Jetlag and ADHD don’t mix!!

Hi everyone!

Wow I feel like I blinked and missed the entire summer holidays but that’s because we were away for half of them in Disney World. Speaking of which; jetlag is a pain up the rear! We got back on a Sunday morning at 7am with barely two hours sleep due to the time difference and it being an overnight flight. I thought the best way to combat it would be for the kids and I to stay awake the entire day.

We made it till about 7pm before we all started to crash and burn. And did it help with the jetlag?? It did not! I was awake for an hour and a half in the middle of the night one night and then couldn’t get to sleep for two hours another. Combine that with trying to navigate ADHD on a daily basis while looking after kids and you’ve got a perfect recpie for disaster!! However, over a week later and I’m finally feeling better only to be blessed with the wonderful joy of that time of the month, so even though no jetlag I’m extremely exhausted.

Anyway forget all that because the important thing is we went to Disney for three weeks and had an absolutely amazing time. It was full on with very little time for the rest, but my ADHD brain secretly loved that because there was hardly any time to overthink anything. I literally lost all sense of time and barely knew what day each day was, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it meant I had no choice but to completely live in the moment…great for holidays…not so great for everyday life!!

A little mishap we had before we went saw one of my foster children break their wrist at summer camp just four days before we were due to fly. Que four hours in A and E and almost ten hours in the hospital altogether. Luckily we were given a fit to fly certificate after a cast was fitted and unfortunately it cost £110 extra in travel insurance, but the main thing is we still got to go.

Despite the broken wrist, both the children had a fantastic time, and we have photos and memories that we can look back on with such joy and gratitude. I’m very fortunate to say that I’ve been to Disney world quite a few times over my life, but I have never seen it as busy as it was this time. This meant the queue times for certain rides such as slinky dog was absolutely insane, like two hours on some days.

Fortunately, one of our party (my cousin also came with us) was able to use a disability access pass which meant we only had to virtually queue. This made such a difference to our overall trip to point where I don’t think I’d do Disney world again without that (we even try to use the fast pass service of genie plus one day but it’s more of a priority queueing system than an actual fast pass).

My gosh, I’ve rambled on haven’t I? The biggest thing I struggled with while we were away was lack of personal space. Believe it or not people with ADHD really thrive off having personal space, we’re constantly emotionally charged so just being in a space which is ours where we can do whatever is massive for our overall wellbeing. Of course most people would argue that personal space is important for everyone and that’s true, I’m merely pointing out that a lot of people don’t think that us ADHDers need it because we tend to be very social and constantly on the go.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there for this week. I’m excited that you all know about my upcoming podcast and I hope to get started on that asap, I just have a novel to redraft first because it goes to my editor, so we’re still looking at end of October for the podcast. Take care ADHDers, I hope you have a great week. Be kind to yourself and remember you are amazing each and every day, even if you’re only just coping!

~ ADHD Girl