Mental Health Without the Bullshit – Entry #3

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. If you need help, I STRONGLY encourage you to seek it, and you can start here. This series of blog posts is me candidly sharing my deeply personal experiences with you (with some tears along the way).

Living with ADHD Is Like Having 47 Browser Tabs Open—All the Time

Except one of them is playing music you can’t find, three are frozen, and none of them are the one you need to be working in.

That’s life with ADHD.

Now take that brain, drop it into a world that never turns off, and what do you get?

Exhaustion. Frustration. Shame. Burnout.
And a lot of people quietly breaking under pressure.

ADHD Isn’t a Quirky Superpower

Let’s kill that myth right now. Although I’ve said many times that ADHD can be a superpower, I think this is only true when it’s properly managed.

Yeah, sometimes we hyperfocus and get a ton of stuff done. Sometimes we’re creative as hell. But other times?

• We forget basic things.
• We miss deadlines we care about.
• We chase dopamine like addicts.
• We can’t sit still even when our body is begging for rest.

It’s not fun. It’s not cute. It’s work—every damn day—just to function in a world that was built without us in mind.

The World Is Not Made for Neurodivergent Brains

We live in a world that glorifies being “always on.”
Push notifications, Slack pings, endless meetings, 10 open projects, and the expectation that we never drop the ball.

For the ADHD mind, it’s like being inside a blender.

We’re told to:

• Prioritize everything (impossible)
• Stay focused for hours (hilarious)
• Plan months ahead (sure, let me just find my calendar… wait, what was I doing again?)

This nonstop pressure isn’t just hard—it’s harmful. It chips away at our self-esteem, makes us question our value, and traps us in cycles of anxiety, guilt, and shame.

We’re Tired of Trying to Be “Normal”

Here’s the thing that most people don’t get:
People with ADHD usually know exactly what needs to be done—we just can’t always get ourselves to do it.

It’s not laziness. It’s not irresponsibility.
It’s an executive function disorder.

We beat ourselves up constantly for things that neurotypical people do without even thinking:

• Returning emails
• Paying bills on time
• Following a to-do list
• Sitting through a 90-minute meeting without screaming inside

You start to internalize the message:
“I’m broken.”

But you’re not.
You’re just trying to run new software on hardware that wasn’t designed for it.

What Actually Helps

So what do you do when your brain isn’t built for the 24/7 grind?

You build your life around what works for you—not what works for the system.

Some things that have helped me (when I remember to actually use them):

• Time blocking (with ridiculous amounts of buffer)
• Alarms for everything
• Visual task boards
• Work sprints with strict breaks
• Saying “no” to things I can’t mentally carry
• Accepting that some days will be wildly productive, and some will be dumpster fires

Also: therapy. Medication. Movement. Real food. Real sleep. Real rest.
And sometimes? Just letting yourself off the damn hook.

You’re Not Alone, and You’re Not Broken

ADHD isn’t a flaw—it’s a different way of experiencing the world.
And in this 24/7, hyper-distracted, always-connected society?
It’s no wonder we’re struggling.

But we don’t have to keep pretending we’re fine.
We don’t have to live by other people’s rules.
We don’t have to fit into a mold that was never made for us.

We can build new systems.
We can speak up.
We can stop apologizing for how our brains work.

We can thrive.
But first, we have to stop pretending we’re not drowning.