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Ep. 6: "It wasn't just anxiety" (Amy's Story)
335 Plays2 years ago
In this episode we hear from Amy, a social worker student, currently working in a support program at the children’s court and mother of two young boys. She shares her journey to diagnosis, at the age of 38, through resonating with other women’s stories on social media. During her lightbulb moment, she thought to herself “Oh my god, I’m am like text book ADHD.” Having struggled with anxiety and insomnia since primary school, Amy was often described by others as a lazy, forgetful, day dreamer, who doesn’t apply herself. She recalls thinking “it’s weird because I don’t feel lazy but I guess I am, and I thought I was academic, but I guess I’m just not smart.”
A heartbreaking and familiar story that Amy tries not to think about too deeply. Since diagnosis and treatment she says “It’s so validating now- I can produce consistent and amazing work. And I I know that I’m not lazy”. She now understands that much of her anxiety was sensory overwhelm.
Amy candidly talks about her oversharing, passionate hyper fixation, the highs and the lows. When her hyper fixation loses its excitement, she would simply set it aside, whenever this happened “I thought I was a weirdo and a joke of a human”.
Amy’s story is familiar, honest, raw and engaging.
If you'd like to share your story you can email me or visit Awaken ADHD and follow me Instagram.
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Transcript
Introduction to Awaken ADHD Podcast
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.
Meet the Host: Jade, Counsellor and ADHD Coach
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm a counsellor, ADHD coach and fellow ADHD-er. So join me as we Awaken ADHD.
00:00:33
Speaker
This podcast is recorded on the land of the Boonwurrung 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.
Guest Introduction: Amy's Background and Role
00:00:53
Speaker
Alrighty, welcome back. I'm here with Amy. Amy is a 39 year old mum of two boys.
00:01:00
Speaker
a five-year-old and a two-year-old. And her partner is Jane. She's been with him for 10 years. She works in the court services of Victoria for 13 years, initially in drug and alcohol case manager for people on a bail restorative justice program. And now she's at the Children's Court managing a wonderful support service and program there. And she really enjoys this space of trauma-informed care with people in the justice system.
00:01:28
Speaker
She says it's her jam. She's currently completing her social work degree and her ADHD hyper-fixation drive is part of that. So welcome, Amy. That's a lot happening for you.
Amy's ADHD Journey: Recognition and Diagnosis
00:01:45
Speaker
Yes, of course. Is there any other way? No, it's all or nothing, right? Correct. Yes. So that sounds like an interesting role to try and juggle with, you know, family life.
00:01:57
Speaker
Yes, well, as you are probably the same, it is, you know, I need to be doing 25 things at once. I started studying before I was aware of any ADHD diagnosis or anything about any of it and what it meant.
00:02:16
Speaker
But I realize now in hindsight, it absolutely was a hyper fixation. I just said, I'm doing this right now. It's happening. Took on way more than I should have. You know, I'm working and I have children. I should have been doing part time. And I tried. I said, don't do it, Amy. Don't do one more. You know, don't do another subject then you can handle. Don't do it. You will regret it. And of course I did it. And then you did it.
00:02:40
Speaker
She did. Well done. And then there's the stress and just the cramming last minute. And it's all I've ever known. I don't plan things. I think about them. They're in my head. I never sit down and take the however long, six weeks, eight weeks that you get for an assessment. I do it a week. Last minute. I sort of maybe start the cover page a week before. And then I do about the night before.
00:03:09
Speaker
Dive right in. Great. All right. Do you want to share a little bit about when you you said you started the degree and you didn't know, share a little bit about when you kind of awakened ADHD in yourself? Yeah, I think it's going to be very similar to a lot of women. You know, I'll focus on women and my experience of late. It was social media that that awakened it to me. So I knew I had well, I didn't know I have
00:03:38
Speaker
anxiety. I've had it my whole life, symptoms of anxiety. I've had all these symptoms which I just constantly related back to anxiety and I never really process it too much. I just said, oh anxiety, it's the luck of the drawer or the bad luck of the drawer who gets it.
