Adam Levine Speaks Out About His ADHD

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine is lending his voice to the chorus seeking understanding, acceptance and treatment of ADHD with a new PSA for the “Own It” campaign.

Let’s say right up front that Levine was paid by pharmaceutical company Shire, which makes Adderall, to participate in the video campaign. But it’s been carried as news all over the country. Guess that’s what happens when you’re the “Sexiest Man Alive” and engaged to a Victoria’s Secret model.

The Voice mentor, 34, told Us magazine, “When I was first diagnosed with ADHD, it wasn’t a surprise because I had difficulty in high school focusing. And I think now, people notice my ADHD as an adult on a daily basis.

“When I can’t pay attention, I really can’t pay attention.”

Levine is far from shy about endorsements—he’s lent his name to guitars, jeans, leather jackets, fragrances, and acne medication, among other things. And he’s happy to bare all for a cause he believes in. In 2011, he appeared naked in a Cosmo UK ad to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer.

Still, it is nice to see Levine acknowledging that he had ADHD as a kid, and he didn’t outgrow it—as more than one third of kids don’t.

“It was affecting my career the way it had affected me in school,” he wrote in an earlier piece in ADDitude magazine, so he saw a doctor and learned that he still had ADHD.

And that’s the advice he gives others in the new video: If you think you have a problem, go see a doctor. There’s a quiz with the video to help you decide, which we’re told was developed by PsychCentral.