"Do I want to lose my family...?"

Talking about ADHD.

A belated Happy Birthday to Patty Griffin, who turned 60 yesterday. The title of this Substack, Ever Get Home, is from Patty’s song “When It Don’t Come Easy.”

”Do I want to lose my family or do I want to see if something can be done?”

Someone said this in the ADHD group a couple nights ago. They were looking back on their journey to a diagnosis. I scribbled the words down quickly in my notebook, instantly important. I’ve led this new topic twice now. Really loved both conversations. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022. What for many years felt like a growing list of character flaws—poor time management, struggling to focus and then struggling not to hyperfocus, lack of impulse control, forgetting important things, preferring night-owl hours, running out of gas in the afternoon, sometimes literally running out of gas—it turns out ADHD has a lot to do with all of these.

The thought crosses my mind a lot: Had I been diagnosed sooner, I might still work at TWLOHA. Perhaps I would be married. I might even be a dad. Medication has been a huge help. Learning how my brain works has allowed me to make peace with a lot of regret and shame related to past behavior. There is no rewind button and I can’t force anyone to care about the dots I’ve been connecting, but I can do my best to learn and grow and understand. I am hopeful for a future more peaceful and productive than my past. The first two ADHD conversations have reminded me that it’s a powerful thing to be among people who can relate, a powerful thing when the words of someone else’s story provide language for our own.

If any of this resonates, if you are learning to live with ADHD, please consider joining me on Friday, April 5. We’ll meet via Zoom, starting at 7pm ET.

"I'm so appreciative of the space to share my ADHD experience not only with people who will listen, but with people who want to listen. Helpful meme accounts are no substitute for the real connection that happens when a small group of individuals going through the same thing (in different ways) get together to talk (and laugh) it out. This experience was magic." —Paige

Other Upcoming Small-Group Conversations:
Wed, 3/20 - “I Would Like to Live a Love Story”
Thurs, 3/21 - “I’m in a Season of Change”

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I’m headed to Arizona next month, and Wyoming after that. If you want to put me to work as a speaker, whether it's public or private, in-person or virtual, keynote or workshop, the team at Collective Speakers can help.

Merch: Did you know that there are two Ever Get Home shirts and two posters as well?

NEEDS AN OCEAN is a beach brand born from new appreciation, started back in 2020 when I was living in East Nashville, landlocked for the first time.