Okay, I’m going to be serious for a moment, which is not easy for me to do. Partly because my personality is made of 40% sarcasm, 50% optimism, and 10% serious-impaired.
Which mostly means I laugh at everything, but especially in totally inappropriate situations (I have to apologize to strangers when I do, like it’s a tic or something.) And if anything remotely serious is going on, I’ll try to make a joke of/about it. And, I legit tried to find another word to use than serious so I didn't use it three times in two paragraphs, but nothing else really fit.
None of which has anything to do with what I wanted to tell you about.
Mental Health is important to me, but it’s not always something I talk about. In part because (way back) when I was first diagnosed with ‘chronic depression’ and ‘generalized anxiety disorder’ it WASN’T something you talked about. Even as I type this, I’m not sure if I will include it.
But anyway, recently I was diagnosed with ADHD, which I laughed at. Since I always assumed that a) it was a kid thing and I’m old, b) it made you hyper and I’m just fidgety, and c) you can’t focus with ADHD and I tend to hyper-focus.
And I was wrong on so many levels.
Turns out, not only do I have it, but ADHD is something EVERYONE talks about. And, like, a bazillion people have. And it’s been incredibly freeing to be able to talk about. Which makes me wonder how my life may have been different had it been the same way with depression and anxiety.
All of which to say, and here's the serious part, if you ever need a support system, reach out to me. I may not always respond immediately, but I will respond. And, I may not always know the right thing to say, but I will say something. And it will probably be inappropriate, but I will then laugh about it, just to make it worse. Hell, maybe you'll laugh about it too.
I’m here, friend.
So, if you’re looking for support, reach out. And if you want to offer support, also reach out. And we’ll all connect and meet new friends and it will be awesome!
*This is an excerpt from my newsletter