Samesh*tdifferentbrain Podcast

09/04/2024

I recently conducted an Instagram poll to see how many of my ADHD followers had ever gone sober or had cut down their alcohol consumption…90% of respondents said they had. 🧠

See the images for why that response was no coincidence. 🍺

I'm not saying any of my respondents necessarily struggled with a severe dependency or alcohol addiction (my poll didn't ask that).

However, the data around ADHD and alcohol dependency tells us a lot about the relationship between the condition and the substance; and why many of us with ADHD struggle with the effects of drinking.

Remember that correlation is not causation, however, there are *so many* people with ADHD talking about sobriety or changing their relationship with alcohol. 🧠

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen either:

🍹⚡️ Going sober and then getting diagnosed with ADHD, once they get to know themselves better / isolate symptoms from alcohol use, or

🍹⚡️ Finding out they have ADHD at some point in their life, then stopping or reducing drinking later down the line.

Find out more about my upcoming live event with .fromco founder .karl, on this very topic. 🥂💥

I’ll interview him about his recent ADHD diagnosis and his sobriety journey; and how beating his own addiction led to opening Manchester’s only alcohol-free bar, which has been making national headlines and caused a social revolution. 🔥🪩

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adhd-sobriety-how-to-start-your-creative-ideas-tickets-876683693527?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyur

03/04/2024

So excited for this 🤗✨ Join me, Rebecca Ryder, and Love From founder, Karl Considine, at .fromco for a live podcast discussion and workshop on ADHD, sobriety and unlocking creativity 💡

Are you curious to hear more about ADHD and the related impact of alcohol? Have you felt stuck around reaching your creative potential? We’ve got you. Grab yourself a welcome cocktail and take part in this live podcast and interactive workshop, where we’ll be guiding you to bring your creative ideas to life. ⭐️

I’ll interview Karl about his recent ADHD diagnosis, how his journey to sobriety intersects with that, and his founder story of opening Manchester’s first alcohol-free bar. Ultimately, Karl’s sobriety led him to create a whole new life and a successful business - and we want to help you get inspired too. 💫

Come connect with like-minded people, share your ideas, and gain valuable insights to unlock your creative potential. ⚡️

Tickets via Eventbrite; link below 🎟️ We can’t wait to see you! 💛

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adhd-sobriety-how-to-start-your-creative-ideas-tickets-876683693527?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

01/04/2024

It’s the first day of Stress Awareness Month 🤍

I’m passionate about sharing one of the practices that’s been pivotal for me since starting Same S**t, Different Brain, becoming more knowledgeable about mental health and personal growth ☁️🧡🧘‍♀️

After qualifying as a breathwork facilitator last year, I’m now offering local classes and other upcoming events to be announced. Follow The Loud Quiet for more 🤍

31/03/2024

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, so we’re celebrating the trans community’s proudest moments 🏳️‍⚧️🥰

Being an ally to trans people has always been important, and it’s now easier than ever for us to educate ourselves about their experiences. With so many of them proudly and publicly advocating for their community, there’s no excuse for ignoring transgender voices anymore. 💖💙

I got all the feels from these inspiring words shared by Maya, George, Remy, Aaron and Lucy 🥹🥹🥹

Read the full feature here: https://www.samesh*tdifferentbrain.co.uk/editorial/being-trans-in-2024 ⚧️

29/03/2024

Every year on 31st March, the world celebrates International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). To mark this Sunday’s 2024 event, I’ve put together a brand new feature for SameS**tDifferentBrain.com. It showcases inspiring stories from five trans people in the UK and America, about what it *really* is to be proudly, freely themselves. ⚧️

George, Maya, Remy, Lucy and Aaron share their joy at finally having accepted themselves, and beautifully describe the true lived experiences of being trans, which the world needs to do more to recognise and celebrate. 💙💖

The contributors have generously imparted advice for the younger generation of the trans community and talked about what makes them feel proud of the lives they’re living; the lives they chose and are now thriving in.

