I have a 6-year-old with ADHD and if there’s any advice to parents on how to help a child through the impulses - please let me know! This is my 3rd child, 1st with ADHD so this is all new to me.
He’s a pretty cut & dry case so was easily diagnosed and thankfully has an amazing kinder teacher but I definitely see that the teacher in future grades he gets will be key to success or failure at school (he needs strict boundaries). We are also keeping him focused on sports because that seems to channel his energy in a positive way.
Dr Russel Barkley has a fantastic talk he gave to a bunch of parents on YouTube that I found really helpful for interacting with my nephew. I’d also say seriously consider martial arts as part of the sporting experiences as he gets older. It’s aimed exactly at channeling aggression productively but also has a really immediate feedback mechanism for impulsivity.
This is the very video that sent me down the rabbit hole and made me realize I have ADHD, at 44 years old. I've been sharing it as often as I can, and I sometimes adds to my share that the major takeaways can be found in the first minute.
I just to have jobs that could make me run around the mill as much as I like. From cab driving (15 hours a day, regardless of the resting rules) to writing for the Netherlands’ largest weblog (7 days a week for 13 years). When you can keep going at something, ADHD really does seem like a superpower. Now, I’m freelance and I work on my own terms after a burnout (and selling my stake in said weblog) at 43, I’m just beginning to come to terms with my diagnosis. Which in practice means I have to have an elaborate system with GTD apps, specific focus settings, and dedicated timers to be able to work normal hours, focused, goal-oriented, and without losing track of necessities like food, excercise and sunlight. I exaggerate, but only slightly. If it wasn’t for my wife, I’d never get a decent meal.
ADHD is not a superpower, you need superpowers to tame this shit.
Why does amphetamine work as a treatment for this? Does it take a sort of scattershot attention divided by random stuff and allow the mind to focus obsessively on one thing at a time? To prescribe speed for "hyperactivity" has always seemed counterintuitive to me.
The ADHD brain is able to focus on anything interesting to the point of hyperfocus. My husband says that if I am doing (or reading) something I really enjoy, the house could burn down around me and I wouldn't notice. The problem is with executive function in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain works slowly so amphetamines speed it up essentially, enabling the person to attend to boring and tedious work. It has to do with low levels of dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Brains run on dopamine and amphetamines increase dopamine production.
A brain on ADHD can't focus because it can't turn itself on. Its default state is being asleep.
That's why people with ADHD can only focus on what they're interested in - it stimulates their brain. Hyperactivity is another way the body attempts to wake its brain up.
That's why stimulants paradoxically calm people with ADHD down. The hyperactive behaviour is no longer needed to wake their brains up.
100% spot on! Not a named thing in the 60s and 70s when I grew up, has been a challenge, particularly catastrophising, worrying and feeling guilt for any and everything that goes wrong.
I understand where you're coming from but as someone who recieved their diagnosis at 27 after reaching the end of my rope and unintentionally describing ADHD to my doctor, I have a slightly different impression. First off, you and I apparently had the same school situation (scoring high in assessments, but failing tests), I was always getting scolded for daydreaming and had the tendency of writing a word multiple times due to lost concentration, on top of obsessing over phrasing. One thing that opened a door for me was being allowed to listen to things at work, which is how I first learned of "Triggernometry". All of a sudden I wasn't struggling to continue. I can't describe how it works, but it's like I have two brains and, as long as the "bored" brain is occupied by something interesting, I can focus on a job like a champ. Many people have told me that they can't do that, that they have to think solely about the task, but I definitely have that ability, to focus on both if given the chance.
Francis your voice on ADHD is very much needed, especially when you said "so that it need not hold you back" and I agree with your approach 80%. The rest of the 20% I am opening up a Claudia can of whoop ass.
I can also get out the smallest violin and play the sadest music.
I remember vividly going to remedial assessments to analyse my poor performance at school. They wouldn't ask me to leave the room and I had to sit there and hear what a fucked up child I was as they explained to my mother my learning problems.
