Meet Coach Sarah

Hi, my name’s Sarah and I have ADHD. I tell you this first, because I want you to know that when you’re working with me as your ADHD Life Coach, I get it, and I’m on this journey with you. I’ve walked the walk, both undiagnosed and diagnosed, and even if we have different symptoms and challenges, I can totally understand and support you wherever you are in your ADHD journey.

I’m also an engineer, a high level athlete, a wife, a mother of two thriving ADHD kids and a business owner and yet I still struggled to feel successful and find purpose.

 

I didn’t get into ADHD Life Coaching right out of school, but I didn’t even know that I had ADHD at that time! I was born and raised in a small village in England. My childhood was pretty normal; a quiet child who did fairly well in school, played lots of sports and didn’t cause too much trouble, leaving home at 18 to study Chemical Engineering. University was a big challenge – the work was more demanding than school had been and playing varsity sport as well meant that I was always struggling to find enough time to get everything done, but I survived, just about! A couple of years after graduating from university, in the span of a month, I got married, changed jobs and moved house….to Canada! Who says ADHD’ers can’t get things done???

Back then, ADHD wasn’t even on my radar, in fact it would be another ten years or so before I realized that it was a significant part of my life. Playing sport has always been important to me and it was while playing soccer that I blew the ACL in my right knee and in an instant everything changed. While waiting for knee surgery my life began to spiral and a diagnosis of anxiety and depression was soon to follow. Other stresses were building at that time too. With two kids in elementary school there were lots of extra-curricular activities to attend to and my husband and I were both running a business and working full time – not an unusual scenario in the 21st century, but the wheels were getting a little wobbly and showing signs of coming off. In the midst of the chaos, we could see that our daughter was also struggling and so we reached out for help….


One of the assessments we were given to complete, a “Parental ADHD Questionnaire”, was intended to capture our observations of her behaviours. I dutifully began filling it in, checking off boxes and thinking “yes, she does that, but that’s normal”, “yup, she does that too, but who doesn’t?”, “yes, of course she does, everyone does that, don’t they?” And so it went on until about half way through the questionnaire when the penny finally dropped…. “I think these behaviours are normal because I do them too!”

So, in short, my daughter and I were both diagnosed with ADHD within weeks of each other. My son has also been diagnosed with ADHD. We all have different challenges and manage our ADHD in different ways but we’re all still learning and striving to be the best ADHDers that we can be!

 

For a number of years after diagnosis I simply medicated for my ADHD; life was better than before and I no longer needed to medicate for my depression and anxiety, but I still wasn’t firing on all cylinders and something was definitely amiss. Then I started learning as much as possible about this condition and how best to manage my ADHD. After many years (and some help from a councillor or two) I think I have things pretty well figured out now. Understanding my ADHD has also helped me to make sense of my childhood and youth; I realized that when I was struggling it wasn’t because I was lazy or stupid (things I regularly told myself as a teenager) but that it was simply because my brain works differently to neurotypical brains. It wasn’t bad or wrong, it was simply just different in a world not designed for different.

I’m a classic case of late ADHD diagnosis while my children were both diagnosed in elementary school. I’ve lived the struggle of undiagnosed ADHD and witnessed the difference it made for my kids to have had an early diagnosis. These life experiences helped me realize that I wanted to guide other people through the challenges of learning to manage their ADHD, to help them overcome their personal barriers and work to break down the stigma that still exists around this very manageable condition. I honestly believe that ADHD isn’t a disorder, but a superpower that is waiting to be revealed.

I’ve now found my purpose and would love to support you or your loved ones take the next steps in understanding and taking control of ADHD and driving toward becoming supernormal!