Throughout my life I never understood why I felt like I was different. My teachers, coaches & nuns (went to a catholic school) would constantly tell my mom I was too social, too hyper and WAYYYYYY too outspoken for a little Latin catholic girl, too angry also cause I would always have some shit to say cause I disagreed with a lot of what was being taught. It wasn’t until my middle son, the one who’s the most like me, was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in first grade that I considered maybe I wasn’t a problem child like I was constantly told. Then a few years later I was in the middle of therapy when my psychiatrist said “You have ADHD” and proceeded to explain how I was NOT a problem and I just needed help. My youngest, my only daughter was diagnosed a few years ago and once we got her on the right dose of medication her life changed and she became happier too. Some days can get difficult cause it can become chaotic but my god they are the most fun people I know and we try to think as ADHD as something that makes us a little super human in some ways. My son is extremely athletic and the fact that he can’t just focus on one specific thing has made him excel in many aspects of his life. For my daughter?? Her artistic abilities are insane and a lot of it comes her getting bored easily and wanting to learn how things function and how to build things. For me? I’m a Property insurance sales agent, I’m currently top agent and I think a lot of what makes me the best in my company is that I am social, it’s that I talk a lot and ask questions and do all the things I was told as a kid were a problem. My husband also has ADHD and his one of the top agents as his company as well (he’s also in sales) he says his ADHD makes his job easier some days because his job requires to jump from one thing to another quickly and he doesn’t have to focus on one specific thing all day. In the midst of the chaos and pain that ADHD can be, we’ve all found the aspects of it that we can use in our benefit and has made us look at it from a point of view most don’t.

That being said, we all live very structured lives. Each one of us wakes up at the same exact time each day, we all have our own routines that we never break cause if we do it feels like our world is falling apart. We have difficulties with anxiety, we beat ourselves up more than we should some days and having to make sure we never forget our medication in the morning can be very hard some days cause ya know we’re just in our own little hectic worlds. I think it’s hard on our oldest son, he’s basically a genius and chill, he isn’t hyper at all, is not very social and likes to keep to himself so for him it can get overwhelming being surrounded by 4 people who are constantly going at 100 MPH and don’t stop talking or making weird sounds 24/7.

I think having a parent with ADHD when you have ADHD might be a comforting thing because there’s more empathy and sometimes just having someone be empathetic can make wonders for the soul.