The Professional PerspectiveWhen self-diagnosis becomes an excuse instead of understanding
“I think I have ADHD.”
As a coach working with creative professionals, I hear this phrase on a regular basis. It’s become the go-to explanation for missed deadlines, unfinished projects, and difficulty with the business side of creative work. And while I deeply understand the search for answers and validation, I’m witnessing something concerning: the way “I think I have ADHD” is becoming a comfortable excuse rather than a pathway to genuine self-understanding.
If you’ve found yourself scrolling through social media at 2 AM, watching ADHD TikToks that feel uncomfortably relatable, you’re not alone. The creative community has been buzzing with conversations about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and many artists, writers, musicians, and makers are recognising themselves in these discussions.
But here’s what I’ve observed in my coaching practice: there’s a significant difference between seeking to understand your creative brain and using a potential diagnosis as a shield against taking responsibility for your creative journey.
The Creative Brain: Naturally Unconventional
Your creative mind has always been different. You’ve probably noticed that your best ideas come when you’re supposed to be doing something else entirely. You might start ten projects and finish three, but those three are extraordinary. You lose track of time when you’re in flow, forget to eat when you’re painting, or stay up until dawn writing because the words won’t stop coming.
Here’s what’s fascinating: the vast majority of creatives experience what looks remarkably like ADHD symptoms. Difficulty focusing on tasks that don’t inspire you? Check. Procrastinating on important deadlines while diving deep into passion projects? Absolutely. Struggling to complete projects because you keep seeing new possibilities, alternative approaches, or entirely different creative directions? Welcome to the creative journey.
But here’s the crucial question: are these symptoms of a disorder, or are they simply the natural characteristics of a mind that’s wired to explore, experiment, and create?
Think about it – creativity itself requires a certain restlessness, a dissatisfaction with the status quo, an inability to settle for “good enough.” The same mental flexibility that makes you see fifteen different ways to approach a painting is the same quality that makes it hard to stick with administrative tasks or follow linear workflows.
This isn’t a flaw in your design – it’s a feature. The same brain that struggles with traditional structure and routine is the one that makes unexpected connections, sees possibilities others miss, and creates something from nothing.
When Understanding Becomes Excuse-Making
In my coaching practice, I’ve noticed a pattern. Creative professionals come to me saying they can’t focus, can’t finish projects, can’t handle the business side of their work – and increasingly, they follow these statements with “I think I have ADHD” as if that explains everything and absolves them of finding solutions.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: whether or not you have ADHD, you still need to find ways to function in the world. You still need to meet deadlines, complete projects, and handle the practical aspects of your creative career. A potential diagnosis – especially a self-diagnosis – doesn’t exempt you from developing the skills and systems you need to succeed.
The danger lies in using “I think I have ADHD” as a comfortable landing place that prevents you from doing the harder work of understanding your specific challenges and developing personalised strategies to overcome them. It’s easier to say “my brain just works differently” than to examine whether you’re avoiding difficult tasks, lacking clear systems, or simply haven’t developed the discipline that creativity requires.
The Allure of Self-Diagnosis
There’s something deeply validating about finding a potential explanation for why you’ve always felt slightly out of step with the world. Maybe you’ve struggled with traditional work environments, felt overwhelmed by administrative tasks, or experienced that peculiar combination of restless energy and creative paralysis that seems to define the artistic experience.
When you discover ADHD content that resonates, it can feel like a revelation. Suddenly, your difficulty with deadlines isn’t laziness – it’s executive dysfunction. Your tendency to hyperfocus on creative projects while neglecting everything else isn’t selfishness – it’s a neurological difference. Your scattered notebooks full of half-finished ideas aren’t evidence of failure – they’re the beautiful chaos of a divergent mind.
But I’ve watched too many creatives get stuck in this revelation phase, using their suspected ADHD as an explanation that becomes an excuse. They stop pushing themselves to grow, stop seeking solutions, and start accepting limitations that may not actually be as fixed as they believe.
The Paradox of the Creative Mind
Here’s what’s beautifully complicated about creative people: you desperately want to understand yourselves while simultaneously resisting being understood by others. You want validation for your differences while maintaining your right to be indefinable. You seek community with fellow outsiders while guarding your unique perspective.
