I didn't find out until I was in my forties that I was struggling with ADHD. It all makes sense now but I still struggle to find systems and strategies to help me get through the days.
So glad you shared this. I saw your email when I had just (nervously) decided to disclose my ADHD in a professional setting to help out a younger woman who was displaying really familiar symptoms of ADHD. Seeing your newsletter right after that felt like a sign I had done the right thing. I'm in my early thirties, got diagnosed 5 years ago, and I think the hardest thing is still navigating some shame around it, but there are some amazing tools out there and it can also be liberating. All the best on your journey!
Wooot! Good for you, love!! I understand about the shame -- that has been coming up for me too, plus a lot of grief. But the larger feeling is the relief that I'm not a crap as I feared I was. I'm just wired differently. Big hugs to you x
The only people I know who aren't like this are either Men, or medicated women. It just seems like you're describing normal to me. And I wonder if we try to medicate normal, instead of accepting that we are humans, not machines (and women, not men, and individuals, not cogs in the corporate clock). Are we trying to cram ourselves into a work/functioning philosophy that's based on an abstract ideal proposed by hyperfunctioners? Are we trying to find labels that make us feel better about not conforming to an impossible standard? Are we trying to become well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society? These are all the questions I always want to ask whenever anyone says "Oh, I just figured out I have ADHD!" when it sounds like they're describing reasonable behavior and thought patterns. Convenient behavior and thought patterns? No. But we're humans. We don't think/act/feel/behave logically and conveniently all the time. And that's okay. To be clear: I adore your work, I love your newsletter, I am such a fan, and I fully support whatever you do. I just also feel like we (as a society) don't question the expectation that our brains work perfectly or else should be diagnosed.
I agree! And I have been questioning this myself, absolutely. There's also more to this than I wanted to share in my post, which is why I will be pursuing an official diagnosis -- if i get one. It's definitely a spectrum and the amount of emotions i am experiencing around this realisation tells me it's something to look into at the very least 👍
Ooohhhhh my god! You have blown my mind with your insight. This describes me so accurately. I’m having a hideous menopause journey and one of the things that went out the window was my work drive, never mind my attention. It was zero. I couldn’t sit my butt down to do anything. Depression has also made a reappearance, apparently estrogen carries serotonin around the body so when those levels drop… this is really useful to know. I see so many similarities in the way we work and the frustration I’ve felt in not being able to do what The Experts Suggest for Best Productivity Habits. Thank you x a million for sharing this Susannah 💕
This is really fascinating and interesting and is giving me niggles of awareness. I never would have thought I had ADHD until reading this - so will journey a bit more into it as only a few of the things you are talking about resonate. Do you know your Human Design type? In a lot of ways you are describing some of my Manifestor (HD Type) traits... I've been diving into my Manifestor-ness the past two years and it has made a tons of sense of me/who I am/my life/how I navigate my business (or don't! HA) and more. Thank you for sharing!
What a glorious comfort to know I am not the only one with imaginary lights lighting up in my brain as I read about what it is like to live with ADHD!
Just this week I started reading Your Brain's Not Broken Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD by Tamara Rosier — and it has been life-changing! ♥
I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s and now that I'm in my late 40s I kept feeling like my symptoms were worse or as you say, more pronounced. I'm glad to know that there's a reason for this. Welcome to the club! It's great a feeling to have some answers :)
Thank you for that link! I remember Leonie talking about her autism but didn't know she also has ADHD -- makes sense that so many of us creative type do! ❤️👍
I don't have any official diagnosis, but I suspect that I'm on the autism spectrum and/or have ADHD. I've always known I was different from most people in some way, but couldn't really figure out why. About a year or two ago, a video popped up on YouTube that explained everything. Autism presents differently in women/girls, too. Suddenly my life experience made so much sense!
