This interview is the first part of an ongoing series that spotlights neurodiverse individuals hiding in plain sight around Maine. People rarely discuss what life is like with hidden disabilities like dyslexia and ADHD but our intern wants to change that. She will ask them questions about living and working as an adult with learning differences or learning disabilities. Our hope is that getting to know about how everyday adults have coped, overcome, and benefitted from their learning disabilities will inspire students who are facing these similar challenges now.
Angela's Bio:
Angela Luna is a news anchor for WABI TV 5 in Portland, Maine. She was first identified as having ADHD in college.
Challenges:
Luna said her “journey is kind of funky” due to the fact that she was living with undiagnosed ADHD and possibly dyslexia until adulthood. She recalls a time when she believed her signs of ADHD were just anxiety because “in girls, it was really hard to diagnose and a lot of girls were (able) to ignore the signs and adapt”. There came a point in her life where she was barely going to graduate high school, and in return believed that she was a “failure”. It soon became pretty clear that there were underlying factors that were causing these difficulties.
Getting help:
Luna found that in college the ability to schedule her own classes helped manage her ADHD symptoms. However, during Junior year, “I just started getting really overwhelmed…I just would go into a sensory overload and I didn’t know what that was at that time”. Luna’s ADHD was amplified when she started living with roommates.
Her “breaking point” was when she "put the milk on the shelf and the cereal in the fridge.”
She did not understand what was causing her to make mistakes like this so frequently. Her roommates insisted “you need to get tested” and that is what she did. When she got her official diagnosis of ADHD she remembers that she felt “relieved” that she finally got her “answer”.
More about Angela's journey with ADHD in our next blog!
For facts about ADHD and other learning disabilities check out The State of Learning Disabilities: Understanding the 1 in 5 or if you want more specific information about symptoms, check this out.
#adhdbrain #adhdisreal #adultadhd #adhdwomen #brainsinmaine #learningdisability #mindsofallkinds #dyslexiaawareness #invisibledisabilities
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