adhdteacherthings:

adventuresinadulting:

adhdteacherthings:

A really weird side effect of being diagnosed late in life with ADHD is the mental disconnection between life before and after diagnosis. I have to keep telling myself that when I got in trouble for talking and fidgeting all through school, I had ADHD. When I procrastinated and forgot my homework, I had ADHD. When I spiraled after someone got mad at me or criticized me, I had ADHD.

I’ve gotten into the bad habit of thinking “oh, before I had ADHD…” but no, I’ve literally always had it and I will continue to always have it.

This. This is so hard. I like to think of it as “before I knew” and “once I found out”. Being diagnosed as an adult makes it super interesting, especially as a teacher, to analyze my experiences.

For example, I’ve developed such strong coping mechanisms and stabilizing strategies that I’m blown away when other people don’t have these. Like, a collegue will say something along the lines of “I can’t do this, there are too many parts, I’m overwhelmed” and I’ll be like, “hey friend, check out this thing I do that helps me be like the rest of y’all”. It will blow their mind. They don’t have this crate of career camouflage, these “things to do so they don’t find out I’m defective”. So, in a way, I’m better equipped for some stuff. I’ve failed and struggled and failed again. I’ve developed tricks and ways to con myself into doing what I have to do. Now, my ADHD is my super power.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk. Hahaha.

I’m developing a presentation for next year’s teachers convention about being a teacher with adhd and my experiences being undiagnosed, diagnosed and medicated, and diagnosed and unmedicated.

#ADHDteachersquad