ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder and is the most common of the neurodevelopmental disorders. It impacts many different areas of a person’s life and can show up in a range of different ways. For some people, ADHD might be obvious to everyone around them, such as difficulties in being able to sit still, acting without thinking, and interrupting conversation, or it may be less obvious and show up as inattentiveness, such as being unable to concentrate on tasks, appearing forgetful, or being easily distracted. For some people, they have difficulties across both hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattentive areas.

While we spend a lot of time talking about the challenges that can come about trying to fit into the world when you have ADHD, some of the cool parts of having ADHD can include having an awesome ability to be able to think ‘outside the box’ and come up with new and different ideas, being adventurous and curious about everything, and the ability to hyperfocus, which, while challenging in some situations, can be something that you can make work for you! We all have different variations in the way our brains work, in the same way some people learn math or music easier than others, and in the same way we all have different interests from each other, and no one way, just like no one brain, is ‘better’ than the other. We all have something to contribute, and learning where our areas of strengths and difficulties are can help us to understand ourselves better and go about life in a way that works for our unique brain style, rather than against it.