Using a Strength-Based Lens With ADHD: What You Look for Is What You See
- Jennifer Pressley
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
The other day, I asked someone to look around the room and silently name everything they could see that was red. After a moment, I asked them to close their eyes. Then I said, “Okay—now tell me everything you remember that was green.”
Most of it was missed.
Not because green objects weren’t there—but because attention had been directed elsewhere.
This simple exercise reveals something powerful about how our brains work.
What we focus on shapes what we notice, remember, and believe.
And for ADHD adults—who have often spent years being told what’s “wrong” with them—this matters more than we realize.
Now consider another classic experiment.
In a famous study, participants were asked to count how many times a basketball was passed between players. Midway through the video, a person in a full gorilla suit walked directly across the screen, paused, and exited.
A surprising number of people never noticed the gorilla.
Again—not because it wasn’t obvious, but because attention was already assigned a job.
Our brains are incredible at filtering.
And that filtering works for us—or against us—depending on what we’re trained to look for.
Why ADHD Brains Are Especially Vulnerable to Negativity Bias
All human brains have a built-in negativity bias—a survival mechanism that prioritizes threats, mistakes, and problems over neutral or positive information. Evolutionarily, this helped keep us alive.
But ADHD brains often experience this bias more intensely.
Why?
ADHD involves heightened emotional sensitivity
Many ADHD adults receive more corrective feedback than praise growing up
Executive functioning challenges often lead to repeated “failure” experiences
Shame-based narratives get internalized early
Research consistently shows that adults with ADHD report lower self-esteem, higher rates of self-criticism, and more negative self-concept than neurotypical peers. Some studies estimate that up to 70% of adults with ADHD struggle with chronic low self-worth or self-doubt, even when they are objectively capable, intelligent, and successful.
When your brain has been trained—explicitly or implicitly—to look for what’s broken, it becomes very good at finding it.
That doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
It means it’s practiced.
What a Strength-Based Lens Actually Means (And What It Doesn’t)
Using a strength-based lens with ADHD is not about toxic positivity.
It’s not pretending challenges don’t exist.
And it’s not bypassing real struggles with productivity, regulation, or consistency.
A strength-based lens means widening the frame.
Instead of asking only:
“What’s not working?”
You also ask:
“What is working—even if it looks unconventional?”
“What strengths might be embedded in this challenge?”
“What does my brain do well when it’s supported?”
Just like the color exercise or the gorilla experiment, when you change your focus, you change what becomes visible.
The Mirror Traits of ADHD
Many ADHD challenges have corresponding strengths—often overlooked because they don’t show up in traditional systems.
Distractibility ↔ Pattern recognition, creativity, idea generation
Impulsivity ↔ Courage, decisiveness, spontaneity
Emotional intensity ↔ Empathy, intuition, depth
Inconsistency ↔ Flexibility, adaptability, innovation
Seeing these doesn’t erase the difficulty—but it restores balance.
You are not a list of deficits.
You are a complex system with both friction and fuel.
3 Action Steps to Practice a Strength-Based Lens
1. Do a Daily “Green Scan”
At the end of the day, name three things your ADHD brain did well.
Not big wins.
Not perfection.
Look for:
Effort
Creativity
Problem-solving
Self-awareness
Persistence
Your brain has been trained to scan for “red” (mistakes). This retrains it to notice “green” (strengths).
2. Reframe One Struggle Each Week
Pick one recurring challenge and ask:
“What strength might be hiding here?”
Example:
“I procrastinate” → “I need interest and meaning to engage”
“I overthink” → “I analyze deeply and anticipate outcomes”
This doesn’t excuse the challenge—it contextualizes it.
3. Change the Language You Use With Yourself
Swap “but” for “and.”
• “I struggled today and I kept going.”
• “This is hard and I’m capable of learning.”
• “I need support and I’m competent.”
Language shapes neural pathways.
Small shifts create long-term change.
Final Thoughts
Your brain notices what it’s trained to look for.
If you’ve spent years focusing on what’s missing, inconsistent, or “wrong,” it makes sense that strengths feel invisible. But they were never absent—just unattended.
Like the green objects.
Like the gorilla.
When you widen your lens, you don’t lose accountability—you gain accuracy.
And when ADHD adults are seen through a strength-based lens—especially by themselves—shame loosens its grip, confidence rebuilds, and growth becomes sustainable.
What you choose to see, grows.
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