My journey with ADHD started as a young child when my mom started to notice small differences in how I did things. I had an intense need for perfection, simple things like colouring outside the lines would cause me to throw out the colouring page, or when playing with Lego, if I didn’t have the right colour piece to build something, I would get very emotional and tear it apart.
In school I would get very upset if I didn’t get full marks on my work. There were other signs, like when I would hyper-fixate on different food and songs, eating or listening to them so often that I would push myself to no longer like them.
After being diagnosed, I was concerned with people finding out. I was afraid of being judged or seen as less capable, which caused me to grow up faster than other children of the same age.
Over the last few years, I’ve begun to feel confident in who I am as I’ve watched myself develop both in my personal and professional life, succeeding in ways I never thought possible. It has become clear that my perspective and way of thinking may be different but they are valuable and have continued to afford me many new opportunities.
Working for a firm like Norton Rose Fulbright has been a blessing. Here, I know that I am trusted and, more importantly, supported on my professional journey.
I have found a number of ways to ensure my success at work by making small changes, like using a to-do list or calendar reminders. In my personal life, I have realized I am more creative than I knew, building and creating new things to keep my hands busy.
Learning these things about myself has allowed me to find comfort in sharing my story and experience with others. I hope it will allow them to better understand some of their neurodivergent colleagues, and for those with a similar condition, to know that they too can be successful in a professional environment.
