Emily Mitchell
Appearances
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
I called it my silly pill, my silly pill. And it was just part of my life. So it helped me be a good student. And we didn't realize that until I stopped taking the Ritalin.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
When I was in fifth grade, I stopped taking it. And my grades immediately went down. And it didn't alarm my parents, you know. I think it was just the thing to do at the time. You just, you grow out of that. You don't have to take that anymore.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
I couldn't focus on, you know, the evidences that my grades went down. And I graduated high school undistinguished academically under 3.0.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
I wasn't even interested in the fuzzy stuff. It was the structure and the fact that you could do something with a slim piece of thread and turn it into a whole humankind's history of, you know, both art and function. It's an amazing history. And it was interesting to do.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
So I joined the company, and we've been together as creative and life partners ever since.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
So I'm in a business now. with deadlines. I'm in business with a partner, someone who, in his case, was a champion workhorse, could get things done in a very structured way, on time reliably, and at a high level, at a high professional standard. I am very good at generating ideas, but you have to close it up.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
I might say, well, I really need to run out all three. You know, I need to take these three to the next level. Or, and then while you're looking at the three, you might say, you know, this one has led me to a variation that, and so on.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
Also, just the office environment. You've got a list of things you have to get done every single day. So I found myself often staying up all night. And that wasn't... In some people's lives, that's not a problem. But it was difficult for my partner... It caused a lot of anxiety for him. That was painful for me.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
It was painful for me because I don't like letting people down, which if you remember the doctor in kindergarten, Emily likes people. She does not like to be a problem to people. And I didn't when I was 24 or 38 either. So I started wondering why.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
Yeah, yeah. But in the meantime, we know we're starting to have a family of small children, and we're running this business. So I think I spoke to a guidance counselor, the local college, to double-check that I had made a good decision. You know, it wasn't the profession. It was office work.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
Yeah. Why am I unhappy in my job? You know, why does this feel—it's just so stressful. Yeah. I ended up speaking to my family doctor, annual physical. How are you? How are you doing? And he said, you know, you you let's have a look at your brain. It might be just your brain that the way your brain is.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
So at 30, I was diagnosed with ADD. There's no mention of H. There's no H in there.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
It answered a lot of questions about my path to that point, and it did help me make a list in my day job and stick to the list, and to just use my time differently. There was impulsivity. It helped with that. Less interrupting. So it was about work. The goal was to be productive at work.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
I just was very curious about how to really thrive, you know, to really stay with it about that brain trait and to be in the company of people who were putting on workshops and conferences. They happened to be almost entirely by women, about women.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
My copy of that book is full of pencil on every page. It was about my job. It was also about my marriage and my partnership and what kind of partner I chose and how it was playing out that way.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
So I was famously hyperactive, kinetic, always moving. When you hit public school and you're in kindergarten, as I was... There is nap time, and I couldn't sit still, lay still on my mat. My mother made me a chain of safety pins that we attached to my mat so I would have something to do.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
She tried things that would help me not conform, but to participate in the structure of the day. And because I was young, I don't know how it went, but say the teacher complained. And then my mother took me to a our doctor who was a pediatrician who was young. He was just out of med school. I mean, he was in a young crop of new pediatricians.
Climbing the Walls
I didn’t want to have ADHD | 1
In Michigan, in the Detroit area, Oak Park, Michigan. And he, I remember him. I was fond of him and I felt special in his office, you know, and, And he said to my mother, you know, Emily likes people, and the last thing she needs is to be a problem to her teacher as she starts her public education. That's not going to be good for her. So I have something that we should try. And it was Ritalin.
Climbing the Walls
Are hormones the final frontier for women with ADHD? | 6
So if you're losing estrogen, what else have you got? You know, you give up that. So what's going to happen? Will I lose my mind? So do I give up? I was thinking of it as quality of life, as if I were giving up my brain if I take this.
Climbing the Walls
Are hormones the final frontier for women with ADHD? | 6
I was finding myself in meetings where I couldn't think the thing through. It was cognition. It's the, you know, the thing, the mojo you're looking for. And so it was affecting just the brain's calculus. You know, you're talking and you're in a meeting or something and you have to, it was just affecting my ability to do that.
Climbing the Walls
Are hormones the final frontier for women with ADHD? | 6
And because it was better, I know that there's something to it. I'm just not sure exactly how it works. So I'm now, that is my current kind of work now is to understand that better.