ADD & Creativity | ADHD Information

If there is a trade off, I'll take the meds.
Sure, I'm wildly creative and maybe a very little less so on meds.
But having wildly creative thoughts but never acting on them, never writing nor doing art and whever I did never finishing, isn't too satidfying.
Being creative but just daydreaming about it isn't too creative, it's daydreaming albeit creative daydreaming.

Thanks for the input everybody and keep it coming!

This is really why I hesitate getting meds. The tangents my mind takes me on have a wonderful way of weaving back into a problem I am facing. While it takes extreme focus and dedication to get it done, I love the creative process I use.

The perfect med for me would be something that didn't need to build up in my system and one I could take whenever I needed to get things done. Ephedra really worked wonderfully that way for me. My wife would comment on how I would clean up the house or completely organize my office when I took my 2 ephedra in the morning. Hopefully it will come back on the market soon

Matt- my 2 kids are on meds for school and I do see some of their creativty a bit stifled however their ability to complete projects and execute ideas is so much better now. My daughter is particularly creative. She is 9 and writes songs (counrty songs for some reason- no body in our house listens to country music) and she is artistic and also writes stories. Also I have gotten her a digital recorder so if she has an idea for a story or song she can say the idea into the recorder and then she can work it out on the weekend or at night. Sometimes she will just hum a melody into the recorder. The ideas seems to come when she is not medicated but she executes them best when on her meds.

Creativity has to do with the right side of the brain, the part that us with ADD/ADHD automatically use a lot and very well. Unfortunately for us the world we live in today likes to use their left side the most. You know the side that wants us to make appointments and be on time by using clocks. Meds (or other stimulants) just start allowing both sides of the brain to start working together. So I don't think its that we "loose" our creativity when we medicate, but that we are now using both sides equally.

Again to reinnerate my last post. Use the benefits of boths sides of the coin. When medicated do the things that require logic, reason, and focus, like balancing your checkbook. Then use your creativity when needed (or wanted).

I am proud of my creativity. I use it more now than before I was diagnosed, because I used to try and be more like the rest of society. Now that I know there isn't anything wrong with me, I am proud of how I am and the special characteristics that come with being ADD. I wouldn't trade my ADD for being non-ADD.

I think we are saying/thinking the same thing. I look at my ADD as a blessing, not a curse and if I were able to utilize the meds to help me be normal when I wanted and not use them to be "ME" when I want to I would be all set.

I guess the confusion comes in because I was under the impression that most meds take a while to really start working. IF that were the case then I couldn't just turn it off when I wanted. Maybe I just need more info on the meds. I'll keep reading the posts in the other threads:)

MM

All:

Like alot of you, I have been recently diagnosed and just starting searching the internet for more info. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

As for me, I am an entreprenuer who was always an ok student who never "lived up to my potential". I always had a wild creative side which has helped me in my businesses and I have found many other ADD traits that have helped me to success once I learned how to reign them in a little.

My concern is about treating the ADD and losing the creative edge. While fully caffeinated or when I used epehdra I got alot done but I don't remember anything extremely creative about myself during those times.

I guess I have read the physical and emotional side effects but no one has commented on the positive aspects of ADD and whether they lose them. Is the ADD helping the creativity or if I were "normal" would I still be the creative person I have developed into?

I can't say if you would lose your creative aspects or not, but I can tell you that my 16 yr. old son who is not medicated puts more of a creative spin on everything he does opposed to the other kids in his class. For example, in his ceramics class they had to make decorative teapots. While everyone elses looked like a regular teapot, my son made his to look like a lava lamp. So the cover of the tea pot looked like the top of the lamp. It also had what looked like the bubbles on the teapot and it was very colorful. They also had to use a non ceramic decoration on it so while everyone in his class used glass stones, he used felt at the base of his and it really looks cool.

When he was on medication he lost that edge, like he lost his imagination. Some say creativity and ADD have nothing to do with each other, but I see my son now grabbing all ideas from every corner of his mind, the ideas never stop.

I'm not sure, I've heard parents on the board say they think the meds. stifled some of their kids creativity,and some adults have said so too.

I have been told I'm pretty creative, and I majored in fine arts in college. However, I dropped out in my junior year cause I couldn't keep up, and have dabbled in different projects since then. I rarely finish an art project anymore.

Creativity is great, but if you can't focus enough to finish, it's kinda futile. On medication so far I've been finishing things more.

It's a tough balance, off meds. very creative but unfocused and floundering, on meds. more focused but less creative?

It's a very valid point you bring up. I'm afraid I just don't know.

Barb

A few years ago there was an article in Men's Health about ADHD. The author of the piece was diagnosed with our disorder and went on medication. He found that he was far more focused on the drug but not nearly as creative. The tangents that he would go off on which sometimes led to good things no longer happened. I believe in the end he decided to go off the medication because of this. To find it I would advise going to Men's Health web site to find which issue it was and then find it at your public library.

I should now say I am not advocating going off medication to get that creative edge back. Medication can improve your life. I am in the process of doing a rewrite on my unpublished novel. I am off medication, not because of the creativity but because I couldn't handle the side effects. I did notice however a change in my writing when I was on meds. It did seem like I made more progress but what came out seemed very mechanical. So as far as the writing goes, I'm glad I can't take meds. But there are half a dozen other reasons why I wish I was on them.

