ADHD: When your brain can't sit still Playing With Marbles

If you’re in certain corners of social media you’ll have seen videos about ADHD. There are ADHD influencers, memes, and endless reels of people telling you That One Personality Trait You Didn’t Know Is Actually Your ADHD.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder really is hard to diagnose. Many symptoms of ADHD are also symptoms of something else, and it often co-occurs with other mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. Studies have shown it’s potentially underdiagnosed, even as awareness rises and the number of diagnoses is going up rapidly.

Kids with ADHD might be labelled “bright, but a distraction in class”, but finding out you have ADHD as an adult can make you reevaluate your whole personality. You’re figuring out which parts are “you”, and which parts are a disorder. And isn’t that disorder also… you?

So what actually is ADHD like? McKenna is here to tell us about her experience of a disorder that can make you believe you are lazy, stupid and disorganised. It’s a brain that is chronically understimulated, and struggles to focus. It can be things that most of us relate to, like losing your keys a lot, but it can also mean your ADHD brain is incredible under pressure. A brain that is usually understimulated can thrive when everything’s happening all at once. ADHD is the inability to control when your brain is going to focus.

This all makes people with ADHD susceptible to burnout, which makes working really difficult, so we’re talking to researchers who know how to manage that, and McKenna is sharing her experience of being productive with a brain that doesn’t always want to be.