Late-diagnosed with ADHD, Sonia Gray, New Zealand’s second-longest serving Lotto presenter, now uses her platform to raise awareness about neurodiversity. Read her ADHD Unscripted story below.
When my daughter’s psychologist suggested my husband and I take an ADHD pre-assessment I laughed. “I do NOT have ADHD!”, I said.
But I did eventually sit down to take the test, and I was surprised to be answering ‘Extremely’ and ‘All the time’ to so many of the questions.
Yes, I’ve always been disorganised, hypervigilant and extremely sensitive. And I find boredom intolerable. But that was not ADHD, at least in the way I understood it.
So I was surprised when the psychologist called me on a Friday night, to tell me the pre-screening score was 100% positive for Inattentive ADHD.
He said this was probably the cause of my lifelong struggle with anxiety. The perfectionist in me welcomed the perfect marks. But the actual results were… unexpected.
Like many of us who are late-diagnosed, it took a couple of years to even consider taking it even further. But the symptoms were undeniable, and I so I booked to have a thorough private assessment, which confirmed ADHD. And then I started trialling medication.
It’s common to feel grief and anger when your ADHD is not identified until adulthood. But I didn’t feel any of that. Because I’m not sure things would have been different if I had known earlier.
ADHD wasn’t understood at all when I was a child. Especially in the way it presents for me.
What has been hard is advocating for and supporting my neurodivergent daughter. Trying to navigate a system that has roadblocks at every turn is exhausting and demoralising.
When things were at their worst, I vowed that if we were ever to emerge from this I had to do something to make a difference. So, a few years ago, I did a documentary for New Zealand television called Kids Wired Differently.
More recently I’ve been producing a podcast series called No Such Thing as Normal which is now in it’s second season.
The podcast is an all-consuming project, but it’s extremely rewarding. I’ve met so many unique and wonderful people, whose stories are incredible.
I’ll continue to do what I can to raise awareness because I see how desperate the need is – and I’ve felt it myself.
So many individuals and families in despair – isolated and overwhelmed. With understanding, acceptance and a sense of community we can change that. My hope is that soon all those with different cognitions will be celebrated for the unique perspective they bring.
ADHD will always make certain parts of life a struggle for me but I’ve learnt to love my brain – with all it’s quirks, and it’s strengths. My internal filing system needs a lot of support, and I can still feel criticsm as intense physical pain. But at least I now know there’s a reason for this – it’s not my fault.