00:03:56
Speaker
and I've had it since I was in primary school and insomnia and everything else. So anxiety has always been with me and then sort of just from social media and it's starting to become ADHD and women starting to be all over media, social media, even the radio and everything else and you know I'd be listening to it and obviously I'm right in that age group. I would have been 38 and you know turning
00:04:19
Speaker
39 and where it's all coming out and you know I have followed a few people on Instagram and they're very you know similar to me so they're quite outgoing, confident, creative and whatever else and they started talking about their diagnosis or their journey to it. Everything they're saying is like oh okay that's oh that's me that oh I take that I did that and I was like oh my
00:04:46
Speaker
got like little light bulb. Oh, yeah, major light bulb. I was like, Oh my god, I am like textbook. I had the childhood of, you know, she's just like, she's lazy. She's forgetful. She doesn't apply herself completely under the radar at all times. I was, you know, below an average student when I'm, I'm, I'm not I'm, I'm
00:05:13
Speaker
It didn't really make sense. I knew that I was intelligent, maybe, maybe slightly above average. I knew that I was academic. And when I produced that work, you know, that it'd be only one or two things, not it wasn't consistent across the board and only be occasionally it'd be one thing that I could focus and produce this amazing work.
School Challenges with ADHD
00:05:33
Speaker
Right, so you could kind of hyperfixate on one thing, do really well at that, but then other things you just didn't tend to it and get to or weren't interesting, so you didn't do them. You know, I try so hard to like study or be this thing that people expected me to be given my kind of qualities. Like my head would just start to drift off somewhere else constantly. I would try and read
00:05:59
Speaker
a paragraph in a, in a psych book that I would gen, you know, genuinely be interested in. And I just tried, I remember it. And I remember thinking, I can only do one thing, so I'm just going to focus on psychology. And everything else is just going to have to, I'll just wing it in exams and stuff or wing assessments. And I just, you know, kind of either went under the radar or I have good, just general, good sort of grammatical skills and able to basically fake it until I made it.
00:06:26
Speaker
Fake it until you make it. Right. So when you were in your earlier years, you were kind of that if only she tried more, if only she paid attention sort of kid. Oh, yeah. No, she has potential. Lazy daydreamer has so much potential, doesn't apply herself. And I was like, oh, okay. It's weird because
00:06:48
Speaker
I don't feel lazy but I guess I am. When I do this stuff I'm really good but I don't really want it to do it all the time and then this is distracting me and this is distracting me and I guess I'm just not smart so I'm not going to be able to go to uni. It's too stressful and I can't handle stress like other people. Clearly other people can handle stress. My peers can handle stress and are going to uni and doing all these, doing assessments and putting them on time and reading them and understanding them and I was like
00:07:17
Speaker
wow, I always thought I'd be an academic, but I guess I'm not. That piece where you said, oh, I didn't feel lazy, but I guess I am. Yeah. And if they say, like, I thought I was smart, I guess I'm actually not. Correct. God, isn't that heartbreaking?
Impact of Diagnosis: Self-Kindness and Understanding
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah. Like to reflect back on? Yeah, I don't allow myself to reflect too much on it because I haven't allowed myself at all. I'm definitely suppressing those thoughts. It's validating now because I'm like, ah, I am.
00:07:46
Speaker
intelligent, I can produce this amazing work. I'm producing really consistent, good work in this social work degree. And I'm not lazy, and I never have been lazy. And I never was, I just appeared outwardly lazy because I'd be daydreaming, dragging my feet,
00:08:07
Speaker
I hated going like mall shopping like all my friends would or my mum would to buy me a dress. It was a nightmare. It was like the minute I would step in the doors, I'd feel fatigued. I know now it's sensory overload, overstimulated. I can't stand. I can't stand being around people. I just needed headphones and probably sunglasses and all that kind of stuff. Decisions. Mum's like, what about this? What about this? I'm like, oh, I don't know. Just that one. I don't care. I don't care. You know, and that was all Amy, you know.
