JoJo Abdi: Poetry, trauma & our sensitive wiring
Women & ADHD
Katy Weber
4.9 • 685 Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2022
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 116 with JoJo Abdi.
“The beautiful thing about this diagnosis is that my mask has come off and now I get to be me.”
Khadijo (Jojo) Abdi is a Somali-born writer, poet, and educator living in Minneapolis, MN. Her poetry and essays have been published in Lyricality, Minnesota Women’s Press, and in the anthology by Freedom Voices, Muslim American Writers At Home: Stories, Essays, and Poems of Diversity and Belonging.
JoJo was diagnosed with ADHD in the fall of 2021 and, like many of us, she’s been coming to terms with what she calls “this brain that’s so good at complex, exciting things that are hard for most people and so terrible at small routines of everyday life.”
We talk all about her poetry, sensitive wiring, and how we tend to get swept up in the “too muchness” of life. We also talk about some of the childhood trauma she experienced when her family fled Somalia, her survivor’s guilt, and how her ADHD affected her self-esteem and self-worth growing up.
And we also talk about how certain cultures are more ADHD-friendly than others, and what JoJo does to foster an inclusive classroom environment for her students.
After you listen to this episode, make sure to check out some of JoJo’s beautiful poetry at the link below.
Website: https://linktr.ee/khadijo.abdi
Instagram: @mzjojoab
Episode edited by E Podcast Productions
Find the transcript of this episode at www.womenandadhd.com/transcripts
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a Women & ADHD listener, you’ll receive 10% off your first month of BetterHelp when you use this link: betterhelp.com/womenadhd
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey friends, it's Katie here. Have you spent your whole life wondering why things feel harder for you |
| 0:05.2 | than they do for everyone else? Do you struggle with motivation even for the things you actually want to do? |
| 0:10.6 | Are you exhausted even though it feels like you're not getting anything done? If you're nodding along, |
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| 1:00.7 | consult today. As an adult, I find out like I don't really know who I am. So I had to, through |
| 1:06.8 | this diagnosis, get to really know what I like, what I don't like, what bothers me, |
| 1:11.9 | all these things. |
| 1:17.6 | Hello and welcome to the Women and ADHD podcast. I'm your host, Katie Weber. I was diagnosed |
| 1:24.0 | with ADHD at the age of 45, and it completely turned my world upside down. |
| 1:29.6 | I've been looking back at so much of my life, school, jobs, my relationships, all of it with this new lens, |
| 1:37.2 | and it has been nothing short of overwhelming. |
| 1:39.6 | I quickly discovered I was not the only woman to have this experience, and now I interview other |
| 1:44.8 | women who, like me, discovered in adulthood they have ADHD and are finally feeling like they |
| 1:50.7 | understand who they are and how to best lean into their strengths, both professionally and |
| 1:56.2 | personally. |
... |
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