The truth is, nearly every creative person you admire has wrestled with the same challenges you face. That novelist whose work you love? They probably have seventeen unfinished manuscripts for every published book. That musician who seems so focused? They likely struggle to practice scales but can spend hours lost in improvisation. That visual artist whose work appears so intentional? They probably have a studio full of abandoned canvases that represent creative tangents and explorations.
The creative process is inherently scattered, non-linear, and resistant to conventional productivity models. When you see new possibilities in the middle of a project, when you get distracted by a more interesting creative direction, when you struggle to focus on the “business side” of your art – you’re not exhibiting pathological behavior. You’re exhibiting the natural behavior of a mind that’s designed to explore, question, and create.
This paradox extends to how you might approach ADHD. The relief of potential explanation conflicts with your instinctive resistance to being categorised. And both of these responses are valid.
Beyond the Label: What Really Matters
Whether or not you have ADHD, your creative struggles are real. Your need for flexibility, variety, and creative freedom isn’t a disorder – it’s a fundamental aspect of who you are. The fact that you work differently, think differently, and approach life differently doesn’t require medical justification.
Consider this: maybe your resistance to traditional structure isn’t pathological but prophetic. Maybe your inability to focus on things that don’t ignite your passion isn’t a deficit but discernment. Maybe your tendency to see connections others miss isn’t hyperactivity but heightened awareness.
The Professional Perspective
If you genuinely suspect you might have ADHD, seeking professional evaluation can be valuable. A qualified mental health professional can help distinguish between neurodivergence and the natural traits of creative minds. They can also provide strategies that honour both your creative nature and your practical needs.
But remember: a diagnosis should inform your self-understanding, not define it. You are not your neurology. You are not your struggles. You are not even your extraordinary gifts. You are a complex, evolving human being who happens to create beautiful things.
The Professional Perspective
Whether you pursue formal evaluation or not, you can honour your creative nature by:
-
Creating space for your natural rhythms.
Maybe you’re not built for 9-to-5 productivity, and that’s perfectly fine. Work with your energy patterns instead of against them. -
Accepting your scattered interests.
Multiple projects don’t represent lack of focus – they represent a rich, curious mind that sees possibility everywhere. -
Honouring your need for creative freedom.
Your resistance to rigid structure isn’t defiance; it’s self-preservation. Your creative soul knows what it needs to thrive. -
Building systems that work for you.
Whether that’s colour-coded calendars, creative accountability partners, or project-based goal setting, find approaches that support rather than constrain your natural way of being.
The Creative Community You Seek
Remember that you’re part of a long lineage of creators who have felt misunderstood, out of place, and gloriously different. From Virginia Woolf to Madonna, from Frida Kahlo to David Bowie, the creative world has always been populated by minds that work outside conventional boundaries.
Your struggles with focus, your bursts of intense creativity, your resistance to being hemmed in – these aren’t bugs in your system. They’re features of a creative consciousness that refuses to be diminished.
Moving Forward with Gentleness
As you navigate questions about ADHD and your creative identity, be gentle with yourself. You don’t need to have all the answers immediately. You don’t need to fit perfectly into any category, neurotypical or neurodivergent.
What you need is compassion for your unique way of moving through the world, support systems that honour your creative nature, and the courage to keep creating despite – or perhaps because of – your beautiful, unconventional mind.
Your creative soul has always known something the world is slowly learning: there are many ways to be human, many ways to think, and many ways to contribute something meaningful to this world. Trust that wisdom. It’s served you well so far.
_
Monica O’Brien is a professionally trained and accredited Coach and founder of Creative Edge Coaching www.creativeedgecoaching.com.au. She blogs on issues about creativity and small business development for conscious artists and business entrepreneurs. Book your free discovery call here.
Join CREATIVITY UNLEASHED! Facebook GROUP – the Official Facebook Community for Creatives.
If you are a creative person building your career or looking to grow your creative business, this group is for you! Our purpose is to support and celebrate creativity and the talented people who enrich our world with music, art, drama, poetry, words, shape, colour, beauty and innovation. Our goal is to connect with other like-minded creatives, ask questions, reflect, get unstuck, move through resistance and blocks, participate in group conversations, share our stories, learn, get support and feedback for our creative endeavours/career/business and tap into the wisdom of the group.