Is ADHD a Superpower? The Truth About Strengths and Struggles (Ep 111)
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Episode Summary:
Some days you knock 12 things off your to-do list. The next day? You can barely get off the couch. ADHD gets called a superpower a lot, but that framing misses the whole other side of the coin.
Sherry and Val dig into the polarising nature of the superpower narrative. Yes, there are areas where ADHD genuinely feels like a strength. Hyper-focus as intensity when you find your flow. The ability to connect dots others miss because your brain sees patterns across wide awareness. Client relationships that benefit from empathy and reading between the lines. Creative problem-solving that comes from divergent thinking and forgetting the box existed in the first place.
But calling it a superpower across the board invalidates the real struggles. Executive dysfunction that makes basic tasks feel impossible. Overstimulation from being tuned into every conversation, sound, and sensory input around you. The exhaustion that comes from your brain processing so much more than others realise. The perfectionism and overworking that develop as compensation strategies when the world tells you you're lazy or unmotivated.
We talk about why the superpower language can create more shame around the things ADHD makes harder. If it's supposed to be a superpower, why are you late? Why didn't you finish that project? Why can't you just do the thing? The expectations don't match the reality of what executive dysfunction actually feels like or how cyclical productivity works.
This episode explores medication timing and why what you're doing when it kicks in matters, the importance of honouring low energy days instead of beating yourself up, and how to identify the specific slivers where your ADHD does feel like a strength without forcing the narrative where it doesn't fit. Whether you see ADHD as 22% superpower or something else entirely, this conversation validates both sides of the experience.
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