ADHD Awareness Month '24: Part 3

This mini episode is part of a mid-series-mini-series created for ADHD Awareness Month 2024. This October's theme is 'Awareness is Key', so I'm sharing the 'key' pieces of ADHD awareness the ADHDAF Community need the world to know.

Enormous thanks to ADHD Coaching with Olivia, ADHD Let's Talk's Roxanne & Lorie for volunteering their voices and for all of their support.

Trigger warning: Contains swearing and mentions of sensitive subject matter some may find triggering; mental health struggles, ableism, cancer, long term health conditions, suicide and premature death.

If you are in need of support YOU ARE NOT ALONE! There is immediate help out there so please REACH OUT
Search the ADHD Medication Directory if you are struggling to access medication during the national medication shortage HERE
Listen to Riyadh Khalaf's self support stratergies for ADHDers HERE

It’s also Dyspraxia Awareness Week; find out more about the commonly co-occurring condition HERE & HERE

You can connect with literally likeminded legends and support the continuation of this podcast by joining the Patreon Peer Support Community
Enormous thanks to the Members for keeping this podcast going for over 2 years!

We invite you to join us online Friday 25th Oct for the THIRD ANNUAL ADHDAF DAY! In which we paint the world leopard print to raise ADHD Awareness. Simply wear at least one leopard print item on 25/10/24 to stand in solidarity with the leopard print army and post a selfie or video on your socials sharing the special message you want the world to know about ADHD, then tag @adhdafpodcast and #ADHDAFDay and I will reshare your messages for the world to see and hear us at a time of ADHD diagnosis crisis and medication shortages. 

PLEASE SHARE this episode and write a review/hit those stars, because doing so means that these episodes will spread far and wide. Each one contains important information that society NEEDS to know about ADHD and from the very people whose voices have gone unheard for too long! 

Let's join forces this ADHD Awareness month. LIVES DEPEND ON IT. 
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN!
Myself and the Leopard Print Army thank you for your support
Laura x

Transcript

 If you're a first time listener of ADHD AF podcast, this isn't the usual episode. This is a mini episode as part of a mid series mini series created for ADHD Awareness Month 2024. This is the third of eight, I think, instalments and the theme for ADHD Awareness Month this year is Awareness is Key.  So what you're about to hear  are segments from three different conversations that I had over Zoom with ADHD AF community members.

Each of them share what the key piece of awareness they would like to raise this ADHD Awareness Month is. Now I've always said that ADHD services need to be patient led, nothing about us without us. So it's time to hear from the people who listen to and support the ongoing production of this podcast. 

Those who have received validation from the conversations held for over two years on this podcast, the peers supporting each other in the absence of adequate medical support.  It is so important for those of us who have not been heard or supported to have our say. So I wanted to use the platform the best way I could this ADHD Awareness Month.

These very special episodes will be shared sporadically throughout the month. Interspersed with the usual weekly interviews. Please do have a read of the description to avoid hearing topics you might find triggering before listening on. I will make the odd cameo in these mini episodes, but mostly you'll be hearing from the Leopard Print Army, the real stars behind ADHD AF podcast.

And now I leave you with ADHD AF community legends, Olivia, Roxanne and Laurie. 

I'm Olivia. I am  34, almost 35, based in Kent. I became a certified ADHD coach earlier this year. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia at three and ADHD at 33. I also lead the accountability squads in the discord community.  It's not just high practice boys. It is so much more than that. Even the diagnostic criteria doesn't cover the emotional symptoms, which typically Uh, prevalent for women, even the medical stats, I read something recently that it was only in the mid nineties that it was only, it was mandatory to include women in research.

So it just goes to show I have endometriosis, the endometriosis UK charity published the other day. It's in 24 years. There's not, it's still the same in terms of like the pain levels, nothing's changed there. So there's just so much more to come in terms of women's experience. And it's still that stereotype.

It's crazy that it's a diagnosis that could seem to get challenged by people. You know, you don't challenge somebody when they say they have diabetes or a heart condition  Even other mental health conditions. And I think there's so much more awareness to come just in terms of the language that we use and the understanding around ADHD.

It's not, it's not a mental health thing. It's not a trend. It's not something that everyone has a bit of. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder. And for many it is, you know, it is a disorder. I'm on Instagram, a ADHD coaching with Olivia, and my website is A DH ADHD coaching with olivia.com. My name's Roxanne, diagnosed with A DHD aged 32.

I'm currently doing research around the impact of gender stereotypes, A DHD, stereotypes and stigma on people's journey to diagnosis. The message that I want people to have is to put all the stereotypes in the bin. The gender stereotypes, the ADHD stereotypes, because I've been looking at this for two years now.

I've done focus groups with 20 late diagnosed people with ADHD. I've been researching for two years and writing up and The stereotypes that we hold do impact on whether people receive a diagnosis or not. And that's even as far as GPs, teachers, general society, the media, massive. We need to let go of the assumptions that we have around ADHD and view it as individual traits that impact people.

