ADHDAF DAY / Flackstock Festival Finale

LEOPARD PRINT ARMY ASSEMBLE! It's ADHDAF DAY TODAY! The third annual day that the ADHDAF Community paint the world leopard print to raise ADHD Awareness! JOIN US FOR THIS ONLINE EVENT (details below)

This mini episode is the finale from our ADHDAF Emporium Tent live at Flackstock Festival at which the ADHDAF Peer Support Community helped me raise ADHD Awareness by sharing what they would most like the world to know - just as I have in the previous 9 episodes of this mini series - amplifying the voices of those that have gone unheard for far too long. NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US!

Please be aware that the sound quality isn't great as this was recorded live on stage at a festival! If you remember in a previous episode I talked about the serendipitous ending you can hear a little bit of that in the background too! xxx
Photo Credit: Dopamine and Daydreams in ADHDAF Emporium at Flackstock '24

Having our own ADHDAF Emporium ADHD Awareness tent at a mainstream festival was such a proud moment. To be 'ROARING' to the general public, and at the festival created by the family and friends of Caroline Flack to raise Mental health awareness, where the main message is BE KIND.

ENORMOUS THANKS TO ALL INVOLVED, We can't wait to do it all again next year!

Join the Leopard Print Army online TODAY: 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 hashtag: #ADHDAFDay and I will reshare your messages for the world to see and hear us at this desperately needed time of ADHD diagnosis crisis and medication shortages.

Trigger warning: Contains swearing and mentions of sensitive subject matter some may find triggering; mental health struggles, divorce, childhood struggles, ableism, bullying, misdiagnosis, medical negligence, low self esteem, mental health crisis, depression, addiction, divorce, self harm, eating disorders, traffic accidents, premature loss of life and suicide.

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
FIND OUT about ADHDAF+ Charity 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!

Let's join forces this ADHD Awareness month
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN!
Myself and the Leopard Print Army thank you so much for your support and hope to see you on socials in Leopard Print TODAY!
Laura x

Transcript

 So today is the day. It is the third annual ADHD AF Day, Friday the 25th of October 2024, where we paint the world leopard print once again to raise ADHD awareness and get the world to hear us. If you would like to join in, all you have to do is wear leopard print, take a selfie or video, sharing what you would most like the world to know about ADHD.

Then you just tag ADHD AF podcast, hashtag ADHD AF day and I will reshare all of your posts and we can unite. To get the world to hear us roar. So please do join us online right now. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. Friday, the 25th Army, assemble! So in celebration, I am sharing this very special clip.

I have got you, not just backstage passes, but back in time. To Flackstock Festival in July of this year, where myself and Steph of all the discos, my partner in ADHD AF Emporium, which is a marketplace championing neurodivergent makers and small businesses. We had our own bloody tent at Flackstock Festival, the festival hosted.

by the friends and family of Caroline Flack to raise mental health awareness and raise funds for her favorite charities. And there is no other festival like it on earth. The message of it is be kind. It is such an incredible festival. And we were. Not only honored to be a part of it. We are absolutely honored to be part of it again.

Next year, throughout the day, we had all different ADHD AF podcast guests being interviewed, raising ADHD awareness, singing karaoke, doing Vogue workshops. Burlesque workshops, all sorts. I also had the Leopard Print Army with me. Not just the members of the ADHDF online peer support community who could physically come, but I asked people to share with me the very question that I've been sharing this whole month in those mini episodes, what would they most like the world to know?

Community legend, Tracy, put them all together on wonderful rainbow leopard print displays, which we had hung up all over the tent. And as the grand finale, I read them aloud. So that's what you're about to hear. So come with me to Flackstock Festival, a very special moment that I have not been able to get to the end of listening to without bawling my eyes out.

So this is very special to me. Having just done a little half an hour ADHD AF bingo segment in that tent the year before, which in itself I was so proud of, to have the entire tent for the whole day. Not just be championing neurodivergent makers, but to be roaring our message out of ADHD awareness to the general public at a mainstream festival.

I still can't believe it. And I really can't believe that we get to do it all again next year. So, come with me to Flagstock Festival, we're going back in time. But do bear in mind, the sound quality isn't great, it's recorded at a festival. So, the sound quality is great for a festival. I actually really like it, because I'm literally reliving it as I listen to it.

But yeah, with the wonderful session services, tried to clean it up. And literally it just made my voice sound even more ridiculous than it already does completely underwater and warped and everything else. So you just have the background noise, but  you might remember I shared in a previous episode about how at the end it was particularly special to me because I realized that it ended on the song.

