Kimberly Frey Consulting

There has been a lot of misunderstanding around Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) since it was first observed – which was probably a lot longer ago than you think. As far back as 1798, Sir Alexander Crichton observed that, “the incapacity of attending with a necessary degree of constancy to any one subject….may be either born with a person, or it may be the effect of accidental diseases.”[^1] In his observations, Sir Crichton went on to say that, “when born with a person it becomes evident at a very early period of life, and has a very bad effect, inasmuch as it renders him incapable of attending with constancy to any one object of education.”[^1]

In the 1800s, a German physician named Heinrich Hoffman wrote a poem about “Fidgety Phil” who couldn’t sit still at the dinner table and was called naughty, restless, rude, and wild. Then in 1902, the famous British pediatrician Sir George Frederic Still published his Goulstonian Lectures where he described, “an abnormal defect of moral control in children.”[^2]

Although ADHD (originally called hyperkinetic reaction of childhood) had been formally described in 1902, it was not formally recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a mental disorder until the 1960s. Since that time, both the name for ADHD along with our understanding of how it affects those who have it, have evolved and changed as brain research and long-term research studies have been able to gather more extensive data than ever before. Unfortunately the most common misconceptions about ADHD: it only affects boys, it just means that you’re hyperactive and can’t focus on things, it is only found in children, kids grow out of it, those who have it aren’t as smart as those who don’t, etc. still abound and are negatively impacting the approximately 5% of the adult population that live with ADHD.

To start with, ADHD is not a cognitive defect. In its simplest definition, the brain of someone with ADHD works differently than the brain of someone without ADHD. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. People with ADHD take in, process, and use information in a different way than people without ADHD. The biggest problem is that the world, societal rules, workplace norms, etc. is designed for people without ADHD as they are the majority. In my work as a disability access/inclusivity consultant, I use the history of right-handedness versus left-handedness to better illustrate this story. In centuries past, being a left-handed person meant that there was something intellectually or physically wrong with you or worse, such as being demon-possessed or a practitioner of witchcraft. Left-handed people were literally burned at the stake simply because of their left-handedness! The entire world was set up for right-handed people, and adults often forced children who showed a preference for using their left hand to switch to their right (this practice still happens at times today). However, we now understand that the difference between right-handed people and left-handed people is simply a difference in how their brain operates.

In our current world, although we now understand that left-handed people are not defective and that their left-handedness does not need to be changed, the same understanding is not yet the norm for those with ADHD. As more and more adults with ADHD enter workplaces, they are often met with judgement and unrealistic demands placed upon them in order to be considered a “good” employee. They’re told that the coping skills they have developed in order to be productive and attentive are bothersome, disruptive, or make other people uncomfortable. They are increasingly more and more often directed to work in large, open-concept office spaces because that supposedly increases team collaboration – when in essence it makes it nearly impossible for them to actually focus on their work. When advocating for a flexible work schedule or the ability to work from home/remotely to better support their ability to focus, they are told they’re being difficult – even though many of them were already doing this for years post-pandemic. Sometimes, when they are using a quiet fidget item during a meeting, their immediate supervisor actually tries to snatch it out of their hands while stating, “Give that to me.” Yes, that really happened to one of my clients. In a world where the neurotypical significantly outnumber the neurodivergent, many work spaces lack the knowledge needed to actually be fully accessible and inclusive for individuals with ADHD or other non-visible disabilities such as Autism or a mental health diagnoses.

That’s where I come in. As a front-runner in disability inclusion for over two decades, I am passionate about making spaces accessible and supportive for all. Many organizations don’t even realize that they have policies, practices, or workplace norms that are unsupportive to people with disabilities – and perhaps even harmful. I am an expert at helping build bridges in a holistic way that creates safe spaces where all employees feel valued and seen. The best part of the work I do is that, not only does it create a more inclusive work environment for people with disabilities, it actually creates an overall more positive climate and culture that is beneficial for all employees. A rising tide lifts all boats, and I can help your organization build the canal locks it might need to create that tide. For more information on the work that I do and how I can help please contact me directly at 312-857-4852 or visit my website http://www.kfreyconsulting.com

[^1]: Sir Alexander Crichton. “An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement.” (1798).
[^2]: Sir George Frederic Still. “Some Abnormal Physical Conditions in Children: The Goulstonian Lectures.” The Lancet, vol. 160, no. 4112, 1902.