Late discovered ADHD. Peri-meno is our awakening.

Carl Jung said, "The world will ask you who you are and if you do not know, the world will tell you.”

For decades the world told us who we are and we adjusted ourselves at our expense. Knowingly and repeatedly abandoning ourselves to fit society's boxes. Seduced by productivity, materialism and the promise of belonging. Each new glimmer propelled us on to our next jobs and relationship, smiling convincingly through the cycles of crash and burn. We numbed from the internal chaos and hid behind a shiny facade. On the rare occasion we revealed our truth, we were misdiagnosed by a system inaccurately informing us that we are disordered and offering a lifetime of pills that can make us feel worse.

Finally the tornado of peri-menopause and the shaky ground we built our life on crumbles. Our sensitive brain is being rewired, we are in flux. The safe and comfortable structures that defined us are no longer sustainable. We can no longer keep the shiny image alive.

Caught between two worlds, the known and the unknown. Our survival brain trusts the familiar and for a while we are at the mercy of those who promise to take us back to the illusion. Expensive products and celebrity life hacks behind yet another paywall distract us for a while. We expect they will take the shame and guilt away but realise they are keeping us stuck, trapping in the mainstream consumerist productivity culture.

We are being called to a different path. One that we have secretly dreamed of. One beyond who we were told to be. The one where we value who we are at our core.

60% of ADHD in women is late discovered particularly around the time of perimenopause. As oestrogen, sometimes know as the truth hormone fluctuates, we find it hard to keep the shiny image alive. We outgrow the mask and can struggle with this new way of navigating the world. Our coping strategies have been focused on suppressing emotions now we must choose differently. Self-acceptance over self-abandonment, clarity over comfort and alignment over appeasment.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, "to grow as a free creature" we must put "ourselves into occasions of the lush, the nutritive, the light."

We have kept parts of us in the dark for so long, coming to the light can feel daunting. Our daily medicine will vary, reassurance some days. Self-soothing on other days. We need to surround ourselves with relationships that accept, support and encourage who we are restoring our worthiness with their time and commitment. We will read, paint, write and tell stories. Dance, swim and reconnect to nature to nourish our aliveness. Other days we will rest and understands that just to exist is enough, accepting who we are without conditions.

Slowly what we once believed and valued melts away and our birthright is restored. We slip past the mental bars that have confined us for so so long to continue on the path we have longed for...like a rare and beautiful bird, uncaged for the first time, we take off into a boundless sky and fly.

Questions to ask yourself ...

When was the last time you felt free? What did it feel like?

What do you need to thrive right now?

What did you do as a child that made time disappear?

What will be your medicine over the next few weeks?

Who inspires you?

Who is your role model?

How can you build your community and your belonging?