00:08:36
Speaker
you're being difficult or yeah because I'd be dragging my feet come on you know don't be lazy not to put anything on my parents are amazing it's just funny so all that resonated it was just like oh and that was the moment that awakened you know a lot of that stuff I was just ticking and then I realized through my sorry this is what I do ADHD so throughout my life I was like oh my god like
00:08:59
Speaker
I'm so impulsive.
ADHD Challenges: Impulsivity and Hyper-fixation
00:09:02
Speaker
I'm such an over-sharer. I interrupt people and I thought I was none of those things. I thought I would just get, I thought it was all anxiety, just manic and then down. But, you know, everything's so much clearer now when I get hyper-fixated on things and it's my entire life's purpose to do whatever this thing is. And then I'm literally after however long it is. I'm like, nah, I don't care.
00:09:26
Speaker
I was like, it's my life purpose for now. Yes. I feel every rage in my body if it's a social justice thing or fighting for a local park or fighting for something. And I'm like, this is everything. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to meet this person. I do all this stuff. And then it's literally I just don't care anymore. Isn't that interesting, though? What did you used to think about that part of you?
00:09:55
Speaker
Oh, that I was a complete weirdo and that I was a joke of a human. Are you actually genuinely interested in it? Yeah. I'm a flake. I'm a flake. I don't know what I'm going to be, who I am. I'm weird. I'm weird. It was a big one. I'm just very, very weird and strange.
00:10:18
Speaker
Feeling weird and strange for, you know, you're saying your diagnosis wasn't until you were like 38, 39. How did that affect you through your life? I guess I felt unable to sort of where I was going to fit in in life.
00:10:36
Speaker
I was unsure. I guess because of my ADHD, I've always been confident and had fun and being bubbly. So I've had a lot of friends, a lot of loving friends and, you know, good supports and good adventures and things kind of would just keep it internal. Like lots of insecurity, lots of imposter syndrome. I don't really have any of that stuff now that I understand what I have.
00:11:02
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, a lot less. I'm a lot more, I guess just feeling weird was just like, I'm just weird and I would keep it inside myself and keep it internal. I would overshare a little bit, probably choose a couple of safe people that I would be my true, really weird self. Yeah. So yeah, I haven't really thought about how it affected me thinking that I, yeah.
00:11:28
Speaker
It's interesting there. One of my questions was, you know, how has the diagnosis made a difference? And just hearing you say, that no longer affects me in that way. That sounds like that's one of the differences it's made in your life. I know what it is.
The Role of Medication in Managing ADHD
00:11:45
Speaker
I know why I'm like this. I understand it better and also medication now, especially with work, has helped a lot. I understand why I'm like I am, why I have felt I'm honestly just very weird the way I think and do things. The flakiness, which is really hyper-fixation and sort of giving up quickly on things and not being able to handle stress. I know what that all is now.
00:12:14
Speaker
and then the related anxiety and stuff. But I guess just knowing it and understanding those symptoms and understanding how my attention is not great and so really trying to be mindful of that. And I kind of am aware, I'm just more mindful of me oversharing. I'm like, that's a part of my kind of neurodivergent brain. And I'll say, I'll either say,
00:12:40
Speaker
I won't ever share that. And people are, I'm almost like relieved. I'll stop myself. Did some medication for you make an impact there? I've heard people say, you know, now when I, you know, had the medication, the difference is that when I'm in a social setting, all the stories are still inside me, but I don't necessarily have the impulse to share them as much. I can, I cannot share.
00:13:06
Speaker
I use them mainly for work. So it focuses me and calms me. So I guess as a result of all that, I wouldn't take them if I was just going out with my girlfriends for lunch or in a social setting. So to be honest, I haven't really
00:13:22
Speaker
tried them out from that perspective. From a sort of study and work perspective, they've been phenomenal. I can now, which blows my mind, and again, it makes me amazed that I've gotten this far in life. I can read an email from beginning to end now.
00:13:42
Speaker
Can we just pause there? This is huge, right? And this is what people don't understand, right? I can read an email from start to finish. I can open the mail when it comes in from the letterbox. And then I can action it.
