IntroductionHello, Brains!
You found my book! A BOOK! How did that happen? Well, first I had to write one. So why did I, someone with ADHD, do such a long and forever-taking thing? Because I lose and forget things, and what I have learned over the last seven years is too important to do that with. As I’ll explain in Chapter 1, my intention in starting the YouTube channel How to ADHD was to put everything I learned about ADHD in one place so that I could actually find it again when I needed it.
Well, it’s years later. Over the course of building the channel, I’ve developed a deep and detailed understanding of the invisible obstacles those with ADHD tend to run into, as well as our options for dealing with them. The (almost) weekly videos in which I’ve shared what I learned, every step along my journey, have helped me and millions of others learn to work with our brains, not against them.
In fact, my team and I have made so many videos that even I’m a little overwhelmed by the amount of information we’ve put together! Sometimes I wish I could just flip to a table of contents, or control-F my channel or my brain.
Until that is possible, I’m putting the most important information I learned—what’s been the most helpful for me and for my community—in a book. Something tangible, with a cover and a table of contents and an index. A reference to remind myself of a tool I can use when I’m feeling stuck. And if I accidentally leave it on the bus like half my school notebooks, I can just buy a new one—wherever I am in the world. (Hello, International Brains!!)
More importantly, though, I wanted to write a book that would give people the experience they’d have if they saw my TEDx Talk, binge-watched my videos, hung out in the comments section, and went to coffee with me. I wanted to give others, if I could, what I had found on my own journey: a deep understanding of how our brains work, a sense of solidarity, and a toolbox full of strategies tailored to the specific challenges we face in achieving what it is we set out to achieve. I wanted to make our invisible obstacles visible for as many people as possible, so we stop blaming ourselves for tripping over them and understand how to navigate them. And I wanted to do it all in one book.
It was an ambitious project, and I wasn’t sure how to make it happen. I was pretty sure it wasn’t even possible many,
many times while creating it. But I used the book I was writing to push me over the finish line—tapping into the tools, reading the ending anecdotes for each chapter when I felt discouraged, and . . . well, here it is!
What you are holding in your hands right now is the book I needed and didn’t have. Maybe it’s the book
you needed and didn’t have.
Think of this as a user’s guide to ADHD full of insights, research, strategies, and validation, one that both explains and embraces how our brains work. You won’t find definitive solutions for managing ADHD, but a menu of tools I’ve collected from the community, ADHD experts, lived experience, and research. You’ll also find deep dives into why we even need these strategies, so you can choose the ones that fit your unique life and brain. The information and strategies I share in these chapters are meant to empower those with ADHD, enlighten and support the efforts of those who love someone with ADHD, and be helpful and insightful for anyone who is simply human.
Copyright © 2024 by Jessica McCabe. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
