4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2020
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
For many years ADHD was dismissed by sceptics as a dubious condition. Later, when it achieved recognition, if not acceptance, the focus was very much on the negative impact it had on the lives of people it affected and their close ones. As Saeedeh Hashemi - herself diagnosed with ADHD - will show, there is now increasing understanding that living with the condition also brings positives. Saeedeh will meet others who, for all the downsides of the disorder, feel that life without it would be like “living cramped within a frame” and who would not give it up as it has fundamentally shaped their personalities. She will also talk to top medical professionals to hear how they are seeking to recognise the positive potential of ADHD and what innovative ways of treating the condition they’re suggesting.
The modern working environment has shifted and employers are finally embracing neuro-diversity as a vital tool in building effective teams. Saeedeh will explore what it actually means, how the thinking about workflow, work space and team work reflects the needs of people with the condition and allows them to grow to the best of their potential and to the benefit of business. The programme, of course, certainly won’t suggest that ADHD is entirely a gift. It will, however, seek to emphasise that alongside negatives come strengths and qualities that can help propel individuals to enormous personal success, and how society and businesses are beginning to see it as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage.
This documentary is airing as part of Life Changes, a series of programmes and features across the BBC’s global TV, radio, social and online networks exploring the theme of change - how we change ourselves, our lives, and how we respond to changes in the world around us. Reporting from across the world - from Ethiopia, Korea, Rwanda and Paraguay to Egypt, the US and Russia – the documentaries and digital stories will cover a diverse range of topics, from sexuality to sustainability, from peace to war, and from neurodiversity to migration.
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0:00.0 | I've always known that I'm different, that I have a definite leaning to the off-bid choices in life. |
0:11.0 | It's challenging, but but I preferred that way. A few months ago I was |
0:15.8 | diagnosed with ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to give it its full |
0:22.0 | name. It was such a relief but it was also quiet |
0:25.8 | shocking. A relief because knowing I have a particular condition helps me to |
0:31.6 | understand myself a little more. Now I can see its influence |
0:36.7 | including the impulsiveness that led me to decide to leave behind my family and my life in Iran within 24 hours of getting the chance. |
0:46.4 | And yes, I am highly sensitive in a way that I can feel the pain and pleasure of people |
0:52.2 | around me so intensively. |
0:55.8 | And I was shocked because I am living in a wall that regards this condition as a disorder. I'm Saeeda Hashemi and for BBC World Service I'm going to meet |
1:07.4 | others with the condition and find out if there is a more positive way of |
1:12.1 | viewing ADHD that fits my own experience better. |
1:16.0 | Yes, there's your tricks, diagnostic. |
1:21.0 | I'm waiting to meet with Jordan Stevens who is a singer with one of the most exciting |
1:26.7 | young British rap acts of the last decade, Riesel Kicks. |
1:31.2 | And he's also the founder of the mental health campaign hashtag I am whole. |
1:37.0 | I got diagnosed so I was like 16 I think I got put in a room with some kids who were |
1:46.2 | dyslexic and they said I could stand up during exams that was about it really. |
1:49.9 | A few years later when I took some of my friends Adderol and honestly I didn't realize |
1:55.8 | that anyone could think before they spoke before that moment. I thought people just |
2:00.4 | said things and then you would have to think about it after. |
2:04.0 | Yeah, but in my case I knew since I was a child that the way I view the world is different with other people. |
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