Member-only story
Who am I? I was diagnosed with ADHD at the end of 2020 and realized that everything I had struggled with such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and inability to focus on one career path. However, I was shocked by the lack of support for women with ADHD and realized that something needed to be done to support more people like me. I started training as an ADHD coach and now I am exploring entrepreneurship as a way to make an impact in my community. I write a lot about neurodiversity and entrepreneurship. Find out more on www.ownyourflair.com
Using neurotypical standards to compare me against will continue to damage my mental health
I’ll be honest. I look at my neurotypical friends and I get jealous of their stability. They can seemingly hold a job down and rise the ranks. Because our society rewards specialization with higher salaries and prestige. That is what we all have been told from a young age to aim for. Figure out what you want to do and stick to it. Hone the skill and rise the ranks.
However, that just doesn’t work for neurodivergents like myself. My career journey has been all over the place. I have pursued different routes, and have taken regular breaks to travel because of burnout and exhaustion. I would start every new job with enthusiasm and then, seemingly once the rules, structures, and role description felt restrictive and suffocating to my creativity. The longest I have stayed in a role is two years. Either I leave because I felt a lack of flexibility in my job to change roles or I got interested in a whole new industry (which often happens for me).
What are the neurotypical standards that I am comparing myself against?
I see this a lot in myself and my clients. Neurotypical standards are things such as consistency with routines, for instance, or the belief that if I operate a certain way that the mainstream media and society have portrayed as being successful, then I too would be successful. This plays out in everything from routines to how we think about career success. A typical way of thinking about success is consistency, yet this is one thing that people with ADHD struggle with.
