Undiagnosed ADHD took away years of my professional life.

I spent over a decade fighting against my brain, trying to make myself fit into job after job. Years of unmet expectations, missed deadlines, and unrealized potential. So, even after I had a family and all the pressure to provide them, I still didn’t have a solid career.

Eventually I came to the realization that I was following what other people had told me I should do and be interested in. As someone with ADHD, I had never sat in one place long enough to explore myself and what I wanted or cared about. It was a difficult journey. It wasn’t until after I turned 40 that I was able to settle down enough to figure myself out.

The years of personal and professional struggle had taken a heavy toll on my confidence, and our finances. Even once I knew what I wanted and the direction I should take, it took time to implement changes. Thankfully, I was able to transition my career into something I enjoyed and leveraged the experience I had picked up along the way. It felt great, and I was good at it. I was riding high, getting recognized for the right reasons for the first time. For two years I was more productive and successful than I had ever been before, and I loved it.

Then I burned out.

At first I thought it was just my ADHD getting bored again, but it was more than that. 20+ years of masking and fighting myself finally caught up with me. I struggled to come up with new ideas, and struggled to execute the few ideas I did have. I was tired, but had trouble sleeping. I lost interest and people could tell. I was terrified. Was it happening again? Was I going to fail, just like I had so many times before? Fortunately, I had great co-workers and managers who saw what was happening, reached out, and gave me space to turn it around.

ADHD can take a lot from us. It can steal energy, focus, direction, time, and even hope. Thankfully, with self-reflection and help from friends and co-workers, that doesn’t have to be the whole story.

I’m glad you’re here at Professionally Neurospicy. I am dedicated to creating a resource and community for neurodivergent people navigating the professional world.