Together stronger. Busting the stigma of ADHD

Wowee what a week!

Last Saturday we gathered at Holiday Inn in Borehamwood for our event ‘Rethinking ADHD’ and we had an incredible morning of learning, sharing and support.

I was delighted that parents had travelled some distances to be with us, namely; Marlow, Portsmouth, Northampton and Oxford and gave up their precious weekend time. I received some fabulous feedback.

It was humbling to meet so many parents who all seem to be saying the same thing:

Our children are struggling. We are not being listened to.

Harry Thompson is an eloquent speaker and talks using the most vivid analogies that helped us understand what it’s like to experience an ADHD brain. He described his jumbled thoughts like a “mouse being picked up an eagle, being flown some distance, dropped then had to scurry back to the starting place…only for the process to repeat itself over and over again”.

He described school as an “institution where his creativity was stifled”

And it got me thinking about the benefits of ‘Together Stronger’

These past 2 days I have been in Liverpool at the ADHD Foundation conference. And all I can say is watch out world because here we come! Team ADHD is on it! We are ready and we are willing to work hard to make this happen.

We heard personal accounts of living with ADHD from Rory Bremner and the Scottish MP Daniel Johnson. We heard from Jo Plat MP who is chairing the All Party Parliamentary Group which is looking into education, clinical care and the criminal justice system.

We heard from top scientists and clinicians who are studying the effects of sleep, omega 3 and melatonin. We heard the benefits of mindfulness and techniques to help with anxiety and promote good mental health. We saw great examples of schools who get it. Overall hours of listening to top professionals talk about the need to take ADHD seriously. Because if we don’t the statistics point to too higher rates of mental health problems, being in the criminal justice system or the cruelest price to pay, suicide.

So I am putting this out there…Let’s do this together. Rory Bremner urges successful people in business, in the arts, in sports, in the media, in politics to proudly declare that they too have ADHD.

Go on Twitter. Follow me @soli_yellowsun. Follow Jo Platt, Rory Bremner, Carrie Grant, Daniel Johnson, ADHD Foundation. And many more.

Tweet about the difficulties your child is experiencing. Tweet about the successes. Let’s remove the stigma of ADHD. Let’s make this a public conversation.