible for similar behavior problems, but minus hyperactivity.
Some of the well-known people suffer from ADHD and ADD and have to fight it down all the time.
Justin Timberlake
Celebrities having ADHD fall into two categories: those who hold that the condition helped them on the way to success, and those who assert they keep struggling. As for Timberlake, Grammy-honored recording artist and actor, his comment runs: “I have OCD mixed with ADD. You try living with that.”
Emma Watson
Usually the actress isn’t very outspoken about how she manages to live down her issue, but the ADDitude Magazine along with some other sources inform Watson has been treated for the condition for most of her life. Hearken to this anyone who contends that ADHD is something to grieve about.
Michael Phelps
Phelps‘s 22 Olympic medals make him the greatest medal winning athlete ever – but he had no means of knowing that at 9 when he was discovered to have ADHD. It was his mother who proved to be his inspiration giving him sports news to read. Then she had him take up swimming where he learned concentration and discipline and thence took his abilities to greater lengths.
Paris Hilton
The notorious socialite Paris Hilton – whatever she may be doing or have done – is laboring under the shadow of ADHD. She has had it for years, as she confessed to Larry King – in an interview Hilton disclosed that she has “been on medication since I was a child.”
will.i.am
ADHD is a grave affliction for the Black Eyed Peas leader – but he found succor in music. As he stated to Britain’s Sunday Mirror Plus, he derives artistic pleasure from the fact that his mind is constantly on the move. Adams shares: “Those traits work well for me in studios and in meetings about creative ideas. … If I was stuck at a different job I’d be horrible and wouldn’t survive. Music is my therapy. … Music keeps me sane and keeps my mind on something. It’s fragile up there.”
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver, probably the most popular British chef, has had ADHD since childhood, and he claims that he was able to hold symptoms in check thanks to his healthy eating habits. The chef is unceasingly vocal about the importance of healthy living, accentuating its benefits for children burdened with ADHD and suchlike health issues.
Adam Levine
Reminiscing about his youth, the Maroon 5 vocalist remembers being unable to concentrate on his homework properly. When he grew up, Levine still had difficulties while penning songs or working on them in the studio. By that time he had become aware that it looked as if he was displaying symptoms of attention deficit, and he made an appointment with a doctor to see what can be done about it.
Channing Tatum
Little Channing Tatum also found schooling burdensome because he was born with attention deficit and dyslexia thrown in. The medication he underwent proved totally useless.
Sharing with The New York Times, he said: “I have never considered myself a very smart person for a lot of reasons… You get lumped in classes with kids with autism and Down syndrome, and you look around and say, ‘Okay, so this is where I’m at.’ Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, ‘All right, I’m obviously not like these kids either.’ So you’re kind of nowhere. You’re just different.”
Ryan Gosling
Nowadays Ryan Gosling is a distinguished actor, an Oscar nominee and a ladykiller, but at school he felt an all-time failure. He couldn’t read well due to having ADHD, and his classmates bullied him as a reject. He had to drop out of school and for a year had his schooling at home under his mother’s aegis.
Discussing the issue with Entertainment Weekly, Gosling reminisced: “I didn’t feel very smart. They kept passing me in school even though I didn’t know how to do things I should have known how to do. Like, I couldn’t read… I couldn’t absorb any of the information, so I caused trouble.”
Then he developed an interest in acting which taught him attention and concentration.
Karina Smirnoff
The Ukranian-American professional ballroom dancer and the multiple US National champion is also incredibly a victim of ADHD, which she admitted in 2009.
With her short attention span, Smirnoff, who has a string of championships in the Opens, expresses herself in enthusiastic dancing.
“Like most adults, my schedule is very busy. My day is filled with 10-hour dance rehearsals for my television show, teaching choreography, dancing in shows, and constant travel,” she shares. “With improvement in my ADHD symptoms, I can focus on finishing what I start.”
ADHD is no more than a medical diagnosis
The examples listed above furnish ample proof that a medical condition doesn’t prevent anyone from leading a satisfying, rewarding life. A number of celebrities, along with ordinary people, have hit upon ways to achieve greater or smaller success with ADHD.
ADHD symptoms respond to treatment; the main thing is to discover a treatment that suits you and keep it up assiduously.
