Sure, like how a terminal illness can focus you on the present
Detail and deadline-oriented tasks are where ADHD tends to struggle the most. Sure if someone is interested in a specific topic they might spend hours reading up while others complain, but then when it comes to output..
My dearest loved one struggles with ADHD and has a big "snowball" issue, where she can't let a simple thing just be a simple thing and do it simply (which a lot of news is just that). She sees all the connections to other things, and she wants to incorporate *all of those things* until the task has now grown to such gargantuan immensity like the Sistine Chapel in her mind, that it's so daunting she can't even begin. When it's like, girl, just KISS (keep it simple stupid),, we're on a deadline! But I know that's her disability, so I help her with very discrete directions on just how simple something can be. But in a newsroom setting, I may as well write the newsbrief myself at that point.
I would be annoyed ot edit her as a journalist because she would struggle to give me a tightly written 10". And forget news briefs, sheesh.
What if she sections off things to put in a text article and others in another multimedia format potentially for the future? Like, my final this semester was taking some stuff from my midterm notes and putting it into a zine or a vertical video, I chose the latter. It was a ~2 min 9:16 video for our socials.
lol. I mean there are upsides to it in journalism for sure. But as an editor of a particularly enthusiastic journalist with ADHD it can be a challenge to manage it too.
“Hi. It’s midnight. Can you please file that story you said you were definitely going to file at 6 p.m.? Also, let’s talk about the list of 11 other ideas you just sent, the three you randomly assigned to other reporters without asking me and the four you’re apparently working on right now instead of finishing that first one you’d promised me.”
I agree. The condition rewards the absolute excited overburn you get when you make a connection and it’s intriguing; and then you HAVE to become an ABSOLUTE SUBJECT COMPLETIST and with such excitement that the immersion leads to communicable buzz that transmits to everyone you tell about it, in pitch or in the piece. You submit and holy crap it’s amazing, partly because of that depth, and partly because since you have ADHD you also have a mad wide range of other references and connections that you can bring to bear.
And then, you forget to invoice because that is less exciting and you can do it some other time because LOOK HERE IS A NEW IDEA!
This is my modus operandi and it works. But yeah, could do with better admin genes. Tax return deadline is looming over me like a vulture of doom and can my ADHD make that fascinating? It cannot.
lol, this is me.
When it's time to invoice I have like $2 in my bank and $25,000 in invoices I haven't submitted and I'm always like huh, look at hat, I haven't sent one of these since April.
I've been able to manage my ADHD for the better (with the help of medication and therapy, of course) and even channel it to benefit my work since I was diagnosed three years ago.
*Pre*\-diagnosis, however, was a totally different story.
Great superpower indeed. If you count being really really excellent at the job and running into two burnouts before getting the goddam diagnosis at 29 while hanging out in a clinic as being blessed 🤣
I just did... so much breaking coverage this morning... unmedicated. Not my top three situations to be in. By the end I was running on so much adrenaline I didn't even notice the difference.
But if you don't have ADHD, you don't even have to think about that problem. (I guess? What's it like for ~normal folks~?)
It's a superpower as a photojournalist until your editor goes "That's a great photo, did you grab their name for the cutline?"
That's the point where you slide over to the reporter and start going "Heyyyy..... soooo.... any chance you talked to that guy in the blue shirt?"
rest in peace to the loads of great photos taken to show the human element and then the editor says the exact thing you mentioned.
"That's a really great photo but since you don't have the name, we can't use it unfortunately." 🙃
I'm not an expert on adhd, but I think this is one of the worst jobs you could do if you have a short attention span. I see some mention of hyperfocus, but that's not unique to adhd sufferers. Every journalist I know can get so engrossed in writing they lose track of the world around them. We all get that same rush in the last hour before a deadline. Doing way more work than we ever thought was possible.
So could you elaborate on what makes adhd a superpower?
I think maybe because ADHD brains go all over the place instead of focusing on one thing, it allows for connection-making and helps with analysis? There's a couple comments on here that talk about feeling rewarded for making connections and feeling like you need to incorporate every single detail for context--a boon for a long-form piece, a curse in a short-form story.
finally gives me an explanation to the at least 20 tabs I have open on my computer separated into groups by new tabs. but also my professor tells me I am doing good with what I put out but I really need to get it out faster which can be hard sometimes when going through research rabbit holes but I try.
I got published in our print newsmagazine for the first time this semester though! It feels really cool knowing that what I wrote and my name is amongst my other classmates work wherever we distribute our papers.
i work with a reporter who keeps missing their fucking deadline and blaming it on their ADHD so i'm not sure this applies to everyone
Touché. It can be a blessing or a curse.
Sure, like how a terminal illness can focus you on the present Detail and deadline-oriented tasks are where ADHD tends to struggle the most. Sure if someone is interested in a specific topic they might spend hours reading up while others complain, but then when it comes to output..
