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Bowl Leader
Everything always takes me so long to do :/
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You're not a mistake. You have strengths and weaknesses like anyone (yours just happen to fit a pattern that has a name) and need to find ways to lean into strengths and work around weaknesses, like anyone.
I think we're all built to live in communities and have constant interaction, and in that environment, people with these traits are getting constant inputs and information, and things like pattern recognition become so valuable. But as society gets bigger, our worlds get smaller, and it maybe it hits us harder - we're sort of adrift. Things like WFH felt great at first, but I've gone back to the office and found it helps.
Rising Star
The only real mistake we make is trying to go through life like a Neurotypical and expecting the same results. It’s like trying to put out a grease fire with water. “Just get organized, just use a planner, just get a routine, just do your homework, just stop procrastinating” etc.
An old mentor used to tell me: if you judge “who’s the best animal” by its ability to climb a tree, you’re going to think a fish is bad. Don’t judge the fish by its climbing abilities. It may not be any good at that, but the world is 70% water… just swim.
We cannot do things the same way NT’s do, but we can get equivalent results taking a different path. And when we leverage our “disability” we can sometimes get extraordinary results with less time and less effort than our NT counterparts.
Maybe the "rise" in ADHD diagnoses isn't a rise at all, but just us seeing more of us who are wired how we are wired falling out of step with what modern life demands and expects. To paraphrase Jimmy Buffet, we're all pirates, born 200 years too late.
I see this with my father, a trial attorney who I now realize had the same ADHD I did. He could grab a file on a Friday and pick a jury on a Monday. He's the trusted family advisor who my cousins and family friends run to when they are jammed up, and he jumps into whatever issue they are dealing with to help them. He figured out a way to harness what we have and make a successful career, but he also struggled like we all do when the emergency is over, when we're back to the day to day management of our lives, our cases, our files.