Daniel Kwan shares how his ADHD diagnosis inspired the chaotic creativity of his Oscar-winning sci-fi masterpiece

For the longest time, Kwan thought he was a failure – poor time management, disorganisation and inattention caused his academics and early career to suffer.

“I always felt like I was drowning or falling behind everyone else,” recalled Kwan, who won an Oscar for Best Director with Everything Everywhere All At Once. “I struggle with just getting simple tasks done, finding ways to meet my deadlines. I’m always forgetting things.”

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It wasn’t until five years ago, while writing his award-winning film, that Kwan identified a reason for his chaotic traits: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

ADHD is a mental health condition with symptoms that include issues with productivity, memory and organisation that interfere with daily life. Many people incorrectly assume that ADHD only exists in schoolchildren, so adults with this disorder are often overlooked.

“I discovered I had ADHD mostly because I was writing a character based off of my mother, who is always running late, losing things, doing 10 things at once,” Kwan said in a recorded interview for Hong Kong ADHD Awareness Week last month.

“And as I did more research, I slowly realised that everything I was reading was just a reflection of my life.”

Not only did this realisation help the director channel his life into a critically acclaimed movie, but the diagnosis was also a relief.

“I was crying in my bed reading about it. It was really exciting,” he recalled. “Suddenly, I felt like I could stop blaming myself. I no longer had to hold myself to the same expectations that everyone else was holding me to.”

Let’s Talk ADHD Hong Kong was the NGO that invited Kwan to be the keynote speaker for the charity event. The details he shared about his journey – from struggling to keep a job to crafting a hugely successful film – touched the audience.

The NGO’s founder, Amanda Fok, was also diagnosed with ADHD later in life, and this experience inspired her to create an NGO to raise awareness about adults with this condition.

“Before the diagnosis, my life was chaotic. It even triggered my depression,” said Fok, who is in her 40s and is also a professional emcee and founder of a speech training company.

In 2012, she stumbled on a short video discussing how ADHD affects people’s work, and she was struck by how relatable it was. After learning more, she sought help from professionals, receiving medication and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Over time, she got her ADHD symptoms and depression under control.

“It is like my life has gained some clarity, like putting on glasses after realising you are shortsighted,” she explained.

In 2019, Fok established her NGO to give adult ADHD patients the tools to find success in life and at work.

“Many with ADHD have exceptional talents but are not able to fully develop them because they do not have support,” she noted.

“ADHD is not scary, as long as it is properly managed. Everyone can lead a fulfilling and successful life.”

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To diagnose this condition, professionals assess how many ADHD symptoms someone shows. For adults, these symptoms should also have been present before the age of 12 and have hurt two or more areas of life, such as work, home and relationships.

Once diagnosed, treatment options include medication, behavioural coaching and therapy.

A 2018 study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry estimated that about 2.5 per cent of all adults have ADHD. This means that Hong Kong should have about 150,000 adults with this condition.

But according to the Hospital Authority, 21,300 ADHD patients sought psychiatric treatment in public hospitals in the past year, and only about 3,800 were adults.

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Fok noted that society had many misconceptions about adult ADHD.

She gave the example of a university student in Hong Kong who asked her school’s doctor for a referral letter for ADHD treatment. But the doctor dismissed her request, arguing that the student did not need treatment since she was capable enough to enter university.

“The challenge is that many cannot handle adult ADHD objectively as they are often blinded by their own bias,” Fok shared.

When Fok heard about Kwan’s film and the personal story behind it, she wanted him to speak at her charity’s event, in hopes that his success would encourage others with ADHD to pursue their passions.

For the director, who was born and raised in the US to parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan, he was excited to share his story with an Asian audience.

When Kwan was a kid, he felt he was bad at everything.

“One of the things that really scared my mum when I was a kid was watching – as I went through the school system – my creative spark disappear and my love for learning [too],” he said.

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He did not perform well in school, and he was not confident in securing a job to support himself. He put himself through business school and ended up quitting. But going to film school was the pivotal moment that nurtured his creativity.

“It was a huge risk. I was really scared. But it really transformed me,” he said. “Especially with Asian cultures, we would be really afraid to do things like that because ... how is this gonna help my career?”

Ultimately, it was in this creative industry that Kwan blossomed – he even considers ADHD to be his superpower in filmmaking.

“Because of my ADHD, I’m able to think outside the box. I’m able to solve problems really quickly. When I fall in love with something, I will spend an entire month just learning about it,” he shared.

Kwan’s advice to others with ADHD is to “take some risks and try things out to surprise [yourself]”.

“We do not do well in a safe thing. One of the things we do best is we take risks, and we think on our toes, and we are very creative,” he said.

The director added that building a supportive team with members who complement each other is essential – just like finding the right superheroes to form Marvel’s Avengers.

“We’re like the Hulk. We come in, and we have a very specific power, but it only works if we’re working with other people. On our own, it’s a lot tougher,” he said.

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Currently living in the US city of Los Angeles, Kwan said the city’s openness to talking about mental health issues empowered him to be vocal about his diagnosis.

“Moving to LA where everyone talks about going to therapy and neurodiversity gives me a lot of courage. We would be doing a great disservice to the world and to our communities if we just hide that,” he added.

“I hope that a film like mine can just make the conversation easier for people so that we can all just move past the taboo and move towards what is so great about our brains.”