By Evis Zogaj.
Claire Twomey, a Professional and Advanced ADHD Coach, shares with BCFE students the strengths ADHDers possess in appreciation of their achievements during ADHD Awareness Month in October.
She explains how ADHDers have many strengths and advantages in Ireland and society.
Claire quotes, the Neurodiversity pioneer, Judie Singer’s and her work on Neurodiversity, sharing her message behind that “There is need for these types of brain in this world”.
She states that people with ADHD have the advantage of being able to “think outside the box and can look at things this way and come up with ideas”.
The ability to solve problems is ADHDers’ primary strength, according to Claire. She claims that one of her formidable skills is her ability to reason coherently. She argues that when there are individuals with diverse strengths, it can be challenging to be biased. She would, however, have significant business acumen when there is a “crisis” or “high-pressure” situation, such as the pandemic.
“I was on my feet. I was able to solve, able to plan, able to prepare and I would see this time and time again. Many of our clients are managers, Ceo’s, business owners… amazing abilities and achievements personally and professionally”. she says.
Aside from problem-solving, ADHDers also possess incredible skills of leadership, design and hyperfocus. Although she acknowledged how foolish she may have appeared, Claire tells a story of a period when she would have a passion for organizing and cleaning her friend Korina’s room.
“I loved everything having in place.” she adds.
In her profession with fashion and social care, she would have received feedback about this during workplace evaluations because she claimed to have skills that few people could match.
“In one of the social care settings I worked in we were doing a launch with Tulsa…and we had people talking, we had an activity corner with magician and stuff… the kids came from hundreds of miles to come and color and create things it was insane… my team were like what are we gonna do but I was like it’s grand relax, this is what we do. I loved it”. She shares.
She continues by stating that those who have ADHD possess a “strong sense” of justice and fairness. She believes that the main causes of this are being misunderstood and failing to realize one’s potential despite knowing that there is a plan in place for them. As a result of what was stated, she explained that she had a protracted cold in March 2020 that lasted six weeks. Her sense of justice and fairness caused her to later speak up to people about how she felt unwell. But unfortunately, they accused her of being a liar.
“Even though that people would tell me to go back to work and accusing me of lying. Even calling me a mad person, saying it was all in my head, I kept going. Because I knew that it wasn’t okay for me to be treated like this and I believed in myself… and today I hear TD’s saying, ‘this is true it’s not in their head’” she adds.
Claire sets out to ensure that because of their propensity for taking risks, ADHDers are a lovely group to be around.
“When I meet ADHDers they would often be struggling all the time and I would talk to them about the fact that they have gotten to where they are despite it being so difficult. ADHDers have this incredible ability to keep trying. To keep going… We wanna make things exciting because we need the dopamine … we really like to put a lot of moving back up the attention to detail in… We like things to be special and for people to enjoy them.” she shares.
If you want to get in touch with Claire, her website is www.internalconnections.ie.
For more details on ADHD and ADHD Awareness Month check out ADHDAwarenessMonth 2022 – Understanding a Shared Experience
The Student Social 