ADHD, PR and me

As with so many women, I was diagnosed relatively late in the day – some 10 years ago now – and it was a revelation. Up until that point it felt like I didn’t fit anywhere and the environments in which I worked telescoped that.

ADHD was very much a double-edged sword for me professionally, in some ways making me perfect for PR – the multi-tasking, moving at lightning pace, seeing things differently, hyper-focusing for hours on detail-orientated tasks – and in other ways I was seemingly all wrong. Much of my early career was punctuated by not fitting; review meetings were always a personality dialysis that left me emotionally drained and feeling deflated.

I realise now that much of what I was being told to change was simply not possible – it was baked into my DNA, but many around me pushed hard against my non-conformity and often left me thinking I would never get it right.

When I look back on it, I think this suited those I worked for very well, utilising my energy and enthusiasm to get the work done to highest level while destabilising me.

I was often the hardest-worked, putting in the most hours, dedicated to going the extra mile. For those with ADHD it is easy to absorb information that you find interesting, going down rabbit holes that leave you highly informed on topics and thus able to lead, present and create with ease. But with this came push-back about my intensity, the constant implication that I was ‘too much’, pushed too hard, moved too fast, was too outspoken.

The inevitable result of this cycle of running as fast as I could while often being undermined and mis-managed was burnout, a common occurrence for the neurodiverse – something that has to be managed very carefully by the individual and the organisation to be avoided.

These periods of burnout without the support that I needed would leave me reeling, not knowing if I was travelling in the right direction and not sure if I could get up and fight the fight anymore.

So much has changed in terms of education and awareness now that I have to presume the experience for young, rising talent is radically different. I hope so. I hope managers are truly being trained how to nurture neurodiverse talent, that businesses see ADHD as a positive – full of potential and value, not a stigma that needs to be hidden or bent. That there is a real understanding of the differences and the needs that come with them, a celebration of the strengths and the weaknesses and how to get the best out of both.

I hope this particular awareness month isn’t a PR gimmick but an emblem of how far we have come.

Samantha Losey is a senior consultant at Montfort