Phillies

Shane Victorino Promotes ADHD “Own It” Campaign

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jul 17th, 2012 · 12:12 PM EDT

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Sent to us by reader (@309expressway), here’s a full-page ad in the current issue of Newsweek– Shane Victorino, raising awareness for ADHD. [You can watch the accompanying video here.]

Shane is part of a campaign that also features Adam Levine (Maroon 5) and Nicole Funicelli (???). The three of them are encouraging people diagnosed with ADHD as a child to get reassessed as adults, because otherwise, you might not be able to become an athlete and philanthropist like Victorino.

Solid message here. We all learned about Victo’s ADHD the minute he got called up to the big leagues when Stan Hochman wrote a lengthy story about it in the Daily News last year. Victorino talked about his struggles with teachers and coaches as a youngster, and how his positive spirit (and medication) helped him to overcome them. He also talked about a book, which he was plugging. Hochman lapped it up, wondering if there would be any backlash over Victo coming out as having an illness that – ready for this? – affects 108 Major Leaguers, according to Hochman. – quick math – 25 players per team x 30 teams = 750 players – That means rougly 14% of Major League players have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, significantly higher than the national average for adults– around 5%. So, while we’re taking nothing away from Victorino or his disorder (hell, I’m 99% sure I’m ADD… where was I?), it seems Major Leaguers are actually more likely to be diagnosed with ADD-ADHD than the rest of us mere mortals. Or they’re just more likely to seek out medicine to help them focus. Whatever. 

Anyway, Victo’s willingness to talk about it last year seemed like more of a ploy promote a book than anything. But there’s certainly no harm in encouraging people to get checked out. Think you may have adult ADHD? Take the quiz. I scored a 16– or, I may have ADHD.