ADHD is "massively underdiagnosed in New Zealand", also people with ADHD are far more likely to experience depression & take their own life.
Flynny is known to pace around, not sit still, be constantly fidgeting, and also forget conversations that happened a minute ago, so Jay-Jay organised for Anna Redgrave who is an ADHD Expert to come into the studio and see if she could offer advice and help.
Anna Redgrave is a counsellor and a founder of an organisation called Beehyve Health, which is an ADHD-centric service providing wraparound services for people with ADHD. Her company has attracted leading experts from around the world.
“I can't tell you my clients. But I have some clients who have put the Mars Rover on Mars. I've got clients who are major engineers in Fortnite (which is a computer game with 390 million registered users), and Valve (Valve is an online video game distribution network which has 132 million monthly active players).”
Anna ended up talking for over half an hour on ADHD, she shared how people with ADHD feel like a black sheep and shame for not being ‘normal’, “80% of everyone is sitting down quietly, and you're expected to sit down quietly, it makes it really, really tough. You sort of stand out like a bit of a sore thumb. If I was at school, and I was allowed to move around, I would have been able to pay attention in the economics class… and it can cause lots of problems with shame, and validation.”
Anna also revealed the link between ADHD and mental health, “ It is 10 times higher suicidality than normal. Depression is five times more. So people with ADHD, their suicide rates are so much higher than most other mental health issues. Because it's not accepted in society. We're expected to act normal. But we are normal. And we're really, really cool. If we accept ourselves…"
"The biggest problem with ADHD is a lack of focus, those thoughts in your head that are all bouncing around like 1000 balls, someone threw all the balls up. I can't choose which one to focus on. And I desperately want to and it's painful, it's psychologically painful.”
“First of all, New Zealand has a massive underdiagnosis of ADHD and I live in the States… It really sucks in New Zealand to get an assessment but it also really sucks in the UK and the US. In the UK, it's three years. In New Zealand, it can be months to a year to get assessed.” Not only is ADHD underdiagnosed there is also a huge amount of misinformation about ADHD online, “Tik Tok’s number one hashtag is ADHD. 50% of the information is wrong.”
Anna shared some advice and practical tips for people with ADHD who are forgetful, “We can't fix everything. But pick one thing or two things and then work on it. And if it's as simple as I'm going to remember to and I'm going to put a note on my steering wheel. I'm going to pop that in my pocket every day and put notes in it. Make an effort for that to be the one thing you remember to put in your pocket.”
If the conversation with Anna has resonated with you and you would like to learn more about ADHD she recommended going to https://www.beehyve.health/ or https://www.adhd.org.nz/
