ROSS

I am 41 years old have had struggles with ADHD all my life, though until this year I didn't know what it was.  I was reading a twitter thread shared by a friend about ADHD and reading it brought tears to my eyes because it described exactly what I had been going through my whole life.
I recently moved to Canada and was formally assessed and diagnosed with ADHD-Combined.  
I'm working on learning all the tricks I can to work with my brain and not against it.   
I draw, write poetry and for my day job I work in IT either as a Developer or in a support roles.  Unsurprisingly I tend to get bored doing one thing for too long, and have left hundreds of unfinished personal software projects in my wake. I'm that restless IT bod always looking for new things and new experiences.  
I don't know what else to say except I'm immensely grateful for ADHD Hive, and the opportunity to do work here that supports others, and incredibly thankful for the Neurodivergent twitter community in general who have accepted me with open arms and allowed me to share my experiences and hear those of others.

GEORGE

Website Guru

What can I say? No, seriously, what can I say? I'm a software engineer, plodding through life with a trail half-finished projects in my wake, and I'd never even thought about ADHD being an explanation until a year or two before my diagnosis. It began as a joke between myself, my ex-wife and our friends who poked fun at my apparent inability to complete projects, my ability to sleep in the middle of parties (hey, when I'm tired, I'm gonna want to sleep), and my animated grandiose plans of completing a master's degree – a feat I have attempted five or six times, but to no avail – but led to serious thought about looking for a diagnosis.

So I went and got tested - and got diagnosed with primarily inattentive type ADHD.

Before my diagnosis, I always tried to act in spite of my undiagnosed challenges. After my diagnosis, however, I became a whole different person. Events that happened in my past have a clearer explanation, and I find myself more understanding of the challenges that I face and able to work with them to be my authentic self.

Since the turn of the year, I've been trying to take a more active role in the ADHD community – both socially and in an advocational sense – which led me to an opportunity to present a talk at Camp ADHD in July where I met the amazing folks who run ADHD Hive.

How cool is that?

MISS ELI

Miss Eli's Classroom

I’m going to begin this ‘About Me’ by telling you about my brother. He is wonderful and intelligent and always seems to naturally get things right. 
So my first experience at school went like this:  
‘If you tried harder, I think you could be as bright as your brother!’  
One day, my art teacher gave me a detention for misbehaving in her class. I cried and explained that I was sorry for ruining her lessons, but I didn’t know why I kept doing it. She listened and cried too. After this, she wrote to my parents saying she believes I have ADHD; I never let that letter arrive home.  
My behaviour wasn’t ideal but I figured, If I don’t try, it’s my choice to be mediocre, right? 
This worked up until my English teacher asked if he could use my book to model a top-grade answer. To this day, I’m not sure if it was a great answer, or just an attempt to build my confidence. Either way, it worked. My teachers would describe me as the ‘most polite troublemaker’.  
I had teachers who believed in me, and I found it easy to fit in. I’d play the part of a popular girl very well in lessons I didn’t care for. Outside of school, I did acting. Strangely, I feel most myself when acting. I can shout, dress-up, sing AND be applauded for it? Yes please. I’m still an actor now, I think I always will be. 
After University, I didn’t know what I wanted to do next until one day, mid-sandwich, 15 mins before Shakespeare class, my friend and I signed up to become teachers. Before I knew it, I was 2 weeks into a course, the youngest in the cohort and drowning trying to process everything.  
I saw a therapist who suggested I have ADHD. I suppose my art teacher’s letter lived on. My psychiatrist smiled at my stories and we saw how laced they were with ADHD. I felt absolved but sad. I carried on training and ADHD wasn’t mentioned once. Frustrated by this, I decided to make it my MA topic. 
Now, I’m 22 and I have created Miss Eli’s Classroom where I utilise my studies to help others. I started this alone but how could I pass up the chance to be on a team of neurodiverse people?  
So, I’m Eli, an actor/teacher with impulsive actions but always good intentions.

Erika

Study Group

I have a lifelong passion for nature and wildlife, and I love learning everything I can about the world, and enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others. I have fun learning languages and can speak English, German and Scottish Gaelic. I would also like to learn Danish and Cantonese some day. I am keen to get involved with wild animal rehabilitation in my spare time.

EJ

Study Group