About Me

Hello and welcome to the about me part of the site. What I wanted to do was write up a short introduction about myself, so that you can understand the man behind the site, and why I truly understand what is going on with the ADHD brain, rather than just some random rumour site which tells you that rubbing a cat on your head will cure you.

So my name is Mike and I have had ADHD all my life. I however only knew I have had the disorder from when I hit 30. although my close family do not seem to have the disorder, it seems that it has been passed down genetically as my son has ADHD and my niece has Autism, in fact if you knew my family tree, many from my mothers side have random genetic defects. So if you have come to my site because you are a parent, please never feel you did anything wrong with birth or upbringing, there is a very strong case that genetics are the reason for the disorder.

Moving back to myself I started school in 1989 and even though I was clearly showing the symptoms nobody had me diagnosed. My parents didn't have a clue about anything to do with mental disabilities, remember internet was not in the home's back in those days so getting information was quite difficult. It really is interesting how the internet has allowed people access to so much more information than ever before.

The school I went to had a psychologist come to the house when I was six, after my mother had asked why I was so different to the other children. He watched me in my home setting and I was running around jumping on sofa's and all the other things which a child with the movement part of the brain being over developed would do. My parents were then asked if they could control me and they showed that putting on cartoons on the TV instantly got me to stop and sit down to watch cartoons. After he saw that I could be controlled he then decided that the fault lay purely with my parents and that they were "arm chair parents". What chance did I have when the "professionals" had no idea what they were looking for, and so I carried on poorly at school finishing with not one passing GCSE in 1999.

But that was how education was in 1990's Britain, I didn't have a psychological disability I was just naughty, and this mentality is also why people from older generations tend to still think that way, if you ever hear this phrase "it's just kids being kids" or words to that effect, it is because that is how they were taught, and without learning beyond this they basically know no better.

I carried on without any knowledge of the disorder until I went to university in 2006, and still without knowing that I have the disorder I learnt more than just my degree subject, I learnt to question things, and not just accept things from face value. This I feel is one of the most important lessons you get from university as I started to look into why I seemed to have more difficulties than other people I knew, and in doing so this is where I discovered a self test on ADHD. After getting the results from this test I took my findings to my doctors who got me referred to a specialist psychology department, and finally I was diagnosed to have ADHD.

This was only the beginning though of my journey as all I was given after diagnoses was a handful of stimulants and the name of a therapist book on adult ADHD. I was then signed off after a few weeks and left to figure everything else myself, so I did. I started to learn more about the condition, taking lectures from established practitioners in the field and basically learning at the same level of a psychologist, on the issues and needs of ADHD. So now after five years of learning I have found multiple ways of how to control the issues that the disorder brings and how to blend in with society.

What made me decide though that I wanted to share my experiences with other adults with ADHD, was being part of an ADHD group on Facebook, and I found many adults who just wanted answers to the same questions I had. As it seems that most information on the disorder covers children and guides for parents, rather than the adults who deal with it, and in particular I wanted to give information for all the thousands who were missed like I was back in the last century and want to understand more about the condition.

So that is a brief overview of myself, I really hope that you find the site interesting, and if you want me to cover anything specific in the future please let me know.