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Ep.5: "The inability to action things in life was crippling" Teagan's ADHD Story)
312 Plays2 years ago
In this lighthearted yet insightful episode, we chat with ‘neuro-spicy’ Teagan, a legal analyst and law student that may or may not learn to play the hurdy-gurdy!
Teagan recalls when she first shared with her psychologist that her inability to action things in life was crippling.
Challenging the ADHD misconceptions, she reflects that she now understands that for her the busyness is not in her body, but in her mind. “Now I’m processing grief for all the things I’ve missed whilst living in my head.”
Teagan feels the relief of now being able to offer compassion to herself and is grateful to the people in her life that support her and accept her neuro-spicy self.
This Awaken ADHD journey is honest, engaging and very relatable.
If you want to share your journey, please reach out via email jade@awawkeninsights.com.au , Awaken ADHD or Instagram.
Credits
Produced and edited by Jade Bonney
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgment
00:00:09
Speaker
You are listening to Awaken ADHD, a podcast where people share their ADHD stories, life before and after diagnosis, support strategies, strengths and challenges. Hi, I'm Jade and I'll be your host. I'm a counselor, ADHD coach and fellow ADHD-er. So join me as we Awaken ADHD.
00:00:34
Speaker
This podcast is recorded on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, and we wish to acknowledge them as traditional owners. We recognise First Peoples of Australia as the original storytellers and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging.
Meet Tegan: Interests and Background
00:00:52
Speaker
I'm here today with Tegan.
00:00:55
Speaker
and awakening to her ADHD, Tegan often jokes that she's no longer unique. Oh, all that special Teganisms were just undiagnosed ADHD. Tegan is a court business analyst, a law student, avid reader, though not uni-related.
00:01:11
Speaker
With current hyper-fixation, I'm wanting to learn tap dancing and the herdy girdy, which I had to Google and I'll get her to explain and mass purchasing of house plans for her fiance to keep alive. Okay. Welcome Tegan. Thank you. Thanks Jade. So the herdy girdy please for our listeners. Oh my gosh. Yes. So my brother who is quite ADHD minded as well, although I'm diagnosed,
00:01:39
Speaker
Well, I went over to his place and he's like, oh, I'm gonna put on Patty Gertie. And I'm like, what's that? And it's this incredible musical instrument. And I grew up playing the violin, but it's a more historical version of the violin where you use a crankshaft type thing. I don't know, but it's cool. And my brother thinks so too, but neither of our partners will allow us to buy one. But one day, one day, it's on my list. The moment you're in researching phase,
00:02:10
Speaker
I message him, I'm like James, $2600 on Etsy, do you want to go Harps? And my fiance says, you've got two violins, potentially you could play those. And I go, oh yeah, they're boring now. No, you could sell them and swap it for your hurdy-gurdy. I mean, I caught both. I just like the word hurdy-gurdy. Isn't it brilliant? It's going to be stuck in my head now for a long time. I just watched The Little Mermaid on the weekend
00:02:38
Speaker
and it stuck in my head. Is it good? I'm so excited to see it. It's good, but the songs are going to be stuck there on a loop, mainly just a few verses of one song over and over again for the next six months. Good times. Yeah, well, we love our brains for that, don't we?
ADHD Diagnosis Journey
00:02:58
Speaker
Alrighty, so let's just kick off with when you first awakened ADHD within yourself. What happened? Well, as you know, it's very, very, very new for me. I have only had a formal diagnosis for three months. And other than that, it was more a couple of years ago when I was speaking with my therapist and I said a phrase that's always stayed with me in that I said the
00:03:28
Speaker
the inability to action things in my life is crippling. Inability to action things is crippling. Yeah. So there were a couple of scenarios, like I've just been house stuff or at the time I was moving and my, my boyfriend was helping me move and I couldn't get to the packing stage. I was like, I don't need to, I'll just chuck everything in the car. And he said, with you not doing this task,
00:03:58
Speaker
you've created a lot of work for the people around you. And he didn't mean it as a criticism, but it was more so when you don't do this, it affects all the people around you that then need to pick up and help you. And it was really poignant because I thought, oh, I had never thought about it that way, the impact on everyone else. And at that time when I spoke to my psychologist and she had suggested, you know, had I ever considered whether or not I
00:04:27
Speaker
fell into the bracket of ADHD and I just thought, absolutely not. ADHD is like, you know, it's young boys in school that are running around that are crazy, that are so busy and busy in their bodies. And then understanding that for me, that busyness is not in my body, but in my mind. Busyness is not in your body, but in your mind. Yeah. But that really resonates with so many women that I speak to.
00:04:55
Speaker
And so many people around them say ADHD, no, you don't have ADHD because nobody can see inside your mind, right? That's right. And for me, when I spoke to my friend and I said, oh, I'm, you know, kind of thinking that I have ADHD. And she said, no. She said, you're one of the most successful, focused, organized, smart, intelligent women I know. You don't have ADHD.
00:05:25
Speaker
I said, but that's not a measure of whether or not I have ADHD or not. No, not at all. But there are those misconceptions, aren't there? Very much so. Yeah. Sorry. No, no, no. Sorry, you go. I was just going to ask what that journey to diagnosis was like for you. It's from when it was suggested to me and my wonderful psychologist said,
00:05:53
Speaker
You don't have to do a lot of research, but maybe when you're on TikTok, look at the experiences that other women with ADHD have, because you might think that that behavior is normal. Well, neurotypical use instead of normal.
00:06:12
Speaker
She said, but you might just resonate with people that have this diagnosis. And in doing that, I, like I said in the introduction, was like, oh, maybe I'm not unique and I do all of these things as well. So it was a lot of fact finding and reading. And I was very lucky in the last couple of years
00:06:35
Speaker
it's certainly become more prominent as I've led into my 30s. And I'm not sure whether I've just unmasked, as we say, or whether I've stopped overcompensating for the things that I haven't been able to do, but definitely embracing it. So are you saying that as you have kind of matured into your later 20s, is that right? Yes, correct.
00:07:04
Speaker
the veil has been dropping. You haven't been trying as hard to cover up things that would be... I think so. I think also I've had people around me that have helped kind of demonstrate to me or have highlighted the things that I've struggled with and not in an unkind way or a way that isn't compassionate
00:07:31
Speaker
Um, but certainly just some highlights on the things that I haven't been doing or things that I do that are maybe a little neurospicy. Neurospicy? Did not miss some of your neurospicy. Yeah, I actually attempted to write a list because as you know, we would forget. Um, I, I recall a couple of years ago when this,
00:07:57
Speaker
when my psychologist talked about this ADHD diagnosis, but prior to me engaging her, I spoke to a doctor and I'm like, I just feel like I zone out and I disassociate and I just freeze in time and I can't hear anything and I don't know what's happening. My partner at the time would poke me and I'd come out of it and I was like, I don't know, is that like a form of epilepsy?
Living with ADHD: Challenges and Realizations
00:08:23
Speaker
Like what's wrong? Is it this?
00:08:26
Speaker
really deep trauma has something happened that I've covered up and now I have this understanding of it's overwhelmed it's overstimulation and that's been so gratifying for me to just go oh I'm just I'm just having some space and coming within myself to just soothe what I need in that moment but it's always very bizarre when it's tires when I was at work potentially or it's
00:08:54
Speaker
pole dancing class and I'm just standing there looking off into a distance with a vacant expression on my face. So that's certainly been something that has outlined my neurospycine. Yeah that's interesting. I was speaking to somebody the other day, another fellow ADHD, and we were kind of talking about the aversion of that but maybe not necessarily overstimulated but maybe
00:09:23
Speaker
engrossed in a thought or one of the billion thoughts that are running through your head and what it reminded me of when I kind of go blank like that.
