About Pete – Founder

Hi everyone, Welcome to my new website looking at Neurodiversity. Currently it is a bit sparse as I have just started it (Jan 4th ’22) and to be honest, I am learning as I go along, so please be patient with me! If you are interested in starting your own website please check this out: How I started my own website! | (siterubix.com)

About me

I am in my forties and was diagnosed with ADHD (non-attentive) around 2 years ago. I have always known that I am not like most people!

Growing up

With ADHD, especially nowadays, it can be fairly easy to see kids who are hyperactive / disruptive and presume they have this condition. I know personally that it is a long road to a diagnosis (I first went to the doctors when I was in my late teens and wasn’t taken seriously until I reached my 40’s when I finally had the confidence to insist they look into it). My school life was both good and bad, good because I was always decent at studying (while at school), bad because as I got older I found I couldn’t concentrate at home and struggled with homework / assignment deadlines etc.  Also, bad because I couldn’t make good friends as I was a bit of a loner and never part of the ‘it’ crowd! By the end of High School, when it was expected that I should achieve good GCSE’s, I scraped through, followed by 2 years at college where I scraped through and finally by around 4 months at Uni when I finally gave up with studying.

Work life…

My first proper job (after supermarket & pub work part time while studying) went quite well. I was promoted a few times as was to become a pattern, I left to do a job I thought I would enjoy more.  This didn’t work out, I then did exactly the same thing a few years later, got a decent job and left for a more interesting job that didn’t work out! I ended up back at a previous company, on a lesser contract but managed this time to make it work, sticking at it for around 4 years and completing technician training alongside it which gave me a way out that I was then qualified to do! I moved to a contracting company for around 6 years and then onto a permanent role with a Multi-National Company which is where I am now, 8 years with one company – wow – breaking new records every day 😊

My Neurodiversity

Like I mentioned at the start of this rant blog, I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. Although this was a massive shock to me and 2 years later I am still finding it hard to come to terms with, it does go some way to explain to me the reasons behind my actions both at school and at work when it came to homework and sticking at a job! My route to a diagnosis wasn’t straight forward with me getting to the point where I refused to take no for an answer and insisted I see a specialist! (and I am so glad I did!) The day finally arrived to see a Specialist called Maria, I attended with my partner as I wanted to make the most of this opportunity and to be sure I didn’t miss anything out while explaining how my life had been affected by this. Maria was amazing!! Not only, within an hour did she confirm that I had ADHD, she was able to explain how it was easy to miss with me as I have no external hyperactivity, leading to a more accurate diagnoses of Non-Attentive ADHD (often formerly known as ADD).

Amazing result or life destroying?

Honestly, I have found myself somewhere in between the two, excited to learn more about the condition, reading blogs, watching You Tube videos etc while at the same time becoming resentful that I wasn’t taken seriously earlier in my life and looking at how this has negatively impacted me, especially when it comes to my work life and disastrous decisions to bounce between massively different careers. Overall, I must admit that I am 100% happy that I pushed for the diagnosis, I now have the opportunity to learn more about ADHD and how massively undiagnosed it is with adults aged 40+, especially the Non-Attentive ADHD.

Can workplaces ever really  understand?

Since my diagnosis, I have thought hard about a conversation I had with Maria in regard to who I tell about this. Of course I told my close family and a couple of close friends, but she advised that I should not rush into telling others, especially my work colleagues / bosses as once this is out in the open then there is no going back. I kept up appointments with my specialist and these have been extremely helpful although they have caused a few issues with my workplace as my boss and the senior management were pressuring me to discuss the appointments with them. I kept this to myself until one day, after a training session with a trainer I had never met before, I ended up chatting after the course and opened up about my situation, asking her to keep this between us for now. Every week we were receiving e-mails about how Mental Health Matters, how inclusive the company is in regard to Neurodiversity’s and that they are always there to help and no-one will ever be discriminated against because of this.  We discussed how she had opened up to her boss about her situation which was similar to mine and what great support she had, so I decided to go for it and spoke to a Higher Level Manager who was extremely supportive and expressed how brave she thought I was being in coming forward to discuss this. I was passed onto the Senior Manager who had previously tried to pressure me into discussing this, but I thought it should be OK as I was making the decision to talk about it.  Wrong!  Basically, she had no interest in me or my condition, missed planned calls and left me feeling demoralised and frustrated.  She referred me to Occupational Health but they cancelled my appointment without telling me and she didn’t reply to my email requesting help in chasing this up. This is where I am now, I am hoping to put this site together and fill it with informative and useful information, both for the general public and businesses (even the one I work for!) to try and show that the stigma attached to Neurodiverse conditions isn’t warranted and by working with people, then we can be a benefit to both the workplace and the world at large 👍 I will look to update this later in the year, hopefully having improved the knowledge within the company I work for, both of those in charge and my colleagues. If you have any comments on any part of this, advice / suggestions or questions that I may be able to assist you with, please feel free to contact me at pete@weareneurodiverse.com or add a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can 😃 Thank you & take care, Peter w. weareneurodiverse.com e. pete@weareneurodiverse.com