April Is ADHD Awareness Month… Which I Realized Mid-Distraction – No, It’s Not
I know this because I sat down to write about it… got distracted… and then remembered 45 minutes later while standing in the kitchen holding a spoon. No, it’s not. April is actually Autism Acceptance Month.
Fun fact: ADHD Awareness Month is in October. Which feels appropriate, because my brain apparently RSVP’d about six months late.
If you have ADHD, this probably feels familiar:
You start one task and somehow end up:
Answering a text
Reorganizing a drawer
Googling “Do penguins have knees?”
Wondering if you left the water running in the backyard—24 hours later.
Meanwhile, the original task is still sitting there like, “Hello? Remember me?”
People think ADHD means you can’t focus.
Oh no. We can focus.
Just ask anyone who has accidentally spent three hours researching the best planner to help them stay organized… instead of actually doing the thing they needed to organize.
ADHD brains don’t lack focus.
They just have too many interesting options.
It’s like opening 37 tabs in your brain at once. My brain goes into overload mode and I will not retain all that information—and honestly, with my Type A personality, I don’t even want it to.
I’m notorious for learning about 10 seconds of a song before my brain moves on; which can be annoying for the person listening to me sing the same thing over and over. Or trying to reference something and only being able to recall… part of it.
Like that little furry creature people mention when someone’s brain won’t stay focused. I can always remember the phrase. But sometimes I forget the actual animal.
I mean… how do you forget a “squirrel”?
Anyway, I digress.
My 37 tabs can be pure chaos—
Some are important.
Some are weird.
One is looping my 10 seconds of music.
But here’s the part people don’t talk about enough:
That same ADHD brain is also:
Creative
Curious
Imaginative
And very good at seeing connections others miss.
Yes, sometimes we forget our keys.
Or stare at the dog thinking she's going to confirm whether you fed her or not.
Or even why we walked into a room.
But we also bring energy, ideas, humor, and problem-solving that the world genuinely needs.
So this April, if your brain feels a little chaotic, remember this:
You’re not broken.
Your brain is just running a high-speed, curiosity-powered operating system. It may crash occasionally…
…but it also comes up with some pretty brilliant ideas.