00:09:31
Speaker
is, have you ever heard of the term a cough ear for dogs? When they're out sniffing and you can be calling your dog and they're two meters away and they just do not hear you at all. Yes. And then you have to go and touch them and then they kind of spin around like, Oh, where'd you come from? And that's what it reminds me of. My husband can be talking to me and I'm not hearing him at all, but I have great supersonic hearing. And then he touches me. Oh, hi.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, and I think for so long, I had no idea what that was. And it's only very new that I do understand that. And I think another thing that's kind of come up for me in understanding ADHD is only when I connected with a friend, a friend who through having our mutual diagnosis, we've become the best
00:10:26
Speaker
of gal pals. And we caught up and she said, oh, I always write. Like I'm always writing with my hands. There's no pen, writing what people say and writing what I hear on the television. And I was like, stop. And I had tears because I was like, I've never known anyone to do that. My dad used to put his hand on my hand to stop me from writing what I was hearing just on the couch and just
00:10:55
Speaker
mimicking that writing. When I was in class once, one of my friends thought I was taking notes and I wasn't. It was just my hand listening and processing, which we know now is like a stim. Yeah, you're moving to process. Yes, I had no idea and this beautiful friend said, I do that too. And I was like, oh, I had never felt more validated, but I didn't know
00:11:24
Speaker
what it meant. I didn't know what my brain was doing. And more often than not, I didn't even know I was doing it. But I remember those times. You just thought you were unique. I just thought it was a taken thing. Yes. And I think the other thing that a few women say on TikTok is that overwhelming shopping centers, the noise, the lights, the variation. And I remember my ex partner saying to me once, why are you manic in the shops?
00:11:52
Speaker
It's like, I don't know what happens, but you get all weird. And I never knew. It's just there's too much going on. And I don't know what to do. Yeah, it's overwhelming. I was recalling the other day that a food court, like I don't like eating in food courts. And now I understand why. Firstly, there's too many people, too many lights, too many sounds and too many choices. And I just get paralyzed and and freeze. And then I walk out hungry.
00:12:23
Speaker
And you walk out with nothing you went in to buy. I think that can go in and be like, I need this and this and this and this and I get none of that. You just come out with a hurdy gurdy instead. All right. Were there more of the things on your list of these neurospicy things? I spoke to my partner this morning and I said, oh,
00:12:48
Speaker
One of the things, and she's like, there's so many, but one of the things that her and my previous partner, Julian, would often joke about, or we would always reflect on, was the petrol situation in the car. Oh, the petrol. How long can we ride on empty? Oh my goodness. It's the worst task. And there was a time when I was in the car with Julian and he said, you're on empty. It's petrol station right here. Gonna get petrol. And I said, no.
00:13:19
Speaker
I don't want to get petrol." He's like, you're on empty. We're right here. We're getting petrol. He said, I don't want to. And it's, and he pulled up and I said, I'm not doing it. And he's like, so we're right here and you won't put petrol in the car. He said, no, you need to leave. And I could never explain that. And it hurt in my body to be told that I had to do this task that I did not want to do.
00:13:47
Speaker
You had to do it and you didn't want to do it and you felt it inside your body. That is something a lot of ADHD has described. I felt that this week with tacks. I'm, of course, really embodied, like very, very painful physically to do it. And it's hard to explain, isn't it? It's so hard to explain. It's so hard to understand what that is. And it's the same when I do get overwhelmed and overstimulated and I shut down.
00:14:18
Speaker
And I just, it's just blank. And I could be discussing a topic that I'm so passionate about. And if someone is that rejection sensitivity, isn't it? If someone goes, oh, and it's not a criticism, but hey, I want to know more about that. Can I probe you on that? They might ask the question on a topic that I'm so passionate about. And I just get overwhelmed and I just go blank because I worry that their response to that is
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, this rejection, this disapproval, this belittlement of my views, which is absolutely not the case. And it's been really hard to reconcile that and have conversations that are impactful and help people understand, but also feel as though you're being criticized when you're absolutely not. I struggle with that. That seems really, really difficult. There's this
00:15:18
Speaker
I can relate to it in the sense that, you know, if I'm in a test or a trivia, I can't recall anything even if it was about my favorite band when it's trivia, because I'm under the pump. But there's this added layer for you about the perceived rejection and even what you're talking about. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. If they're not interested in what you're talking about, then they're rejecting you. Yeah.