00:14:00
Speaker
Action it. What tasks do the task? The email thing blows my mind to open an email and read it from the start to finish, whereas and read it and take it in and either action it or whatever.
00:14:18
Speaker
And before it is like, oh, OK, open it, go straight to the bottom. Wait, no, skim it, close it. I'll deal with that another time. Wait, what was that? I'll go into it. OK, I'll read it. I'll read from the bottom paragraph. That doesn't make sense. I'll go back again. Open it again. I didn't know other people read it in different orders like I do.
00:14:40
Speaker
Never. Never from A to B. Never. So back and then I'd be like that and then I'd go up and I'd be like, hang on, skim, skim, skim, skim, a few words. Okay, shut it again. And so it's never ordered, isn't it? It's like it's poison. It's like, get away from me.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's like hot potatoes. Yeah, I'm just like shut that down. Oh, wow. There's this wonderful guy at work who shares data and stuff and it's like all these colors and pie graphs and I cannot look at it. It's like all this different order and I'm just like, I'm not getting anything. I can't, but well done. Yeah, it's not making sense to me and it hurts me to look at.
00:15:20
Speaker
It's like every time I speak to another neurodivergent individual, I have another moment of going, you too? Oh my goodness. I didn't know somebody else read their emails with such chaotic emails are poison. And then I do the thing you might do this too is because I'm not ever, I mean, now with meds I am, but this I'm 39. I've only had meds for a year, not even, I don't know when they started.
00:15:46
Speaker
But I never read anything properly, ever. So I would never have the correct information when I was going to a meeting or given instructions or even a social thing. My own child's birthday party. I'm laughing. She can see me laughing with recognition.
00:16:07
Speaker
We had a joint one with my lovely friend and she said, why don't we do it at this place? I said, great. You know, the less I do, the better. It has this jumping house was great. I think I said, we'll do our own cakes. I'll get the balloons. And when you get the invoice, we'll just have it. Great. Glanced at the invitation because I don't take any information in. I need a date. I think I need a time. And I've done this in the last six months twice.
00:16:34
Speaker
I have made up the address. I have made it up. So she told me one thing several times, clearly, and it was on the invitation. And I took myself off to a completely with my children for my own son's birthday party with the balloons to another building that was completely empty. And then I said, as I was driving in and my husband deals with me on a daily basis, I was like, wow, there are no cars here, said I
00:17:01
Speaker
I wonder if I've filled in the blanks with my own, so I always fill in the blanks with my own. But here it is right now. You know that you fill in the blanks, that when it does happen, you go, hmm, maybe I've done that thing again or I didn't read it. I will check a time over and over and over again and still make up a different time in my head.
00:17:22
Speaker
I'll go, it's one o'clock, it's one o'clock, it's one o'clock on Wednesday. And now I'll go, it's two o'clock on Tuesday for sure. And I'll swear by it. Yeah. I had, I set up a meeting with this wonderful woman who's a professor who I admire and has like published works.
00:17:42
Speaker
she deigned to meet me and I also just shut up because I didn't have meds before I met her to think about the hysteria that I was presenting but like the manicness you know and I said how about we meet at Burke and Wills at 12 so you're there like that was it you know information gone 12 o'clock Burke and Wills that's a funny way to say meeting at the corner of Burke Street and William Street
00:18:03
Speaker
You just created a story in your head. Wow, like people are different and she's saying Burke and Wills for the corner. And then I get there and I'm like, hmm. And then now that I think about it, Burke and Wills was like blue and linked in the email. I'm like, I don't think anyone says Burke and Wills for the corner of Burke and William Street.
00:18:26
Speaker
And I'm like messaging her and I'm like, I'm at the corner of Birkenwills and she's like, it's a cafe, Birkenwills. I linked it. And I'm like, I'll come and meet you. And she's like, stay there. I'll come and find you. And it's safer. You just stay put. I'll find you. That stuff my entire life. But now it makes sense to you, right?
00:18:47
Speaker
Yes. Now you no longer, oh, I'm just a daft weirdo. And I can back up myself when people or family are like, oh, you know, rolling on. Is it compassion for it now? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're not hard on yourself.
