352 | The Beginning of An ADHD Journey with Natasha Hickling

"Have you ever needed someone to talk and discuss some strategies for handling things around your ADHD? Listen as your host, Eric Tivers, and his guest Natasha Hickling discuss the beginning of her ADHD journey and the small online support group she has started, plus much more on this episode of ADHD reWired.

Natasha is a twenty-eight-year-old primary school teacher from the U.K. For the last four years, she has traveled around the world working in Australia, China, and is now in Malaysia. Besides being a trained primary school teacher, she is also a SENCO; a Special Education Needs Coordinator at a school in Kuala Lumpur.  

Listen as Natasha discusses the challenges she faced in school and how she felt like she was two different people, the person she was at home vs. the person she became at school. Natasha also shares her experience running a marathon in her apartment during the pandemic quarantine and why she felt she needed to do it.

Additionally, Natasha shares what led to her getting the formal diagnosis of ADHD eight months ago and the strategies she found that helped her through her post-grad years. Natasha speaks about the online community she created and why she felt it was so important to be able to talk about ADHD with people like herself. Natasha is a unique individual, and what she has gone through in her life will probably resonate with many of you, so definitely listen to the conversation.

You'll learn:

• [03:12] Welcome to the show, Natasha!
• [03:23] Natasha was diagnosed with ADHD about eight months ago.
• [04:27] Natasha shares her life growing up and how academics got harder the older she got.
• [06:37] She discusses being two people, the person she was at home and the person she became at school under peer pressure.
• [09:00] Natasha speaks about running a marathon while she was in quarantine in Malaysia for charity.
• [12:13] Natasha discusses the book her sister would read to her when she was fourteen about children that were different called The Indigo Children.
• [15:08] Realizing that there were children like her was very powerful to her.
• [23:19] After being diagnosed with OCD and Anxiety and getting a deeper understanding of yourself, what did you do next?
• [26:25] Natasha shares what CBT was like for her.
• [27:09] Eric describes what exposure and response prevention, CBT based therapy is.
• [29:20] Natasha discusses what led to getting the formal ADHD diagnosis.
• [32:15] She shares how hard school was, how getting into the vocational core helped her.
• [38:15] Once you found out you had dyslexia, what did you do?
• [39:10] Natasha shares how dyslexia shows up for her.
• [40:15] Natasha speaks about what dyspraxia is.
• [42:46] She discusses some strategies she found helpful to get her through post-grad.
• [45:58] What do you do now for self-soothing?
• [47:12] Eric shares what can help if you are an inconsistent mediator.
• [48:55] Natasha speaks about the online community she started.
• [50:33] What has surprised you about organizing something like this?
• [54:42] Natasha shares some final words with the listeners.
• [55:06] Natasha, thank you so much for sharing your story.
• [55:58] If you are a regular listener, consider becoming a patron click on our Patreon tap at www.ADHDreWired.com

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