Expelled twice. Addicted for years. One world record.
I won’t dress this up. The first half of my life was a mess and most of that came down to being ADHD and autistic and trying desperately to fit into a neurotypical world. I just didn’t understand my brain. Here’s what happened and what changed it.
Chapter one
I couldn’t understand why I was different
I was expelled from two high schools, not because I didn’t care or didn’t want to learn, but because I struggled to sit still, stay focused. My brain seemed to work so differently to others. Back then, neither I nor the people around me really understood what was driving my behaviour. I became the problem rather than someone who needed to be understood differently. After hearing that message for long enough, I started to believe it.
Forty-five years of living with ADHD and reading lots of scientific research has given me something I desperately needed back then: understanding. Understanding my brain didn’t suddenly give me more willpower—it gave me an explanation, self-awareness and the tools to work with my brain rather than constantly fighting against it.
Chapter two
Then I found something that worked, until it did not
I spent years struggling with addiction, using alcohol and drugs to mask my frustrations and feed an ADHD brain constantly seeking stimulation and reward.
There is a well-established link between ADHD and addiction. Understanding the role of dopamine, impulsivity and reward-seeking helped me understand what had been driving my behaviour.
I’ve now been sober for eleven years. When I sit opposite someone who feels stuck or believes they’ve gone too far, I’m not speaking from a textbook. I’ve been there.
Chapter three
Understand it. Adapt to it. Channel it.
There was no single breakthrough. I gradually learned how dopamine, executive function and emotional regulation were shaping my behaviour, then started building a life that worked with my brain rather than against it.
Sleep, movement, nutrition and routine became the foundations. Once those were in place, the same hyperfocus and drive that had often worked against me became strengths I could channel in the right direction.
Chapter four
Somewhere useful turned out to be 4,921 miles
On 9 April 2022 Guinness World Records confirmed it: 70 triathlons of 70.3 miles each, in 75 days. That is 4,921 miles in total, which is London to Beijing. Nobody has taken it off me since.
What I do with it now
I mentor people one to one, and I speak in schools and workplaces. I am not explaining ADHD from a textbook. I am explaining it from inside an ADHD brain.
If you are struggling right now, or you are in immediate danger, please talk to someone today. Samaritans are free on 116 123, any time, day or night. You can text SHOUT to 85258. In an emergency call 999. There is no shame in it. I have made that call myself.
I am not a clinician or medical doctor. I am a peer mentor. I do not diagnose, treat or prescribe, and nothing I share is medical advice. What I offer is the science explained plainly, alongside lived experience and the strategies that worked for me. If what you need is clinical support, I will tell you straight and point you towards it.