Jan 15, 2024
Tomorrow, I have an appointment with my therapist.
There are quite a few subjects on my list to discuss with her, but ADHD has been on that list for a while. I haven’t brought it up before—obviously, for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned—but also because I always seem to let other things take precedence.
In a way, bringing up ADHD with my therapist is the very thing I’ve been procrastinating. The many other topics on my list, while valid and important, aren’t any more important than this big concern of mine. Talking about them feels productive—and it is—but I think, in some ways, I’ve been using that sense of productivity to distract myself. It allows me to put off something just as important and productive, but maybe a bit more uncomfortable.
It’s ironic when I think of it that way.
When I started writing about this, I didn’t know exactly where it would go. I had just published my very first book and wanted to keep up the momentum. My book is a self-help memoir called Choose Your Discomfort—a title inspired by my therapist, actually. In a nutshell, the idea of "choosing your discomfort" is about accepting that discomfort is inevitable in many circumstances, both positive and negative. This is particularly true when it comes to being vulnerable, speaking your mind, or making a change. If discomfort is unavoidable, then it’s up to you to choose which discomfort to engage with and how. You get to choose the discomfort that will serve you best in the long run.
So now, as I think about the discomfort I’ve been avoiding by not bringing up ADHD with my therapist, I have to wonder: Is avoiding this discomfort serving me? Or maybe, just maybe, choosing it could help reduce my discomfort in the future.
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