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Famed Alabama author brilliantly explains why ADD can be a huge asset, not a liability

Andy Andrews (Photo: ABC News screenshot)
Andy Andrews (Photo: ABC News screenshot)

Alabama-based author Andy Andrews, who was hailed by the New York Times as a “modern-day Will Rogers who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America,” discussed Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) on his popular “In the Loop” podcast recently, and his take on the controversial topic is a must-hear.

Mr. Andrews was asked by a listener, “What is the difference between ADD and a God-given personality with strengths and weaknesses?”

“Not much,” he replied, without hesitation. “In the world today I don’t know if there is anybody that somebody couldn’t diagnose with something. Used to, when I was growing up, there wasn’t really ADD. It was just, ‘He talks too much.’ … I suppose (all personality traits) are God-given. Some people say, ‘Why would God give somebody this?’ Well, there are a lot of benefits in the struggle.”

Mr. Andrews explained that he has first-hand experience with ADD, having been diagnosed with it at the same time as his son.

“The doctor told me, ‘Oh, I spotted you as soon as you walked into the room. You’ve definitely (got it),’ He laughed. “He said, ‘You have learned to function with that. It’s just a part of who you are. You’ve learned to deal with (those things). You’ve learned to be positive about what you have… with how you are. It’s just how you are.'”

The key to understanding ADD as a positive, Mr. Andrews explained, is identifying and feeling comfortable with how you are “different.”

“If you have a fast horse,” he said, “you put a light saddle on him, and you race him. If you have a strong horse, you put the collar on him and let him pull a wagon. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. You may think Seabiscuit was the greatest race horse of all time, but he’d be horrible if you needed to plow your field.”

To further illustrate his point, Mr. Andrews recalled some advice he received from a successful businessman who had a particular gift for motivating people, even though he did not seem to know much about the operations of his own business.

This guy seemed to me to be… kind of a hick. I was shocked he was able to lead a company and kind of not seem to know much about the intricacies of what went on… In my ignorance and short-sightedness I saw him as lucky, maybe. How can somebody who doesn’t have a clue of anything that’s going on get several thousand people to produce like they have produced?

One day I asked him, “What is your leadership theory? All these people seem happy, they all seem productive, how did you make this happen?” He kind of kicked back and said, “Hoss, all I do is try to catch somebody in the act of doing something right.

That made a huge impact on me. I have remembered that.

I would urge you (with your ADD child), catch them doing something right.

(…)

If you want to pick out things (your ADD child does) that aren’t like everybody else, you could talk to him about it all day long. And you could turn this happy, awesome, sensitive kid into a quivering mass of jelly. You could take this kid and destroy his belief in himself, destroy his imagination. But there are some things that we all do very well. Fortunately in this life you don’t have to do everything great — I don’t know anybody who has it all covered. So just because somebody is a little different… does not make them inferior. In fact, if you look at history, most times, unless somebody comes in and destroy them, those differences make them more valuable.

Mr. Andrews concluded by revealing the “one thing” he would tell parents — “not just of ADD kids, but of teenagers in general.”

It’s very important to make the distinction that being different is not a bad thing. In fact, being different is desirable. Having this conversation will help them navigate a world where people are wanting them to drink, wanting them to do drugs, wanting them to experience pornography. So to be accepted, to be liked, they feel pressure to do this… You have to create a value in a difference. ADD is a difference.

If you look out into the future and you say, “Who do you see out there that you’d love to have their life?” Most kids will say somebody like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Steven Spielberg or Tom Hanks or some singer… Well let me tell you something, right now they are different. They are very different. They have more people looking at them. They earn more money. They have more choices. They live a different life than most of us live.

Well, that didn’t happen as adults. At some point in their teen years they became comfortable with the idea of being different, so they could end up different.

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