ADHD and the Michael Phelps Phenomenon

[Dien Rice]

In this forum, we've sometimes discussed in the past ADD/ADHD ("attention deficit disorder"/"attention deficit hyperactivity disorder") and the role it may play in entrepreneurship... Several well-known entrepreneurs have ADD/ADHD...

How does it relate to Michael Phelps? Well...

Some (in part) credit Michael Phelps' swimming prowess to his ADHD!

The story goes, Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid... Which means he ran around a lot, and had excess energy. They gave him Ritalin, which made him drowsy, and just got him frustrated.

Instead, Phelps learned to "channel" his excess energy into sports.

One article about this says...

After growing frustrated with the drowsiness caused by [Ritalin], Phelps turned to sport, where the symptoms that so agitated teachers greatly impressed coaches. "I had so many outlets for energy release," he wrote. "I'd go from a lacrosse game to a baseball game to swim practice."

You can read more about it here (which also talks about the possibility he may have something pretty scary called Marfan syndrome - which is so far unproven)...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/swimming/...307227410.html

(The ADHD-related part is on page 2.)

Just thought that might interest a few people here!

Best wishes,

Dien