I was also call retarded, brain damaged and underdeveloped cognitive intelligence by experts. I was fucking dumb and I still am. Boo fuckin whoo! But back then it scarred my fragile little mind.
The list of "unprofessional" names is endless for me.
Retard
Spacker
Spaz(because I was left-handed)
Brain dead (because I was born premature and breech)
Vegetable
Dumb
Stupid
Idiot
Deformed
Evil
Demonic
Possessed
Horrible Child
Ugly Child.
Very few people had a nice thing to say about me even my own mother.
My favourite "hate crime" on me was by a boy named Dustin. He asked,."What do vegetarians like eating? Claudia because she's a vegetable."
Boo fuckin whoo😭
My daughter is going through similar problems to you. The other day she told me her angry outbursts scared her (I think she has some sort of ADHD) because she can't control them and has limited attentionspan. She said her previous teacher Miss Robin understood her problem and gave her a tool to cope. I know you hate this progressive shit but this I thought was good. Miss Robin told Rosey to go in the meditation corner. She asked her to picture fish swimming in a pond. Miss Robin asked Rosey to identify the fish as an emotion or feeling: anger, sadness, frustration, jealousy.....
Miss Robin asked Rosey not to be the fish but to be the pond. The pond controls the fishes environment. Never be a fish, be the pond. Rosey told me this did help her." However the following year she got a new teacher that was a lot older than Miss Robin and didn't understand Roseys emotional outbursts likenthe youngerteacher did. She didn't allow Rosey time to collect herself in the meditation corner like Miss Robin did. My daughter had to face reality and cope in an environment without much understanding of her emotional instability. I told my daughter, "Miss Robin gave you a tool to use to cope with your emotions. It is up to you to use, developed and enhance this tool throughout your life. You will get bad teachers or teachers who are not good for you, but it is the good ones that will give you the tools to endure the bad teachers."
You say that you wish to not have ADHD but it is your responsibility to control and endure it as you can'tchange it.. Very noble, however after I became a support worker and had to look after people with all sorts of disabilities. I came to realise that no matter how retarded I believe I was, it could be worse. There is this meme that explains what I mean, where a man in a wheelchair looks at a man walking and wishes he could walk too. The man walking looks at a man on a bike and wishes he could have a bike. The man on the bike looks at a man in a car and wishes he could have a car.... so on and so forth. One man's hell is an other man's paradise. If your only problem is ADHD, than you are killing it. If the worse thing you have in you life is someone calling your ADHD a superpower, your life ain't that bad, because it could be worse.
This Trigg supporter tried to convince me that I don't understand how bad Woke is. I grew up in SA and I know how bad things can get. If your only problem is Woke then you are killin' it, because it could be a lot worse.
You say your girlfriends would be scared of your impulsive behaviour, but that is because they are all spoilt little princesses.
When I got to age 26 I realised because of all my retarded problems I could not afford to have casual relationships. I was too fucked up for that. I needed to be in a serious relationship where a man would commit to me and all that is retarded about me. Francis your superficial relationships makes you feel the burn of your ADHD because superficial women will never have the stamina to endure your so called "superpower". A women who is committed to you and loves you will not be afraid of your ADHD but just see it a a part of the man she loves. A challenge that you get to face together.
I understand how you can see this "superpower" terminology as patronising and unhelpful as it doesn't gives suffer a tool to cope with ADHD, just sugarcoats it to make a bitter pill easier to swallow. However, I was brought up on a saying "What your mother or school does not teach you life will." You can't hide from reality for long. Your Substack hopefully will help other to see that. You are a brilliant man despite your ADHD. ADHD or whatever it is, is a part of you and who you are. Don't wish it away as you are wishing away a part of yourself that makes you, the brilliant man you are. I know it is a challenge. And am I not trying to trivialise it but really you are lucky. Lucky to be you. Any women would be lucky to have you, ADHD and all.
