As I write this, there is talk of COVID vaccines and this whole thing ending at some point. Despite pulling my daughter out of preschool the previous day due to the dreaded winter spike, I had a pretty boring therapy call and – today as I’m writing this – it seems like I’m doing okay.
Not the most familiar feeling, but it happens every now and then. Anyone who’s been diagnosed with ADHD for any extended period of time knows it’s no small thing just to be okay. I remember first getting diagnosed in my mid-30s. Within a year I had gone “from striving to thriving” and I really did think I had it all figured out. But that was but a snapshot and nowhere near the full story.
People die.
People get laid off.
Global pandemics happen.
Global financial crises happen.
If you’re an ADHD person who menstruates, someday you’ll hit menopause.
And when that happens, it may not matter that you’ve hacked all the things™: you’re going to need more than just hacks.
This post isn’t meant to be a cautionary tale, nor (obviously) is it a motivational piece. But something I learned while on lockdown is that more important than hacking, more critical than shoehorning yourself into a neurotypical world is to learn how to live with yourself. And it hasn’t been more clear than now that this body we live in is all we got. It’s time to stop hating it, and that includes our minds.
To that end, The Adulting With ADHD Podcast is taking a significant turn starting next week. While I have dabbled with the topic of hormones and ADHD, I am going all in indefinitely. From patient stories to expert interviews, we’re going to get real familiar with our hormones as they relate to our mental health. We’re going to ask the hard questions. We’re going to dig deeper.
Why hormones? Aside from the information gap and the undeniable hunger for knowledge out there, hormones are one of the basic building blocks of what makes us … us. There is something so fundamental to estrogen’s role in our lives (among other hormones), from puberty to post-menopause. That’s a long time to be living in the dark with the hormonal impacts of ADHD (and other aspects of our mental health) and it’s time we talk about it more.
Subscribe now to The Adulting With ADHD Podcast to receive ongoing interviews with ADHD patients and mental health experts on this topic. I’m also going to need help. If you would like to support this cause, please consider visiting my Patreon page, where you will find a tip jar, podcast archives (including a lot of hacking episodes) and more. Another (free) way to support my work is to share my podcast and leave a review. Your support ensures that I can continue to produce content on such a critical issue that’s not talked about enough.
