WE ROAR Magazine April 2024 - Magazine - Page 6

As I like to say, there's no point in helping to
open the door if when you walk in, everyone
has their back to you. So that sense of
belonging is so important.
It's intrinsically linked to employee engagement.
So people will do their best work when they have
that sense of belonging. It's an absolute win-win
situation.
I've had struggles all my life and felt weird and
different and got bullied for being nerdy and
unfashionable and things like that. So how I got
to the age of 42, I don't know. But I'm going
through my school reports now as well because
I'm in the middle of an ADHD assessment with
Psychiatry UK. And some of the quotes in there,
I'm like, it was so obvious this girl has ADHD.
Why wasn't it picked up? And it isn't about
masking, because you read the reports and it's
full of evidence of Autistic and ADHD behaviours
and struggles. So it is about, I'm not going to use
the word awareness. It's more understanding and
acceptance.
I don't want people to struggle all their lives and
not have any frame of reference for why. But also
people need to understand more about it so that
it's easier to identify and diagnose because then
you become better at self-advocacy and getting
the support you need.
It's not like you get an adult diagnosis and
suddenly you open a door and there's a load of
support behind it. It's not like that at all. But it
can unlock self-compassion, and then you're able
to identify and articulate your needs.
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I think some people think, or they have maybe
either the wrong expectation or the wrong
understanding that as soon as you have,
again, whether it's self-imposed or an official
diagnosis of, Yay, everything's rosy and
perfect, and I understand everything now, and
I'm just myself. It's not that way at all either.
I found out that there was a list of traits that are
associated with adult children of alcoholics. And
I read it and thought,

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