Not to trivialize, but part of your comment reminds me of "Young Frankenstein." Eye-Gore and Dr. Frankenshteen are out corpse hunting, having a bad time of it, and Eye-Gore says, "Could be worse. It could be raining," and Bam! There goes the deluge.
🤣🤣🤣That is the story of my life. If I say "it could be worse, and name that worse, I would jinx it and it would become that worse.😭
The thing is Francis said he struggled to have what others have even though he is more driven than them. However, I looked after people who are a lot worse off than me but still seemed happy and appreciative of what they do have. Where I was miserable and asked, "why me?" about my life and problems.
After that I started to ask, "why can't I be happy with all I have and can do, then other people worse off than me can be happy about what they have and can do?"
It is not about what you have or have not, or what you can and can't do. It is your mindset and attitude towards it all.
Yes the superhero thing is a bit patronising but I do understand this arbitrary progressives approach. They are trying to change the mindset and attitude towards ADHD. But, this is a delusional approach rather a realistic one. When I was a TA for chilldern with challenging behaviour. I would marvel over some of the ADHD children abilities to do things that normal children couldn't, but it did come at a price and it did take a toll on those ADHD kids. However, from my retarded point of veiw those kids had a superpower. Simon had ADHD, and a teacher upset him. I was late getting in but when I did he was in the library pulling the books off the shelf. I stood there and said, "great another mess for me to clean up!" The books had different colour stickers to indicate level of reading. I continued to talk while he continued to pull books off the shelf. "I don't know where to begin. Simon, should I sort these books out by size or by colour?" He stopped what he was doing, "Don't be stupid Miss. You sort them first by colour and then you sort them out by size." Simon then diligently sorted the books out and put them back quicker then he pulled them off. And he did a better job of it than done previous. Once you know what makes people tick you can help them cope with their ticks. Use what abilities you do have and make the best of them. Life is never going to be perfect. From my retarded point of veiw I wish I could have ADHD. However, we all can feel like that about some other person's problems.
I hear you, Mr. Foster. My research into ADHD in adulthood helped me not hate myself when I made silly mental mistakes at work and in personal life. It's also tremendously helped me guide my son and control my frustrations with him, though I do find myself loosing it on occasion. I never presented with hyperactivity, so the diagnosis was missed in my early life. Wish I had known earlier. I would have avoided plenty of angst in my life. Thanks for the article. All the best to you.
Unbelievable, Francis. This post was written for me. Even down to the smashing through of a kebab shop window, my projectile was a 1L bottle of Stella, simply for an argument over missing items in a takeaway home delivery. The impulsivity, the alcohol, the keening shame I feel when I look back at the countless acts like this I've committed over the years is terrible.
Excellent piece to read and frighteningly similar to my everyday struggles. I also shout and scream down the phone to energy companies when a situation triggers me. 😵💫😬
Once again Francis, it’s your raw honesty that makes your writing so compelling. I don’t have first hand knowledge of this condition but the descriptions in these comments has really opened my eyes. Modern brain scans have been able to show conclusively that some people’s brains work slightly differently to the norm and those people often have extraordinary talents in certain areas - for example in music, art or coding as someone has pointed out in ‘comments’ here. Surely therefore in a very real sense, ADHD can — at least sometimes— be described as a ‘superpower’ ???
Francis, I think one of your superpowers is to be able to listen intently (see Trigonometry) alongside Konstantin and then almost out of the blue, ask a killer question that goes right to the heart of a debate. Have a great Xmas - - and avoid kebab shops 😎😂🥹🤩
Unfortunately for me I was also born in a communist then post communist world, adhd didn’t exist, instead you were just badly behaved, for which you get your ass handed to you by your post war ptsd father who also doesn’t have it…
I’ve learned, as much as it can be learned, to control mine with violence and self discipline.
