Additional Info about my journey

 
Prior to diagnosis, my issues with food and physical pain (assumed to be fibromyalgia)  consumed my life.

My pain was atypical, I was patronised, blamed or chucked in the "too hard basket" by the medical industry.   I was persistent in finding answers and determined to continue to do the things I love, learning from my experiences and picking up knowledge or skills along the way. 

I went around in circles and to my surprise landed back on ADHD.  I had been diagnosed for years, however,  in true ADHD style, I kind of forgot, never really truly understanding what it was. It was the flip side of the same coin that I was on and finding treatment was another long and drawn-out process.  

Treatment improved my pain drastically, calmed my nervous system down from the overload, improving the 'signal to noise ratio'.  

I have connected many dots: my neurodivergence is linked to my physical health/chronic pain condition/ mental wellbeing and I believe is the root cause of my historical disordered eating. 

My experience as a student counsellor in a high school led to my experience in this area. I was horrified by the treatment of the neurodivergent, especially the children.  I was discriminated against but to see kids outright being refused external referrals, was heartbreaking. 

Their cases were complex and I simply don't understand how we can allow people to hit rock bottom before offering them help. Doesn't early intervention make way more sense? 

Advocating for the adolescents and myself eventually gave me the strength to "come out", and stop hiding in shame.  

Facing discrimination for the first time and being gaslit, which only made my symptoms worse,  gave me an insight into what others had faced, and how much work there was to be done on changing attitudes and biases,  eventually leading to my decision to focus on this overlooked and misunderstood demographic.

I see so much empathy,  creativity and so many other strengths amongst this demographic, as well as so many similarities in the way we think. The depth of the conversation to be had, it's just next level. 

As the penny dropped,  I began to explore a different part of my neurodivergent identity. 

I hyper focused on my new special interests, learning everything I could about the connection between various traits in autism and ADHD and other physical and mental health concerns. 

I was accepted to do an ADHD training for GPs which elaborated on my knowledge about physical manifestation of neurodivergence and consider the broader medical presentation. I can assess for ADHD using the diagnostic forms and I can work out complexities in presentation. I started noticing patterns, making connections and drawing links and taking my hypothesis to supervision.

I hope at the very least you feel supported and validated, and take full advantage of my very unique skillset and knowledge. A Neurodiversity affirming, trauma-informed, integrative, strengths-based,  person-centred approach that allows for deep inner exploration, self discovery,  self-compassion, and self-acceptance, thereby creating a stronger sense of self and of belonging.