alt title(s): Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny
Hi, Tick! I'm your mind! Sorry we don't talk much, but I'm easily distracted by shiny objects. —
The Tick
ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is a disorder which is characterized by inattention and/or hyperactivity, as well as forgetfulness, poor impulse control, and distractibility. ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder, is a subtype of ADHD, minus the overt hyperactivity, obviously enough. The current name for it in medical circles is actually "ADHD — Predominantly Inattentive," but you're not likely to hear that used in fiction.
In media, the symptoms of ADHD tend to be exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Sufferers usually seem to be on a constant caffeine high — ironic, considering how in Real Life stimulants tend to have the effect of calming them down. They are often unable to maintain focus on anything for more than a few minutes before getting distracted, often by a
shiny object (hence the trope title) or a butterfly. No real-life sufferer has it that bad, but
it's much funnier than a character who's just fidgety and and occasionally spaces out and has to ask the person talking to them to repeat what they just said. Or, occasionally, what they themselves just said.
Standard treatments for ADD/ADHD include Ritalin and Adderall, which are both, paradoxically enough, stimulants (Adderall, for instance, being composed of amphetamine salts, chemically similar to speed). They both work not by necessarily calming the patient, but by making them more able to focus. The main drawback is that while these drugs improve focus, they don't necessarily improve one's judgment in choosing what to focus on. One editor once took some Adderall so he could write his resume, but instead wrote the pages for
Hollywood Psych,
Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome,
The Schizophrenia Conspiracy, and
L Is For Dyslexia. Productive, but not necessarily in the right way.
See also — well — pretty much the last four links above. Contrast
Cloudcuckoolander, who doesn't have a disorder, but acts similarly. Do not confuse with
Distracted By The Shiny. The most important thing you need to know about this trope is... ooh, a bee.
Fictional examples:
- This comic
sums up how ADHD can be treated in media.
- Bart on The Simpsons, after pulling a few too many pranks in one day, was diagnosed with ADD and put on "Focusyn". The episode was more focused on the side-effects of the drug, which wound up making him insane and paranoid. He turned out to be right about major league baseball spying on people with satellites, though...
- Sakura, an Ill Girl from Betterman; Her ADHD is only referred to once, but it's a severe case, and she receives heavy, heavy medication for it. Also, while she can be considered a Cloudcuckoolander, she's a thoroughly creepy and tragic Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant.
- Cosmo of The Fairly Odd Parents.
- All of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 — the entire series, as well as its Oddly Named Sequel — happens because Nozomi gets distracted one morning before school and chases a passing butterfly. In a later episode, she displayed more realistic ADHD symptoms. ADHD was never explicitly mentioned, but much like Cosmo, the intention was clear.
- Gandhi and Special Guest Tom Green from Clone High:
Did you hear? Did you hear? Don't tell Paul Revere. Gandhi is contagious. Totally outrageous. A disease with initials. That's the worst kind. ADD. Has warped. His mind.
Tom Green:"Hi, I'm Ottawa's Tom Green. I live in Hollywood, thank you. So some of you may have been mean to a kid with ADD. That's not cool. Coffee? Anyone for — coffee anyone? All right, sorry. I like cotton candy. Check out my muscle. Potato chips. It's a Ferris wheel. So I guess what I'm trying to say is — plastic bag! Plastic bag! Plastic bag! Plastic bag! Plastic bag! Plastic bag!"
- An episode of South Park had the entire elementary school diagnosed with ADHD, and every single kid in town was prescribed Ritalin; the teachers then complained that the school was now calm to the point of dullness (and how did they illustrate this dullness? Everyone suddenly had a yearning to go and see Phil Collins in concert), and everyone was prescribed a Ritalin antidote, Ritalout.
- And you mustn't forget the little pink Christina Aguilera monsters.
- The recent movie Charlie Bartlett had a scene involving the title character taking too much Ritalin. It was depicted as causing him to run around, singing in his underpants. A more realistic depiction of an overdose would show the character having an anxiety attack while trying to read three books at once.
- Kiki from Sluggy Freelance embodies this trope. But as she's a ferret experimented on by a Mad Scientist it's probably not surprising.
- Pixies in the webcomic Chasing the Sunset have the attention span of a moth, probably as a counter for their omnipotence. A pixie can do anything she believes she can, but it vanishes as soon as her attention goes elsewhere. Naturally, all pixies love 'shinies.'
- Rightly or wrongly, Azumanga Daioh is sometimes used to illustrate the difference between ADHD (Tomo, Genki Girl Jerkass extraordinaire) and ADD (Osaka, the definitive Cloudcuckoolander).
- Larxene from Ansem Retort fits this trope, big time.
- Sonic the hedgehog arguably has issues with staying still for extended periods of time, though whether he fits this trope depends entirely on which continuity you're watching/playing/reading, and occasionally, which episode of which continuity, since Sonic spends a lot of the time he isn't running around in Sonic X lying on rooftops and snoozing, yet goes utterly insane when cooped up on a ship for ten days and nights.
- While not a commentary on ADHD, there was a Far Side showing a group of warriors storming a castle, running across the moat bridge while one guy points to the water and exclaims "Ooh, goldfish, everyone, goldfish!" Gary Larson stated that he's fond of that one because "that's me on the bridge"
- Marvel Comics' Deadpool has complete ADD, along with a very unique form of insanity.
- It would seen that the phrase "I DO NOT HAVE A SHORT ATTEN" has become a meme...
- Scarlet, the squirrel from the webcomic Sequential Art is an example of this◊.