00:19:02
Speaker
No. So when I started on this journey of doggedness to get the diagnosis, which was also a hyperfixation. Back to question one, which I haven't quite finished asking. Thank you for that segue. And when it was taking too long, I also was like, I don't care anymore.
00:19:20
Speaker
But my friend said to me, what would it mean for you to get this diagnosis?
Relief and Understanding Post-Diagnosis
00:19:26
Speaker
And what would you do differently or something? And I said, I would just be kinder to myself because I'm really hard on myself. Really hard. I want everybody listening to just hear that. Yeah. What would I do differently with the diagnosis if the only thing that we do differently is be kind to ourselves? Stop beating ourselves up, change the story.
00:19:48
Speaker
You're so dumb. Why don't you get more organized? Why didn't you read that properly? Why can't you handle these people? Why are you drinking so much and to go out or what, you know, I got goosebumps, you know, just hearing that and feeling that and my own version of it. Yeah. So, you know, I'm 45 and I only got diagnosed a year ago if that. So, you know, living with that story for such a long time, such a relief to be kind to yourself.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah. Now I know why I'm like this and bloody hell, how far have we gotten? I think I messaged someone who had it on Instagram and she said, congratulations, you've done life on hard mode. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes. Life in hard mode. Fighting upstream.
00:20:34
Speaker
fighting against ourselves. Yeah, just a complete battle from early childhood, those symptoms, all the way through school, unable to do uni, and then you're berating yourself and you're weird and you can't sleep and you're hyper fixated on things and you can't stop thinking and you're like, just, it's torture, like just turn your brain off. And there's no treatment, apart from just the meds, like,
00:21:02
Speaker
During the day, great. What's going to help me at night? I am hyperfixating on conversations. I also have a song in my head. I'm also drawing things at my head at the same time. No wonder I'm exhausted and no wonder I appeared lazy as a kid because I was exhausted. This is constant. Every night, I just thought it was weird, but I can write in perfect cursive words backwards.
00:21:29
Speaker
whilst I was doing that or I'm clicking my nails and hearing it, putting it up to my ears to hear it whilst I've got a song whilst I'm doing shapes in my head and whilst I'm having a conversation I'll have to, you know, and I've got all this sensory stuff. Like I can't stop. And that's skill. That's my whole life.
00:21:47
Speaker
That's that internal hyperactivity. That's what people don't see, right? Is this internal? They're like, oh, but you look fine. Yeah, I'm so well presented. I get far in life because of my interpersonal skills, likeable sort of nature, but inside the GP that I saw when I started on the journey to get the diagnosis, she's lovely.
Outdated Perceptions of ADHD
00:22:09
Speaker
We went on the question she asked was something like, are you hyper? Do you move a lot?
00:22:12
Speaker
I'm like, well, now I would say, yeah, my brain is insane. It's constantly moving. But I was like, you know, not really. So she was... And you move on the inside. Yeah. But she even had that outdated understanding of it. You know, can't sit still. You know, there's an element to that. But
00:22:32
Speaker
But it doesn't present that way for everybody. So I'm the combined type. I'm, I'm a mover or recently on holidays and I hadn't had medication. And I said to my husband, look at my leg. It's going again. I forgot what it was like to hold my leg constantly bouncing and how peaceful it's been. Like I've been sitting here still in front of you for, you know,
00:22:59
Speaker
quite a period of time now. I haven't moved. I haven't bumped apart from playing with my pen. That's a lot for, you know. Yes. Yeah. And what peace and calm that would bring my God. Right. And so you've got the, you know, and I've got the internal as well, but it's the same. Your leg is not bouncing on the inside.
00:23:19
Speaker
Makes sense. Yeah, no, exactly. The internal motor. Yeah, so I can be like I am every night, laying down flat in the dark, quiet, and it is loud and noisy and hyper. So sleep is still really hard for you. How do you manage that?