00:15:48
Speaker
Rejection sensitivity, which like I said, I've only just been able to put a label to it, has been so gratifying and validating to know, A, it's a thing, B, it's linked to ADHD, because there's so many times that I would, I'm upset or I withdraw just for this perceived rejection that is not reality. It's not reality.
00:16:18
Speaker
but it's very hard to, and just to shut down, just to shut down. It's interesting. Yeah. So going back to that journey to diagnosis, what was that like
The Diagnostic Process and Validation
00:16:35
Speaker
for you? Okay, so we got to a certain point before we went down our other neuro-spicy kind of part. What was the actual process like on shoot?
00:16:46
Speaker
So, like I said, my psychologist brought it up a couple of years ago when we continued to discuss it, but only in a light kind of, oh, have you thought about that a little bit more? When I did a little bit more research, I said, yeah, I do think I align with a lot of that. And she said to me, okay, I'm going to send you a quiz and just see where you go, see what comes up. And it was just a diagnostic tool, nothing formal. And I was like, oh yeah, I was really high in all of that.
00:17:16
Speaker
And we talked about more so, if I had a diagnosis, what would I want out of it? So before even going down that, do I seek a form or diagnosis? But more so, well, would I be interested in medication? Because that always seemed really extreme. And there were some people in my life that certainly didn't agree with that path. And I was like, well, if I don't choose a path that's
00:17:44
Speaker
medication, then what do I do? Where do I go? And which is when I was lucky enough to link him with yourself. And I think it was just a conversation about validation. And then I spoke to a doctor and my beautiful friend who has ADHD, Amy, she was like, this is my doctor. When I didn't get responses, she didn't let me give up. And it's so good. So I was very lucky to have her
00:18:11
Speaker
saw the doctor, got a, well, actually, sorry, I'm going to step back. I saw just a stand did one of those bulk billing GPs and I was like, you've got ADHD. And he said, oh, you don't have ADHD. You can sit still in the chair. And I was like, well, that's where the level of understanding is with some general practitioners. And that's right. I thought, okay. I said, well, this is something I want to pursue.
00:18:42
Speaker
And he had said to me, I think you're doing counseling and that's probably what you need. Keep going with that and then see. And then I was lucky enough that I saw a different doctor and she's like, yep, cool, we'll do a referral and I'll send it off to a psychiatrist. And I was very lucky to get an appointment within maybe four to six months. So I was very lucky.
00:19:11
Speaker
in that timeframe. However, they did try to reschedule and I showed up anyway. So I was like, the more you, if you delay me, I'm just gonna stop. For people with ADHD, we need it then and there. So I want this and I want this now. And I guess having that big gap is the loss of enthusiasm and the loss of drive to do it. And I think that that was really hard to continue to keep up that.
00:19:41
Speaker
So difficult, so difficult. And I know, because I gave up kind of halfway through my journey as well and then was luckily kind of pushed and prodded by.
00:19:53
Speaker
couple of people in my life but it is very hard because we have to advocate and we have to keep checking in and where are we in the triage and making calls and sitting on hold and checking emails and that's all really cool. That you follow up that we don't do that's and then it's out of sight out of mind and you forget about it until something happens and you go oh you really probably do need some help
00:20:20
Speaker
I was very lucky and I had my appointment with a psychiatrist that I believe was supposed to be quite a significant assessment. But within 45 minutes he had said, okay, Tegan, you've waited 32 years. You clearly have ADHD. Let's work on the plan. Really clear. Really clear. And what was that like, that moment for you? I remember that I just felt
00:20:47
Speaker
I kind of inhaled really quickly and I just felt this wash over my body that was scary and it was big but validated. And how else has this diagnosis made a difference in your life? It's nice to just have this understanding that I'm not lazy. It's not that I don't want to do things.
