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ADHD Awareness Month

1 October 2021 By Claire SPACE Team

ADHD Awareness Month 2021

ADHD Awareness Month

October is ADHD Awareness Month!

October is ADHD Awareness Month. Here at S.P.A.C.E. we celebrate ADHD and raise awareness all year round, as do our families and lots of other organisations working to support those with ADHD.

There is a long way to go before ADHD is properly understood and more importantly that those with ADHD are consistently supported in all areas of their lives. Having ADHD isn’t automatically a bad thing, but you certainly wouldn’t know it sometimes!

The myths and stereotypes associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are pervasive and fuel not only ignorance and stigma about it, but also plays a huge part in denying early diagnosis and treatment to those who start to question whether the challenges that they or their children experience, are actually down to a neurodevelopmental disorder, rather than Anxiety, stress, laziness or good old fashioned bad behaviour.

Awareness Months

Lots of people question why we have an Awareness Month, especially when despite it happening every year, there is still a staggering amount of ignorance and stigma associated with the condition. Here in the UK it is also Black History month and Breast Cancer Awareness month, in addition to several other worthy causes. The annual awareness calendar can make it feel as though there are so many things happening in October, that it’s just one more thing that most people won’t even notice.

The answer to the question of why do we celebrate ADHD Awareness month every year, is that October is an opportunity for lots of different organisations and individuals to shout at the same time and amplify the voices of those with ADHD. This is one of the ways that we are working towards lasting change.

SPACE may not be big, but we know the impact we’ve had on local families over the years. We’re proud of the fact that we’ve managed to educate lots of parents about ADHD, We’re proud of the fact that we’ve helped families learn about the strong hereditary factor associated with the condition. We’re proud of the fact that we are able to use our lived experience to reassure mums and dads that there is light at the end of the tunnel during those difficult days. We are proud that we have walked those difficult paths and we are extremely proud of the people our ADHD children grew into and we love to give that hope to those that are still walking that same difficult path. We proudly show off our adult children (who still have their ADHD, in case you were wondering) We’re proud of the fact that we are able to empower parents to support their children. We are small, but the work that we do is powerful.

We celebrate the ADHD community all year round. We raise awareness every single month and we are here to support local families every day of the year. The work we do is a 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year commitment. Although we do our bit to raise awareness, fight stigma, correct misinformation and signpost to local services, we are a small charity ran by volunteers. This is too big a job for us to do on our own. We don’t have the resources to change the world on our own. Rather than have lots of organisations shouting now and again, we use ADHD Awareness Month as an opportunity to shout louder than ever. We share information from organisations that we trust. We tell people about events that we couldn’t afford to hold ourselves and we use this month as a time to focus on the task ahead of us.

Access to early diagnosis and support is crucial and can make a huge difference to families, educational achievement, romantic relationships and so much more.

Imagine how it feels for an adult to finally learn that their struggles are due to a lack of strategies for the way their brain works, rather than because of flaws in their character.

Imagine how different it would be for all children to grow up, knowing that they are still clever, even if they learn some subjects differently to their classmates.

We have been imagining for years – it’s time to make it a reality. ADHD Awareness Month is a great time to refocus and start another 12 months of fighting.

Who’s with us?

Filed Under: ADHD Awareness Month, Events and Awareness Tagged With: ADHD, ADHD Awareness Month

13 October 2020 By Claire SPACE Team

Happy ADHD Awareness Month

Here at SPACE we like to celebrate ADHD Awareness every month but in October our voices get a little bit louder because all over the world organisations both big and small share awareness at the same time.

Filed Under: ADHD Awareness Month

1 October 2020 By Claire SPACE Team

ADHD Awareness Month 2020

ADHD Awareness Month 2020

For us here at SPACE every month is ADHD Awareness Month, but October is the time when the whole community shouts at the same time.

