Mavs captain, Amy Parmenter, shares her experiences with her recent ADHD diagnosis in a bid to break the stigma around being neuro divergent.
I think I had known for a while that I might had ADHD.
I have worked with a sports psychologist for a long time and when we spoke she would make one-off comments referring to “neuro divergent people” and subtly put it into a conversation.
My whole career I have struggled with high performance environments. I remember going to training and always forgetting my stuff whether that’s juniors, reps level or now in professional netball.
All my feedback was about my off-court behaviour. It’s always caused me stress and I’ve been so hard on myself. I felt like I was letting everyone down. For so long I didn’t have an answer about why I couldn’t do it.
In Diamonds camps the girls would be nervous about the training and matches where as I’m nervous about changing locations and schedule changes. It stressed me out.
At the time I didn’t understand why it didn’t stress everyone out. I would have a list every day – to remember my socks and things like that. That kind of things has been challenging for me for a long time.
Moving to Melbourne I probably lost a bit of my routine and the people that had covered for me. I also hadn’t had a leadership position before and while that is a privilege, there’s so much more opportunity to let people down.
Game days felt more worrying and anxious. I felt like my anxiety was getting higher and higher.
I started to learn more about ADHD; my sister had been diagnosed and I got to a place where I wanted to look into it.
Suddenly all these things clicked. I was learning so much about my brain. I just wished 15-year-old me had these coping mechanisms.
One of the breaking points was a Diamonds game; it was a 40-minute drive from where we were and when I got there I realised I didn’t have my shoes. I was mortified. I was so upset with myself.
Stacey and everyone were so supportive. Steph Wood had to drive back and get them. It was chaos. Moments like that, I wish I would have understood.
For the ADHD diagnosis though there is so much admin which is so ironic.
Last year I was officially diagnosed and started medication; it blew my mind. I have been able to be so much kinder to myself.
I was trying to explain to Kim Brown who is so type A, that our brains are the opposite. She would wake up, brush her teeth and walk out the door – that’s her experience.
For me, I wake up, I notice something is happening on the bathroom floor and I have to fix it but brush my teeth. I get distracted and I have so much time blindness. That’s my brain. To see the other side, it’s totally changed my life.
In wish there was more out there when I was coming through the pathway.
I feel so strongly now about seeing young girls coming through the pathways, I know I can help them, I know what they’re going through.
It’s changed my perspective on how we do things at the Mavs. To lead with empathy. How can we help people with neuro-diverse brains?
If anyone feels like this is something they could have, then find out more. It can be a game changer.
There is a stigma around this, and commentary that ‘everyone has ADHD’. That never bothered me because I knew this would make my life better. If you think this could help you then screw what everyone else says.
You need to be clinically diagnosed, there are a few steps but it is totally worth it. It’s so validating to get the diagnosis. Persevere.
Watch the full episode below:
