Profound healing can take place when you have ADHD and you defy the odds

When I say you can design your life to live in your strengths and minimise your challenges, this is not some theoretical idea, it’s the way to live well with ADHD.

Over the last two months, I have had the extraordinary pleasure of coaching a woman who is succeeding in doing just this.

Aminah works in a field that takes full advantage of her incredible talent when it comes to divergent thinking – the type of creative thinking associated with coming up with original ideas. And the type of creative thinking that neurotypical people are often pretty crap at and that research shows people with ADHD are often very good at. 

She gets to put her passion for social justice into action and her willingness to challenge the status quo is also perfectly suited to her work, as is her ability to take other people’s perspectives.

Having come from a Middle Eastern background, Aminah’s personal experience of her family’s culture as a second-generation Australian has given her the broad lens required to appreciate the perspective of others. In her broader family context, girls and women were expected to not have opinions, and fulfil very gender-typical roles, including ‘remaining quiet and being well behaved’.

As we’ve worked on strategies to help Aminah manage the day-to-day challenges of ADHD so she can live with more ease, we’ve both been blown away by the profound healing that can take place when you defy all the messaging that told you that you weren’t enough all your life.

In her broader family context, girls and women were expected to not have opinions, and fulfil very gender-typical roles, including ‘remaining quiet and being well behaved’ so having ADHD was tough. Teachers told her she wouldn’t amount to anything and as we know all too well, these kinds of messages are an everyday experience for kids with ADHD. 

The realization that, despite all her struggles, she somehow managed to carve out a life for herself that plays to her strengths, has been exhilarating and it’s been such a beautiful thing to witness! Despite there having been so much pain and struggle, she is realising her dreams, especially now she’s getting support along the way!

It’s so inspiring which is why I wanted to share this story’s possible for each and every one of us to experience all that heartache and still create the life we want. 

Our challenges are very real but they don’t have to define us.

I hope this story inspires you to keep going until you too are living in your strengths. No longer compensating, no longer people pleasing, saying no with ease and being triggered by those old wounds less and less over time. Until real peace of mind is possible.