Here's a story that I don't talk about & hopefully, you can help with it. Read to the end 🙌🏿

When I was 5, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD; at the time, little was known, and I was classed as "the naughty child" always acting out; I was suspended from school multiple times and left mainly at the back of the class, with teaching assistants or special ed.

I was one of the first to be put on medication that helped control the behavior; although it worked, it sent me backward mentally. At school, my reading age decreased over a year & It was noticeable that I wasn't "all there". In the end, I was in the hands of a dietician who tested different foods to see what I was tolerable to have. This helped for many years & as you get older, it was thought, or at least I thought you grow of it & learn to control ADHD.

Fast forward to two years ago, I started to question the way I was wired, why I was so impulsive, why I am addicted to anything I do & won't stop relentlessly, why I couldn't concentrate, why I performed so poorly in school but yet I excel in learning now, why all my relationships have broken down, etc.

The main question I had to dig deep for & for anyone that knows me well is, Why do I love to drink? I would drink casually (for me anyhow) 3-4 times a week, straight tequila on the rocks 🙌🏿. I drink to stop the relentless impulsiveness & little demon voices that tell me to keep moving at 100mph. The only things that can make me stop are my kids & also my quest for the Gym; if I don't go to the Gym, I 100% turn to the bottle as a coping mechanism.

All the above and more come from the conditions in ADHD & its well worth a read if you think you or your child could have it.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/adult-adhd/symptoms-causes/syc-20350878

Anyhow, in the last six/twelve months, like many, the bottle has become my best friend, and you only have to look at my previous post of me by the tree & you can see the pain in my eyes.

A complete mystery is how I got where I am today with all the trouble throughout my childhood! BUT with that being said, looking forward to the future, I want to complete dry January (shock horror). Not only for me but my family & friends, I want to get to the end of January and keep going and not slip back in my ways; I can only do that with accountability.

I would ❤️ to raise as much money as I can for The ADHD Foundation as not enough is done for this mental illness; little or large will make me accountable. I will double the amount that is raised.