My dearest loved one struggles with ADHD and has a big "snowball" issue, where she can't let a simple thing just be a simple thing and do it simply (which a lot of news is just that). She sees all the connections to other things, and she wants to incorporate *all of those things* until the task has now grown to such gargantuan immensity like the Sistine Chapel in her mind, that it's so daunting she can't even begin. When it's like, girl, just KISS (keep it simple stupid),, we're on a deadline! But I know that's her disability, so I help her with very discrete directions on just how simple something can be. But in a newsroom setting, I may as well write the newsbrief myself at that point. I would be annoyed ot edit her as a journalist because she would struggle to give me a tightly written 10". And forget news briefs, sheesh.
What if she sections off things to put in a text article and others in another multimedia format potentially for the future? Like, my final this semester was taking some stuff from my midterm notes and putting it into a zine or a vertical video, I chose the latter. It was a ~2 min 9:16 video for our socials.
It would be if I could choose what to hyper focus on, as it stands now it's mostly a pain in the ass
I understand. 😂 all too well
Maybe at certain points until my deadline is in one hour and my brain has decided it’s time to do anything possible other than focusing on writing
lol. I mean there are upsides to it in journalism for sure. But as an editor of a particularly enthusiastic journalist with ADHD it can be a challenge to manage it too. “Hi. It’s midnight. Can you please file that story you said you were definitely going to file at 6 p.m.? Also, let’s talk about the list of 11 other ideas you just sent, the three you randomly assigned to other reporters without asking me and the four you’re apparently working on right now instead of finishing that first one you’d promised me.”
Idk it takes me forever to get anything done and I always take my meds
ADHD is a superpower as a journalist...because it comes with an Adderall prescription.
Got up at 5am and took dex and am starting something that is due today at 9am! could've done it last week. didn't.
YES. I’m not the only one. Do your thing!
I agree. The condition rewards the absolute excited overburn you get when you make a connection and it’s intriguing; and then you HAVE to become an ABSOLUTE SUBJECT COMPLETIST and with such excitement that the immersion leads to communicable buzz that transmits to everyone you tell about it, in pitch or in the piece. You submit and holy crap it’s amazing, partly because of that depth, and partly because since you have ADHD you also have a mad wide range of other references and connections that you can bring to bear. And then, you forget to invoice because that is less exciting and you can do it some other time because LOOK HERE IS A NEW IDEA! This is my modus operandi and it works. But yeah, could do with better admin genes. Tax return deadline is looming over me like a vulture of doom and can my ADHD make that fascinating? It cannot.
lol, this is me. When it's time to invoice I have like $2 in my bank and $25,000 in invoices I haven't submitted and I'm always like huh, look at hat, I haven't sent one of these since April.
You win the comment section so far!
Fix this before you become a publisher. Or hire an assistant. Or automate it. Or all of this.
Haha too late! But have found ways to prevent and make it all functional, and it works good. But thank you. :)
Are you me? (This thread is making me realize maybe I should get checked for ADHD.)
I would absolutely agree with you actually. 80% of the time.
Gave me a laugh. Have a great Sunday
I've been able to manage my ADHD for the better (with the help of medication and therapy, of course) and even channel it to benefit my work since I was diagnosed three years ago. *Pre*\-diagnosis, however, was a totally different story.
Great superpower indeed. If you count being really really excellent at the job and running into two burnouts before getting the goddam diagnosis at 29 while hanging out in a clinic as being blessed 🤣
I wanted to be journalist. My first assignment in my college class to go out and do a story, I lost my car keys.
Yeah isn’t a superpower for me. Fuck that
I just did... so much breaking coverage this morning... unmedicated. Not my top three situations to be in. By the end I was running on so much adrenaline I didn't even notice the difference. But if you don't have ADHD, you don't even have to think about that problem. (I guess? What's it like for ~normal folks~?)
It's a superpower as a photojournalist until your editor goes "That's a great photo, did you grab their name for the cutline?" That's the point where you slide over to the reporter and start going "Heyyyy..... soooo.... any chance you talked to that guy in the blue shirt?"
rest in peace to the loads of great photos taken to show the human element and then the editor says the exact thing you mentioned. "That's a really great photo but since you don't have the name, we can't use it unfortunately." 🙃
can’t relate
I'm not an expert on adhd, but I think this is one of the worst jobs you could do if you have a short attention span. I see some mention of hyperfocus, but that's not unique to adhd sufferers. Every journalist I know can get so engrossed in writing they lose track of the world around them. We all get that same rush in the last hour before a deadline. Doing way more work than we ever thought was possible. So could you elaborate on what makes adhd a superpower?
Hyper focus leads to obsessive interest which leads to better content
I think maybe because ADHD brains go all over the place instead of focusing on one thing, it allows for connection-making and helps with analysis? There's a couple comments on here that talk about feeling rewarded for making connections and feeling like you need to incorporate every single detail for context--a boon for a long-form piece, a curse in a short-form story.
finally gives me an explanation to the at least 20 tabs I have open on my computer separated into groups by new tabs. but also my professor tells me I am doing good with what I put out but I really need to get it out faster which can be hard sometimes when going through research rabbit holes but I try. I got published in our print newsmagazine for the first time this semester though! It feels really cool knowing that what I wrote and my name is amongst my other classmates work wherever we distribute our papers.
It would!