Jacob Haworth and His Experience With Attention Deficit Disorder - “My Creativity Is Through the Roof”

Jacob Haworth is a 24-year-old photography student from Edinburgh College with attention deficit disorder (ADD). He shares how his condition has impacted him and boosted his creativity. Additionally, he explains why he identifies with having ADD despite it now being officially diagnosed as ADHD.

Jacob was diagnosed with ADD around 5 years old. Due to receiving a diagnosis so young, this did not have a significant impact on him, instead simply being something he's been aware of as he's grown up.

While ADD is now diagnosed as ADHD, they differ slightly in the sense that ADD lacks symptoms of impulsivity and hyperactivity, instead only displaying traits of attention deficiency, such as a lack of concentration. Jacob shares his thoughts surrounding the lack of awareness towards ADD: 

"When I speak to people they tell me it's ADHD, and yes, they are similar, but they are somewhat different. I'm not over hyperactive but I still have the same traits of losing interest."

He goes on to share how his condition has impacted his school life: 

"I do struggle even now, but in school I wasn't really paying attention. It wasn't like with ADHD as though I just started mucking around and being hyper. When I lost interest, I would just kind of zone out, so I did find high school fairly tricky. When you disengage you think 'sod it' and focus your attention somewhere else." 

Progressing on this statement, Jacob explains that he believes support for neurodiversity has seemingly improved compared to his own experience, claiming that his neurodivergent sister is getting the appropriate support she needs.

Comparing high school to college, Jacob claims to have had more success due to his work shifting to practical tasks. However, non-practical work can sometimes be tricky: 

"I love doing practical stuff, but when it comes down to the writing and research for essays, I struggle a lot. However, that isn't the main part of the course just now, but it will be next year when I do my dissertation, so I'm going to have to get a lot of learning support. I struggle with the writing, but with the practical stuff I'm on a good track."

Nonetheless, Jacob seems to be enjoying college and is pursuing a subject that is right for him.

In his day-to-day life, Jacob shares that remembering what needs to be done is often difficult. He frequently needs help to remember the middle task if he's told three tasks to do. Scenarios such as this can sometimes be mentally impactful.

Despite this, Jacob's ADD has also had positive impacts on his life:

"My creativity is through the roof when it comes to ADD, and I think that really helps a lot and gives me new ideas on what I want to do."

Light-heartedly, Jacob lastly shares that his ADD has also given him a strong passion and hyper-fixation towards certain things, such as the bands Joy Division and The Beatles, so much so that his girlfriend has banned him from record shops.