I count my blessings when I hear your examples that it is not so bad, not at all…
If being retarded was a superpower, I would still fuck it up.
But you are the successful one, and that earned my respect.
I am a coach and work with individuals who have ADHD, and most of them feel so much pressure and do not fit the stereotype… they are very stressed. I also dislike the phrase, as it puts another layer of pressure on someone to achieve great things just because they have ADHD.
I get bored so easily. I just want to be a normal human being. All my co-workers are talking about the NFL playoffs, and I wish I could participate, but I'm too distracted, pondering the possibilities of what life would be like with a second mouth
Agree 100%. The choice I made to put off taking Concerta for my ADHD until my 40s haunts me. It gave me the ability to think before I spoke (speaking of how embarrassing impulsivity can be). Looking back I wonder how different my career trajectory would have been.
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure any venn diagram of podcast hosts and ADHD would be a circle. And yes, I'm launching a podcast next year.
Thanks Francis. ADHD crippled my mental health and career until I was 40, when I was diagnosed. Since then the trend has reversed and life has improved radically…however, that change has still come with an ongoing daily struggle. Some days I’m a genius, and others I’m dumb as a box of rocks. It’s frustrating to me, and unsettling to others (especially colleagues and kids). I’m onboard with your dislike of “ADHD is a superpower”…IMO it’s an unpredictable handicap for people who are generally bright and often very empathetic and decent people.
I couldn’t agree more with your statement,it’s not a superpower it’s a difficult way of life for me personally, but well said Francis, my education etc wasn’t dissimilar to yours by the sounds.
It’s not a disorder it’s an adaptation for higher signs to noise ratio in the wild. While I often empathize with other ADHDers I dislike their narcissism at times. They jump to conclusions without due diligence.
I have a 6-year-old with ADHD and if there’s any advice to parents on how to help a child through the impulses - please let me know! This is my 3rd child, 1st with ADHD so this is all new to me.
He’s a pretty cut & dry case so was easily diagnosed and thankfully has an amazing kinder teacher but I definitely see that the teacher in future grades he gets will be key to success or failure at school (he needs strict boundaries). We are also keeping him focused on sports because that seems to channel his energy in a positive way.
Dr Russel Barkley has a fantastic talk he gave to a bunch of parents on YouTube that I found really helpful for interacting with my nephew. I’d also say seriously consider martial arts as part of the sporting experiences as he gets older. It’s aimed exactly at channeling aggression productively but also has a really immediate feedback mechanism for impulsivity.
https://youtu.be/_tpB-B8BXk0?feature=shared
This is the very video that sent me down the rabbit hole and made me realize I have ADHD, at 44 years old. I've been sharing it as often as I can, and I sometimes adds to my share that the major takeaways can be found in the first minute.
I just to have jobs that could make me run around the mill as much as I like. From cab driving (15 hours a day, regardless of the resting rules) to writing for the Netherlands’ largest weblog (7 days a week for 13 years). When you can keep going at something, ADHD really does seem like a superpower. Now, I’m freelance and I work on my own terms after a burnout (and selling my stake in said weblog) at 43, I’m just beginning to come to terms with my diagnosis. Which in practice means I have to have an elaborate system with GTD apps, specific focus settings, and dedicated timers to be able to work normal hours, focused, goal-oriented, and without losing track of necessities like food, excercise and sunlight. I exaggerate, but only slightly. If it wasn’t for my wife, I’d never get a decent meal.
ADHD is not a superpower, you need superpowers to tame this shit.
Just = used in the first effing sentence ffs
Why does amphetamine work as a treatment for this? Does it take a sort of scattershot attention divided by random stuff and allow the mind to focus obsessively on one thing at a time? To prescribe speed for "hyperactivity" has always seemed counterintuitive to me.
