授权多动症社区:问&A with Jessica McCabe, an Arrillaga Speaker at Castilleja
By the time Jessica McCabe was 18 months old, she spoke in full sentences. By 3rd grade, she scored in the range of a high school students on standardized tests
However, she constantly lost things and had trouble focusing. Then, in middle school, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And at 32, McCabe hit a low point: she was broke, divorced, living with her mom.
That’s when McCabe began to research her diagnosis and started a YouTube channel, 如何治疗多动症. ADHD倡导者, 麦凯布现在教别人这样做, 用她自己的话来说, “运用你的大脑, 不反对.“她在 《热门网赌软件大全》《国家地理, 今天.com; her viral ted演讲 有600万的浏览量.
Recently, McCabe came to speak to Castilleja students as the annual Arrillaga Speaker. 这个基金, 为了纪念弗朗西丝·阿利亚加而于1989年开始, 1988年劳拉·阿利拉格·安德森的母亲, brings speakers with valuable perspectives and life experiences to campus. McCabe’s visit represented and empowered the neurodivergent student community and, 同样重要的是, educated neurotypical students about neurodivergence.
We sat down with McCabe to ask her about her journey (interview edited for length).
What can people do to support their peers and loved ones with ADHD?
JM:问问题. There are a lot of assumptions that people make about people with ADHD, 像“哦, 她是脆弱的," or, “她不在乎. 她并不是真的在努力.“是的。omeone neurotypical shows up late, maybe they weren’t trying [to be on time]. People who don’t have ADHD often misunderstand the reasons why people with ADHD are doing those things. 与其假设，不如直接问. 比如“嘿，发生什么事了??" Maybe the person with ADHD actually got started two hours early because it was really important to them, 然后他们就分心了. 你永远不知道到底发生了什么. The best thing people can do to support their peers with ADHD is just ask about their experience. 然后相信热门网赌软件大全.
In your TEDx talk, you discuss how finding a community of others with ADHD felt very validating. 这对你的人生有什么帮助吗?
JM:[在], it felt like everybody else seemed to have figured out how to organize themselves and manage their time, I was the one person that hadn't figured it out. There was a lot of internalized ableism of "I should be able to do this, I’m smart, why can’t I?" Connecting with other people with ADHD did two things. 一个, 它使我的挣扎正常化，让我意识到, 好吧, 当你患有多动症时，这是正常的, 所以我并不觉得孤单. 这真的很正常. The other thing is it allowed [me] to see the positives in [myself] a little bit easier. I see how enthusiastic other people are or how excited they are to learn something new. 和有创造力的人在一起很有趣. 有很多能量和社会正义. It makes it easier to appreciate these traits in yourself when you see them in a positive light in other people.
JM:[在], it felt like everybody else seemed to have figured out how to organize themselves and manage their time, I was the one person that hadn't figured it out. There was a lot of internalized ableism of "I should be able to do this, I’m smart, why can’t I?" Connecting with other people with ADHD did two things. 一个, 它使我的挣扎正常化，让我意识到, 好吧, 当你患有多动症时，这是正常的, 所以我并不觉得孤单. 这真的很正常. The other thing is it allowed [me] to see the positives in [myself] a little bit easier. I see how enthusiastic other people are or how excited they are to learn something new. 和有创造力的人在一起很有趣. 有很多能量和社会正义. It makes it easier to appreciate these traits in yourself when you see them in a positive light in other people.
你能推荐一些好的吗, self-affirming messages people can embrace if they have been diagnosed with ADHD?
JM:你会有自己的感觉. There can be a grieving process that happens when you get diagnosed because, 突然, you’re having to filter all these experiences you had through a different lens. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeling that, honestly. But then you kind of want to develop a positive relationship with your ADHD. Of all mental health conditions, it’s probably the most treatable. (也), the divergent thinking that leads to our distractibility is also great for creativity, 创新之举, 创造性地解决问题. A lot of these ADHD traits are two sides of the same coin, there’s a lot you can do to flip that coin to the positive, 而不是消极的. The same traits that lead to our impairments often lead to some pretty great strengths.
