It's it's absolutely wonderful. You are kicking off the conference. So we've had, I think, nearly 3,000 people register. We've just started. We're very much looking forward to sharing some of your videos Yes. And understanding a bit more about you. Get a lot of people talk TikTok and saying, well, is it a force for within ADHD, is it a force for good or is it a force for bad?

What what TikTok? Yeah. I think it's force for good, definitely. I have an understanding.

I do too. Could you could you expand on your argument? When I first.

Was diagnosed with it well, before that, when I first was made aware of it, I completely had no idea about ADHD at all really. And when I was it was actually my hairdresser of old people that kinda pointed out to me. And they've said things of, like, I think you've got ADHD. You're very similar to one of my relatives. And I just, like, brushed off completely because in my head, as everyone thinks, it's just a young boy running around a classroom, acting bad. And I didn't think that was me at all because I'm not even particularly hyper. So anyway, I looked into it more and more, and I found that there was like such little information out there at all really when it comes to ADHD, especially ADHD in women. A lot of the.

Things I looked at the time was was all guys. And there was only some a few and far between on YouTube and also they're, like, basically in America as well. So there was not really much UK based information out there. So when I ended up getting diagnosed, eventually, I thought to myself, like, why would I not talk about my experience? Obviously, everything's based on my own experience and it's different from everybody else. But based on mine, I thought to myself, if I saw somebody talking about the way that I felt, I'd feel less alone, and then I feel, you know, able to go and do my own research about it. Because at the end of the day.

That's all I'm giving is, like, just information that people can do with as they please. So I I definitely think it's a good thing and I think that's maybe why it's taken off so much.

I I absolutely agree. And I think one of the problems about ADHD is that people haven't talked about it. Yeah. And it's not been part of the conversation. And I don't think I think ADHD has provided an ability for a community to come together that hasn't been able to come together before. Why? And think it's very important. And what I you know, we had someone in a support group not so long ago say like, I was diagnosed by TikTok.

And.

It just kind of said, you weren't diagnosed through TikTok. What happened was you learnt what ADHD was in TikTok. Yeah. Yeah. And from there went to go and get a formal diagnosis. And then get the support, the help, the understanding that you, you know, that that helps and need that you need. And it's a it's a, you know, it's a complete, you know, complete sea change.

I think people make mistake. You know, if you see something, I think, this is only a few people with it was in the majority think this way, but they think maybe TikTok is trying to diagnose one, which is not the case. There's like so many different symptoms of or behavior traits, should I say, of ADHD that comes with other things as well. So that's why it's important if you feel like you relate to it, to go and get a proper diagnosis because you can't be diagnosed over TikTok. But at least it highlights, you know, that something you might relate to and you might be feeling alone your whole life or you might be feeling crazy. So that's all it is really.

And you mentioned behavioral traits. So your ADHD behavior trait videos are are really pop are really popular. What behavior traits of yours did you realize were were ADHD related? Like, how did you there's there's always this line, this this understanding. Right? Where what's you? What's ADHD? Like, so how have you explored that?

Well, I think the the important thing, like, to remember is before and after medications, I'm on a medication now. I'm still me, and I think people always think that you're gonna lose your personality or you're be a different person, and that's not the case. Basically, what the ADHD behavioral traits come from is from the lack of dopamine that you have. So if you, for example, have like that you're hype hypersensitive about things, you can't what's the word for it? You can't rationalize things as well. So it makes you quite volatile at times. That's an ADHD symptom. It can be hypersensitive. Obviously, the normal stuff that people would go to straight away is like the concentration, but people.

Think that, you know, everybody can't concentrate on things that they don't enjoy. What the case is for ADHD is like simply crippling to try and do that. And it makes, you know, life so much harder to get through and to get through school and to get through work. And if you can focus on something that you really love, that is also a trait of ADHD because it's there's so many benefits to it as well if you can zone in on it. Because then you can completely hyper focus, have all of these ideas, like that's what an ADHD brain is good at. Because obviously we've been, you know, brought up in a society where everything's like made for the neurotypical brain. It makes people who knew neurodivergent.

