Dr. Alex George

And that is a stark reality and that is an absolute fact.

And so what I want is to be in a situation where people can understand themselves, accept themselves, get the help they need and live

prosperous lives good lives um you know there's so much pain that's happened in my life that could have been avoided the alcohol definitely hugely could be avoided some of the arguments i've had some of the mistakes i've made the impulsive decisions that i've made in my life that have caused a lot of pain all avoidable all of those things didn't have to happen yes you learn from your experiences yes i've grown from them but that doesn't mean we just want people to put a hand in the fire for the

I just kind of like to have had some of these tools when I was younger.

And in many ways, I do believe I was failed.

I do think that I was failed by the system.

The education system failed me.

I was labeled as a naughty kid up until the age of six or seven.

I was told at kind of eight or nine that we need to lower expectations of you.

in front of my parents, and I think I battled the system all the way through.

I was very fortunate to come out and do what I've done, but I am not the norm in that sense.

I read a study literally on the way to recording this podcast with you from Cambridge University saying that they basically had six centers in London

in police stations where they were assessing and screening people who were arrested for ADHD and on half of the people arrested had significant indicators that they have ADHD.

Obviously that's not full assessment, but as a screening.

And I think if you look at the female prison services,

female population in prison around 30 to 40 percent have adhd i think that there's a lot of problems that we see that actually could be prevented if you're at the root cause help people understand who they are and help them you know through life early you know that's really important i think in my mission

actor uh playing this character called normal what do you think the consequences are of somebody masking from a young age self-harm i think masking from a young age is a form of self-harm i truly believe that you cannot um pretend to be someone else or force yourself to be someone else without serious personal consequences um

I think when I had a moment of realization, I always felt different.

And I remember this teacher saying, when you lower expectations for Alex in life, and the context was I've been pulled out of class and put in a separate room, not to have support, just to kind of be sat there out of mainstream classes.

And, you know, I was an intelligent child.