Everywhere I turn, it seems there are messages about who can and can’t have ADHD, its causes, how to “fix” it and what it has to look like. Some of these messages are informative & empowering, but many of them are confusing & dismissive.
These messages often distract me. Instead of using the strategies & tools that help me thrive as an adult with ADHD, I find myself trying to force my ADHD to “make sense” or look a certain way… but the problem is it never works. My ADHD never stays in the box I make out of all these ideas that I try to fit it into.
Slowly, I’m learning that I don’t need to listen to all the ideas & messages out there- my ADHD certainly doesn’t! I can take the ones from those I trust and set aside those that distract me and lead to confusion & shame- the ones that dismiss & reduce the complexity of ADHD in my life.
My ADHD is a lot of things and it’s not a lot of things. I’m learning to embrace that it doesn’t need to be anything other than exactly what it is.