Feel like they're useless or their failures or whatever. So there's so many different traits that I just thought was actually depression because I was so up and down. And that's another a whole another problem is that so many people get diagnosed with depression when it's actually not that at all. And then obviously, after a long time, and I finally got my diagnosis, I realized how much that the L Vans medication I'm on is like saved everything for me because it's just made life so much easier. I feel more calm, more rational. I can actually do things without the constant needs to be, like, distracted, I've got better relationships with my friends. And.

There's so so much to it. Like, it's hard to kind of narrow down just a few behavioral traits, I'm getting an idea of it initially is I get an idea of it initially and not feeling like you are because I think people who don't have ADHD, not everybody, but a lot of people would just they just don't get the way that your brain works. So they either tell you to just get on with it, or why are you so hypersensitive, why are you this or that. And that in turn makes you feel like you're alone with it. So but I didn't realize that these things were ADHD related prior to this because I never knew about it. I never knew about the information that was out there sort of thing. And obviously, TikTok's like a new kind of, I guess, platform for.

People to discover things. And I think a lot is what's quite satisfying and like lovely to see is people saying that because of my videos, they went on their own little journey to like find help for themselves and some people have got diagnosed, some people haven't and I just find that so like nice, you know, just trying to help people.

I think that I think it is a wonderful thing and it's it is important. I think you've you did a video on why you're making the videos and you just talked a bit about them. So I'm gonna pop that up to show to people.

I just wanted to quickly address this little comment here because I'm getting quite a lot of similar ones on the post saying, like, you don't have ADHD, these are traits that everybody does, you're not a doctor, I'm not going to go see a doctor like this comment. And that's absolutely fine, like, your mental health and health in general is completely up to you to decide what you want to do and investigate yourself sort of thing. But I never said that I was a doctor, but I do have ADHD and these things are definitely traits that anybody with ADHD would know are a thing. But there's only some traits, like there's so many traits out there and a lot of my other videos show those traits, but I guess I wanted to just address.

Just generally, why I started doing these videos. And the reason being is because for my whole life, primarily in my adult life, I've went through a lot of, kind of, really depressive episodes and I didn't understand why. I didn't understand why my brain was going this way, why I was so emotional, why I was acting the way I was. I've been to the doctor so many times, and every single time that I went, they always gave me antidepressants, right? I've been on them a few times, and every single time, they've made me feel violently sick, and they've made me feel even worse than before, and they've actually made me feel numb to the world, which is actually.

Worse than feeling bad, as feeling numb, in my opinion. So I came off them myself, like I didn't want to do anymore. I wanted to discover other ways and means. I've been to counselling, I've done loads of things, but things were not getting better. So, it wasn't until somebody pointed out to me, who has a family member who has ADHD, I have similar traits and I should go get it checked out. And then I went back to the NHS with this information and they basically said that we can't really help you for years, so then I personally went and researched myself, and then I went to private, and then it turns out after loads and loads of time and diagnosis, I do have ADHD.

So, basically, the moral of the story is, the reason that I've been doing these posts in the first place, is to help those people out there who might feel similar to me, who might have been bunged on an antidepressant, because that seems to be the way everyone just gets antidepressants left, right and center, to actually feel like they're not alone, and like, if it's not working for them either, maybe if they're having these traits or the traits in my other videos, that it might be something to look into. That's all it is. I don't mean to, like, pressure anybody to say that, oh, you have ADHD. I don't want anyone to be, like, self diagnosed or anything like that because, I mean, you can't really do that anyway.

If you have ADHD, have to get a full diagnosis and it's difficult. But I guess I just wanted to address that because I didn't feel like there was a voice for me when I was feeling that way. I had to look into it a lot myself and there's been a lot of people, mostly these comments are very few and far between, but I wanted to help the people who are looking for that extra little bit of, you know, guidance, I guess. And all I'm offering is my experience, I'm not trying to tell anyone that I'm a doctor or anything like that. But it's just supposed to be like somebody to be there for you, feeling the same way. And if you're not feeling the same way as me, that's absolutely fine. But.

Yeah, that's that's all I wanted to say. It's just to help people and, you know, to share my experience.

So you talked about and you've talked in just in this conversation as well about the fact you were diagnosed with depression previously.

Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And is that something you've had?

Like, have you had other people come and talk to you about that? Have had similar experiences?