00:21:16
Speaker
I think that's been so hard with this inaction that I've said has been so crippling. And the outwardly expression of how other people perceive us is lazy. You just don't care enough. You just can't be bothered. And now I go, well, actually, I care a lot and I want to do this. But I can't. And I'm not going to continue to try and provide excuses
00:21:47
Speaker
This is the reason. And you know what? That reason has a full stop on the end and I don't need to elaborate anymore. Yeah. That's been. Sounds like it's quite empowering to advocate for yourself. It's challenging. There's still that line historically through our lives being like, when we don't do things, always making excuses. It's kind of towing this line of it's ADHD or am I just lazy and I've made an excuse.
00:22:14
Speaker
I came home after I saw the psychiatrist and they gave me the diagnosis into my partner. And she's like, well, we knew this. This is great. We've got help. We've got a plan. And I said, yeah, but did I just trick him? Am I just that good? Like maybe I just said everything he wanted to hear. And she was like, no. No, I live with you. I know.
Understanding ADHD's Impact on Life
00:22:44
Speaker
How did ADHD show up in your life, maybe in your past or in your family, when you were little? I thought about this today. My mum would reject that I have ADHD and that's fine. But I always think that as a female, and I think this is quite common, is that I strive to overachieve. So I was always a pretty good student because I
00:23:11
Speaker
I never did anything early. Everything was always the last minute, but I did quite well doing the bare minimum. And I think, recall, I put my name forth to be like school captain in year 12, which was typically for people that were quite academically gifted or captain of the sports team. I had none of that. And I have no idea why I put myself in this position. And I think now it really was that
00:23:41
Speaker
Demonstration that I was this person that I actually am not on the inside this organized put together Person that I just my brains chaos, but I never wanted anyone to know I was
00:23:57
Speaker
Right, inside it's all chaotic and so much happening, there's all that action, all that hyperactivity inside, but on the outside you wanted to show, I got this, I'm cool, calm. Cool, collected, calm, successful, you know, thriving for all these great achievements and that's a really relatively new reflection for me.
00:24:25
Speaker
I tried to kind of probe my parents a little bit. I think I've told you once before, my dad used to always say as a child, I would write lists, get up, brush your teeth, wash your hair, put your shoes on, pack your bag. And he said, I just saw something was wrong with you. I was like, bless him. And I was like- That's terrible of you. And it's like, here I am helping, giving myself strategies, knowing that I was potentially forgetting things.
00:24:55
Speaker
But at the same time, I was always reading, I was always growing, I was wanting to do everything. So I can see why my parents have really struggled with this acknowledgement, because I've always been successful and resourceful and intelligent and kind and like empathetic towards people with compassion. So it's, and very successful in my study and my schoolwork, I know
00:25:24
Speaker
It's because I do everything at the last minute and I wait for that hyper fixation. I have an exam on Wednesday this week. I've done nothing. I've done six hours over 12 weeks. I'll do it all on Tuesday. It's either the day before, the day off, and sometimes even the day after knowing I'll get a 5% penalty on assignments. Right. And so what is the cost? I'm really interested in what is the cost of this.
