“Have you ever thought that maybe you have ADHD..?"

If you don’t have ADHD, you could think this was a terrible thing for your psychologist to say to you… but for me, it was the day that I finally felt like there WASN’T something wrong with me.

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My name is Michelle Lewis, I am a teacher with over 30 years experience. I have ADHD and am a mother to two ADHD children. Over these years I have taught thousands of students from Early Years to Secondary students on the APY lands in remote South Australia, Year 7s in a low socio-economic suburb south of Adelaide and currently as a Music and Digital Technology specialist teacher at an R-6 school in the south-west of Adelaide. Even as a teacher, I had always felt an affinity with the ‘naughty kids’ and it wasn’t until a late diagnosis of ADHD that things all started to fall into place.

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I absolutely love teaching and learning in all forms, having provided professional development to schools across many topics over the years. When I was diagnosed with ADHD I realised that my whole life had been unconsciously finding strategies for dealing with my ADHD; learning different things and becoming an expert in them seems to be one of the ways I find my dopamine fix. As a child I loved school and did well in the subjects I enjoyed but always  struggled with feeling not good enough or like I was trying to be something I wasn’t, all feelings I now know can be attributed to my undiagnosed ADHD. I always seemed to take things ‘too far’ or was ‘a lot’.

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I have created i.am.me as a way to educate teachers, parents and students about ADHD at a time when diagnoses are becoming more common yet the stigma around ADHD is still unbearable. I have found that many students with an ADHD diagnosis are being ‘protected’ by not being informed what that means for them. I have also found teachers with classes full of diagnosed and undiagnosed ADHD students are being given ‘tips for dealing with ADHD students’ that are relevant for some students but completely wrong for others, often making the situation worse.

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I have finally found the space where I don’t feel like an imposter as I can share lived experience while continually learning and discovering more about ADHD and how it affects me and everyone around me. I have already helped many people understand their own ADHD and am excited to ENLIGHTEN, EMPOWER and ELEVATE so many more to becoming confident advocates for ADHD understanding.