Top 35 Edward M. Hallowell Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The term attention deficit disorder completely misses this point. It is not a deficit of attention that we ADD-ers have, it is that our attention likes to go where it wants to and we can’t always control it.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

2. “While we all need external structure in our lives – some degree of predictability, routine, organization – those with ADD need it much more than most people. They need external structure so much because they so lack internal structure.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

3. “People with ADD often have a special “feel” for life, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters, while others have to reason their way along methodically.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

4. “Having ADD makes life paradoxical. You can superfocus sometimes, but also space out when you least mean to. You can radiate confidence and also feel as insecure as a cat in a kennel. You can perform at the highest level, feeling incompetent as you do so. You can be loved by many, but feel as if no one really likes you. You can absolutely, totally, intend to do something, then forget to do it. You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but feel as if you can’t accomplish a thing.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

5. “In the world of ADD, there are only two times: there is now, and then there is not now.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

6. “My thoughts are like butterflies. They are beautiful, but they fly away.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

7. “Russell Barkley similarly describes the primary problem in ADD as a deficit in the motivation system, which makes it impossible to stay on task for any length of time unless there is constant feedback, constant reward.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

8. “No brain is the same. No brain is the best. Each brain finds its own special way. – From a poem written by Edward Hallowell to his five-year-old daughter.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

9. “They may have fast-track hyperkinetic personalities, be impatient, restless, impulsive, often intuitive and creative but unable to follow through, frequently unable to linger long enough to develop a stable intimate relationship. Usually, they have self-esteem problems that began in childhood. The.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

10. “Mastery means making progress at a task that matters to you and is challenging.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

11. “Most adults with ADD are struggling to express a part of themselves that often seems unraveled as they strive to join the thought behind unto the thought before.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

12. “To tell a person who has ADD to try harder is about as helpful as telling someone who is nearsighted to squint harder.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

13. “It’s a funny thing about those of us who have ADHD. We want what others avoid. We like problems. We need the difficult. That’s because easy is boring. We need the stimulation of intense challenge. But as we’ve said, a challenge undertaken just for the sake of a challenge can be counterproductive at best, self-defeating at worst.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

14. “For someone who has ADD, being bored is like being asphyxiated. It cannot be endured for more than a minute or so. When bored, the person with ADD feels compelled to do something immediately to bring the world back up to speed. Adrenaline.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

15. “That’s the problem with being an adult: people have already made up their minds about us; we’ve even made up our minds about ourselves.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

16. “Whatever you do, please don’t think of sleep as wasted time, an indulgence, or a generous reservoir from which you can steal time for work. Do what your brain and body beg you to do: get enough sleep.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

17. “Instead of describing ADD as an inability to concentrate, this model presents it as the ability to concentrate on everything. The world always is alive and ripe with sources of interest.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

18. “You tend to ignore the structures that would guide you to take care of yourself if you are taking care of others too much.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

19. “ADD is a neurological syndrome whose classic defining triad of symptoms include impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity or excess energy.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

20. “Barely, but I did. Then in college I did really well. Can you imagine that? Which is why I went to graduate school. But that was probably a big mistake. I should have quit while I was ahead. You see, my problem is I don’t know whether I’m smart or if I’m stupid. I’ve done well, and I’ve done poorly, and I’ve been told that I’m gifted and I’ve been told that I’m slow. I don’t know what I am.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

21. “A person with ADHD has the power of a Ferrari engine but with bicycle-strength brakes. It’s the mismatch of engine power to braking capability that causes the problems. Strengthening one’s brakes is the name of the game.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

22. “Your reflex to help others starts to control you if you don’t understand what’s happening and take steps to prevent it.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

23. “Barkley’s comment that ADD is more impairing than any syndrome in all mental health that is treated on an outpatient basis. More impairing than anxiety, more impairing than depression, more impairing than substance abuse. The “morbidity” of untreated ADD is profound.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

24. “Humor is a key to a happy life with ADD.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

25. “ADHD” is a term that describes a way of being in the world. It is neither entirely a disorder nor entirely an asset. It is an array of traits specific to a unique kind of mind. It can become a distinct advantage or an abiding curse, depending on how a person manages it.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

26. “Forgiving yourself means that you give up on your hope that the past will be different.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

27. “Without knowing it or meaning to, we are training ourselves to be constantly on the alert for interruptions; to seek out messages incessantly, to process data rather than discover, invent, think, or feel, and in general to lose the propensity or even the capacity to ponder, pause, imagine, or give full focus to anyone or anything for more than a few restive moments.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

28. “We often explain ADHD to children using a very simple analogy that certainly resonates with adults, too: A person with ADHD has the power of a Ferrari engine but with bicycle-strength brakes. It’s the mismatch of engine power to braking capability that causes the problems. Strengthening one’s brakes is the name of the game.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

29. “In many ways the most dangerous aspect of undiagnosed and untreated ADD is the assault to self-esteem that usually occurs.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

30. “Eldredge has just said gives a pretty good short description of ADD: You don’t mean to do the things you do do, and you don’t do the things you mean to do.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

31. “While trying harder helps just about everything, telling someone with ADD to try harder is no more helpful than telling someone who is nearsighted to squint harder. It missed the biological point.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

32. “What they don’t understand – and the wide world certainly does not understand – is that these reckless acts do stem from a biological need to alter their inner state. In pain, they feel compelled to seek relief immediately.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

33. “Don’t stay too long where you aren’t understood or appreciated. Just as people with ADD gain a great deal from supportive groups, they are particularly drained and demoralized by negative groups, and they have a tendency to stay with them too long, vainly trying to make things work out, even when all the evidence shows they can’t.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

34. “Tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with inattention to or disregard for actual dangers. Worry becomes what attention turns into when it isn’t focused on some task.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

35. “People with ADHD – at any age – often possess intellectual effervescence. Unfortunately, this natural sparkle can be snuffed out by years of criticism, reprimands, redirection, lack of appreciation, and repeated disappointments, frustrations, and outright failures.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

36. “The sense of growing panic, the feeling that gibberish is being passed off as coherent conversation, the fear that the world is engaged in meaningless discourse masquerading as meaningful exchange – these are the blurry states individuals with ADD negotiate each day.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

37. “We’ve got an overabundance of attention, more attention than we can cope with; our constant challenge is to control it.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

38. “If we weren’t so dreamy and curious we could stay on track and never get distracted.”

— Edward M. Hallowell

39. “Often those objecting to the diagnosis will be using their objections to conceal an emotional agenda. They may be angry with the person being diagnosed. They may resent him for all his past sins, and they don’t want to see him get off with just a diagnosis. They want punishment. So they will grow angry at the notion of ADD, and try to discredit it. At these moments it is best to stay with the science, to stay with the facts we have about ADD.”

— Edward M. Hallowell