[QUOTE=MaddMatt]

All:Like alot of you, I have been recently diagnosed and just starting searching the internet for more info. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

[/QUOTE]

Well, there's a lawyer who takes meds, but during a trial he won't use meds anymore because he seems to have more of an advantage of staying alert with many thoughts that often do not limit his edge during a trial. He uses them otherwise.

It's crazy but after reading all the posts about this, it reminded me of the Beatles and the climate in the 60's/70's.

They were all taking these drugs to "open their mind" and be more creative. And we're all in here, way to creative for our own good, looking for ways to close our mind so we can get things done. Makes you wonder how different things would be if Lennon/McCartney had ADD :)

I bet John Lennon did have it! Don't think so about Paul, but from what I've read about John's life, it would really fit. I think he was the more creative of their songwriting partnership. How else to explain "Wings"!

About meds... I hate them. My opinion is biased though because I have an over all hate for all pills... I am on medication right now, and my creativivity is still at the same level but I feel to mellow, the world seems slower to me, and it gets real annoying. Right now I'm in the prosess of changing meds (from stratera to aderal aka- re-packaged ridilin) and I am hoping that the new meds are better than this one. If ou do decide to get meds I have one warning for you DO NOT GET STRATERA there are too many side affects and the good results just are not worth some of the stuff it puts you through physically and emotionally.

I have been diagnosed and medicated for eight years and I notice that when my meds start to wear off, in the evenings, my creativity kicks in. Since I have an in-home business, I take advantage of both sides of the coin. During the day I use the 'dampered-creativity' time to take care of business aspects: prices, marketing, purchasing products, and planning my next piece. However, in the evenings I use the creative side to execute, to create the piece. Rarely does my product turn out exactly as planned during the 'dampered-creativity' time, but it's basically the same, just with more creativity! Take advantage of both sides![QUOTE=MaddMatt]

That is my point exactly. I would have no problem taking some form of medication either prescribed, herbal or whatever if I knew that I could stop taking it when I needed that part of my brain to function my "normal" way instead of societies "Normal" way.

It has been 32 years and I don't really understand what "normal" is to the rest of the world. I do know that I like being the weird one with the ideas all the time :) Now if I could just finish the projects and produce the ideas I would be all set.

I guess I want the best of both worlds.

[/QUOTE]

I'd say if you're doing well, then why mess it up with meds. They can be a useful tool though for getting things done. You can always stop I suppose.

I guess I want the best of both worlds.

I have actually noticed that my creativity was better on the meds. When
on meds, I learned how to sew, I learned how to do (and did several)
mosaics.

Since I've been off meds, I don't do anything. I stare at my sewing
machine and wish that I could sit there and sew something, but I cannot.
I have unfinished mosaics lying around that I cannot fathom working on.

I miss being creative.

I'm not at all sure about this, but after reading this board, I've heard people talk about many of these meds being time released so that they wear off after a certain amount of time.

If I've gotten this right, maybe you could set up your schedule in such a way so that you could do the mundane, administrative parts of your business (which is necessary for success in any business--I know because that's my achilles heel) but when the meds wear off later in the day, you could schedule that for more creative activities.

I think you'd need to discuss this with your doctor. After all, the whole goal of medicine is to help you live the life you want to live. Any good doctor should understand this and try to support you in doing so. You're lucky in that you know what you want to be doing. A lot of folks haven't figured that out yet.

I hope some other people respond since I'm not sure I've got the timing thing on the meds right.

At 59, I'm just in the process of figuring out "what I want to do when I grow up" and it's sure not playing the corporate game, even though the regular paychecks are very handy! (I think I'm far better at academics and using "expertise" in some sort of entrepreneurial venture. Assuming I can find a non-ADD partner who can put up with me!)

From what I've read about stimulant meds their benefits/affects are almost immediate and wear off w/in 3-8 hours depending on the person. I take my meds at the same time every day and I know about when they will start to wear off.

I do understand that (unfortunately) not everyone has the benefit of having an at-home business and the flexibility that comes with it.

you may not remember the creativity but it was probably there....some of the greatest minds never seems to revel in thier own greatness....does that make sense to you?Yeah! I would like it better if more people looked at all the good sides of ADHD. I hate conforming >=P But unfortunately to get where I want to in life I have to have good contacts, and to have good contacts I can't be anti-social or do anything considered outside of the social norm. T-T [QUOTE=dvirgo421]

[/QUOTE]

From what I've been learning in my cognitive/affective psych class (doctoral level--supposidly more in depth), both sides of the brain are required for and engaged in creativity. It's a bit of a minsomer and oversimplification to think of the left hemisphere as strictly non-creative and the right side as creative. Truth is, the left side is more involved with linguistic matters and the right side, more spatial processing--assuming I'm remembering that correctly.

AD(H)D tends to impair the executive function which controls which side is active at which moment for a given task, either in rapid linear processing or parallel processessing (still some debate on this issue, interestingly). If you think about it, it make intuitive sense that the ability to call up the right modules at the right time would be the problem in ADD.

I have a very well-written book on the executive function of the brain which I've skimmed but haven't had the chance to fully read yet. It's called "The Executive Brain" by a scientist named Goldman (first name some unusual Russian name since that's where he came from). I'm hoping it will contain useful information related to AD(H)D. If I'm incorrect in what I've just said, I'll correct it once I finish the book.

sachetm38510.5480092593