That I was waiting to hear, which reminds me of a time with a friend who is no longer with us. So it's, it's really, it felt incredibly serendipitous as often things have on this podcast, on this ridiculous safari. Anyway, I'll wind my neck in now. Well, actually I won't. You're going to listen to more of me talking, but past me talking.

Future me is head to toe in leopard print. Actually past me was as well, but it's ADHD AF Day. Shut up, Laura. Join me online. For this very special day, let's unite and get the world to hear us roar. Head to ADHD AF podcast on socials and let's turn the world leopard print once again. very much to everybody who's come here today to have a seat.

It's absolutely ridiculous. ADHD awareness raising to everyone who has supported our makers, myself included, Because today, Independent School Business is in the UK, Stephanie's limbering up to the final countdown, which is how we always close the Emporium. So the Emporium has been an amalgamation of the two sides of my life.

So I've done a lot of festival training, partly planning in Ibiza, then I found out I had ADHD, and I couldn't shut the fuck up about it. Ha ha ha ha! I've managed the whole day in all day. So, in amongst all of it, starting the podcast, I've also started a community, an online community And, um, been through thick and thin.

Times are tough. But, um, here we are. And some of the wonderful community members have shared some information here with me today to help me raise Flagstock Festival. So, I mean, it is an ADHDist tendency to sometimes, uh, go into quite a lot of detail. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to read, um, what each of them would like the world to know  So, this is from Louise.

I would like the world to know that ADHD is different for every person. Also every day and every hour. We will always have it. Even if it's not obvious to others, it's still there.  So, Louise, would you like to say a few words? Okay, so Olivia and Kent would like people to know that it's not a trend and it's not just hyperactivity. 

Down, straight. Um, so, Steph, who is here or was here, she said,  ADHD is real. Sometimes you can't see people's struggles because they learn to mask them so well all their lives in order to fit into a world not made for us. Please understand that we are always trying our absolute best and feeling that we are failing and it's exhausting.

Having ADHD doesn't make you less of a person, you're brilliant just as you are. Jen says, not everyone is a bit ADHD, and even those who are, are not all the same. ADHD is like ice cream, not all the same flavour. Just like rum and raisin is nothing like strawberry. Still ice cream, but for you we don't differ.

Absolutely. So this is from our Tracy, who gave us some raisins. Congratulations to the late bloopers. Please feel free to check out the group. Um, I'm done. I would like the world to know how unfair it is that we have a postcode lottery in place and that people shouldn't be having to reach a crisis point to be put on a 5 plus year waiting list for medication that will not only change but in some cases save their lives.

I have lost my entire life and was existing rather than living due to, due to, due to not feeling worthy of being me. Understanding my ADHD and taking my medication has changed everything and everyone should be entitled to that. Amen.  Our lovely, very sneaky, very lovely darling. The one thing I would like people to know is that someone's brain can be going a million miles an hour but on the outside they can seem calm and organised.

I don't know, what's that like? 

So this one is from Yaz, our Yaz in Birmingham, she says I want the world to know that it does not matter how many times you try to tell me to buy a planner Go to bed on time, just leave 5 minutes early  That I should, I should be able to do this. I will still have ADHD, and if you try to make me fit into your vision of success and normal, it's going to end in failure.

But that's your failure, not mine. Okay, we're going to be here a little while, so let's jam ourselves in now, jokey. Um,  so our lovely Claire says, I want everyone to know that ADHD isn't just being diagnosed. It's more than needing a planner. I also want everyone to know, we are trying our hardest all the time.

And we are excelling. If you suspect ADHD, says Archibald,  chances are high, don't hesitate, doubt yourself, or feel like an imposter. Assume assessment, you won't regret it. There we go.  Aunt Bonnie in East Yorkshire says, I'd like the world to know that you can have ADHD and be quiet, shy, and appear calm. You have, you can have ADHD and not be bound to it.

You can have ADHD without a hyperactive body, but with a hyperactive mind. If you can have a career, a family, and success with ADHD, it's just heart.  The wonderful Kim Pinpoint.  Don't make me Kim Pinpoint. Don't make me Kim! Menopause and ADHD can have overlapping symptoms.  As your  hormones change during peri medicals, your existing undiagnosed ADHD symptoms may build, start to worsen.

So we've got Christy in our Oh, Kirsty! Sorry, Kirsty, I can't remember your name! That's our Kirsty! Um, she would like everyone to know that we aren't looking for a label. We aren't looking for answers. And we've ran in circles for years, not understanding what was wrong with me. Knowing that we're getting it right.

