Thread by @phantas

Bar Wotever @BarWot is back!, and I missed it and @thervt so much! 💜🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

But I want to talk about one of the performances - by @MonsiuerC - and #ADHD 1/
#barwotever #queercabaret #drag #dragkingsofinstagram

Closing @BarWot performances yesterday, @MonsiuerC said “See? This is what you get with me. A chaotic [1]” and the room cheered loudly and I thought “Yes! This is ADHD!” 2/

[1] forgot the rest, sorry, but it was good!

They took us on a whirlwind journey of laughter and empathy, politics, mental health - therapy and surviving on benefits -, family and black vs queer community issues.
And everyone agreed: it was brilliant and magnificent. 3/

And that is the story untold when you search ADHD on Wikipedia or NHS. Words like “learning disability”, “inattentive” and “impulsive”, while true!, suggest deficiencies and mask the genius that can come from that neuro diversity and a brain that quickly fires through subjects 4/

Yesterday I searched for resources about Adult ADHD to share with a colleague about working together and raining in my tangents.
(should have bookmarked! Did I bookmark any of the good ones?!) 5/

Meanwhile another colleague said “it comes to our advantage” (thank you! 💚) while I moaned that I needed to spare my throat and head because of a cold but was struggling to stay quiet and not contribute so much in a meeting. 6/

And meanwhile the resources I found all spoke of “poor organisational skills”, “inability to focus or prioritise”, “forgetfulness” and “lack of attention to detail”. “Difficulty keeping quiet” and “blurting out responses”.
And it’s not that this is wrong… 7/

But what it doesn’t show is how coping skills and channeling the neuro diversity also means: “methodical”, “a great tech lead”, “quick problem solving”, transparent, being good at planning, communicating, and leading a project to meet a critical deadline. (from feedback) 8/

And I am not saying that everyone with ADHD is like that (of course not!) and that we don’t struggle. Diagnosis requires symptoms to be “persistent and significantly interfere with major life activities and/or result in significant suffering” 9/

My point is a positive spin - not something that is bad and needs to be fixed - and working together in adapting and channeling energy, means ADHD can also make you great at what you do. Like @MonsiuerC . 10/

And last: Everyone is Different! Like my grandma used to say: “the normal is to be abnormal”. 💚

And be kind to you and others.