Councillor opens up about what it's like to live with ADHD

Cllr Emma Ben Moussa offers a fascinating insight into the mind of someone with ADHD.

Transcript

00:00 And knowing that I am ADHD has helped me mentally massively

00:04 because there's nothing wrong with me.

00:06 It was just how I was born and I can't change it.

00:10 And there's nothing wrong with stimming,

00:13 there's nothing wrong with what people usually call you bubbly.

00:17 There's nothing wrong with talking constantly.

00:21 As long as you give other people the chance to talk as well,

00:24 that's something we have to learn.

00:26 The boys don't sleep, they're up and down, up and down all night.

00:29 I don't sleep.

00:30 So Eamon will ask me, for example,

00:33 I'll wake Chris up and say at 3 o'clock in the morning,

00:35 "How long is the Nile?"

00:36 And then Eamon will come in at 4am and he'll say,

00:39 "Mum, what's the capital of Belarus?"

00:41 And then we're just up and it's done.

00:44 I'm terrified about secondary school because I was fine in primary school.

00:48 Secondary school was not great, so I am very worried about that.

00:53 And I've been to the SENCO at Eamon's primary school too

00:56 because I think Eamon's got ASD traits as well,

00:59 but we've only got a diagnosis for ADHD for Eamon.

01:03 I think he will need support in secondary.

01:07 Because he's very dramatic and hyper and he likes to make people happy,

01:14 he will do whatever anybody tells him to do, and that's my worry.

01:18 If he's not getting bullied, then he will succumb to peer pressure really, really easily,

01:22 and I'm panicking already about the situation that Eamon's going to get in

01:25 because I know what situations I got into when I was growing up.