Hello! Welcome to my newsletter.

In this newsletter I will be sharing with you how I handle everyday life with ADHD, but without ADHD medication. I will share tips, tools and strategies for you to introduce in to your own life so you too can manage your ADHD holistically.

Reading time: 3m56s

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“Is it a bird? Is it a plane?”… “No, it’s ADHD”

“ADHD is my superpower…” is a sentence you will never hear/read me say. When you have ADHD it is absolutely your personal choice to feel, however you feel about it. You may say “I have ADHD” or you might prefer “I am an ADHDer”, you might even hear some people say “I am ADHD”.

However you want to describe your ADHD is up to you, and that also applies to whether or not you feel your ADHD is your superpower. But I just wanted to share why I absolutely do not think ADHD is my superpower.

Late diagnosis

I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 36. Which meant I spent 36 years of my life undiagnosed, and let me tell you, it was not easy.

I spent most of my life believing that I just wasn’t a very good person, mostly because people told me I wasn’t a very good person. Now I know, and understand, that actually it was mostly just undiagnosed ADHD, it has allowed me to come to terms with it, but I still (on a very regular basis) think about all the things people used to say to me:

• “You’re stupid”

• “You’re lazy”

• “You don’t care”

• “You talk too much”

• “You’re too sensitive”

• “You don’t listening”

• “You’re a bad friend”

• “You never remember anything”

• “You’re overreacting”

It has been estimated that by age 12, children who have ADHD receive 20,000 more negative messages from parents, teachers, and other adults than their friends and siblings who do not have ADHD 😱😱🤯🤯

I was bullied throughout primary and high school, from other kids both in my school and actually kids I didn’t even know. When I was in year 7 or 8, my best friend at the time, when I was talking to her about being bullied, simply said to me “But Carly, you’re just so easy to bully”. FML. I had no chance.

I spent around 20 years struggling with depression and anxiety, which both turned out to be due to my undiagnosed ADHD. And I’m now trying to unpick a lifetime of hating myself and trying to learn to love myself.

Benefits of ADHD

Whilst I believe that before my diagnosis ADHD did have an overall negative effect on my life. Now I know why I am the way I am, I have learnt to accept it and I can now see some benefits.

I believe that my ADHD has allowed me to:

• have lots of empathy

• be an excellent problem solver (which I believe led me to be a great developer)

• be able to think outside of the box (also great when working in tech)

• be super creative

• build a high level of resilience (it hasn’t always been fun getting to this point though!)

• have an excellent sense of humour!

• achieve a first class degree, as I was able to hyperfocus my way through uni

• start my own business (although impulsivity and risk taking don’t normally work out for me, on this occasion it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made)

I’m not a superhero

And quite honestly, whilst I do respect others for viewing their ADHD as a superpower, each to their own, it actually really p!sses me off when people suggest it to me.

Yes, there has been some benefits due to my ADHD brain, but any benefits have definitely been drowned out by all the sh!t and hard times I have had to go through.

If I was going to have superpowers, why the F would I choose ADHD when I could fly or be invisible 🤣🤣

The four pillars

Over the last year or so I have been able to learn how to manage my ADHD holistically. The changes I have made have not only allowed me to stop my ADHD medication (which actually made my depression and anxiety worse!), they’ve actually allowed me to start making some real progress with learning to love myself.

I’ve turned what I learnt into a coaching framework with four key pillars, which are:

❄️ Cold water exposure

🧘🏼‍♀️ Meditation

🥑 Diet

🌿 Lifestyle

No, ADHD is not my superpower, but I do feel pretty powerful for taking control of my life, my ADHD and my future.

🧡🧡

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I have created a coaching framework that allows you to manage your ADHD, instead of your ADHD managing you, using holistic tools and strategies.

I currently have a couple of spots available for coaching. If you would like to have a FREE discovery call to find out what my coaching could do for you, please follow this link to apply: https://app.youform.com/forms/ccaga68h

Carly x