Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story | Jessica McCabe | TEDxBratislava

Me: crying because I can relate to her experiences Also me: get distracted by the comment section

The worst thing I've been told is that "you have potential".

" i had potential, though, so my failure was clearly my fault" my heart breaks

"i was tired of trying harder at life than everybody else and still falling farther and farther behind" is THE most relatable ADHD quote of all time

Shout out to everyone almost failing college, in spite of being interested in most subjects!

I really have to finish my paper instead of marathon watching ADHD videos.

I'm writing this from my car, by the side of the road, on my way to a meeting for which I am late, with tears steaming down my face. I am a 43 year old man and this talk just rocked me to my core! Thank you! Thank you... I really needed to hear that I am not alone and that there is hope... Your story is almost a carbon copy of mine... How did I miss this my whole life! Your talk has given me a clue and I now think I know where to start... Thank you so, so much!

I'm crying. Someone thousands of miles away understands me better than everyone I've met in my entire life. ❤from 🇮🇳

"we don’t think outside the box, we are not even aware there is a box" - that’s my favorite part ever!

When she said, “I worked harder than anyone I knew...So, my failure was clearly my fault.” I felt that.

Thank you for this. No one believed me when I finally voiced my suspicion that I had ADHD because I seemed like I had my life together. I was a "gifted" kid (I understood abstract maths concepts but I couldn't do basic arithmetic and never learned my times tables). I wasn't disruptive or hyper, I was shy and awkward (unless someone was interested in my interests, then I could talk forever). But I couldn't listen properly, I would daydream constantly about worlds in books and movies and games. As I got older the careless mistakes and inability to finish my assigned books started to cost me my grades. I am neat and organised from the outside (because if I'm not it all goes to chaos). I'm never late anymore (because I overcompensate). But inside my brain it feels like I'm constantly trying to carry around a kilogram of marbles with my bare hands, and they're dropping and rolling under things. And occasionally I spot one very pretty marble which mesmerises me and I focus on it for hours, forgetting about trying to carry all the others. This is the best way I can describe it for me.

I'm not going to lie, when she said "welcome to the tribe," I teared up and felt more at peace with who I am. I've been battling with this for years, thinking I wasn't working hard enough, and BAM! I can use this "defect" as a superpower!

Does anyone else with ADHD feel like it's hard to manage school because you have so much interest and passion with so many other things to the point where you're completely obsessed and you can't do both at once.

“But I was smart so nobody was worried” hits close to home Edit: It's Jan 2022 and I've finally got my diagnosis tomorrow, this was the first video of many that have led to where I am in my ADHD journey. I wish everyone luck with their own journeys too.

"It's brains that are chronically under aroused trying to get the basic level of stimulation all brains need." Writing this one down. This hits me hard...very hard.

I love how emotional she is and doesn't mind showing it on stage.

Most miserable thing about all of "this", is finding sudden ambition and then losing it just as quickly, and then thinking about it before trying to sleep, except the ambition kind of turns into, "WTF am I going to do?", and then sleep suddenly becomes an unaffordable luxury.

38 year old "tough guy" here... Just cried with happiness, feeling like I was accepted into a community through a fuckin smart phone. Shout out to my fellow Tribesmen! 😁

At 58 I learned I have ADHD. I have wrecked every relationship, every chance at a holding a mentor, every good job, every sport I’ve tried, every instrument I’ve started to learn, every half book (and there are tons of them) I’ve read, and every friendship I’ve ever had. Currently I have two part time jobs, no retirement, no friends, and an MA in English. This is my life with ADHD. But maybe today it will begin to turn around. It’s all I have.

Living with ADHD feels like you're always running out of time, and you know it's because you're trying to be so many things at the same time. Alas, you feel powerless to change it. Seeing others break the spell feels very liberating and is why talks like these are truly a godsend.