Megan, a talented writer with AuDHD (a combination of Autism and ADHD), expresses her unique journey and experiences through creative writing and poetry, offering a powerful perspective on how neurodivergence shapes her world.
Let’s talk about Creativity. ADHD and ASD. How it helps us, how it helps me. How it links. How it helps us think. Creativity and me. It’s part of me you see. I write to express how I feel, my poems have depth and layers, like an onion, it peels. Each layer, each line expresses a different part of me. Each poem lets you into me. I create art to get out the hyperactivity, it gives me focus, it gives me power. It expresses my emotions and me. It makes me happy, it makes me smile. But we need it all the time, not just once in a while. Without creativity I wouldn’t be me, but also without the ADHD and ASD creative isn’t something I’d be.
Without creativity I don’t know who I’d be. Without creativity I wouldn’t be me. My poetry helps me express my identity, my poetry helps me express the part of me that not everyone sees. It helps me let out my thoughts and emotions, some may be deep like great depths of the ocean. Part of my ASD makes it hard for me to talk, I find it hard to verbalise what’s going on in my brain. So writing it in poetry lessens the pain. I think it can be hard for us to find our voice, that’s not by choice. The chemical imbalance in our brain makes things hard, it’s not just talking, thinking is the same. Talking is something I dread so much, what do I say and how do I say it? Such things I shouldn’t question so much, but I do, that’s why I struggle with such. Writing helps me feel heard, makes me feel people are listening. Understanding is something we look for, not stuck and shamed, feeling imprisoned. We get trapped and stuck in our body sometimes, writing gets it out.
For me it’s important that people can listen.
I love me for me. I love that part of me is creativity. Without it, who would I be? Without ASD & ADHD Meg wouldn’t exist and creativity wouldn’t be seen.
As I mentioned before I struggled at school. Missing deadlines, homework. My to do lists just grew and grew. I couldn’t keep up with the things others could, I got told off for doing things that I should not of. But I find it so hard to focus my brain, I find it so hard to focus when my surroundings aren’t fibulae, safe or the same. I find it hard when I don’t understand, then I lose focus, I am trying to concentrate. Not all understand. Our brains are wired differently, differently than the rest. I wish all understood I must confess. But with all matter behind it also makes us great, we have abilities others don’t, we have the ability to create.
When I was in the art class my brain went quiet, the chaos lessened, I could focus. How’s that? Well the thing with ADHD is we hyperfocus, we find something we love and that’s all that matters for us. Hyperfocus is intense concentration on a topic or subject that interests our brain, we all have different preferences, we’re not all the same. When we get in such a state that’s all that matters, where not being rude or distant without this our brain would be scattered. We go into our own small world, where we do nothing but focus, we forget about what and who’s around us, we are lost in our mind, in all good ways, to us these things are kind. They give us comfort, they give us power, they make us feel important, clever, empowered.
Art is my therapy, I love creating, visualising and creating all things arty. Bright colours, bold shapes, all things geometric. Busy, bold, hectic. The colours inspire me and bring happiness, again giving me the ability to focus. It draws me in, helps me create.
ADHD. ASD. Creativity. Me.