London-based Norwegian photographer Nora Nord was diagnosed with ADHD in 2018, when she was in her early 20s. It was an immensely freeing feeling, she says, because it gave her the space for some aspects of her personality to finally make sense. But it was a frustrating time, too. "I've had an underlying feeling most of my life that something is wrong with me," she remembers. "I wondered why I couldn’t focus or finish things, and why everything I did was last minute, and I think many people with ADHD still feel this. Due to the fact that there is a lack of both understanding and easily accessible support, the work comes on us to find our own language and figure out how we want to move through the world."
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As she began to research her condition, Nord quickly came to realize that voices like hers, as a queer woman, were especially drowned out in the conversation and so she decided to do something about it. The result is a portrait series meeting and hearing the stories of other underrepresented people with ADHD.
Rachelle (She/They)u003cbru003e “Hearing that accomplished and “successful” public figures have ADHD has made a real positive impact on me, I think representation is so important. Solange, Bill Gates, Simone Biles, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Jordan, Will Smith, Mel B, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Will.i.am are just a few of many public figures who have ADHD/ADD, yet still thrive in their lives and careers. Learning that Cher has ADHD made my life, not only is she an ICON, but also her tweets are ridiculously funny and it makes a lot of sense that she has ADHD. It's so important for positive representation as it reassures us that we’re not alone, and that we are more capable than we think.”
Nord started her portraits as a way to show the many different faces of ADHD. "There’s this stereotype that ADHD is a rowdy boy in a classroom that can’t sit still, but it’s different in everyone and that's what I’m trying to show here. Stereotypical understandings are the reason people can go undiagnosed for so many years. I felt like a lot of the research and projects I found when I was first diagnosed had been done by the same type of person — white cis men — and so I wanted to change the narrative," she says. "It has also been important for me to talk about what ADHD can look like — from our funny habits and irritations to our creative paths — because there are so many people who don’t fit the stereotype. I certainly didn’t, and there are so many others who would benefit from knowing they are neurodivergent too." She started by photographing friends and friends of friends, and later, people she got chatting with on the internet. Every participant so far has been UK-based but in time, Nord says, she hopes to talk with people in other countries to see how their systems differ and how cultural thinking about neurodiversity compares.
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Caitlin (they/them)u003cbru003e ADHD shows up a lot in the way that I work. So if I care about something a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean that I find it easy to focus on it, but when I do it's intense in a way that is like “I have to do everything at once.” And then I might have a day where I don't do anything for a little while. Prioritizing things is really difficult. So it's like: I’ll do one thing that might not be the thing. That's the urgent thing at the time, but it's like I only have the capacity to think about what I’m doing and like urgency and deadlines and those things don't have any weight in my decision-making processes about what I'm doing, because that's just not how my brain works. It's like procrastinating a project by doing another project or like, you just got to do things as and when you have the capacity in your brain to do them. And then when you do, it's mad, it's like everything all at once and you have the capacity to work for like three days straight. And then also like, you know, I'm chaotic, I'm late and I'm messy. And I get distracted very easily. I'm quite impulsive in terms of like day-to-day things.
Loy (she/her)u003cbru003eI think my favourite thing about having ADHD is I’m constantly reminded of how expansive the mind is! It taught me to think non linearly and to step out of the box and pay attention to things in my life that spark joy. It’s been more challenging to stay motivated with the uncertainty of covid, but its also given me the opportunity to get stuck into a billion different passion projects. And I think my adhd superpower is being so easily distracted by new things because this allows me to constantly discover new things about my abilities, what I enjoy and who I am, it just makes more sense.
In the same year that Nord was diagnosed, the BBC reported that it can take adults in the UK more than seven years to receive a diagnosis, and that out of the 1.5 million members of the population with the condition, only around 120,000 are formally diagnosed. What's more, it’s mostly white, heterosexual men who receive the diagnosis. Psychiatry UK states that as of this year, men are three times as likely as women to be diagnosed.
Talking to Nord, it becomes clear that some of the reasons for the gender diagnosis gap may be socially constructed, including the fact that markers of neurodiversity are often hyper-focused on external factors like disruption or picking fights. Girls and AFAB people, who are rigorously conditioned away from this type of behavior, may be learning to mask their ADHD better. Regardless of gender, if your ADHD is mostly internalized it can be more difficult to recognize. "Most ADHD researchers didn’t believe women could even have ADHD until the 1990s so we still have a lot of catching up to do," says Nord, adding that it’s a similar story for other underrepresented groups, including queer people. "I think there are a lot of connections with ADHD and queerness — realizing what’s right for the majority isn’t necessarily right for us and living life on our terms."
Rosie (she/they)u003cbru003e“I wouldn’t be doing art without ADHD and I’ve learnt that my combined learning disabilities are what make me creative, and also very cheerful. It truly is just a different kind of mind. I think my humour comes from it too, and my fast brain means I can be witty because it is as though we are running on a different frequency than others. The only reason ADHD is debilitating (apart from rejection sensitivity etc.) is because the world isn’t built for us. But if it was we would be ahead of others because we move at a faster pace internally or externally. The anxieties of having ADHD is often built into us by others who don’t understand it I think.”