We hoped that by now we wouldn’t still need to tell people about ADHD, we’ve been telling people for years but the message still hasn’t fully got through so throughout the year and especially in October we share key bits of information about ADHD. What it is, what it isn’t, which “facts” are actually myths and probably most importantly that the never-ending stereotype of 10 year old boys bouncing off classrooms walls isn’t the only way it presents.

For the rest of the month (and with slightly less fanfare, every month after that) we’ll be sharing facts, information, quotes and other interesting ADHD titbits to help you feel more informed. 

We’d also love you to get involved. If you see things on our public Facebook page, Twitter account or Instagram and feel able to share them, like them or comment on them, then please do. If you know somebody that would benefit from visiting our website feel free to share the link. If you have questions that we can answer for you, let us know.

Over the next month we will be sharing opportunities for you to tell us what you think, share your experiences and have your say. bot on our websites and on our social media channels. We have an online community for parents and carers of children with ADHD and that community isn’t just about the three people that officially run this charity, it’s a community for parents and carers of children with ADHD. Ignorance and stigma around ADHD harms our families and their wider communities

We’re going to be as creative as we can in the time allowed to shout from the rooftops about ADHD and we’d love you all to get on the roof and shout with us. 

Happy ADHD Awareness Month

The SPACE Team

Filed Under: ADHD, ADHD Awareness Month, SPACE Stockport Homepage Text

1 October 2019 By Claire SPACE Team

ADHD Awareness Month

October is ADHD Awareness Month, so the SPACE Team are being more vocal than usual about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

For us every month is ADHD Awareness Month
For us every month is ADHD Awareness Month

ADHD is a life long condition and for us every single month of the year is ADHD Awareness Month, so why do we have a specific focus in October? Why does ADHD need an awareness month? Simply put we need an awareness month because the lives of those with ADHD are still being ruined by ignorance.

Ignorance, stigma and misinformation is still routinely ruining the lives of children, young people and adults with ADHD, which simply isn’t good enough. The ADHD community needs everybody to understand what ADHD is and sometimes more importantly, what ADHD isn’t.

When there are still head teachers claiming that “they don’t believe in ADHD” we need to raise awareness. When GPs tell adults that “only children can have ADHD” we need to raise awareness. When children with ADHD are routinely excluded from school, we need to raise awareness. When those with ADHD are significantly over represented in the prison population, we need to raise awareness. When well meaning friends and relatives suggest that frazzled parents should “give their kids a good hiding” we need to raise awareness. Whilst lives are still being ruined, we need to raise awareness.

We need to dispel the myths, at least the most common ones.

  1. Myth 1 ADHD doesn’t exist
  2. Myth 2 ADHD only affects children
  3. Myth 3 ADHD only affects boys
  4. Myth 4 ADHD Adults are incapable of being successful in any area of their lives
  5. Myth 5 Everybody with ADHD is hyperactive
  6. Myth 6 ADHD was made up my pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs
  7. Myth 7 Medication drugs children up so that they stop running around being naughty
  8. Myth 8 ADHD is a new thing
  9. Myth 9 ADHD is over diagnosed in the UK
  10. Myth 10 Those with ADHD are less intelligent than those without it
  11. Myth 11 Those with ADHD can’t concentrate on anything ever
  12. Myth 12+ ADHD is caused by insert popular nonsense theory here

ADHD is a neurobiological condition and is not caused by poor parenting, eating too many sweets or allowing children too much screen time. Common sense dictates that being a bad parent and allowing a child to spend countless hours watching uncensored YouTube Videos on a diet of nothing but sweets and full fat cola is unlikely to lead to a consistently well behaved child, but it doesn’t cause ADHD. A healthy diet, regular exercise and consistent boundaries within a loving family relationship will almost certainly improve the behaviour of a child with ADHD, but it won’t “cure” the condition.

Those with ADHD have brains which work slightly differently to those without ADHD. They’re not better or worse, but they are definitely different and problems occur when those with the condition are expected to use their brains in a way that doesn’t suit them without the necessary support to do so.