And,  I'm, one in four, most of us, late diagnosed, are exhausted.  Playing our lives on extreme mode. We deserve a fair chance at what life has to offer.  And we'll keep fighting until we are  the exception, not the norm. Early diagnosis saves lives, particularly in girls and women. It stops here. Woo! Cornelia! I love you, Cornelia!

Um, just read the first two. Just read one of them. I want people to know so much about ADHD. If you've met one person with ADHD, you've met one person with ADHD, as it presents differently in everyone. The genetic evidence around ADHD is astounding. If you haven't, start observing your family. I would bet that you are not the only one with ADHD. 

ADD is an outdated term. Some with ADHD have hyperactive behaviors at some time. The term is ADHD.  It is officially, ADHD is officially diagnosed as predominantly inattentive  ADHD, or hyperactive, impulsive, or confined. Thank you, Cornelia. Robin, in Canada, says, It is not what you think it is. And for those that say everyone's a bit ADHD, if only this was true for those of us that have it.

It's not a little bit, it's all the bloody time, and it's exhausting! Um, And Maria in Vienna says I want the world to know that ADHD can show up in ways you least expect it and that even though knowing why you're doing something ridiculous you probably can't just not do it. Jen in Surrey says ADHD isn't linear and there is no cure and all of us with it struggle in different ways for different tasks and there are so many probabilities also hormones  can make symptoms worse. 

It's our Donna! Right, Donny says, I can be too much for many, but I will always put you first. You will never be bored, and I would love to show you why I've nicknamed Dancing Donna. I keep it to keep you dancing these days. I'm and soul of the party, but I like to switch. I will eat something before the end to go home, where I'm alone and it's quiet.

And this is where I've earned the nickname Disappearing Donna, if you made it this far, I can see. Nice! We've also got our Lucy, who is here today. Um, okay. I wouldn't change being on  DHT, but we'd like the world to wake up to accepting and understanding that people who are wonky brained is not a bad thing.

Without us and our difficult thinking ways, humanity would have already failed quite some years ago. We've got Tony Liverpool says, I would like people to understand how hurtful it is when people question you.  That would never happen with other conditions. Somebody says they've got arthritis. Have you got a diagnosis?

Who would ask that question? Would you care? You wouldn't care.  Um, Lovely Eve says, I am then a newly diagnosed. I'm still learning a lot. I would like to society acceptance that is not a trend so that I'm free, I'd feel safer speaking about it. Once you know, you start to understand that impact  infiltrates every aspect of your life.

So it's really important we gain understanding. It's life changing to know for me. I have been able to start making baby steps towards helping myself instead of fighting all the time. Wonderful. Kate! Kate is here! Oh, we've got another ice cream eulogy! I love it, I love it. ADHD is such an umbrella term as it presents unbelievably different in every individual.

Whilst traits are often related or how it manifests is completely unique, like our personalities in general. To simplify, if ADHD was ice cream, think how many flavors there are. We might all be ice cream, but pistachio tastes very different to, say, bubblegum. Then throw in sprinkles, flake, sauce, cone, or pot.

Cone would be two options also. Remember, if you know someone with ADHD, that's one presentational flavor. But we can all feel a connection, being in the same ice cream parlor. I love it. Woo! And, I love these people. So, Jill would like the world to know that ADHD, about ADHD, is that raising thought and decision paralysis can result in what appears to others to be  inactivity or laziness, when in fact additional effort is needed to start or switch tasks, which means a lot of energy is used before a task is started, or in other words, we are not lazy, our brains just work differently.

Awesome. Okay.  We've got Jenny who says  ADHD isn't just little boys who can't sit still. It's people who throw themselves into drinking drugs. It's people who are constantly depressed. It's people pleasers. It's creatives. It's different things all around you. Stop judging us by someone's stereotype of the 90s and think that actually knowing would help us all.

Sorry for trying to be so distracted about ADHD! Great! And the last one.  ADHD  can present as chronic fatigue as you have to use so much energy masking every day. Look at all these people.  This is just a handful of people. We really are in a global ADHD diagnosis crisis. This is a monumental moment of medical awareness that is being dismissed as mere mass hysteria by the press.

ADHD is not a trend.  It's very common. And people with it is. They are supported,  can lead very happy and successful lives. But if it is left unidentified, and society doesn't open its eyes to what's going on and support these people, it is a very dangerous condition. So, we are all in this together, and we can unite together, and join our voices to raise awareness, and make some noise, as THE LEOPARD PRINT ARMY!