Yeah. Because I think it's I think it's a problem just generally, I guess, where if you have certain way ways that you feel, I think it can be instantly diagnosed as depression, and you can be given antidepressants quite quite freely actually, which I think is quite a strange thing because it's such a long tedious process to be diagnosed for ADHD. I think it should be more looked at just giving people antidepressants because I was speaking to my doctor about it, and actually, what's in antidepressants? And that's I'm just saying what my doctor said. It might be different for everybody. But in a general basis.

It actually makes your ADHD brain worse, and it's not the right thing for you to have. I mean, people are gonna, you know, have these different experiences and.

Yeah, exactly. So You actually talk about medication. We've got a video up which, at this time, I guarantee you'll be able to see it, although I still think not not not hear it. That's fine. I'm going to put it up for people to to listen to and see what they see what they think.

In response to this, the transition to the medication was a really good experience for me. It was unbelievably smooth. Obviously, everyone's experiences are different with the medication, but for me it has been perfect. The good thing as well is if you are nervous, it's a stimulant rather than a medication that takes a while to build up like an antidepressant for example. So it literally kicks in within an hour and it wears off the same day. So you'll kind of know pretty quickly whether it's for you or not. And for me to be honest, the medication was like life changing. It was quite emotional actually like literally the first day that I took it because for the first time in my life all of these crazy.

Rampant thoughts that were happening 20 fourseven literally just died down and for the first time in my head like there was nothing going on if that makes sense. It was it was surreal. I felt this mental sense of calm like everything was just super chilled and like really quite pleasant. I also could like concentrate on things I was never able to before, like I could completely focus on something and just really like not hate my life when doing it because with ADHD, if you enjoy doing something, if it's like watching a Netflix show or if it's like gaming or whatever, you can concentrate on it hours and hours and hours because you're really enjoying it. If it's doing something you don't want to do, it's like.

Someone literally has to put a gun to your head to be able to focus on it and this completely counteracted that. It was so surreal. Something that a lot of people don't know about ADHD is your emotional regulation is all over the place. So you can take things to heart really badly that other people won't care about, your reactions are ridiculous, you can get really angry, all these things I definitely was. I was very very sensitive over the top of everything and since being on the L Vans I've been like so much more rational. I'm not falling out with my friends like I used to. I'm not like shouting at my boyfriend.

I'm not overthinking everything to the last degree and like my boyfriend of all people has noticed a huge change in just like my sanity, if that makes sense. I'm just generally feeling so much less overwhelmed. I don't feel like the world is against me anymore. I don't want to nap like four hours a day like I used to, crying all the time, like it's all completely like mellowed out and I feel so much happier. I like myself more. Yeah, it was a beautiful transition for me. Obviously, the side effects too, so if you want to know about them leave a comment. But, yeah, don't worry about it.

You talked about the really positive impact of medication and one of the reasons we specifically wanted to pull up that video is that medication is seen so controversially. And we know from the figures we see of people with a diagnosis of ADHD, roughly fifty percent after a year. It's a fifty fifty split between those who are opting for medication and those who are not. Mhmm. And which shows people are making a choice and it's a and it's an important one. What are the sort of, like, big challenges do you think and I said one of the things that worries us is that because there seems to be such a stigma around medication.

Is that people rather than making a decision solely based on, like, does this work for me? Does this make a difference for me? The the stigma is then more of more of something they talk about. Like, what do you like, when you were thinking of taking medication, like, what choices did you have to go through? Like, how did you think about it?

Well, I guess for me, like, I guess it kinda goes back to the TikTok stuff. I think the more transparent and normalized is, the better. And I think, I guess, it depends on where you go. I ended up going private. It's a long story. It's a boring story, but I had to go private. And I think the way that I was treated was validated. And it's I think people don't realize how many people have ADHD for a start.

And I think also I said, yeah, I'm just gonna jump in because it's a really, really important point. They don't. ADHD is a relatively common condition. It's one in twenty. So it's five percent of kids and it's three point five percent of adults. And those figures, because I know that our population studies, the five percent is from a Lancet macro study. And the three point five percent is the NICE guidelines. And so we use those both because they're The UK numbers on it. But you are looking at sort of one in twenty. So it's a relatively common condition. But it is not treated like a relatively common And and people don't know what it is. Like.

