ADHD Appreciation?

As you know, ADHD Awareness is the effort to share information about ADHD with the public as a way to counter the stigma and misinformation surrounding ADHD. Knowledge is power, and we hope that sharing information will empower the people in our lives affected by ADHD.

Remember, though, that knowledge can also empower you. Self-awareness empowers you to be yourself and to contribute to the community in your own way. Some people see “awareness” as superficial knowledge, but “awareness” is actually a synonym for “appreciation.” How many people with ADHD know enough about it to “appreciate” it?

The dictionary defines appreciation as “a full understanding of the meaning and importance of something,” but it also implies a positive opinion, the “recognition and liking of something’s qualities.” It’s hard to imagine the quantity of information I’d need to share with certain people so they’d recognize and like the qualities of ADHD!

A common complaint I hear from people with ADHD is, “I’m tired of struggling to do things other people do easily.” We see people do things, but when we try to do the same thing in the same way, you might find yourself saying, “Actual results may vary.”

One of the most important secrets of successfully living with ADHD that I ever learned was to forget about doing the same things as other people in the same way as other people.

Awareness can become appreciation when you search for opportunities to excel in areas you are unique rather than where you can conform.  Most of us experience ADHD as a constant struggle to fit in. It’s hard to appreciate your differences when, from childhood, you’ve sought acceptance by conforming. But, as we so often discover, winning acceptance because we’re just like everyone else is far less satisfying than being appreciated for our authentic talents.

Undiagnosed until adulthood, I had long struggled to meet people’s expectations, most often hidden behind the complaint, “You’re not living up to your potential.”  I saw my ADHD diagnosis as my chance to finally overcome my symptoms and fit in. Now that I knew what I had, we could fix it and get on with life! I searched high and low for ways to overcome my “weakness,” but fighting my ADHD to do the things other people could, in the way other people did, wasn’t a winning formula. It didn’t work, or, when it did work, I was miserable.

So, could we turn ADHD Awareness into ADHD Appreciation? Well, it’s impossible for other people to accept you if you can’t or won’t accept yourself.

There’s a difference, however, between accepting your ADHD so you can develop ways to cure it, hide it or overcome it, and accepting it as the gift that will allow you to make your unique contribution. This is the difference between awareness and appreciation.

Do you explore new activities and ways of doing things to discover what makes you light up? Or do you consider your ADHD as a hurdle you must surmount?  Do you celebrate your unique strengths and invite others to celebrate with you? Or do you keep trying to do things the same, boring way everyone else does to protect yourself from feeing different?

Everyone appreciates people with something special to contribute, and you have just that.  When you delve into the depths of self-awareness, not in search of problems to overcome but as an exploration of what unique contribution you bring to the table, you’ll see your ADHD in a new light. Hey, you might even learn to appreciate it!