Not only is seeing trans pride in all its glory important in the fight for social justice, it’s also a powerful, shining example of what it really means for human beings to live their truths and be loved for who they are. ✨

Read the article below; I hope you enjoy it. 🥰

https://www.samesh*tdifferentbrain.co.uk/editorial/being-trans-in-2024

Every year on 31st March, the world celebrates International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). Started by transgender activist Rachel Crandall in 2009, the awareness day takes a global perspective in celebrating trans and non-binary people, while raising awareness of ongoing discrimination world

21/03/2024

To mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week, I’ve put together a research piece on ADHD in adults. It contains perspectives from a range of wonderful people, who share their favourite positives and biggest challenges, as well as what their awareness of the condition has taught them. 💡

I’m so grateful to everyone who generously opened up about their personal experiences for this article. Some wanted to remain anonymous, or have certain details concealed, which is completely understandable. There’s still a lot of stigma and stereotyping around ADHD, which can make people fear prejudice in both their professional and personal lives.

Yet it’s estimated that 3.5% of adults and 5% of children have ADHD globally; and we can only assume the total must be higher when factoring in self-diagnosis, which becomes a necessity for many who can’t access support or face long waiting lists. Even based on official figures, the total estimate of people in the UK with ADHD is 2.6million.

So there’s still a lot to be done in helping such a large section of the population feel better included and supported. Hearing about the lived experiences of people with the condition is a powerful place to start. I hope you enjoy reading these and find the piece valuable. ⚡

For Neurodiversity Celebration Week, I posted a callout across various platforms for lived experiences of ADHD. I wanted to share perspectives from the people with the condition, which reflect both its positives and its challenges. You might think we hear plenty about ADHD these days, but we still d

08/03/2024

This International Women’s Day, I’ve published my story of pregnancy loss. I hope it helps any other women (and those who may not identify as women) to feel less alone throughout this whole process. ❤️

I started typing up an ongoing account of my experiences soon after my medical termination (TFMR). It was freeing, yet it was far from an escape. It forced me to immerse myself right into the thick of it, get my thoughts down and make some sort of sense of everything in the midst of chaos, as I felt so sad and lost.

Committing this process to the page would help me forever preserve that sacred time when I was going through something so unprecedented in my own life. I wanted to do this so that others could feel seen and understood, and also for myself, knowing I would be grateful to revisit this in future and feel proud at how far I’d come.

By recording what that version of me was thinking and feeling at that time, I was honouring her, promising that I wouldn’t leave her behind. I would stay with her through this precious story, and together we would let others in on our story so that we could all stay with each other too.

When I attended Heard Storytelling’s spoken stories event in January, I knew their International Women’s Day edition had to be where I shared my own story for the first time. I did that on Wednesday and an incredible thing happened. Numerous other women in the room let me know that they, too, had experienced pregnancy loss, and it was glorious for us all to see each other in one room and share so much love.

Over the last two days, more women have continued to let me know that they’ve also been through this. My heart is completely full at your kindness, generosity and bravery at speaking up online on my posts, or personally reaching out to message me. I’m so sorry for your losses too. Together we break the silence that adds to our shame, instead lifting each other up and showing that we are not faceless statistics who have to hide away in loneliness.👭

I hope my story is of comfort in some way. If you’re not personally affected but you think someone you know may be struggling and would benefit from hearing someone else’s account, let them know.🌈

January 2023, just after my 36th birthday. I’m sitting on a quiet hilltop in an ancient forest in the Scottish Highlands, looking out across an expansive valley, snow-capped mountains and four shimmering lakes. I’m thinking about what’s changed since I was last here a year ago, and what else m...

07/03/2024

Just over four months ago, I lost a pregnancy. When you’re hit with something like this, you just feel so alone as you go through the seemingly never-ending grieving process. Last night, I finally shed that sense of loneliness and, yes, shame. No matter how much we consciously believe we should not view pregnancy loss as a failure, it’s just how we end up feeling deep down. That’s partly *the patriarchy*, partly what happens when we harbour these secrets about ourselves as they feel too scary, yet are so common and all part of the human experience. ❤️

That’s why as soon as it happened it felt right not to keep this private, and to speak out when the time was right. So I’m eternally grateful to have been able to share my story at this incredible International Women’s Day event from Heard Storytelling. The host I mentioned was the simply brilliant Caroline Dyer, who co-founded Heard Storytelling with the equally wonderful Colette Burroughs. They created such a beautiful safe container for myself and five other women, as we worked together for weeks to process our experiences and put together stories that would resonate with the audience. I can’t thank them enough; their work is amazing.