You know, I find when I I tell say to people I've got ADHD, you kinda get a nice, oh, okay. Like, that's I don't know much about it. Could you tell me? And suddenly, have to advocate for myself. Like, there's and so when I'm asking things, people just don't quite believe I need them. Like, it's I.

Think that I think at the end of the day, like, that's on them because they don't understand what it's like to live with it. And I think a lot, you know, a lot of people say, well, you know, everybody struggles with those things. And like to an extent, yes, they do. But it's the the ones that you struggle to, which is what the diagnosis is for. But I think at the end of the day, you wouldn't tell somebody who has anxiety or depression to stop taking their antidepressants. So it shouldn't be treated any differently. And I think there's so much to it that people don't realize that like so for me, for example, I I've taken it for the past eight months.

I sometimes have like a a medicine holiday, for example. Like, won't have them in the weekend because I don't need to, like, be on my game or I don't you know, I'm just lying in bed. So you can obviously chop and change, but what's good about them is it's not like you have to if you don't like them, if it's not for you, you don't have to wean off it. It's like an instant thing, and it instantly goes away at the end of the day. So it makes actually more comfortable to start up because it's not like you have to wait three months for it to kick in like a normal, you know, slow release medicine.

It's like the same day. So if you instantly for example, with my friends in Australia, I just tried I think it was something like Ritalin. I don't know. I know that that's supposed to be a little bit more harsh. She hated it, so she's gonna try something else. So I think that's the beauty of it is that, you know, usually There different different options.

Now you did a wonderful video on the contradictions of the ADHD brain, which we'd like to share with everyone. Yeah. Sure. Thank you.

Six ADHD behavior traits you might not have known about. You're prone to rejection sensitivity. So if somebody's been off with you, you have a really hard time with that. You tend to feel really ashamed and embarrassed with the amount of questions that you ask. And people are always like, why are not listening? Why are being so rude? Like, I literally just told you this. Are you daft or something? And you're trying so so hard to take it in, but literally only about 20% is, and then you feel nervous to ask a question about it. You're a very now or never sort of person and only tend to do things when it's absolutely urgent. And that's not just work. It's general life things like putting your phone on charge when you've only got 1% battery or filling up your tank when you've got a morsel of petrol left or even going to the bathroom only when you're absolutely bursting. You tend to make a lot of careless mistakes, and it's not because you don't care. It's because your brain's moving so quickly that you can't keep up with it. Like, have you ever read a page of instructions and read the last one before the first? You have a really bad sleeping pattern. You're up at all hours and tend to work the best at night creatively and productively.

But then you get so frustrated at yourself because you wish you could just be a morning person and you're just not. You can go from a 100% enthusiasm, all guns blazing, this is the best idea of all time, one minute, and then the next minute, you couldn't care less.

It's a wonderful video talking about the some of the challenges of ADHD or the you've just messaged saying that there's a better one on contradictions and this one's this one's still a favorite. Mhmm. Which is a wonderful thing. Obviously, as an ADHD Conference, we are running slightly late and and we started slightly late. And actually, only bit we're bit annoyed about is the technical challenges at the start because those are we thought we had handled. The but we asked if we're doing something completely new. The you have one last video, which I I can't resist and and I think is important. Right? Because when we talk about ADHD, too much of the time we talk about the challenges of it and not about the sort of the opportunities.

The strengths. And you did a wonderful video on the benefits of the ADHD brain. So I'd like to share that with people now.

Here are six benefits of having an ADHD brain. Your passions are always super authentic, whether it's for a hobby or an idea or a person. That's because you physically cannot fake interest, so you don't have to try and pursue your passions that's the only thing you can do. You love taking risks and seizing new opportunities, where some people might find it more beneficial to stay in their comfort zone and play it safe. You like to seize those chances. You like to navigate new things. You find it exciting and and just a challenge. You're very understanding and empathetic to other people's problems, and you're actually quite good at giving advice. And that's because you go through so many different emotions and perspectives.

And thoughts on a daily basis, and your way of processing them changes over time. So you feel like you can totally relate to other people's problems and see where they're coming from. You have this insane ability where you can hyper focus on something for literally fucking hours. Like, sometimes we're talking eight to ten hours.

