Dude I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid and I’m still recovering from that diagnosis 30 years later.

What gets diagnosed as ADHD is often someone who is more sensitive, and I mean that in the way a camera can be more sensitive. We pick up on more stimulus and make more connections. It only becomes a disorder when it’s treated as one or when trauma turns it into one, and for someone who is more sensitive, being forced to sit in school for hours a day can be way more brutal than for someone who is less sensitive, at least that was the case for me.

Inagine having short door panels and saying the kid who is 5’11 or above has a disorder.

I was aware of all of my teachers inconsistencies, all the social dynamics going on in the classroom, had beautiful opuses going on in my head, was creating worlds and I could usually guess the answer 3 minutes before the teacher gave it. So I got bored and stopped paying attention. Can you blame me?

Is that a disorder?

It sure became one after a while because I was a freshwater fish in saltwater.

I do think the fast pace of media these days encourages this kind of attention and there are positive and negative sides to it. I think it’s generally a good thing if the kid can learn something like mindfulness and how to be ok in low stimulus environments.

I was a total mess until I realized I had no emotionally mature adults around and decided to find my own way, becoming a drifter and practicing mindfulness. 5 years of that fixed me, but what was broken wasn’t my attention, it was the pain of having to strangle all my gifts and trying to be the adult in a world full of grown children