Be yourself!
…No, not like that!
— SOCIETY

Brains are weird yo. The older I get/the more I learn, the more true I find this.

Reading books like this (or alternatively this or Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's or Born on a Blue Day) helps. Discovering that there are other weird brains out there (I do love McCabe’s ‘hello brains’) is wonderful. Seeing both how they see the world the same–and perhaps even more so, the differences even within these groups–is like a lightbulb going off.

Specifically for this one, the idea that just because you are (/ appear to be) succeeding at life… doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not coming at a cost.

The fact that I could sometimes exceed expectations made it even more frustrating for me—and everyone around me—when I failed to meet the basic ones.

I think that if you have ADHD–or have someone close to you that does… and chances are really good that you do, even if you don’t know it–I think this book is worth a read.

ADHD is a terrible name for the condition, because ‘attention deficit’ implies a lack of attention. However, our brains can focus quite well sometimes–particularly on things we find engaging, such as our hobbies, crushes, video games, and so on. The trouble is, we can’t control the intensity of our focus or what we focus on. . . . This big misconception makes people less likely to seek a diagnosis because they are able to focus sometimes.

Explanations, tools to deal / adapt to a world that isn’t necessarily built for you, and a ton of quotes from a ton of people.

Over the years, we’ve shared long, deep discussions about what it means to have ADHD. About how being “normal” isn’t a realistic goal but being functional is. About how sometimes, paradoxically, being functional means behaving in less (neuro)typical ways, so we can be more mentally healthy, happy, and generous humans for ourselves and for those we love.

Well worth the read.

Onward!