A Story About a Lion and Some Sheep

By Kelly Morris

/www.linkedin.com/in/kellymorrisconsult/

Today a lady told me she didn't believe in ADHD. "We don't need labels," she said. "We're all just on one big spectrum. I don't think you have ADHD at all." she smiled after 5 minutes of meeting me. 😬

She was trying to come from a good place, so I'm not here to rant at her ✌ but it's a view shared by many and damaging.

She's right. Humans are different. A bit like breeds of dogs are different. But some of us are completely different animals altogether.

So, I'm going to give my well-meaning neurotypical connections an animal analogy and ask that you stick with me on this 🙏

Imagine you're an animal living in a field with other animals. You each have a head, a body, four legs, and fur coats.

You spend all your time trying to eat, sleep, talk, and behave like them.

You're constantly told you're different. You can't understand why, no matter how hard you try, you can't behave like them.

They soon become annoyed, frustrated, and angry with you.

They believe you look the same and were raised by the same farmer in the same environment. There's no reason why you can't think and behave the same way they do. You're doing it by choice and are attention-seeking.

You feel exhausted, constrained, misunderstood, lonely, and worthless.

One day, you pluck the courage to confide in the farmer. He explains that you're actually a lion 🦁 and have been living in a field of sheep. 🐑

Because he loves all animals and hates labels, he put you in the same field as the sheep and fed you the same food because that's equality, right?

You explain that you're bored. You feel like a caged animal. Everyone judges you and tells you off. The more constrained you are, the more frustrated you feel and the more likely you are to "misbehave."

You suggest you might be so different from the sheep that you need a new environment and different things.

The farmer disagrees. "You've got a big heart; you're strong and fiercely loyal. I think you're amazing just as you are and you're fine where you are. If you could learn to "baa" instead of roar, trot instead of sprint and give grazing a go again, the others might warm up to you a bit more."

 With that, you had enough. You let out a roar and, in your anger, "bit off the farmer's head."

Lions need to learn they are different. Then they can read the lion manual instead of the sheep manual and better navigate their lives.

It's also vital that others acknowledge and accept lions, and stop making judgments about them.

It's even better if they read the lion manual, too, so we don't have to keep explaining ourselves and won't bite their heads off in our frustration. 🙃

Learning I had ADHD was a life saver. ✌Learning I was a lion and not a sheep saved my life.