There’s enough suffering in silence in this world, and if there’s one thing that’s still taboo among women, it’s this. Our togetherness is vital and I wanted to be one of the ones helping others to feel seen. I really wanted it all to mean something for myself, too. I found that meaning by the bucketload in the room Feel Good Club last night. The personal notes from the audience were such an honour to receive; they really made it all worth it and I’ll treasure them forever. Thank you to everyone who wrote one, shared your experiences, came up to speak to me or raised your hand. Everyone else in attendance - thank you for listening; being heard is such a powerful gift and a privilege. We use our voices for the many women who can’t.

I talked in my story about the baby memorial service I attended. How one in four women experience pregnancy loss and that’s the only time we ever come together, the faces behind the statistics.

I was wrong; last night, we inadvertently came together again. ❤️

14/02/2024

Do you feel the love today? Or does it feel kind of difficult to detach from the pervading sense of terror, given what’s going on in the world?

You’re not alone if you’re struggling.

In my intro to the first Same S**t, Different Brain event, How to Make Friends and Find Communities (pictured), I said:

“It just feels like being nice to each other has gone out of fashion.”

I know this sounds twee. But it was 2022 and it seemed the whole world was arguing over this and that, anything and everything. If you went online, you saw relentless mocking and bickering over vaccines, transphobia really starting to pick up steam in the mainstream, and increasingly upsetting news around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So many people were still lonely and in need of connection after the pandemic. Yet the culture wars (and literal wars) were fuelling further disconnection, giving more people than ever the mic to air heated views and attack each other for the most minor disagreements.

It wasn’t all bad. I’d seen how social media could be used for good and how people had started to find like-minded others online, discovering the power of local communities and turning virtual friendships into real-life connections once lockdown ended.

I wanted more people to know there was hope, and hear from speakers at my event about their wonderful work in bringing people together. Because no matter what’s going on globally, we have to zoom in too and see how we can be of value in the communities around us. Do our bit to challenge hate, yes, but resource ourselves first and then we can support others.

Fast-forward to this week and yet more people are divided. Arguing viciously over, e.g, whether people should be posting images from Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Horrifying though this week’s events are (desperately, unfathomably horrifying, make no mistake), there’s no way anything is helped by adding to the hate.

Nobody’s obligated to feel anything around Valentine’s Day, except maybe Moonpig. But why not take it as a prompt to, at the very minimum, allow ourselves to disconnect from worry briefly and do one thing to show ourselves some love. Because god knows the world needs more of that. 💘

26/01/2024

Thank god she didn’t listen to him…so many inspirational words from this legend last night . She also said: “You’re so much stronger than you realise and you’re capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for.” 🎧

Let’s stop allowing ourselves to be held back 💪❤️

21/01/2024

Just before Christmas, I listened to ’s audiobook of his autobiography. It was so, so good. I’ve rarely heard people take so much care to describe their mental experiences, such as intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideation, in such specific detail. (Just a warning that it does describe suicidal attempts too.) He also movingly discusses losing his mum at a young age. It was so on-point, heartrending and perfect for those quiet, thoughtful days pre-Christmas (for me, anyway; I took an extended break to rest this year).

Limmy also talked about his challenges with alcohol addiction and the events that led to his sobriety, as well as some experiences with drugs that had stayed with him and scared him. I’d really recommend listening to this for anyone struggling with finding contentment and feeling isolated in their thoughts, or anyone reassessing their relationship with alcohol and wondering how to continue making conscious choices after Dry Jan.

Obviously because it’s Limmy, it’s also laugh-out-loud funny at many points too. 😅

I then came across this old article in which he’d talked about depression and anxiety. It was really fascinating in how they’d written about it being so refreshing and impactful for a famous person to open up about their mental health like this. It made me wonder, have we lost that a bit today? Have people become less sympathetic to these sorts of experiences, or is everyone just more desensitised as we’re used to people being a little more vulnerable now?

It’s definitely a good thing that it’s become more common to hear people of influence open up in this way, of course. And it’s nice to reflect on how far we’ve come if 10 years ago, even mentioning mental health conditions seemed radical. I’m not saying we don’t still have some way to go in breaking down stigmas (for men in particular) but good on Limmy for writing about it so brilliantly. 🧠

19/01/2024

Get in the bath and see your silly little ideas through, people 🛀

(If you don’t, Stevey B surely will.) 😘