About Me

As I wrote in an article commissioned by the Telegraph Magazine, over a decade ago I found myself sobbing in front of a psychiatrist. Tears poured down my face as I recounted the tribulations of lifelong struggles with work, five years of marriage with a Scandinavian perfectionist – reader, I’m still married to him – and first-time parenthood. I told the psychiatrist that said husband, work colleagues and friends often commented on my skew-whiff sense of logic, somewhat neurotic inarticulateness, misplacing of car keys, last-minute changing of plans, complete inability to follow simple instructions and – if I’m honest – order anything at all. I explained that this “constant stream of criticism”, along with my inner berating voice, had pushed me into a depression. That while my life might have spawned the trappings of so-called success – articles written, documentary films made, husband bagged, baby made – I had always felt that I was on a collision course with ‘something’; that sooner or later my inner madness would be revealed to the world. Aged 33, it seemed the time had come.

At the end of the agonising hour of my appointment, the psychiatrist reassured me that I wasn’t lazy, crazy or stupid, as I had spent all my life believing. Rather my issues with restlessness, impulsivity and distractibility were the symptoms of ADHD – the condition he determined I had been born with. My diagnosis had solved the riddle of my life and – I was soon to learn when I returned home to research the condition frantically – the propensity of those with ADHD to have car crashes, be lured into addiction and inclined to develop suicidal ideation – it may have quite literally saved it. After the revelation, with medication and cognitive behavioural therapy prescribed, I was all set to turn my life around.

BUT… it was after the initial elation of making sense of myself that I hit a wall.

WHY? Because contrary to what society would have us believe, the ADHD brain cannot simply be “fixed” by popping a pill that a psychiatrist might prescribe – should one choose to take medication to manage symptoms – and/or a course of therapy. Undoubtedly both courses of action can and do play a very important role in the management of ADHD – they did for me – BUT they simply do not equip those with ADHD with the practical “know how” to tackle the things in life that simply need to get done, the strategies to break habits of a lifetime. What DOES achieve that? First off: GOOD ADHD EDUCATION – something that isn’t ‘prescribed’ by any doctor but is FUNDAMENTAL – because without a real anchoring of knowledge about how the ADHD really works those with the condition are thwarted in our attempts to navigate the challenges and leverage the strengths of our neurodiverse brains. Secondly, good ADHD life coaching.

What I needed ten years ago was to partner with the ADHD Life Coach that I am now, if only I had even know that such a thing existed. Now I’m here for you.