The ADHD brain is able to focus on anything interesting to the point of hyperfocus. My husband says that if I am doing (or reading) something I really enjoy, the house could burn down around me and I wouldn't notice. The problem is with executive function in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain works slowly so amphetamines speed it up essentially, enabling the person to attend to boring and tedious work. It has to do with low levels of dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Brains run on dopamine and amphetamines increase dopamine production.
A brain on ADHD can't focus because it can't turn itself on. Its default state is being asleep.
That's why people with ADHD can only focus on what they're interested in - it stimulates their brain. Hyperactivity is another way the body attempts to wake its brain up.
That's why stimulants paradoxically calm people with ADHD down. The hyperactive behaviour is no longer needed to wake their brains up.
Makes sense, thanx. I at first got all excited because I read your first name as "Petulia," not "Paula." Any relation?
If only,lol. But since she's got Scottish roots like me I bet she's good people!
Great explanation
100% spot on! Not a named thing in the 60s and 70s when I grew up, has been a challenge, particularly catastrophising, worrying and feeling guilt for any and everything that goes wrong.
I understand where you're coming from but as someone who recieved their diagnosis at 27 after reaching the end of my rope and unintentionally describing ADHD to my doctor, I have a slightly different impression. First off, you and I apparently had the same school situation (scoring high in assessments, but failing tests), I was always getting scolded for daydreaming and had the tendency of writing a word multiple times due to lost concentration, on top of obsessing over phrasing. One thing that opened a door for me was being allowed to listen to things at work, which is how I first learned of "Triggernometry". All of a sudden I wasn't struggling to continue. I can't describe how it works, but it's like I have two brains and, as long as the "bored" brain is occupied by something interesting, I can focus on a job like a champ. Many people have told me that they can't do that, that they have to think solely about the task, but I definitely have that ability, to focus on both if given the chance.
Francis your voice on ADHD is very much needed, especially when you said "so that it need not hold you back" and I agree with your approach 80%. The rest of the 20% I am opening up a Claudia can of whoop ass.
I can also get out the smallest violin and play the sadest music.
I remember vividly going to remedial assessments to analyse my poor performance at school. They wouldn't ask me to leave the room and I had to sit there and hear what a fucked up child I was as they explained to my mother my learning problems.
I was also call retarded, brain damaged and underdeveloped cognitive intelligence by experts. I was fucking dumb and I still am. Boo fuckin whoo! But back then it scarred my fragile little mind.
The list of "unprofessional" names is endless for me.
Retard
Spacker
Spaz(because I was left-handed)
Brain dead (because I was born premature and breech)
Vegetable
Dumb
Stupid
Idiot
Deformed
Evil
Demonic
Possessed
Horrible Child
Ugly Child.
Very few people had a nice thing to say about me even my own mother.
My favourite "hate crime" on me was by a boy named Dustin. He asked,."What do vegetarians like eating? Claudia because she's a vegetable."
Boo fuckin whoo😭
My daughter is going through similar problems to you. The other day she told me her angry outbursts scared her (I think she has some sort of ADHD) because she can't control them and has limited attentionspan. She said her previous teacher Miss Robin understood her problem and gave her a tool to cope. I know you hate this progressive shit but this I thought was good. Miss Robin told Rosey to go in the meditation corner. She asked her to picture fish swimming in a pond. Miss Robin asked Rosey to identify the fish as an emotion or feeling: anger, sadness, frustration, jealousy.....
Miss Robin asked Rosey not to be the fish but to be the pond. The pond controls the fishes environment. Never be a fish, be the pond. Rosey told me this did help her." However the following year she got a new teacher that was a lot older than Miss Robin and didn't understand Roseys emotional outbursts likenthe youngerteacher did. She didn't allow Rosey time to collect herself in the meditation corner like Miss Robin did. My daughter had to face reality and cope in an environment without much understanding of her emotional instability. I told my daughter, "Miss Robin gave you a tool to use to cope with your emotions. It is up to you to use, developed and enhance this tool throughout your life. You will get bad teachers or teachers who are not good for you, but it is the good ones that will give you the tools to endure the bad teachers."
