Samesh*tdifferentbrain Podcast

I recently conducted an Instagram poll to see how many of my ADHD followers had ever gone sober or had cut down their alcohol consumption…90% of respondents said they had. 🧠

See the images for why that response was no coincidence. 🍺

I'm not saying any of my respondents necessarily struggled with a severe dependency or alcohol addiction (my poll didn't ask that).

However, the data around ADHD and alcohol dependency tells us a lot about the relationship between the condition and the substance; and why many of us with ADHD struggle with the effects of drinking.

Remember that correlation is not causation, however, there are *so many* people with ADHD talking about sobriety or changing their relationship with alcohol. 🧠

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen either:

🍹⚡️ Going sober and then getting diagnosed with ADHD, once they get to know themselves better / isolate symptoms from alcohol use, or

🍹⚡️ Finding out they have ADHD at some point in their life, then stopping or reducing drinking later down the line.

Find out more about my upcoming live event with .fromco founder .karl, on this very topic. 🥂💥

I’ll interview him about his recent ADHD diagnosis and his sobriety journey; and how beating his own addiction led to opening Manchester’s only alcohol-free bar, which has been making national headlines and caused a social revolution. 🔥🪩

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adhd-sobriety-how-to-start-your-creative-ideas-tickets-876683693527?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyur

Do you feel the love today? Or does it feel kind of difficult to detach from the pervading sense of terror, given what’s going on in the world?

You’re not alone if you’re struggling.

In my intro to the first Same S**t, Different Brain event, How to Make Friends and Find Communities (pictured), I said:

“It just feels like being nice to each other has gone out of fashion.”

I know this sounds twee. But it was 2022 and it seemed the whole world was arguing over this and that, anything and everything. If you went online, you saw relentless mocking and bickering over vaccines, transphobia really starting to pick up steam in the mainstream, and increasingly upsetting news around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So many people were still lonely and in need of connection after the pandemic. Yet the culture wars (and literal wars) were fuelling further disconnection, giving more people than ever the mic to air heated views and attack each other for the most minor disagreements.

It wasn’t all bad. I’d seen how social media could be used for good and how people had started to find like-minded others online, discovering the power of local communities and turning virtual friendships into real-life connections once lockdown ended.

I wanted more people to know there was hope, and hear from speakers at my event about their wonderful work in bringing people together. Because no matter what’s going on globally, we have to zoom in too and see how we can be of value in the communities around us. Do our bit to challenge hate, yes, but resource ourselves first and then we can support others.

Fast-forward to this week and yet more people are divided. Arguing viciously over, e.g, whether people should be posting images from Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Horrifying though this week’s events are (desperately, unfathomably horrifying, make no mistake), there’s no way anything is helped by adding to the hate.

Nobody’s obligated to feel anything around Valentine’s Day, except maybe Moonpig. But why not take it as a prompt to, at the very minimum, allow ourselves to disconnect from worry briefly and do one thing to show ourselves some love. Because god knows the world needs more of that. 💘

Get in the bath and see your silly little ideas through, people 🛀

(If you don’t, Stevey B surely will.) 😘