00:23:36
Speaker
Well, it's been my whole life, so sometimes it's really distressing. I try and do mindfulness and, you know, read books before bed and minimise, you know, just keep a good routine. What, you don't just do the death scroll like the rest of us? No, no. I do that most evenings, but not in bed, not before bed, not while I'm in bed. Good. Because it doesn't help. No, I know. So I love my books. I love reading. So I'm quite happy to just read and read and read.
00:24:04
Speaker
He just reading novels? Just novels. Yeah, fiction. Yeah, yeah. Weirdly, I was thinking about that. I was like, Yeah, I can read books though. I certainly read sentences over and over again and have to, you know, stop my mind and go back. And I certainly like I'll read about it.
00:24:19
Speaker
blue cafe, and then I'll start thinking about the time I went to a blue cafe and who I met there and rar out. But then I'll say, stop, bring it back. So that still happens. That still happens. Yeah, I think that's common, especially when you know, an entertaining book we can get caught in because we're pretty good at visualizing the story and getting caught in it. So reading for pleasure. Yes, reading for pleasure is great.
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah. If I sit down to read a psychology book, no matter how fascinated I am, I found the only way I can do it is audio and I need to be moving my body at the same time. So now it's all, all my books are now on Audible, which I miss having all the beautiful psychology books. But if I can move and taken the information, which we know, you know, research suggests that, you know, a lot of ADHD is need to move to process.
00:25:09
Speaker
I try and sometimes just reading out loud helps me if I'm reading textbook. A colleague of mine did a Churchill Fellowship on something about infants and young people and child protection system. And I'm really interested in it, but I still have to kind of read it out loud to absorb it, to properly absorb it. And it's the only way. And I'll go back and I'll go back to the start of the sentence and I'll go back and I'll go back and then I'll keep reading out loud.
00:25:37
Speaker
That helps. That helps. That's a great tip. You know, when I was doing my ADHD coaching training, one of the things that they mentioned is, you know, when you walk around and you're not sure what you've done, maybe it's taking your medication or putting something in a drawer or saying it out loud as you do it. Oh, OK. Yeah, that's a good idea.
00:26:02
Speaker
plants are there. I'm taking my medication now. Which is the same as what you're doing when you're reading your book, right? You're being present to it. It's mindfulness for ADHD, right? Saying it out loud. I am putting my husband's watch in the third drawer. So when he says, did you see my watch? No. No, I've never seen it. Never touched it ever in my life. Why is it in the third drawer? No idea.
00:26:33
Speaker
No, it made so much sense. It made so much sense and I told myself I would remember it until the rest of time and then I immediately forgot it. Because we put things in special places as well. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, the special places of things and then never see them again. But I'm like, I know it's in a good special place.
00:26:57
Speaker
It is safe from us ever moving it again. But I have found that the saying things out loud.
Strategies for Managing ADHD
00:27:05
Speaker
I am doing this right now. Yes. Actually, I can go. Oh, yeah, I did do that. I remember doing it. I remember saying it. Yeah. I think that would really help, especially with my medication at night. I am taking my medication because I have other meds medication now. OK. Yeah, I can do that. Beautiful.
00:27:26
Speaker
All righty, so I think even though I haven't asked any questions, I feel like we got through all the questions. Look at that. Magic. It just happened. I'm not surprised. We went on that journey. How did it show up? How has it made a difference? How do you relate to it? How has it helped and hindered strengths and struggles? I'm like, yeah. Yeah, we probably covered all that stuff. I mean, that's pretty standard for an ADHD-er as well, isn't it?
00:27:53
Speaker
the free flow that kind of covers everything and then connects to this and this and that's why I got that and you know, it's I'm not surprised at all.
00:28:01
Speaker
The one little piece I want to, I want to ask is I heard that you were saying the journey to diagnosis. There was a point where you're like, meh, I'm going to give up this too hard. What was, what was it actually like? Was it hard? Were you on lots of wait lists? Did you know? It was, um, it was a psychiatrist that diagnosed me, but, um, he has really good experience in it and he's seen me twice now. And I wasn't like, it's too hard. I was just like, it just got over at the fixation. I was just like, eh, whatever. I know I've got it.