I'd recommend two YouTube channels: Yo Samdy Sam and How to ADHD.
thanks for this share susannah … i too can resonate with much of what you shared.
i started studying astrology in 2020 and was amazed at the energy of gemini, which i have a lot of in my birth chart even tho’ it is not my sun sign … i am just sharing this because it was and continues to be the same ‘a-ha’ moment you are having now witnessing how my gemini energy shows up in my daily life … also in Human Design (another whole rabbit hole like astrology) gemini energy feels very much like ‘manifesting generator’ which you might want to google just for fun … one can easily type in their birth info into astro.com to get their birth chart, and the same for ‘human design chart’ if you google it.
gemini is ruled by the planet mercury, and mercury is basically our human CPU system & potential monkey mind( also how we process information, intellect, words, communication etc) … depending on where it falls in our chart, this planet can be supported or challenged based on other aspects … it is fascinating !
also by no means am i dismissing an ADHD diagnosis, i just see life thru the lense of astrology now & cant help sharing insights when they appear …
keep enjoying the freedom and acceptance piece of this information … it truly is empowering to ‘get yourself’ on a fundamental level!!! 🤸🏽♂️🤸🏽♂️💛💛
Thanks Shannon! So grateful there are so many we as humans can come to know and understand ourselves. Weirdly, I cannot for the life of me retain anything about astrology in my head - have had my chart done a million times and other than my sun sign i can't recall anything. Weird. Ditto human design - done the test maybe 4 times now? still can't remember my type 😂 and that's cool -- i follow the paths where they want to take me 👍
i so get that about astro & HD 😂😂 and indeed we follow the paths that light us up 🤸🏽♂️🤸🏽♂️ thanks for sharing this journey, i am on the tail end of perimenopause and can really attest to the brain fog and lack of focus for a long time (years) 🫣🤯
Absolutely, I can relate to everything you have written here! Very recently, I stumbled across Tracy Otsuka (ADHD for Smart Ass Women) online and that opened the door to me thinking I might have ADHD. Concurrently, I dove into researching executive dysfunction, which circled back to ADHD. Still researching...still learning...
Yup, I was diagnosed with it about 8 years ago. I had absolutely no clue before that. And I love to write about it: https://adhdonline.com/so-thats-why-i-found-my-phone-in-the-fridge-again/
Thank you for sharing that! It's so lovely knowing i'm not alone in this at all!
I didn't find out until I was in my forties that I was struggling with ADHD. It all makes sense now but I still struggle to find systems and strategies to help me get through the days.
Just want you to know I’ve sent this to about 10 women, ranging in age from 32 to 77, and they all said it fit and explained so much.,,
My work here is done 👍❤️❤️❤️
So glad you shared this. I saw your email when I had just (nervously) decided to disclose my ADHD in a professional setting to help out a younger woman who was displaying really familiar symptoms of ADHD. Seeing your newsletter right after that felt like a sign I had done the right thing. I'm in my early thirties, got diagnosed 5 years ago, and I think the hardest thing is still navigating some shame around it, but there are some amazing tools out there and it can also be liberating. All the best on your journey!
Wooot! Good for you, love!! I understand about the shame -- that has been coming up for me too, plus a lot of grief. But the larger feeling is the relief that I'm not a crap as I feared I was. I'm just wired differently. Big hugs to you x
The only people I know who aren't like this are either Men, or medicated women. It just seems like you're describing normal to me. And I wonder if we try to medicate normal, instead of accepting that we are humans, not machines (and women, not men, and individuals, not cogs in the corporate clock). Are we trying to cram ourselves into a work/functioning philosophy that's based on an abstract ideal proposed by hyperfunctioners? Are we trying to find labels that make us feel better about not conforming to an impossible standard? Are we trying to become well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society? These are all the questions I always want to ask whenever anyone says "Oh, I just figured out I have ADHD!" when it sounds like they're describing reasonable behavior and thought patterns. Convenient behavior and thought patterns? No. But we're humans. We don't think/act/feel/behave logically and conveniently all the time. And that's okay. To be clear: I adore your work, I love your newsletter, I am such a fan, and I fully support whatever you do. I just also feel like we (as a society) don't question the expectation that our brains work perfectly or else should be diagnosed.
I agree! And I have been questioning this myself, absolutely. There's also more to this than I wanted to share in my post, which is why I will be pursuing an official diagnosis -- if i get one. It's definitely a spectrum and the amount of emotions i am experiencing around this realisation tells me it's something to look into at the very least 👍
Thank you for sharing yourself with us. Sending much love for this journey to be helpful and healing.
