ADD/ADHD Recovery Stories

Just like obsessive compulsive disorder is more than just handwashing, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is more than just having difficulty focusing. ADHD is a mental condition that can have a serious impact on both children and adults and it can create situations and patterns where life is affected by impulsivity, disorganization, poor decision-making and difficulty with emotional regulation. ADHD can be particularly challenging to navigate when there are other mental health challenges involved, such as anxiety and depression. It’s not hard to imagine how the symptoms of ADHD can only be exacerbated when a person also is navigating the world with extreme anxiety or major depression. Because of this and other factors, people with ADHD can be at an appreciably greater risk for attempting, and dying, by suicide— in fact, adults with ADHD can be up to five times likelier to attempt suicide than their neurotypical peers.

This is why there is so much talk about “stigma”— it isn’t just a buzzword. The more our authors are out there, talking and writing about their mental health challenges, like ADHD, the more awareness spreads. The more people understand that there are others out there, just like them, who get it, who understand what life is like struggling with impulsivity, with a brain that feels scattered and a body that feels restless all the time, and that there is hope. Coping and management skills can be learned, therapy and medication can be effective, people can develop innovative strategies that work for them to calm their racing minds and organize their thoughts and function in a world that is always demanding and sometimes uncaring or unfeeling. In the words of one of our authors with ADHD, “I now have an opportunity for a new way of seeing the world, and, with an understanding of what I was doing, to be more gentle and compassionate with myself. I know I can’t be perfectionistic without exhausting myself, and that I might, within a neurotypical world, always feel like a square peg. Nowadays I am searching for square holes, and I find I enjoy them.” So go find those square holes in our essays, films, and conversations here at Recovery Diaries. They’re [square] rabbit holes worth going down.