Emily (she/her)u003cbru003eu0022My dad's a doctor and he just really, really didn't think that I [had ADHD]. And I think he thought that I was kind of trying to find reasons to justify like bad behaviour or like not trying very hard at school. So he kind of just thought that if I got diagnosed it would be like I would fake it so that I didn't have to try as hard, I think.u0022
Jade (she/her)u003cbru003eThis is actually, this is the Jade way. Oh, God. I'm talking about myself in the third person? But like my way of doing things is I think like people are like 1, 2, 3, 4 in steps that they take and I'm like 1, 6, 20, 5 30, like, and it's like those - like it's, it's like if a door closes a window opens or, you know, a skylight I can climb through it's, I've got those approaches. So like I'm not a straight line person. I'm like curves and wiggles and squiggles. And that's if I, and I think, cause we're like in chaos, there's like synchronicity and like reason and Hmm. Like, colours of different hues and stuff. And I think I love that about myself and that is something that makes me different and everyone has that, those differences, but I'm recognizing mine and like really embracing that. So yeah.”
"It’s a challenge to get help with mental health in any sense in the UK if you are marginalized and/or working class, and dealing with a system that doesn’t have time for you," Nord continues. "That’s why services like Right to Choose are so important, because where the NHS waiting times are over four years, Right To Choose can help you get talking to a specialist within months." To those who have been diagnosed recently, Nord also recommends reading the book ADHD 2.0 and applying for Access to Work, a resource offering free ADHD mentoring and tools such as noise-canceling headphones, standing desks, and fidget toys. She also wants people to know that what is advertised only covers a small portion of what's available. "Some doctors will prescribe medication and say that’s the treatment when, in fact, medication is only one of a long list of important treatments."
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Shot in natural light, Nord’s pictures are lovely, intimate portraits of her subjects in their bedrooms, accompanied by their quotes and meandering thoughts. "I told everyone not to clean because I wanted to capture how things really are, and a person’s space says so much about them," she explains. "It was also important for me because there is often a lot of shame associated with how messy people with ADHD can be, and it's interesting for me to see how everyone deals with that part of it." Deeply in tune with the importance of getting to know your subjects as a photographer, Nord spends the first hour or two with each person chatting about ADHD before beginning to take pictures, audio recording their chats as she goes.
Monique (she/her)u003cbru003e“The day I got my diagnosis was the day I… not cursed myself, but I always knew I had this ball of energy inside of me, and I remember getting the diagnosis I was about 8 or 7 and it was just like when you first find out you’re white or you’re black. I felt like I had this problem part of me, and it took a long time to realise it’s not a problem. I’m just different and thats okay. It’s okay to be different. I don’t need to be conformative to every rule or situation or environment, and when I meet other people with ADHD I see that most other people with ADHD are quite creative and that inspires me.”
Alongside her portraits, Nord has recently turned her attention to a new part of the project: a podcast entitled You & Me: Let’s Talk About ADHD. "It just made sense that the conversations I was having had to be accessible to a wider audience," says Nord, "so this was really a natural next step." The podcast is almost entirely interview-based, with Nord and her guests speaking openly about the different aspects of ADHD, from having it to diagnosing it and appreciating it, too. It's blooming into an invaluable resource. "I speak with a lot of the same people I photograph but I’ve also expanded it to speak with my partner and groundbreaking trans photographer, Heather Glazzard, and an ADHD mentor with 25 years of diagnosis experience too. It's still being made and episodes are released every two weeks." The podcast can be listened to on the project website as well as on most major podcast platforms, including Spotify.
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Syd (they/them)u003cbru003e“I think a lot of the struggles we experience as neurodivergent individuals are a direct result of a capitalist society that values production over everything else, and if that didn’t exist it would be very different for us. I’m trying to regain the sense that it has its plusses in addition to its setbacks. I have BPD and I used to think there are no positives to having borderline personality disorder- its all bad. But then I’ve come to the realisation that it means I’m incredibly emotionally connected and I am capable of deep, powerful love. In the same way, ADD isn’t all just not being productive, not being able to focus, not being able to pay people attention. Its the creative power that people with ADD hold. Our capacity for holding various points of view, being able to contain multitudes, that I think needs to be talked about more.”
Calm (she/her)u003cbru003eu0022I think if I say spiritually, the clairvoyance is a superpower. My dreams are mad intense sometimes and recently my dreams keep coming true, like clairvoyant! I dreamt of the place I was working in before I was working there or ever seen the shop in my whole life, and now I’m working at EYTYS…. its weird! And it made me think I’m going mad, and being here I’m like I’m not going crazy. I feel like I’m able to do anything. It might take me time but once I’ve got it, I’ve got it, and then it stays.u0022
Meanwhile, Nord says, the best analogy she can come up with to describe the making of this project is that it has been like building a messy, big, beautiful house. "Like a place where everyone can find themselves, in the corners and drawers, in the rooms, and sometimes on the roof," she muses. On a personal level, she’s learned to lean into a new form of self-acceptance which she didn’t have access to before, and it’s become a really celebratory aspect of her life. "One of my big takeaways has been feeling comfortable with taking space in announcing my neurodivergence and telling people my accessibility needs – whether that’s a friend, my partner, or someone I work with," she says warmly. Ultimately she hopes that people seeing her photographs and listening to the podcast will realize that having ADHD is a gift or, better yet, a superpower. In the end, the work she is doing is all in aid of drawing together a new community. There is healing through community and storytelling, she says. "My hope is that more of these stories are told and more people find the language they need."
To see more of Nora’s work and to listen to the podcast, head to the project website. Nora has also put together a useful list of resources for anyone newly diagnosed with ADHD, which can be found here.