ADHD, Identity and Embracing Who You Are

For years I tried to live life the way others did, but I never seemed to get it right. I was constantly told I was too much. Too loud, too outspoken, too direct, too questioning, too messy, too distracted, too sensitive, too emotional, too forgetful. It wasn’t until my late life diagnosis with ADHD that I understood that those things I thought were wrong with me were part of the way I was wired and that I had spent so long focusing on the negatives I had neglected to see all the upsides that came from having a brain that was wired differently. Using funny stories from my life, this is a talk about dropping the idea of being perfect and embracing the vulnerability and messiness, light and shadow of being who you really are.

Topics covered:
-Can you still belong if you are different?
-The perils of people pleasing and rejection sensitivity
-Doubling down on your own weirdness
-Why your worst qualities and your best qualities are two sides of the same coin
-Who decides the rules about how we are meant to be anyway?
-Finding your tribe
-How to be brave enough to let yourself be seen