Why I don't identify as ADHD

And why I never will again.

“I think, therefore I am” is wrong!

Rene Descartes’ clearly lived his entire life addicted to his own thoughts.

He never once asked, who am I who hears the thoughts?

Michael Singer knows the truth. In The Untethered Soul he wrote “you are not the voice of the mind, you are the one who hears it”.

Why it matters: every thought, every emotion, every atom in the universe is external to us and yet we identify with them all.

• We buy products to enhance our identity. Advertisers know this, so prey on our base desires.

• We identify with our thoughts. We believe our thoughts are us. We believe what they say. And we act upon them.

• We identify with our emotions. Our emotions signal to the mind that something feels right (but often wrong) and our mind tells us how to act on them — often to disastrous consequences.

We identify with what we see. But we never question who we truly are.

We never ask the most important question of all: Who am I, the one who hears, the one who sees, the one who feels?

What does this have to do with ADHD: even if ADHD lives in the mind and the body, it can only ever be external to who we truly are.

We are the awareness looking at the mind, at emotions, at our body.

Therefore we are awareness looking at a part of us that has ADHD.

When you come to understand what I’m talking about you will realise that it is 100% impossible that our awareness has ADHD.

It is the fact that we have ADHD that our awareness is constantly distracted.

Therefore, we are not the one with ADHD, we are the one looking at a part of us that has ADHD.

It’s a subtle, yet extremely important, difference.

Conveying this truth in words is difficult because the awareness (who we truly are) is not the part of us that thinks. So it’s not something we can think about.

It’s something we experience.

One way to experience this is through meditation. Psychedelics work too.

Final thoughts: some people with ADHD get upset when I talk about this. I understand why.

They deeply identify with ADHD. They believe it is who they are (not just a part of them) and therefore they believe I’m attacking them directly — I assure you that’s not my intention.

I used to believe that too.

Then two years ago I realised I am not my mind, I am not my body and I am definitely not my ADHD.

The moment I realised it, a certain freedom came over me. Not freedom from ADHD. But a freedom from the mind that has caused me so many problems.

That freedom is still present to this day.

I have deep compassion for their experience.

Before I realised this, I’d have been upset if someone said what I’ve written above.

But I had to write it.

Firstly, because it’s true.

Secondly, because everything I write is from my own experience. All my advice is autobiographical and your mileage may vary.

If your experience of ADHD is not as I’ve explained, that’s fine. It’s just the way it is. And the way it is is the way it is — reality.

This topic is quite esoteric, but I’m keen to hear your thoughts so drop a comment below and let’s start a conversation…

🧘🏼‍♂️

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I’m talking in Brighton on 14th June

Learn the Toolkit I use to manage ADHD with skills (not pills).