00:25:51
Speaker
extra work you have to do just to put that front on to to wear that mask of always in control always got it sorted. Well it's exhausting and I think coming into the ADHD it's certainly lifted away but I'm always someone who has lived extremely authentically and unapologetically myself. When I reflect on the struggles
00:26:21
Speaker
I feel a lot of sadness and guilt for that taking that always had to kind of hide this and pretend and mask this way. There's a lot of grief. And I think I've said to you before, I wrote it on a post-it note. I recall you saying to me, write a letter to yourself. And when you said that, I was like, oh, that sounds like a terrible idea. So instead I wrote post-it notes that are stuck all over the house. And the first one I write was,
00:26:50
Speaker
processing grief for all the things I've missed living in my head. Wow, processing grief for all the things I've missed for living in my head. Yeah, the good moments, the conversations, the interactions with other people, just always being busy and
00:27:13
Speaker
Look, I'm sure more often than not what's going on in my head might be more interesting than what else is going on. But I could, is nothing going to give people the attention and the time that they deserve to make that effort with me? Reflecting on that has been hard. Yeah, it is quite a grieving process, isn't it? Grieving for all those different versions of ourselves, all those lost opportunities and
00:27:39
Speaker
you know, in relationships and connections like you're describing. What has changed? I hear the kind of unapologetic now. What else has changed for you? I think the biggest change is just the understanding of myself. I don't punish myself so much. And what I mean by that is when I had, for example, an assignment that I hadn't done or an exam and I've done no study,
00:28:08
Speaker
And I would just plan to know that I needed to have a complete meltdown. And I was so hard on myself. So hard on myself and I'll punish myself. Why am I like this? Why do I do this? I should know better. Next trimester it's going to be different. And now I go, well, this is okay.
00:28:32
Speaker
because you'll get your hyperfixation. It's not that you don't want to. You can't change this or at the moment you're not, there's no capacity to change. So let's do what we have right now and not beat ourselves up because you're not lazy, you're wired differently. This self-compassion has been a really big for you. And I think for many people, I would say that that is the most important part of it for them.
00:29:02
Speaker
It's hard to give that to yourself. Well, very hard, especially of the narrative, you know, the childhood narrative for many is lazy, unfocused, you know, so many, so many of those negative stories.
Hyperfixation and Dual Nature of ADHD
00:29:18
Speaker
And I think when I interact with people who have ADHD, ADHD or the community or watch the TikToks or read the blogs or the memes and everything, and there's this big push on
00:29:33
Speaker
having this hyper-fixation of a hobby or moving into a new task. And although I do have those, I had an extremely impactful conversation with my friend Amy who has ADHD. And she talked about that for her, sometimes this hyper-fixation could be
00:29:55
Speaker
on a scene from a movie, on a song, something going on at work and I had this recollection maybe a couple of months ago and we watched this show and it was extremely sad and beautiful and wonderful but it was it was intense and my brain for two days played on repeat this very tragic scene and I
00:30:22
Speaker
think I slept two hours within two days. I couldn't turn it off. It played over and over and over again. I'm trying to rewrite the narrative so I could soothe. And it was there. Every time I closed my eyes, this scene played. And understanding that that is also a hyper-fixation. I had never considered it. It is, for sure. It blows my mind. Every time I'm learning new things,
00:30:52
Speaker
And I can go, okay, I'm not holding onto something. My brain is processing in its own weird, wonderful, beautiful way. And I just got to write it out instead of punishing myself for working so hard to turn it off because we can't. It's got to do its thing. So it's kind of.
00:31:12
Speaker
going with the flow a little bit more and not, yeah, not beating yourself up for it. And, you know, one of the questions I was asked her, what are the strengths and struggles? And, you know, I, it's kind of like you were saying that hyper-fixation is often seen as a strength or a superpower as some people put it, but it also can be a struggle. What else do you relate to in the, you know, the strength for the struggles?
00:31:43
Speaker
I find that the strengths also when we say we hyperfixate on things that we potentially don't want to hyperfixate on. So there's both, right? So my strength is my hyperfixation the day before my study. I'll write three and a half thousand word thesis in eight hours and get a distinction. That's awesome.
00:32:06
Speaker
But then I have the inability to hyperfixate when I want to, or I hyperfixate on things I don't want to. Something I love, and I think it's also part of who I am and my personality, but also the ADHD. And both good and bad in both aspects is the busyness. Like I am always so busy. There is something going on all the time, but it means that I have the most incredible memories of things that I do.
00:32:35
Speaker
I am doing activities, I'm meeting new people, I'm going out, I'm having fun, I'm doing walks, I'm, you know, seeing new places and doing different things because, okay, maybe the negative is I can't sit still, but the positive is I have just so many incredible things that I do in my life and the way that I take up time is pretty cool.