Ooohhhhh my god! You have blown my mind with your insight. This describes me so accurately. I’m having a hideous menopause journey and one of the things that went out the window was my work drive, never mind my attention. It was zero. I couldn’t sit my butt down to do anything. Depression has also made a reappearance, apparently estrogen carries serotonin around the body so when those levels drop… this is really useful to know. I see so many similarities in the way we work and the frustration I’ve felt in not being able to do what The Experts Suggest for Best Productivity Habits. Thank you x a million for sharing this Susannah 💕
This is really fascinating and interesting and is giving me niggles of awareness. I never would have thought I had ADHD until reading this - so will journey a bit more into it as only a few of the things you are talking about resonate. Do you know your Human Design type? In a lot of ways you are describing some of my Manifestor (HD Type) traits... I've been diving into my Manifestor-ness the past two years and it has made a tons of sense of me/who I am/my life/how I navigate my business (or don't! HA) and more. Thank you for sharing!
What a glorious comfort to know I am not the only one with imaginary lights lighting up in my brain as I read about what it is like to live with ADHD!
Just this week I started reading Your Brain's Not Broken Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD by Tamara Rosier — and it has been life-changing! ♥
I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 30s and now that I'm in my late 40s I kept feeling like my symptoms were worse or as you say, more pronounced. I'm glad to know that there's a reason for this. Welcome to the club! It's great a feeling to have some answers :)
Wow it all feels familiar to how I operate 🤗 Leonie Dawson wrote about it the other day and how she got diagnosed https://leoniedawson.com/adhdaf/ ox
Thank you for that link! I remember Leonie talking about her autism but didn't know she also has ADHD -- makes sense that so many of us creative type do! ❤️👍
Are you me? Sounds like me 🙀 lol. I guess I should look into it.
I don't have any official diagnosis, but I suspect that I'm on the autism spectrum and/or have ADHD. I've always known I was different from most people in some way, but couldn't really figure out why. About a year or two ago, a video popped up on YouTube that explained everything. Autism presents differently in women/girls, too. Suddenly my life experience made so much sense!
I'd recommend two YouTube channels: Yo Samdy Sam and How to ADHD.
I can relate to so much of this. And I like how we have access to more information that helps us work with the way we are wired, rather than against!
thanks for this share susannah … i too can resonate with much of what you shared.
i started studying astrology in 2020 and was amazed at the energy of gemini, which i have a lot of in my birth chart even tho’ it is not my sun sign … i am just sharing this because it was and continues to be the same ‘a-ha’ moment you are having now witnessing how my gemini energy shows up in my daily life … also in Human Design (another whole rabbit hole like astrology) gemini energy feels very much like ‘manifesting generator’ which you might want to google just for fun … one can easily type in their birth info into astro.com to get their birth chart, and the same for ‘human design chart’ if you google it.
gemini is ruled by the planet mercury, and mercury is basically our human CPU system & potential monkey mind( also how we process information, intellect, words, communication etc) … depending on where it falls in our chart, this planet can be supported or challenged based on other aspects … it is fascinating !
also by no means am i dismissing an ADHD diagnosis, i just see life thru the lense of astrology now & cant help sharing insights when they appear …
keep enjoying the freedom and acceptance piece of this information … it truly is empowering to ‘get yourself’ on a fundamental level!!! 🤸🏽♂️🤸🏽♂️💛💛
shannon takacs
Thanks Shannon! So grateful there are so many we as humans can come to know and understand ourselves. Weirdly, I cannot for the life of me retain anything about astrology in my head - have had my chart done a million times and other than my sun sign i can't recall anything. Weird. Ditto human design - done the test maybe 4 times now? still can't remember my type 😂 and that's cool -- i follow the paths where they want to take me 👍
i so get that about astro & HD 😂😂 and indeed we follow the paths that light us up 🤸🏽♂️🤸🏽♂️ thanks for sharing this journey, i am on the tail end of perimenopause and can really attest to the brain fog and lack of focus for a long time (years) 🫣🤯
big love to you susannah ❣️
Absolutely, I can relate to everything you have written here! Very recently, I stumbled across Tracy Otsuka (ADHD for Smart Ass Women) online and that opened the door to me thinking I might have ADHD. Concurrently, I dove into researching executive dysfunction, which circled back to ADHD. Still researching...still learning...
Thank you for the link, hon, i'll check her out! ❤️