And you don't even know where the time's gone, and it doesn't feel like work whatsoever to you because you're so excited and into it. You're unbelievably resilient. If So you fail something a million times, you're just going keep going until you get it right. You're good at thinking of solutions to problems rather than giving up. You're extremely creative, you're always thinking outside the box, which means that you're actually really good at brainstorming things because the ideas just never stop for a second in your head, which actually does make it very difficult to actually pursue these ideas sometimes, but at least you're good at brainstorming them.

It is wonderful, like, to hear hear the strengths, and we talk about it a lot. We have, obviously, some people with ADHD who are extraordinary successes. One other Meg. The when you think of the strengths, like, what's the one you like? Like, when you think of ADHD strengths, what's top of mind? What's your what's your favorite ADHD strength?

Well, I think probably how resilient ADHD people are because of the amount of knockbacks you get in life and like, how many times that you would, like, fail at something and then push back because you're like, no. I need to prove myself in a way. And that comes from, a younger age, but then it kind of goes into your older age. And so for me, I think that if I if I really want something, I'm gonna keep trying, trying, trying till I get it, and I'm not gonna stop. And I think that that's also something that can you can if you can zone in on another strength is obviously, you can't really fake how you feel. You either like something you don't or you're interested or not. That's pretty much as.

Basic as it's gonna get. And so if you are interested in something, you'll know because you can't fake the interest, and then you can go down like these crazy rabbit holes of interests and ideas and things are flowing, and it's it's great to be in that zone and have that kind of energy around you. But, yeah, I think it's just about being in, the right place, the right work environment, and then, you know, I think that's why this conference and all these other ADHD conversations are so important because the more that people get on board with it and realize it is a thing that we all that ADHD or any neurodivergent person has had to deal with their whole lives being in like the wrong kind of society.

The the better it's gonna be and the more times people are gonna be able to, like, flourish and use their, like, ADHD as, a strength. Because that that's at the end of day what you want. You don't want it to always be, oh, I've got ADHD. It's negative. Like, I try to make it a positive thing. It's about controlling the negative traits really.

I think that's I'm I'm certainly in the same place like where if we wanna minimize the negative and and and build out the build out the positive. That's the way we can thrive. We can be absolutely incredible. Often people talk about the the the superpower analogy, like, you know, ADHD is your superpower. I I have to say, like, I do want to kill those people generally. And because it risks and it does take into simplicity. It risks like undermining how difficult it is to have ADHD. And I like to push the analogy slightly further and say, you know, yes, ADHD isn't super bad, but damn it, there are a lot of people throwing kryptonite.

If you zone in on it, that's why why it's so important to do these kind of things that you're doing. If you zone in on it, then you don't feel like alone with the things you struggle with because you're like, actually, I can do things. And even we're talking before about medication, you don't have to have medication. You can have other ways and means to make life easier for yourself if you initially realize what the problem is. I think it's not knowing, and that's what makes you feel a bit crazy.

Exactly. Medications are fiftyfifty splits. We know people go both ways on that. It's been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for being our first guest. You dealt with our teething problems as we got into it. We've got twenty four hours of this. We'll get you, though. By the end, we'll be we'll be we'll we'll probably be adequate.

Fine. Thank you so much for being on. I it's an honor for me to be on. Well, it's an honor too. And I and I.

Think it's really important to have someone who, like you, is making an impression in in TikTok because it's such an important medium for ADHD. So many people are learning about it. And to like, you you I don't know. Like, hopefully, this doesn't happen to you. But, like, some people are a little snooty about TikTok. They're a little bit And they really shouldn't be. And there's ADHD alone, I have checked the latest stuff, I think it's 15,000,000,000 times ADHD videos have been viewed.

An incredibly important medium. But it is not alone to ADHD. If you look at the same sort of views for say autism, you're looking at similar sort of numbers. And so it is a community coming together and learning together and it's so important what you're doing. It's so You feel better about yourself as well at the end of day because you become more self aware and you realize that you're not by yourself. So And you can and that self awareness means you can build on your strengths and work on, you know, and help minimize those weaknesses. It's so important. Yeah. You've been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much. You are our first and our absolute star guest. I look forward to more videos from you and from where this.

Goes for you. Thank you so very, very much. You're welcome. Thank you so much.