- Intersectionality.
Intersectionality is the interconnected nature
of social categorizations,
such as race, class, and gender.
And this includes neurodiversity like ADHD.
When someone is Black and has ADHD, for example,
they are experiencing intersectionality.
Examples of these factors include gender, sex,
race, sexuality, disability, physical appearance, and ADHD.
I interviewed a few of my friends to get their thoughts
on their personal intersectionalities.
Let me share some of their thoughts with you.
- I'm a big proponent of neurodiversity,
and ADHD is another aspect of intersectionality, right?
So I'm a Black man,
and I live in the south, and I have two master's degrees,
I'm a licensed clinical mental health counselor.
These are all aspects of my identity,
just as my ADHD is an aspect of my identity.
And that means different things for everyone.
So we have different combinations of these identities.
So the first thing is,
recognize all the aspects of your identity.
There are strengths within those,
and in society we all know
that there's areas of discrimination,
and we need to be upfront about that, right?
How is this going to impact me during a job search?
What do I really need to understand?
How do I need to present myself?
What are my values?
What do I really want?
So one of the big things for me is,
I'm not going to work for an organization
that's not going to value diversity,
that's not going to value equity,
that's not going to value social justice type work, right?
So that's very important.
Whether it's for profit or nonprofit
- First off, we can see I'm a woman.
So as a woman, you know,
people expect us to be kind of well behaved.
We're supposed to sit still.
And because I didn't used to sit still
it made it really difficult
because everybody would say,
"Why can't you just be a good girl?"
And for a long time, I would blame myself.
But obviously today I've learned ways to channel myself.
And obviously I am Chinese, I'm Asian, right?
And so with that again,
it's the expectation of being a good girl,
of being self spoken.
And so, again, the older you grow,
the more responsible you become.
When you have all these routines and discipline,
then you don't have to prove anything to anyone.
So that's really important.
And then of course, like other identities, I'm a doctor.
I hold a doctorate in a clinical psychology.
So I'm a clinical psychologist
and a coach for leaders around the world.
So that's another one of my identities.
And you know, one thing I want to say is that
while people with ADHD,
or people who are neurodivergent
sometimes see themselves as disabled,
okay, this is what has been used so often.
What I want to say is that, no, actually
we have a lot of gifts that we can maximize and leverage.
And we can actually achieve success in this role.
- So I am queer.
I am a fat woman.
I spend a lot of time,
I work in diversity and inclusion like that.
I have built my career around intersectionality
and around creating these spaces
for people to show up as themselves.
But oftentimes what happens is in some of these spaces,
not every element of myself is allowed to show up.
So in some spaces, I can, like my ADHD is honored,
and respected, and people want to understand it.
And they'll ask as many questions as I will.
And in other spaces,
I kind of have to pretend like that doesn't exist,
and center other parts of who I am.
I think it's also like,
I am very fortunate to have access to resources.
I have to medication.
I have access to healthcare.
I have the knowledge of the fact that I even have ADHD.
There are so many people, especially women,
ADHD gets diagnosed in boys and men a lot younger
than in women because it shows up quite differently.
- Well, I think the biggest, now most obvious impact,
like in the long term of speaking of how it impacts my life,
is always kind of feeling like you have to
prove your intelligence when you walk into a room
in that intersectionality between
the association with like your skin color
and your intelligence.
But then on top of that, you've got like this association,
and especially if it's undiagnosed,
with like your attention and behavioral issues
or disciplinary issues,
as they're perceived with a lot of people
who have an undiagnosed ADHD.
But like I've all only recently actually been
able to give it language,
that feeling that you have when you walk into a room
and you interact with someone for the first time,
and you can kind of feel their hesitation,
or their assumptions about your intelligence.
- I hope these insights help you understand
the complexity and experience of ADHDers.