If a six year old genuinely struggles to sit still and you make them sit quietly on a carpet for thirty minutes, there is likely to be a problem. A problem that some teachers attempt to address by removing playtime for the “naughty child that wouldn’t sit still” Not because teachers are evil beings that seek to punish small children for their bodily functions, but because some of them still don’t understand that the child in question couldn’t sit still, not that they wouldn’t.

If every teacher in every school understood that the negative behaviours they see are the result of unmet needs, then that would change how the vast majority of them handle them. If every teacher and every parent understood that having difficulty with organisation was a common ADHD trait and not the result of being lazy and not caring, then most of them would approach the issues of children losing things and being late differently. Adults would look for strategies to help children be organised, instead of telling them off for being disorganised.

If people were aware that not everybody with ADHD bounces up and down with obvious outwards signs of hyperactivity, then less inattentive people with ADHD would be left unsupported, feeling that their struggles are their own fault and a product of their own incompetence. Less inattentive teenagers would feel that their inability to revise effectively for their exams is their own fault. Less people who fail to meet the naughty boy stereotype as a child, would go on to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety later in life.

The reason we need an awareness month for ADHD is to amplify these messages. There are organisations up and down the country sharing information about ADHD, raising awareness, destroying myths and fighting against stigma and we all make noise all year long, but when we all make noise at the same time, we’re a little bit louder and little bit harder to ignore. Unlike some large charities with a big marketing budget and a full team at their disposal, lots of the smaller groups are only heard occasionally by a small audience. When we all yell the same message, at the same time, our voices are more likely to be heard.

ADHD Awareness Month is the time when we all say the same thing at the same time. We get together to share knowledge and information. We network with our peers. We find out about the latest research. We raise our game and we bring that back to the families we work with.

We’re proud to support local families but we need to do more, so this ADHD Awareness Month we will also be fundraising through our Just Giving Account https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/adhd-awareness-month-2019

The SPACE Team are all volunteers and gladly give our time and professional expertise free of charge, but unfortunately some of things we do cost cold hard cash, as do a lot of the things we intend doing to support local families over the next 12 months. If you would like to support our work we would be extremely grateful for any donation however small.

Happy ADHD Awareness Month!

Filed Under: ADHD Awareness Month, Fundraising, General

31 October 2018 By Claire SPACE Team

Shine A Light On ADHD

At our recent ADHD conference we were lucky enough to screen this amazing short documentary which features Mr Bryn Travers, one of our conference speakers.

The video was a created through collaboration between four EU-funded, international consortia of researchers that investigate ADHD and its origins. The idea came from two junior scientists, Laura Ghirardi and dr. Nicoletta Adamo. They were supported in creating the video through the MiND Training program and by the other junior scientists from MiND.

In the video they talk about what ADHD is and what it is like to have ADHD, about the pro’s and con’s of ADHD medication and why other types of treatment should also be developed, about stigma and misconceptions and why education is so important, and about the positive aspects of ADHD.

The hope is that this video will help young people and adults diagnosed with ADHD, or who suspect they have ADHD, as well as their family and friends, to understand the condition better. The video is in English, with subtitles in English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian and Swedish.

The release of this video co-occurs with the last day of the international ADHD awareness month. This initiative of the international ADHD patient organisations aims to raise awareness about ADHD, and funding for more research to better understand ADHD. Many events were organised worldwide this month to inform people about ADHD. Knowing more about ADHD and spreading awareness will help people to better understand (people with) ADHD. This will reduce stigma and (self)blame.

The video was recorded by 4QUARTER FILMS

More information about the researchers and consortia:
MiND (ADHD and ASD research): http://mind-project.eu/
Aggressotype (origins of aggression in psychiatric disorders, such as ADHD): http://www.aggressotype.eu/
CoCA (origins of comorbid disorders with ADHD in adolescents and adults): http://coca-project.eu/
Eat2BeNICE (how nutrition and lifestyle influence mental health in psychiatric disorders): http://newbrainnutrition.com/
ADHD Europe https://www.adhdeurope.eu

Filed Under: ADHD, ADHD Awareness Month, Conference

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