Never mind the creativity that comes along with ADHD; the unique capacity it gives me to pull together multiple threads into a cohesive package. Or that I was writing to help other ADHD’ers, including my own children, to embrace parts of themselves that are so often shamed.
No, I gave into the shame. I defined my career by what “the system” would think of me.
It wasn’t that my attorney had told me outright that my ADHD traits could be a liability. I extrapolated that from things she had already told me. She was very risk-averse. I’d grown up risk-averse. I wore it like a second skin. So I zipped back up.