00:28:31
Speaker
But my GP was amazing. She actually said, no, we're not going to give up. So she tried one referral. Yeah, there was wait lists. One referral said, we can't even see you. Like, just come back next year. And then she tried another one. Because that's when I started to be like, what am I doing?
00:28:51
Speaker
And then they actually had a really short wait list I booked in with them and it went really well. So that's my GP was awesome. She was really, really awesome and positive and
00:29:06
Speaker
That's fabulous. What I love about that is the first thing you said is when I said, how did you awaken to
Raising ADHD Awareness Through Social Media
00:29:14
Speaker
it? You said social media. And what I'm, and of course that's fabulous, right? Because it is becoming out, you know, more prominent and we're spreading the word and we're sharing this new information. People's lives are being changed because of it. What I'm hearing a lot out there is I went to my GP and my GP said, TikTok trend, hey?
00:29:35
Speaker
Just jumping on the bandwagon, which is so damaging. One of my young clients, just an early teen, had that from the GP. Lucky her parent is a very strong advocate and didn't tolerate that.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yes. Well, so what? If it was social media. If it's social media that says, here are the symptoms for diabetes or breast cancer, then you're like, oh. Which I'm also paying attention to. Actually, I have those symptoms. Maybe I have breast cancer. Oh, actually you do.
00:30:10
Speaker
We need awareness. That's what campaigns are for. And if social media is a platform for sharing, especially when the diagnostic lens is still skewed to that naughty, bouncy little boy, if we've got social media showing real life examples that are relevant to us, then that's awesome. As you said, they're skewed to that outdated kind of
00:30:36
Speaker
naughty little boy thing. And that's a comment on the medical system. You know, if we're not getting it from them, we have to get it from somewhere. And we're going to get it from a really positive group of women on social media who are doing it all before us so we can go on and, you know, do it easier. And it's fabulous. Do you feel like you have a bit more of a radar for it now? Do you meet people? I see you. You're shiny and sparkly and definitely.
00:31:04
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I work with another woman. I'm like, oh, you've got ADHD. And she's like, oh, no, I'm not going to get tested because I need I need all this. I need all this to do a do a job, that kind of manic energy. And you're doing so many things at once. And she, you know, she doesn't want to. But there's a there's a fondness when somebody is like, oh,
00:31:24
Speaker
I like you. I know why I like you now. Yeah, I mean, that's so true that being attracted to people like that. Like, I always liked taken from afar because she's quotation marks, you don't see different, left a center. She was intelligent and bubbly and interesting and confident and different and not like the cookie cutter.
00:31:45
Speaker
beige that a lot of other people are and then when we connected and things resonated over my experience and hers and now she's probably one of the only people that I can be my full nd self and we can just say the stupidest things or just go off and we won't I said we never apologize to each other we don't ever
00:32:12
Speaker
second guess afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. Like she said recently, oh, you know, I started to think you don't like me anymore. That, you know, that, yep, that's silly. You know, that kind of stuff. We don't do that with each other. We know. And fabulous. I had to cancel, you know, catch up with her recently. I said, I'm not going to mask with you. I'm just going to tell you I'm not in a good place. And I just don't have the energy to even just sit next to you in silence, let alone, you know, anything else. Whereas someone else, I would have said I was sick.
00:32:51
Speaker
Yes. Is there anything else you want to share before we
Embracing Neurodivergence: Amy's Story
00:32:54
Speaker
finish up? Let's just say, yeah, neurospicy is the most fun, isn't it? It is. You know what? Just as you said that and you came closer and I saw your earrings, you said, let's just, yeah. Then I'm like, her earrings are these awesome big silver circles that say
00:33:06
Speaker
And you're not going to mask that. I love that. And I borrow now her neurospicy.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, nah. The other one says nah. Yeah, nah. Classic Australian. Yeah, nah. I'll just leave it with that. It has been an absolute pleasure meeting you and speaking with you and I really appreciate you sharing your time and I hope you have a lovely evening. I will. Thank you. It was lovely to meet you and it was lovely to chat. It was fantastic. Thank you.
00:33:41
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.