I do not present as the classic ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) stereotype. I don’t fidget or tap my fingers. At school I was a sensitive child who masked shyness with comedy but was never disruptive. My daydreaming, forgetfulness and emotional sensitivity were ‘character traits’, my dogged devotion to art viewed as ‘passion’.
“But wait!” I hear friends say. “She has a successful career, close friendships, looks people in the eye and is a right laugh at a party. She can’t be ADHD!” Oh, but I am.
You see, whereas boys with childhood ADHD tend to be hyperactive, which often lands them in trouble, girls are more likely to present as inattentive ADHD, which all too often goes unnoticed.
Unnoticed until many years later, when after a lifetime of masking symptoms as well as implementing complex coping strategies, a diagnosis happens pitifully late on in life.
In April last year I decided to leave full-time work to go freelance. In the days that followed, instead of finding the headspace to breathe, I properly unravelled. With no access to a work diary (which colleagues added meetings to, not me) or Microsoft Teams bleeping away in the background, all semblance of daily structure was gone. I began to miss sessions continually with my therapist – odd, considering they had been scheduled
