For the first few years after my diagnosis, I did very little in terms of managing it. I took my medication, and that was pretty much it. However, when I started noticing I was still struggling, I began to do some more research. Learning about ADHD quickly became a favorite activity. I now love learning more about how my brain works. I hope this will inspire you to go out there and learn all you can. To me, this is crucial for proper ADHD management.

One day, I was in gym class as a kindergartner. The gym teacher was having us run from one end of the gym to the other. I am not sure why he was having us do this, but there we were running from one end of the gym to the other end of the gym whenever he blew his whistle. Before one sprint, my best friend turned to me and said, “You’re gonna get last.” Sure enough, as soon as the whistle blew, I found myself running behind the other kids and reached the other end of the gym last.

One day, I was sitting in my third-grade classroom, and we were working on a worksheet as a class. The teacher was bouncing around the room, having different students answer the questions. This was taking too slow for me, so I started to work ahead. While working ahead, I tried to keep tabs on where the rest of the class was so that, if called upon, I could answer the question without anyone knowing I was working ahead. The split second I lost where they were, I got called on. I answered the one I thought they were on, and my teacher goes, “We just did that one. You’re not paying attention. You can pull a card.”

I just saw a Facebook post from a parent of a kid I know has ADHD. It is his first day of school, and I find myself hoping he has a good school year. This is because I had a lot of not good school years. Were any of my school years complete disasters? No, but there are things that I definitely wish could have gone differently. I thought I would write a list of things I wish my teachers knew back in the day. Hopefully, it inspires some teachers to treat their students differently and inspires some students and parents to advocate for their students.

Crime and ADHD are sadly linked. However, it does not have to be this way. There is a way to end the ADHD-to-prison pipeline. If we address ADHD in the criminal justice system and in the rest of the world, we can reduce crime and create more positive outcomes for those with ADHD.

Growing up, I always felt different, and I could never put my finger on why. It was not until I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 20 that I began to understand why I was the way I was. This realization has explained why I always felt different.

I am not someone who paints ADHD as a superpower. However, I am not someone who sees it as the worst thing in the world either. It simply is what it is. It can wreak havoc in your life, but the big three characteristics of ADHD have positive sides to them. Each one has a “flip side.”

This ADHD Awareness Month, I will be exploring different areas of ADHD awareness. Last week, I discussed a new book on ADHD. This week I will be discussing the faulty logic of comparing yourself to others, something we ADHDers should never do.

As much as I hate to admit it, my mom was right about a lot of things, not everything, but a lot of things. Moms are like that. Much of what they are right about are things that are especially important for those of us with ADHD. Here are eight things your mom was probably right about.

I went to the 2018 International Conference on ADHD, and I feel it is my duty to encourage you all to attend this year’s conference. Trust me. You won’t regret going.

In November, I published a blog post in which I said that marijuana should not be used to treat ADHD. I have not switched my opinion on that. However, while researching for the second edition of ADHD Talks, I realized that it was not as black and white as I once thought. In fact, it is quite gray (Do you like how this blog post’s featured image is a grayscale version of my previous blog post? That was intentional because of how this issue isn’t black and white; it’s gray. I thought it was clever). As of right now, I do not know if marijuana is a safe effective treatment for ADHD, but it could be.

The struggles an ADHDer faces on a daily basis can take a toll on their mental health. When you mess up as much as an ADHDer does, you start to believe the negative messages you hear both from internal and external sources. This is especially relevant if the ADHD diagnosis does not happen early in childhood. The longer one goes without an ADHD diagnosis, the more one wonders, “What is wrong with me? I must lazy and/or dumb.”

Recently, I was talking about ADHD to a group of college students, and I said, “Basically, if humans do it, ADHD affects it. I had ten minutes to explain all of ADHD to these students (NOT ENOUGH TIME!), so I did not take the time to expand on that. However, I will here!

One day, during my Freshman year of high school, one of my teachers pointed out in front of the class that I had a weird sense of humor. “Yeah, but I’m not the only one,” I responded.

He doubled down. “Yeah, but yours is way out there.” At that moment, the conversation went from playful to isolating. I acknowledged that I had a bizarre sense of humor, but he went further and made me feel different. And, this teacher was a family friend! My sense of humor started to become a source of shame. I tried to hide the more bizarre side of my sense of humor, only sharing the humorous side that I knew others would appreciate.

Our culture places individual achievement on a high pedestal. Those one-man armies are revered for their accomplishments, but oftentimes, what you do not hear about is all of those who have helped those people get where they are. The phrase “no man is an island” is old but still very much true.

One reason parents are often resistant to getting their child tested for ADHD is the fear that their child will be given a label. This is tragic. The ADHD label is not something to be feared. It is not a negative. Yes, there are struggles that come with ADHD, but the label itself does not doom an individual. On the contrary, seeking an ADHD diagnosis can be beneficial.