About the Author:

Megan Mansyur

“Don’t waste your time being what someone wants you to become, in order to feed their list of rules, boundaries and insecurities. Find your tribe. They will allow you to be you, while you dance in the rain.”― Shannon L. Alder

Employing the above mantra throughout my life, I have been able to maintain authenticity in the face of the confining societal compulsions toward conformity, normalcy and perfection. From being placed in Special Eduction during my elementary education, to graduating in the National Honor’s Society proceeding my High School tenure; only to later be discouraged and discounted from applying to a PhD program in graduate school; yet, still managing to graduate Magna Cum Laude as a Psychology Major in my undergraduate studies, and finally culminating a very rigorous academic career effectively completing two years of Law School at Rutgers University: I know exactly what it feels like to be placed into virtually every categorization on the scholastic and professional continuum.

As a child diagnosed with ADHD, I vividly recall the shame induced upon me by peers and teachers on account of my attention difficulties in school. Yet despite shouldering this societally deemed, “handicap”, I have persistently made it a point to overcome the impediments reinforced by the academic and psychiatric communities. Impediments which have been imposed as a means of leveraging power over, isolating, and stifling the success of, the  behaviorally and mentally divergent populace, sometimes labeled ADHD. Growing up in the suburbs of North Jersey, I was one of three of the only Hispanic students in a predominately Caucasian community on the outskirts of New York City. My culturally monolithic surroundings led me to mainly identify myself as a mainstream American native; although, at times, I have also felt strongly compelled to embrace the proud Cuban culture into which I was born. Gravitating towards journalism since early adolescence, and maintaining a volatile, push-and-pull relationship with this artistic expression throughout my college education, I have taken to writing, at this juncture of my life, in order to give a voice to my experiences as a Bipolar, Cuban-American suburbanite, who has struggled with ADHD. Understanding and evading the limitations of my mental frailties has been a propelling factor leading to my obsession with the study of Psychology. Academically and recreationally, I have sought to evaluate diverse aspects of the field and examine its drastic influences in American life. I have done this through immersing myself into scholarly research both on-line and in print.

Through this blog, I seek to educate viewers and elucidate a more accurate understanding of ADHD. By sharing my story, and unveiling groundbreaking research in the process, I seek to enable those suffering from the disease, and their families, to find success, mental health and emotional equilibrium. Through dispelling the myths associated with the disorder and bringing the truth to light, I shall endeavor to bring viewers out of the shackles imposed by the autocratic few, and into a realm of belonging and acceptance, where differences are cherished and shortcomings embraced. Join me, as I expose the dynamics of ADHD, and raise the world’s awareness of it, one view at a time.

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