ADHD and Me

I am currently twenty-seven years old, on the precipice of a new phase of life with both my career and my writing. Currently, it feels as though every decision matters much more than it did in my early twenties. Time, precious time, seems to be running out. The stopwatch that is my biological clock is rushing me to get everything done now. I have always felt this pressure, always known I had goals that simply had to be met. Yet a part of me has always fallen short, struggling art the final hurdle not to succumb to the sheer number of choices my privileged life awards me.

I am currently twenty-seven years old, on the precipice of a new phase of life with both my career and my writing. Currently, it feels as though every decision matters much more than it did in my early twenties. Time, precious time, seems to be running out. The stopwatch that is my biological clock is rushing me to get everything done now. I have always felt this pressure, always known I had goals that simply had to be met. Yet a part of me has always fallen short, struggling art the final hurdle not to succumb to the sheer number of choices my privileged life awards me.

Last year, everything changed for me: I was diagnosed with ADHD (combined type). Being twenty-six felt late in life until I realised that by many adults, that was considered young. My mother has said to me, time and time again, that I am so lucky not to have made any mistakes yet.

Here’s what I’ve realised over the last year; she’s right. I am lucky. I am lucky every morning when I take medication that is perfectly tailored to me by a local free-of-charge ADHD Mental Health Unit. I am lucky every day when I now sit down to complete my morning tasks and know I will do them.

This is your call, your signal, if you are an adult feeling overwhelmed by the world, know that it doesn’t have to be like that. Life is not meant to be this difficult. This is my first update of ADHD, but certainly not my last.

Written: August 2021