If you're female, you don't have to have inattentive ADHD. You can be hyperactive and vice versa. If you're male. You don't have to just be hyperactive. You can have an inattentive ADHD. And you can also follow ADHD Let's Talk if you want to see any more on that.  Hi, I'm Laurie Randall. I'm  65 years old, diagnosed with ADHD just, what, six months ago, I think it was.

I'm here today because I would like to talk about one key matter that is important to me. And that is the fact that ADHD is for life. Once ADHD, always ADHD. There is a real common misconception that ADHD is something that children have and that they can grow out of it,  particularly boys. Now,  just is not, in my opinion, very true.

You know, children do not grow out of it. The best that children can help is to learn coping strategies to cope with it.  We have to understand that  ADHD is a disability. It's a neuro divergence disability that you don't magically manage to regrow. It's like if you're born without a leg. The leg never grows.

The best that can happen is you can learn strategies and have tools to make that leg work. And indeed, we have seen this thousands of times, especially when you start looking at the Olympics and, and things like that, about how people with these disabilities can overcome All sorts of challenges in life, but they know, they know that their disability is with them throughout the whole of their lives.

And I think this is a very, very, very important thing to get over.  If you are ADHD, you are born with it. You will have it. until the day you die. You will also very likely transfer your genetic code into your children. So once we understand that this is a lifelong condition, and then you start looking into, well, if it's a lifelong condition, and I've had it all my life, how come I've only just figured out  I'm ADHD.

Now, this is very, very simple thing. A, my age. When I was a child and I was at school, there was nothing. I mean, everything was put down to the fact I couldn't see properly, that's why I couldn't read and write. You know, I used to fall over things. Well, I couldn't see properly, that's why I would fall over things.

Sometimes I could be over excitable. Well, that's probably because I don't see very well and, you know, when I get into social situations, I get excited. Everything was put down  to an eyesight problem I had as a child. And I believe that. When I was diagnosed at 40 years old of being dyslexic, I even went blind.

Oh, I learnt how to be dyslexic. I wasn't born dyslexic. I learnt it because I couldn't read and write. Everything got put back to the wrong thing. Now, there has been times in my life that I've, you know, managed to get to extraordinary heights. That's true. But there's times of my life when I've come to extreme heights.

extraordinary downs. And I guess these things I haven't really even mentioned to people. You know, I like people to think, Oh, I'm good. I'm great. I'm wonderful, because that helps my self confidence. But inside the RSD, these really stupid daydreams, shit daydreams, should I say, Um, have plagued me  ever. It fluctuates.

So ADHD also fluctuates. It goes up and down. It's not static. It's not the same. Every body is completely different. Now, historically, ADHD has always been biased to the little boy syndrome, and it's not normally until a girl reaches puberty, that some of these symptoms start to come out. And then they're classified as those that are having issues with their puberty.

For me, understanding that ADHD is lifelong, understanding there's as equally many boys as there are girls with this condition, and that it is not a linear condition, I think is one of the most key things we have to understand. We can't be put in boxes.  Enormous thanks to all three of those legends.

Olivia, at the beginning, mentioned that she also has dyspraxia. Now, I myself am self diagnosed dyspraxic and it is a topic that we've explored a little bit on the podcast. I just wanted to point out that alongside being ADHD Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as mentioned in the last episode, it is also Dyspraxia Awareness Month. 

Now research suggests that 50 percent of people with dyspraxia also have ADHD. Dyspraxia affects the planning and coordination of physical movements and it is often identified through difficulties in activities requiring fine motor skills, for example writing or buttoning clothes and gross motor skills like running or jumping.

I recommend listening to the episode I shared back in June called Neurodistinct with the black dyspraxic Toomey. for joining me. And also the week before last, Sarah Templeton of ADHD Liberty Charity also shared her experience of dyspraxia.  So back to these three legends, big, big thank you to Olivia, Roxanne and Laurie for sharing your insights and just shedding light on these really important issues, the key pieces of awareness that people need to know about ADHD this month.

I would be so grateful if you could help me amplify these voices. By sharing this episode far and wide. If you're not in a place to share it, then I would be super grateful. If you could hit those stars or write a review, if you're on a platform that you're able to, or comment on the Q and a on Spotify, all of these things help to spread the reach, which not only means that like minded legends can benefit from these crucial points, the validation and information shared, it also means that we can get the world to hear us.

This ADHD awareness month to join forces, to really raise awareness. If you'd like to connect with a whole host of like minded legends, you can join the ADHD AF peer support community via the link in the show notes, where you will also find a link to free and immediate support. We invite you to join us on Friday, the 25th of October for the third annual ADHD AF day, in which we paint the world leopard print to raise ADHD awareness.

All you need to do, wherever you are in the world, is simply wear at least one mask. One leopard print item on this day to stand in solidarity with our leopard print army, then just post a selfie or video sharing what you would most like the world to know about ADHD, tagging ADHD, AF podcast, hashtag ADHD, AF day.

And I will reshare your messages, myself and All of the Leprechaun Army, thank you for your support. Let's join forces and get the world to listen to us this ADHD Awareness Month. Lives literally depend on it. And together, we can make change happen.