You say that you wish to not have ADHD but it is your responsibility to control and endure it as you can'tchange it.. Very noble, however after I became a support worker and had to look after people with all sorts of disabilities. I came to realise that no matter how retarded I believe I was, it could be worse. There is this meme that explains what I mean, where a man in a wheelchair looks at a man walking and wishes he could walk too. The man walking looks at a man on a bike and wishes he could have a bike. The man on the bike looks at a man in a car and wishes he could have a car.... so on and so forth. One man's hell is an other man's paradise. If your only problem is ADHD, than you are killing it. If the worse thing you have in you life is someone calling your ADHD a superpower, your life ain't that bad, because it could be worse.
This Trigg supporter tried to convince me that I don't understand how bad Woke is. I grew up in SA and I know how bad things can get. If your only problem is Woke then you are killin' it, because it could be a lot worse.
You say your girlfriends would be scared of your impulsive behaviour, but that is because they are all spoilt little princesses.
When I got to age 26 I realised because of all my retarded problems I could not afford to have casual relationships. I was too fucked up for that. I needed to be in a serious relationship where a man would commit to me and all that is retarded about me. Francis your superficial relationships makes you feel the burn of your ADHD because superficial women will never have the stamina to endure your so called "superpower". A women who is committed to you and loves you will not be afraid of your ADHD but just see it a a part of the man she loves. A challenge that you get to face together.
I understand how you can see this "superpower" terminology as patronising and unhelpful as it doesn't gives suffer a tool to cope with ADHD, just sugarcoats it to make a bitter pill easier to swallow. However, I was brought up on a saying "What your mother or school does not teach you life will." You can't hide from reality for long. Your Substack hopefully will help other to see that. You are a brilliant man despite your ADHD. ADHD or whatever it is, is a part of you and who you are. Don't wish it away as you are wishing away a part of yourself that makes you, the brilliant man you are. I know it is a challenge. And am I not trying to trivialise it but really you are lucky. Lucky to be you. Any women would be lucky to have you, ADHD and all.
Love you loads ❤️
Not to trivialize, but part of your comment reminds me of "Young Frankenstein." Eye-Gore and Dr. Frankenshteen are out corpse hunting, having a bad time of it, and Eye-Gore says, "Could be worse. It could be raining," and Bam! There goes the deluge.
What's a "spacker"?
🤣🤣🤣That is the story of my life. If I say "it could be worse, and name that worse, I would jinx it and it would become that worse.😭
The thing is Francis said he struggled to have what others have even though he is more driven than them. However, I looked after people who are a lot worse off than me but still seemed happy and appreciative of what they do have. Where I was miserable and asked, "why me?" about my life and problems.
After that I started to ask, "why can't I be happy with all I have and can do, then other people worse off than me can be happy about what they have and can do?"
It is not about what you have or have not, or what you can and can't do. It is your mindset and attitude towards it all.
Yes the superhero thing is a bit patronising but I do understand this arbitrary progressives approach. They are trying to change the mindset and attitude towards ADHD. But, this is a delusional approach rather a realistic one. When I was a TA for chilldern with challenging behaviour. I would marvel over some of the ADHD children abilities to do things that normal children couldn't, but it did come at a price and it did take a toll on those ADHD kids. However, from my retarded point of veiw those kids had a superpower. Simon had ADHD, and a teacher upset him. I was late getting in but when I did he was in the library pulling the books off the shelf. I stood there and said, "great another mess for me to clean up!" The books had different colour stickers to indicate level of reading. I continued to talk while he continued to pull books off the shelf. "I don't know where to begin. Simon, should I sort these books out by size or by colour?" He stopped what he was doing, "Don't be stupid Miss. You sort them first by colour and then you sort them out by size." Simon then diligently sorted the books out and put them back quicker then he pulled them off. And he did a better job of it than done previous. Once you know what makes people tick you can help them cope with their ticks. Use what abilities you do have and make the best of them. Life is never going to be perfect. From my retarded point of veiw I wish I could have ADHD. However, we all can feel like that about some other person's problems.
