When I was diagnosed as ADHD in November I read a lot about the ‘masking’ I’d been doing all my life. I didn’t really get it as it was my normal and not a conscious act.

Recently I said to my partner that the signs/traits are all ‘out there’ a lot more now and wondered why and she said that I was no longer masking (she is a psychotherapist!) and it stopped me in my tracks.

I’m embracing my real self more now, being silly in the house and joking around more with a lightness of being I have struggled with. I’m laughing at my differences like forgetting an instruction given within the last 2 minutes or forgetting an important appointment, breaking a glass in the most dramatic and unlikely way etc. That is what I now understand as unmasking, embracing all of the chaos and no longer getting upset about it or pretending it didn’t happen. Coming up with implausible reasons for forgetting or breaking something and owning it.

Wearing a mask to the world is exhausting and confusing as you are never truly comfortable in your own skin, with awareness you get the gift of being able to be yourself, unapologetically.

Don’t get me wrong, I still feel embarrassed when I slip up but I am accountable for it, can understand it and I don’t tell myself off or call myself awful names.

Let the mask go, and encourage others to help you to do this and embrace who you really are (btw, the handsome devil in the photo isn’t me!)

Good luck 🤞