LIVING WITH ADHD – a brain that never sleeps
I have created a visual metaphor in the form of a garment to represent and educate how a woman living with ADHD feels in a structured society built for neurotypical people. Symbolically using the construct of an ill-fitting man’s suit to represent the confines of society, I have reworked, deconstructed and embellished the garment to show symbolically the traits of ADHD and the emotional challenges of a life spent trying to fit in.
Diagnosed late with ADHD, a lot of my symptoms were attributed to Dyslexia. This is not uncommon. With scientific bias, of the estimated 5.8% of the global population who have ADHD, girls are 3x less likely to be diagnosed than boys with a later diagnosis peaking at 8 in boys and 17 (like myself) in girls, with devastating consequences for their education and severe limitations on future career prospects and self-esteem.
To give first hand evidence of what living with ADHD in a neurotypical society is like, I took a risk and abandoned the process to create first hand evidence through a personal diary, in order to expose the unplanned, fragmented, and overly creative process of my brain, which results in blockages, procrastination, and self-doubt, threatening the very outcome it is trying to perfect. I translated this experience into the production of the garment. The outcome is deliberately jarring and unexpected, creative yet unfinished, disconcerting as the expected construct of the suit is still visible but changed.
My photoshoot taking inspiration from artists Paolo Roversi and Eduardo Asenjo Matus embodies the sensory overstimulation, saturation and overwhelm which is normal for people with ADHD to try and give a visceral insight through 2D 3D and personal evidence into what it is like to live with the condition.