I hear you, Mr. Foster. My research into ADHD in adulthood helped me not hate myself when I made silly mental mistakes at work and in personal life. It's also tremendously helped me guide my son and control my frustrations with him, though I do find myself loosing it on occasion. I never presented with hyperactivity, so the diagnosis was missed in my early life. Wish I had known earlier. I would have avoided plenty of angst in my life. Thanks for the article. All the best to you.
Unbelievable, Francis. This post was written for me. Even down to the smashing through of a kebab shop window, my projectile was a 1L bottle of Stella, simply for an argument over missing items in a takeaway home delivery. The impulsivity, the alcohol, the keening shame I feel when I look back at the countless acts like this I've committed over the years is terrible.
Excellent piece to read and frighteningly similar to my everyday struggles. I also shout and scream down the phone to energy companies when a situation triggers me. 😵💫😬
Once again Francis, it’s your raw honesty that makes your writing so compelling. I don’t have first hand knowledge of this condition but the descriptions in these comments has really opened my eyes. Modern brain scans have been able to show conclusively that some people’s brains work slightly differently to the norm and those people often have extraordinary talents in certain areas - for example in music, art or coding as someone has pointed out in ‘comments’ here. Surely therefore in a very real sense, ADHD can — at least sometimes— be described as a ‘superpower’ ???
Francis, I think one of your superpowers is to be able to listen intently (see Trigonometry) alongside Konstantin and then almost out of the blue, ask a killer question that goes right to the heart of a debate. Have a great Xmas - - and avoid kebab shops 😎😂🥹🤩
It doesn’t need to look good…
I understand you my man.
Unfortunately for me I was also born in a communist then post communist world, adhd didn’t exist, instead you were just badly behaved, for which you get your ass handed to you by your post war ptsd father who also doesn’t have it…
I’ve learned, as much as it can be learned, to control mine with violence and self discipline.
I count my blessings when I hear your examples that it is not so bad, not at all…
If being retarded was a superpower, I would still fuck it up.
But you are the successful one, and that earned my respect.
Be well hermano
I am a coach and work with individuals who have ADHD, and most of them feel so much pressure and do not fit the stereotype… they are very stressed. I also dislike the phrase, as it puts another layer of pressure on someone to achieve great things just because they have ADHD.
I get bored so easily. I just want to be a normal human being. All my co-workers are talking about the NFL playoffs, and I wish I could participate, but I'm too distracted, pondering the possibilities of what life would be like with a second mouth
Agree 100%. The choice I made to put off taking Concerta for my ADHD until my 40s haunts me. It gave me the ability to think before I spoke (speaking of how embarrassing impulsivity can be). Looking back I wonder how different my career trajectory would have been.
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure any venn diagram of podcast hosts and ADHD would be a circle. And yes, I'm launching a podcast next year.
Thanks Francis. ADHD crippled my mental health and career until I was 40, when I was diagnosed. Since then the trend has reversed and life has improved radically…however, that change has still come with an ongoing daily struggle. Some days I’m a genius, and others I’m dumb as a box of rocks. It’s frustrating to me, and unsettling to others (especially colleagues and kids). I’m onboard with your dislike of “ADHD is a superpower”…IMO it’s an unpredictable handicap for people who are generally bright and often very empathetic and decent people.
I couldn’t agree more with your statement,it’s not a superpower it’s a difficult way of life for me personally, but well said Francis, my education etc wasn’t dissimilar to yours by the sounds.
But thanks for highlighting it.
It’s not a disorder it’s an adaptation for higher signs to noise ratio in the wild. While I often empathize with other ADHDers I dislike their narcissism at times. They jump to conclusions without due diligence.