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Hyperactive Dreamers
A lot of research throughout history has shown that creativity overlaps with ADHD and can appear exactly like ADHD.
"Hyperactive dreamers" refers to the gifted and creative population whose creativity manifests itself in inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. Unfortunately, until today, there is nothing out there to warn clinicians and professionals to look for creativity when ADHD is suspected. As a result, many creative and gifted children and adults are misdiagnosed with ADHD and being unnecessarily treated with medications.
The future of ADHD does not lie as much in the discovery of new medications which will effectively remove symptoms, as it lies in the definition and explanation of creativity, and the separation of creativity from ADHD. Inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity should, apart from ADHD, also be synonym for creativity.
A lot of research proved that not all, but a certain type of creativity can resemble ADHD. This is
not a matter of debate!
Holly White and Priti Shah (2011.) A study in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences found adults with ADHD enjoyed more creative achievement than those who didn’t have the disorder.
[more]
Wallach and Kogan (1965) found that highly creative children engage in "disruptive, attention-seeking behavior" in the classroom (p. 294-295).
The in-born temperament trait of sensation seeking has been linked to both ADHD (Zuckerman, 1983) and creativity (Barron, 1988; Farley, 1981; Torrance, 1968). Shaw and Giambra (1993) also noted the link provided by the trait of sensation seeking in both creative and ADHD populations.
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