Late discovered ADHD. Unmasked & 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 project. We bounced between jobs and relationships smiling convincingly through the cycles of crash and burn. We numbed out from the internal chaos and hid behind a shiny facade. On the rare occasion we revealed our truth, we were misdiagnosed by a system informing us that it's our fault, we are disordered and offering a lifetime of pills that will make us feel worse.

The tornado of peri-menopause arrives 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. We are at mercy of those who promise to take us back there, selling us expensive products, super charged supplements or medication, celebrity life hacks and useless apps. They distract us for a while but tie us to the system keeping us stuck, trapped in fear, shame, guilt and regret.

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

Slowly a realisation or perhaps a diagnosis and finally an explanation. We tried as best we could but we are simply wired differently.

60% of ADHD in women is late discovered and at first it feels like a new dawn, like the first time our parents trusted us to stay in the house alone. A sense of freedom and power to be who we are. Until we remember how fear and dred followed, as we considered they may they never come home. We must navigate this life without them.

Unmasked and awakening we begin to understand the invisible burdens we have carried for so long. Decades of struggle to calibrate our biological systems, to find safety and belonging in an alien world. Coping mechanisms that ingratiated us to the system . To thrive we can no longer ignore or dismiss the pure gold that for so long we have kept in the dark.

We cut ourselves some slack and listen to podcasts of women who are so full of vibrancy and ease, navigating their life with passion and vitality. It give us hope, reclaiming ourselves will take work but if they can, we can.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, "to grow as a free creature" we must put "ourselves into occasions of the lush, the nutritive, the light." Like a child or someone we love we nurture our authentic spark within. The daily medicine will vary according to what she needs. Reassuring her when she feels unsafe. Soothing her when lonely or feeling discarded. Surrounding her with relationships that accept, support and encourage who she is and restoring her worthiness with our time and commitment. We will read, paint, write and tell her stories. Dance, swim and reconnect to nature that will nourish her aliveness. Other days she will rest and understands that just to exist is enough, accepting who she is without conditions to find belonging in the world.

We let go of what we once believed and valued and welcome these new way of being. This is our birthright. Rippling with vibrational energy we slip past the bars that have confined us for so so long. We take the path we have longed for...a boundless sky. Like a rare and beautiful bird, uncaged for the first time, we take off 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?