Dr. Alex George

It's an attempt to be accepted, to be allowed in, I guess.

But I think that's a great cost.

It's much better to be accepted for who you are than who you pretend to be.

And as I got older, I realized that some of the things I used to hide a lot, my sensitivity, rejection sensitivity, which we spoke about last time, being by far, I think, the worst part of ADHD for me personally.

And my sensitivity has become a great strength.

It does cause me still pain.

But I also appreciate that I don't think I could do what I do and have the empathy that I have in this space if it wasn't for my sensitivity.

Like, how could I have been the doctor that I was?

How could I care about what I care about now if you remove that?

So the odd thing is, the thing I saw as my greatest weakness growing up has now become my greatest strength.

And I genuinely believe that.

So when I was younger, if you said, what's the worst thing that you hate about yourself?

I'd have said how sensitive I am.

Absolutely, I would have sat there all throughout my childhood.

And then being tall, actually.

My second hated thing was being tall.

Both of those things I kind of like now.

I like being tall.

It causes so much...

um turbulence and arguments even like with people around you because often um when you feel criticism criticized you can feel very defensive and i go well hang on why am i getting attacked and that often can you know something that's said very innocuously might turn into something big i think in relationships that's always been challenging um you know romantic as well as friendships as well as professional relationships um you know it's almost like a perceived like threat is coming like this is a threat um