Super Powers? What?

A superpower is something that makes you different from others; it makes you stand out. A disability that causes your other abilities to stand at the front and perform. Daredevil doesn’t let his blindness keep him from dishing out a good old-fashioned whooping.

I guess it depends on the level of ADHD that you experience, your years of dealing with it, and the severity of your symptoms, whether or not you believe that having ADHD is a superpower. I believe that mine is. I use my powers of intuition to keep myself safe in rooms that make me nervous. I use my ability to read a room and pick up on the negativity to know if I should mingle and open up or get the heck out of there.

There are many ways to look at this, and I do respect the other opinion that having a debilitating diagnosis of ADHD is not a superpower but rather a major struggle. But, isn’t that the way it is with most things? It’s all in how you look at it. If you want to have a weakness over a strength, I suppose having a covert superpower wouldn’t fit your narrative. But if you look towards the positive side of things as a regular part of coping, then anything can be viewed as a strength.

When I was growing up, my birth father was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, HCM. I always feared that diagnosis and what it meant for my life if I were to develop it, as it is a genetic condition. In 2024, I was diagnosed. In the first few days, yes days, I thought my life was over as I knew it. I watched what it did to my birth father, and I knew I didn’t want to end up like him. But between the date of diagnosis and my first treatment appointment, I started to shift my thoughts a bit. During my first treatment appointment, my cardiologist made some discoveries that completely turned my world upside down. She recommended that I see a specialist for this other diagnosis that I had been given and was receiving treatment for.

After a multitude of tests and appointments, it was determined that I did not have this other diagnosis! This was huge news. This other diagnosis was forecast to cause me to become fully disabled, unable to function, and after I turned 50, the doctor was going to push for disability. I was on medication that caused a lot of side effects. It was not a good situation. After receiving the news that what I had been living with for the last 7 years was ultimately a lie, I started looking at life a whole lot differently. Colors were brighter. Thoughts were clearer. And I started caring less about what other people thought and more about what I thought, and I became more authentic to my true self.

If I hadn’t received the diagnosis of HCM, I would have kept on living my life, preparing to be disabled, and looking at the things I couldn’t do. Yes, HCM is nothing to mess with; it has its own list of “things”. But receiving the diagnosis saved me. My HCM is manageable; I am currently considered “low risk for a sudden heart attack.” I’m ok. Someday I may not be, but for today, I am.

For me, with information comes strength. Knowing that I live with ADHD and being tuned into the symptoms and behaviors makes me more aware of what I need to do to learn how to function and work with it, rather than working against it. I mask on occasion, not for the comfort of others but for my own, out of a love for myself. It’s a form of self-preservation. I truly consider the skills I have learned from having ADHD to be a superpower.

Some of my favorite superpowers are: The ability to answer my own questions at the risk of looking like I am talking to myself (well, duh, I am). Awkward oversharing to strangers (sometimes this is how I find my people). Learning new skills based on my current hyperfixation. And of course, the ability to clear a room with one awkward comment.  

If you can relate, please find me on socials and connect!