00:32:57
Speaker
It really gets you out and engaging in life, is what I mean. So much. And like, I have an example here that I wrote down is this busyness. It's, again, poor timing. So, for example, during COVID, I was, you know, doing my law degree. I got a promotion, so I had a new job. I was doing some renovations in my apartment. And I thought, you know what? Now's a really good time to become an egg donor in COVID. Why not?
00:33:25
Speaker
It was like, you don't have enough going on. Be busier. Be busier. And the wonderful thing is I gifted Hope to the most incredible family. I completely ran my body into the ground, but I was like, not doing enough. Need to be doing more. From this part of your story. Yeah.
Relationships and Acceptance
00:33:45
Speaker
You and I've talked a lot about just trying to calm those days where maybe I choose one task instead of the 17 I want to do.
00:33:53
Speaker
uh but it means that there are times I can be really productive and that's cool yeah okay so is there any is there anything else you feel like you want to share about your journey or how it showed up for you or I need to acknowledge for me part of my journey was that the diagnosis and having an understanding of my brain did effectively end a relationship that I had
00:34:23
Speaker
My partner at the time who is a phenomenal human being and my best friend now and has done a lot of work on his personal professional development and a lot of research and has always strived to be the best version of himself and wanted to give me the most helpful suggestions for managing time and tasks.
00:34:52
Speaker
in his incredible neurotypical brain. And they never worked for me. And it's been so impactful to know that I don't have to fit into that box. Yep, I'm gonna miss things and I'm gonna forget things and I'm gonna say, someone's gonna say, hey, remember this? Maybe she'll write down. I'm gonna go, no, I remember it. Because I believe I'll remember it. No, no, I'm not gonna remember.
00:35:22
Speaker
but it's been so beautiful to go, thank you for trying to give me the tools that work for you. They don't work for me and that's okay because here are the reasons why. And that's been really, really helpful. And I'm very lucky now, my partner doesn't even try to give me any form of, like she'll help me everywhere I come and she'll go, you have ADHD.
00:35:49
Speaker
just give yourself a break. Don't worry about it. And I'm just like, Oh, you have beautiful. She's organizes everything. I obviously, as you know, because I'm sure you do too, just you put things around the house, that makes sense to you at the time. That make no logical sense. But she'll just go in her beautiful organized brain, go, that doesn't go there. Just move it back to where it should be. So it's, I think it's been really lovely to have people in my life that have
00:36:18
Speaker
tried to help me in all the ways whether or not they've been beneficial or they haven't but to now have this level of acceptance of people around me be like cool we can always try to be better and try to do things better but it's okay. Right I think that's really important. Yeah we can keep trying and you know creating different strategies for ourselves and
00:36:42
Speaker
And, you know, taking medication or whatever it is we do to help with some work arounds. But at the end of the day, there's going to be things that are really hard to shift and around little quirks and and the people around us that love us can embrace them and be kind and non-gentimental about them. You know what? At the end of the day, those things don't matter that I always, you know, lose the kitchen scissors or something, right?
00:37:13
Speaker
We've had four pairs and now we have one and Becca says, do you know what the scissors are? I have no idea. No, I never know. What is it about the scissors? And then they end up in my bedside drawer, in my desk, in the bathroom. I'm like, I have no idea how they got there. And they're just putting random things in bags in a wardrobe. What's that about? I don't know. Makes sense. I will find Christmas presents from three years ago in bags in a wardrobe.
00:37:43
Speaker
along with my favourite beanie. I still can't find my favourite beanie, just saying. It's in a bag somewhere. The medication definitely helps with that stuff at times. Well it's been an absolute pleasure to speak with you today. I really appreciate you sitting on it.
00:38:02
Speaker
And so if you'd love to share your AwakenedHD story, please reach out via AwakenedHD.com.au. I'd really love to hear your story. So thanks again Tegan. Thank you. And until next time.
00:38:25
Speaker
This podcast is not a licensed mental health provider. It represents the personal opinions and experiences of individuals. No content should be taken as professional advice or recommendation.