ADHD Was Never On My Radar
At 50 I found out I have ADHD. A lot finally made sense.
Last year a lot of things finally made sense.
I'd always had a busy brain. I struggled with overthinking, with perfectionism, with people pleasing and procrastination. I had a tough inner critic. I struggled to relax. At points in my life I'd felt totally overwhelmed both in my career and then trying to juggle work and family life. No matter what I did it never felt enough.
Last year I'd gone to a meeting at our kids’ school about ADHD because it was being run by the Additional Support for Learning Parents Group that I am part of. Never for one minute did I realise the impact that meeting would have on me. ADHD had never been on my radar. I was 50 years old.
As the Educational Psychologist spoke about ADHD, I was mentally ticking off all the things that resonated for me. I left the meeting and watched a TED talk about ADHD in Women & Girls. More rung true. Then I read "ADHD 2.0: NewScience and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction" by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey and got my husband to read it too. He agreed I ticked a huge number of the boxes, and it impacted all areas of my life - family life, wider relationships, my business, my self-esteem. "This is definitely you Lyn." I've been with this man for over 30 years and he knows me better than anyone else on the planet. He sees the things other people don't see.
I booked an assessment with ADHD Direct in Glasgow but then they were featured on Panorama.What was the point of getting an assessment if I was going to question its validity?And by that point my ADHD symptoms were fairly well under control as a result of changes I'd consciously made in my life, following a difficult time in our business 5 years earlier. The irony was that, without knowing it, I'd built an environment and strategies that work for me, and that is exactly what is recommended in Hallowell & Ratey's book.
If any of this resonates it’s worth finding out a bit more about ADHD. It is especially poorly diagnosed in women and girls. “Unmasked: the Ultimate Guide to ADHD, Autism & Neurodivergence” by Ellie Middleton is useful as it is written from a woman’s perspective.
Image by Stefan Pinter, Canva
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