I'm nervous to share with you today. This podcast is going to be different than normal

podcast. Today I'm talking about my ADHD story and I feel very vulnerable putting this out there. I hope you're not going to judge me, but I also feel really

sort of drawn. I'm pulled to share this story in hopes that it helps other people who are

struggling and especially people who may have children who are struggling

with some of the things I did when I was younger. So buckle up, friends. Today's

podcast is gonna go places. Hey Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug Podcast. We're talking about ADHD and specifically we're talking about my ADHD story which I have only shared publicly one time and I shared this at an ADHD conference that I went to I I was their keynote speaker. I wasn't sure what to talk about.

So I shared my childhood story in my own experience growing up having ADHD and undiagnosed ADHD and where that led me in my life and it's so

shameful and you're going to hear why but I made a lot of really terrible mistakes and I did

really bad things that still haunt me to this day and I still carry them with me every single day. I think about the things I did. I feel guilt and shame for those things every single day of my life and now that I have a diagnosis which I only received a few

years ago I do have a lot of sympathy for that little girl when she was

younger I look back at her and I just want to give her a hug, right?

And so let's jump into my story. Maybe some of this you can relate to, maybe some that you can't, but I'm hoping at the very least listening to this, you may have more sympathy for those bad, wild, terrible little children that maybe you know. Okay, because they're not so terrible. Let's jump in at the very beginning. I am very, very old. I was born in 1979. So growing up in the 80s, especially growing up in a

really small town, I had never heard anyone ever mention ADHD. This was not something that anyone ever talked about. My parents had

never heard of this and growing up all the adults in my life, teachers, doctors, medical professionals, my own parents,

the general consensus was she needs more stankings.

Like the the I was very hyperactive. I was very impulsive and

everybody just basically said she needs more discipline, right? Yeah, like she needs to control herself or other people need to control her that was it.

And I was like such a cute little kid, but I was extremely hyper.

I at first my parents assumed and doctors as well that I was allergic to sugar that was the first diagnosis that I received at about the age of two and I remember my dad always tells me this story like he was trying to to cut sugar out of my diet and

because they thought that like sugar was making me crazy pants and I was bouncing off of

walls all the time and I didn't I was always singing dancing and not really sitting still

spoiler alert it wasn't the sugar I was just a very, you know, active and a very sociable and very talkative little, little child.

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