About
Hi! I’m Alex*!
*Not my real name
I live in a country and I study a science*.
*Yeah, sorry, no more details than that for now. (I’m a private person! Read: in the unlikely event that any of my professional contacts find this blog I want them to have at least a glimmer of uncertainty about whether I wrote it)
I have ADHD. And not the low-grade presentable kind, where you can mostly get away with saying it’s a blessing in disguise or that it’s really a problem of not being in the right environment for “our kind”. No. I have big bad ugly, severe, embarrassing ADHD.
So, why should you listen to me? Here are my illustrious qualifications:
- PhD student… that’s gotta count for something, right? Please? I kid, I worked my sorry ass off to get here and it was absolutely the best decision for me. But more importantly, for you, my combination of severe ADHD and doing okay-ish professionally (emphasis on the -ish) means that I have a lot of experience with various ADHD treatments and strategies. It also means that, relative to the average human, I can read science papers real good. (I flatter myself that this translates to me getting hoodwinked less often than, say, your average nonscientist.)
- Extensive undergraduate coursework in neurobiology. I tailored this to my interest in ADHD whenever possible.
- Extremely well versed in current medications and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy approaches for ADHD. The ADHD-related CBT strategies are all thanks to an excellent former therapist of mine, and formed the basis of her own PhD work (so they’re, like… not total quackery)
- …actually that might be all of my qualifications. Wow, ok. Shorter list than I’d thought.
Anyways. The reason I’m writing this blog is because I have worked to treat my disorder aggressively and tirelessly. I’m not a scientific or clinical expert in ADHD, and I’m certainly no “guru” of any kind (hate that word, and am highly suspicious of anyone who applies it to themselves), but I have gained a wealth of knowledge because of my never-ending determination to learn, grow, and adapt. I want to share what I know. When I was younger I would’ve killed for someone to fill me in on what I know now. And I hope that reading this helps you.
What I don’t know is you - what you want and need and how your experience of the disorder has been. Different people can have vastly different relationships with ADHD, and I don’t want to make any assumptions about you, how you feel, and what works for you.
My current goal for my writing here is to be thorough, realistic, and very very honest. For me, digesting a lot of text can be difficult, so I’ll try to write in ADHD-friendly ways as much as possible. When I have enough posts, I’ll also add instructions on how to generate a PDF of my posts in chronological order, so you can download them to your tablet or e-reader and highlight the shit out of them if that’s your style.
Anyways, that’s me. Feel free to write a comment to introduce yourself and tell me about you.
Best,
Alex
PS: here’s a list of what the blog will NOT be covering, or for whom this blog might not be appropriate:
- CHILDREN AND ADHD IN CHILDREN. It’s just not something I’m currently interested in. Also, there may be a small amount of cursing throughout these posts. I have no doubt that there exist browser extensions that will block those words, if that’s what you want to do.
- Aspects of ADHD 100% specific to hyperactivity. I can only speak to inattentiveness, and that is my primary interest as well.
- Psychiatric illnesses beyond depression and certain anxiety disorders. I’m in out of my depth there.
Also, I’m a person who is strongly motivated to achieve professionally and I put a premium on personal growth. If that’s not you, some of my posts may fall flat, especially if you’re more of an “I kind of just want to stay how I am” type than a “gotta improve all the time” type. And no judgement, you do you either way and I am 100% rooting for you no matter how far out there your goals are.