adhdawareness

I never learned how to be a friend in the way people expect.

So I give things.

Little offerings.

Snacks, coffee, books, a plant,

pieces of myself wrapped in gestures of care.

I do it without thinking. It’s the language my heart learned before words.

I thought kindness was the language of belonging.

I thought if I gave enough, maybe someone would open a window,

just a crack,

and let me in.

But they didn’t.

They took the gifts.

They smiled, said thank you,

and left me standing outside,

hands still full of love I didn’t know how to spend.

Later, I heard the laughter.

My name, my awkwardness,

the way I tried too hard, cared too loudly, loved too obviously.

They called it strange.

They called it unnatural.

But I was never cruel.

I was never false.

And if you’re like me,

if you love too visibly,

if you hand people pieces of your heart hoping they’ll understand,

please, listen.

You don’t need to trade your warmth for entry.

You don’t need to prove you’re worthy of care.

People will take what they don’t understand,

and they will call it too much.

Protect your warmth.

Guard it like a small fire cupped in your palms.

Let it burn for you first,

and for those who meet you gently.

The right ones won’t take it.

They’ll sit beside you, quietly,

and glow with you.

#Autism #ADHD #AutismAcceptance #adhdawareness #Neurodiversity #Masking #unmasking #MentalHealthAwareness #youareenough #pebbling

I speak four languages fluently: Spanish, Guarani, Portuguese, and English. In college, I even took a semester of French and wandered through Paris, piecing together phrases from memory, testing the limits of my tongue. But fluency is a fickle thing; it’s not just about words, but about being understood. And if that’s the case, have I ever truly been fluent in anything?

I was born in Paraguay, a country where Guarani only became an official language decades after I was already speaking it in secret. My mother forbade it at home. She wanted my Spanish to be perfect, untainted. To her, Guarani was a limitation. To me, it was a door—a door to belonging, to laughter, to a world just beyond my reach.

So I learned it quietly. A tiny act of rebellion. I found an old Guarani dictionary somewhere and poured over it like it held spells that could make me visible. I thought if I spoke their language, maybe they’d let me in.

But language does not guarantee belonging.

I learned Guarani because I wanted friends.

And still, I was alone.

I was the strange one: too much, too intense, too loud, too quiet, too wrong. I didn’t know why. There were no words for it then. Only rejection. Years later, I would discover that my mind works differently, that my thoughts race, that I feel too deeply, that I live in patterns others can’t see. Back then, I just knew I didn’t fit.

So I turned inward. If no one would talk to me, I would listen.

That’s how I learned Portuguese, not through friendship or school, but through solitude. My bedroom became my sanctuary, my television my only companion. Living near the Brazilian border meant six channels played freely, their voices filling the silence where friendship should have been. I absorbed the language the way I had with Guarani, not from rebellion this time, but from loneliness.

Guarani was the language I learned because I longed for connection.

Portuguese was the one I learned because I had none.

When I moved to the United States, English became my lifeline. I learned it the way someone learns to swim after being thrown into the ocean, desperately, without rhythm, without time to think. And still, no matter how many languages I collected, I kept finding myself misunderstood.

Fluency, I learned, is not the same as connection.

I could translate, conjugate, perfect every tense. But the rhythm of human interaction, the invisible rules of friendship, the easy art of belonging, remained foreign to me. So I searched for connection elsewhere, in love. I convinced myself that romance could fill the spaces friendship never did. But even there, I faltered. I was present, but distant. I loved, but I never stayed. The pattern followed me from cities to homes to jobs. I was always moving. Always searching.

And here lies the greatest irony of all: I speak multiple languages, yet I still struggle to communicate.

Not because I lack the words. I have too many words.

But I never learned the ones that make people stay.

The ones that make them understand me.

The ones that turn speech into belonging.

How do you say lost in every language?

Because that’s the word I’ve always known best.

#MyStoryMatters #sharingmytruth #breakingthesilence #unspokenwords #writingtoheal #neurodivergentvoices #adhdawareness #AutismAcceptance #invisiblestruggles #mentalhealthmatters #EndTheStigma #lostintranslation #languageandloneliness #youarenotalone #healingthroughwords #Findingmyvoice #fromsilencetostrength #writingthroughpain #multilingualmisfit #fluentbutmisunderstood #thepowerofwords

When people think of disabilities, neurodevelopmental conditions are often left out of the conversation. #AutismAwareness #adhdawareness #EndTheStigma #normalize

This is one of many hallmark symptoms of ADHD that is not documented in the DSM. Initiating tasks for people with ADHD can be filled with anxiety and frustrating, leading them to rely on external pressure that comes from a quickly approaching deadline.

Some people also report that once the task has finally started, hyperfocus and intrinsic motivation take over - making the completion of an assignment fun and satisfying.

Being #diagnosedasanadult I never knew this was associated with ADHD but now after research and starting cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT), I am learning new skills that may be helpful for others.
Tip #1 : Create a warm-up routine to prepare for a task.

Start with an easy task like making coffee/tea, washing your face, setting up an area to start your task without starting it (getting pens or pencils or plugging in your laptop)

Physical movement! Stretching or walking to your desk or area where your task needs to be completed then walking to another room a few times.

Hype yourself up. Find something motivating about the task even if it doesn't interest you. If you don't feel like working out, remember how you feel after your workouts. If you don't want to do a school assignment, think about what it will do for your grades and opportunities once you graduate just by getting this one assignment done.

Remember to "rinse and repeat" it's a ritual for a reason! Do it every day.

#adhdawareness
#executivedysfunction
#AdultADHD