Dr. Kieran Kennedy

And that can cause an incredibly kind of strong emotional reaction in people with ADHD.

So that can also come into play with relationships as well if we're kind of really reading and feeling potential signs and signals a lot.

It might just be that our partner's had a bad day at work and they're actually exhausted.

But for us, them slumping down on the couch...

It might feel like I've done something wrong or they're not happy in the relationship anymore.

They're going to leave me.

So there are so many various ways ADHD can impact our work and relationships.

And self-esteem is a big one too.

I think especially if people grow up as kids feeling like they just couldn't keep up in class or something was different compared to their friends and the other kids in class.

usually what we do as kids unfortunately is we just flip that back in on ourselves and we think well that must be because I'm not smart enough or I'm different or I'm weird so I hear that a lot from people with autism and ADHD diagnoses as a sense of kind of really directing that blame and shame inward and that can really kind of hit self-esteem even later on as adults.

Yeah, I really, really do.

Definitely.

I think, again, shifting away from thinking about autism and ADHD and neurodivergence as being this blanket negative or a defect or a failing, that's where we need to shift away from.

A lot of people with ADHD are incredibly creative.

They're incredibly successful.

Someone who has a touch of hyperactivity might be extremely kind of active and motivated within their career or their personal pursuits or sport.

Someone who has inattentive features of ADHD might struggle with distractibility and focus at times, but they also might be really good at switching between different tasks or have periods where they hyper focus and they can actually just zone into doing something with incredible intensity.

So there are some definite ways that ADHD can be, you know, quote unquote, to use the cheesy term, a bit of a superpower.

And it's not a negative thing.

Yeah, I absolutely think it can be.