Adulting with ADHD

So I’m sitting here, writing a new newsletter titled ‘Because I have ADHD’. All of a sudden, I get writer’s block. A dark cloud of nothingness interrupted what seemed clear as day a few moments ago.

Time to switch gears.

I started this newsletter as basically a diary entry of how I felt and what I’d learned navigating a recent ADHD diagnosis in my 20s. As I’ve learned more about myself and also ADHD, I shared more here and on Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms.

It has been a great learning and sharing experiences with others. It’s also been great when so many adults thank me/my content for playing a role in them finally getting an ADHD diagnosis.

Who would’ve thought?

But then it finally happened. The internet’s ‘gotcha’ moment came.

In the ND and ADHD community, it’s quite obvious whose tweets get policed and ‘well actually’d’ vs lets all laugh and boost generic meme tweets that probably is inaccurate but funny.

I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it.

I usually brush it off.

But recently, someone/people have taken my lighthearted tweet about delaying things for so long that it becomes an issue and there’s little time to find a solution, ending with ‘Don’t be me’ to somehow translate to Ableism, not understanding how ADHD works and somehow offend people.

I wrote a follow-up tweet recognising that procrastination, executive dysfunction, and the mental wall in my brain is the culprit. So this tweet about how I was feeling in the current moment, which recognized the reasons why I am struggling, has somehow been misinterpreted and is now plastered on Reddit and had people in my Twitter mentions being accusatory.

Many people understood the tweet, we laughed, shared nice words about hoping we don’t regret things, and others shared tips.

Why am I sharing this? Well, it wouldn’t really be a blog if it wasn’t up close and personal.

But also, my journey adulting with ADHD has been very public, and not once have I sought to diminish the struggles we face or chalk ADHD up to be this fun, quirky, and cool condition – like many creators do (and no one says anything to them).

Honestly, felt like crawling into a shell and deactivating everything – maybe a little dramatic, I know.

There are some people that may not be familiar with the content I share so they probably could only go off of my tweet and the negative comments. Fair enough.

But surprised. Maybe I’m being a little too sensitive. Or maybe I spend way too much time on Twitter and this is a sign that I need to step back. Who knows!?

Thanks for reading! You’ve been great to write to these past couple of years – I’ll keep on sharing my journey and learning here.

Tomorrow will be better.

Rach, with ADHD.